May 22, 2014

DARK SOULS™ II

Dark Souls 2 is one big fashion parade. Whether you want to resist fire, boost intelligence, or up the intimidation factor online, what you wear matters. Others have already written exhaustive checklists of the game's armour sets, so instead PC Gamer s resident fashionista Ben has devised some fabulous custom ensembles some for form, others for function. Check them out below.

There's a sizeable selection, so we've broken it into chunks so you can find the fashion you're looking for.

Page 2: Ben's favourite outfits
Page 3: Dark Souls 2's weirdest outfits
Page 4: Outfits for farming rare items, raising equipment load, more effective magic, tougher tanking and surviving high falls.
Page 5: Outfits for boosting fire resistance (great for Iron Keep), dressing like the enemy, dressing like a phantom, one-off armour pieces and becoming a humble pot.

My favourite outfits

There s a reason the Faraam set took centre stage in Dark Souls 2's promotion just look at that fur lining. To get your hands on it, proceed to the King s Gate bonfire in Drangleic Castle. Then turn right into the room with the statues and head towards the far left door. Fall through the floor in this room to find the armour waiting for you. Note: to open the door you ll have to kill an enemy near the statue.

Fashionistas, pay attention: the Tights of Judgement go with anything. After the first Drakekeeper in the Dragon Shrine, stick a stone in the Pharros Contraption, destroy the fake wall, and pop open the chest for the entire Judgement set. Top off the look with a gold and burgundy Mask of Judgement. I ve upgraded mine with Twinkling Titanite to raise defence and complete the look.

The Dark Mask adds a certain Hot Topic twist. Find it in a chest behind the wooden hut housing the first bonfire of Aldia s Keep (oh, be warned, it s a Mimic). As for the torso, remember seeing those depressed knights sitting with bowed heads? They re called Heide Knights, and they drop armour. You may have to kill them a few times to get the piece you want, but unfortunately they don t respawn without the aid of a bonfire ascetic. There s one after the Crestfallen s Retreat bonfire in the Forest of Fallen Giants, one after the Exile Holding Cells bonfire in the Lost Bastille, and one after the Ruined Fork Road bonfire in the Shrine of Winter (take the left path).

Uh, I had a little accident in makeup. See the black face? This happens occasionally. It seems to occur when I swap between the White Ring and the Ring of the Dead, but so far I've found no consistent way to replicate the glitch. To deflect attention away from it, I've accented Velstadt's glimmering gold armour with scarlet Leather Gloves and Falconer Boots, and topped it with a Bone Crown. That's my one fashion rule: always show off your best assets.

Maughlin in Majula sells both the Falconer Set and Velstadt's Set (you must defeat Velstadt in the Undead Crypt for the latter), while Titchy Gren sells the crown after you defeat the Skeleton Lords. Titchy is located in the bonfire after the Executioner's Chariot boss. Finally, the gloves are found in a chest near the Soldier's Rest bonfire. You'll need the key from the Last Giant to access this area.

The runways of Milan wouldn't baulk at this selection of classy, co-ordinated armour styles. Now we enter the realm of the avant garde with a round-up of Dark Souls 2's most bizarre outfits. PREPARE THYSELF.

My weirdest outfits

Maughlin in Majula sells the Moon Butterfly set on two conditions: you ve already spent 16,000 souls with him, and you re on NG++ (alternatively, simply use two bonfire ascetics). Careful, it s poisonous, so talking to any NPC with the set on turns them hostile. The set also allows you to jump without sprinting.

Buy the Smelter Demon set from Maughlin the Armorer after defeating it in the Iron Keep. With its hooves and horned head, you look like a sort of fancy dress bull without the back end. But, you know, from Hell.

There's something unsettling going on here. I can't work out if it's the creepily impassive Manikin Mask, the Bandit Armour with sheep skull-lined shoulder, or the barely-there loincloth. Probably all three *shudder*. The mask drops from Manikin in Earthen Peak, and Magerold in the Iron Keep sells the Bandit Set.

There are two headpieces to the Dragon Acolyte set a mask and a hood. The former can be farmed, along with the rest of the set, from Dragon Acolytes in Aldia s Keep. They jump out from behind giant paintings. The latter (pictured) is a little rarer, a drop from the giant caged basilisk just before. To ensure better drop rates, turn the page for a series of pragmatic armour for all occasions.

Farming rare items

The Jester s Cap, Prisoner s Hood and Prisoner s Tatters make rarer items drop with more regularly. You can also consume a Rusted Coin for a 300-second, 1% luck boost (hey, every little helps) and wear the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring to further raise item discovery. Magerold in the Iron Keep sells a +1 ring after you spend 10k souls on him and have the Travelling Merchant's cap in your inventory, and the the Belfry Gargoyles drop a +2 version on NG+ (bonfire ascetics don t count).
Raising equipment load

Sure, you could buy the Penal Mask off Maughlin the Armorer, but he flat out gives you the transparent Aurous set once you spend 16,000 souls with him. Both raise equip load. Effects stack with the Third Dragon Ring and Royal Soldier s Ring, so this lets you lag around rock-heavy weapons and armour such as the Fire Giant Warrior Club, Looking Glass Knight s mask, and Wicked Eye Greatshield I m currently modeling.
The best for casters

The Hexer s Hood, which increases the number of casts for each spell by 10% and adds +1 Faith and Intelligence, is sold by Merchant Hag Melentia in The Forest of Fallen Giants after you kill Felkin the Outcast. Alternatively, buy it from Felkin himself near the first bonfire in Huntsman s Copse - you ll need 20 Intelligence and 20 Faith before he talks to you, mind. I ve combined it here with the King s Mirror, which can reflect spells if you correctly time a shield bash, and the Lion Mage robes, cuff and skirt, which increases casting speed with each piece.

Also, look up the Black Hood, which Straid in the Lost Bastille hands out if you trade him four boss souls, and the Chaos Hood, which can be purchased from Navlaan upon completing his quest (or Merchant Hag Melentia after you kill Navlaan). It grants +3 intelligence.
The best for tanks

At a combined weight of 60.3. somethings (Dark Souls 2 doesn t seem to like units of measurement), you re looking at the heaviest outfit in the game. It comprises of Havel s Helm, leggings and gauntlets, and the Old Ironclad armour. Technically, the Smelter Demon has the heaviest headpiece, but I ve already given it some love. Find Havel s set by unlocking a door in The Gutter with the Forgotten Key (this is obtained by killing the giants under Black Gulch). The Old Ironclad Armour, meanwhile, drops off Old Ironclads in the Forest of Fallen Giants and the Iron Keep. Goodbye, manoeuvrability.
Surviving high falls

Sweet Shalquoir lives in Majula (she s easy to spot because she s a talking cat) and sells the Flying Feline Boots for 6,000 souls. On the plus side they reduce fall damage, allowing you to drop into the deep hole in Majula without buying a ladder from Gilligan. On the downside, they re furry hot pants. Make sure to purchase the Silvercat Ring from her for 134000 souls, too, which has the same effect. All parts of the Lion Warrior set, dropped from Lion Warriors in the Shaded Ruins, also stack to reduce fall damage.

Resisting fire

Have you seen those chests in the Iron Keep? The ones on lava? They re impossible to reach without the fire-resistant Alonne Knight or Alonne Captain set, nabbed off the area s titular enemies. Combine this with the Flame Quartz Ring, a Small Orange Burr consumable, a Lifegem to slowly regenerate health, and the pyromancy spell Flash Sweat. Finally, either use the Pharros Contraption in the vicinity to unleash water, or break any nearby jugs, then roll in it. Even after all this, you re still not immune, but it s just enough to reach the first chest containing a Phoenix Parma shield, and the second containing the Chaos Storm pyromancy.
Dress like the enemy

Fancy fooling online opponents by dressing like AI? Farm the Hollow Solider Helm, armour, gauntlets and leggings off Hollow Royal Soldiers in the Forest of Fallen Giants, then grab an appropriate weapon like a halberd, bastard sword, estoc or longsword. Nobody will know the difference! This works on any enemy whose armour you can farm - Alonne Knights in the Iron Keep or Archdrakes in the Shrine of Amana, for instance. Make sure to kill an enemy then stand sentry in his spot until your opponent arrives for added deception.
Dress like a phantom

You can also fool players who summon you as an invader into thinking you're a friendly phantom instead. Slap on the White Ring and you'll glow with a deceitful white aura. I've paired it with the Leydia White Robe and Grave Warden Mask for a ghostly touch. Trade with Dyna and Tillo in Things Betwixt for the ring. As for the robe and mask, farm Leydia Apostles in the Undead Crypt and Grave Wardens in Earthen Peak.
One-off armour pieces

Most armour comes in sets consisting of head, arms, legs and torso, but one-off specialties exist. Find this Singer s Dress in the Shrine of Amana by going to the third bonfire and heading back towards the second while keeping to your right. It's hidden in the cliff wall behind some breakable roots. An ogre guards it, and he s particularly tasty in the water, so bait him out and rush past him if you don t feel like having your head chomped on
.
My Engraved Gauntlets are found in a room in Brightstone Cove Tseldora, accessed using the Tseldora Den Key. This key is received after saving either Mild Mannered Pate or Creighton the Wanderer when they have a scrap in the same location (you must exhaust all their dialogue options for this to happen). Finally, there s Durgo s Hat (an ultra-rare drop from invaders at the King s Gate bonfire in Drangelic Castle, provided you've used an ascetic), the Red Lion Warrior Cape (drops from Red Lion Warriors in the Shaded Ruins), and the Flying Feline Boots.
Become a pot

Use a Silver Talisman consumable to transform into an object. It's contextual, so in one area you might look like an aged vase, and in another a rock, or a crate, or even a painting. Sorcerers can cast the Chameleon spell for the same effect. You can actually block while transformed, as long as your guard doesn't break. I've got those dragons fooled.

And that's as much as I've mustered so far. What's your favourite armour set from Dark Souls 2?

May 9, 2014

The week’s highs and lows in PC gaming

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Every Friday the PC Gamer team revisits the week that was, turning the wheat into delicious bread and the chaff into What even is chaff? Can it be burned? Anyway, you know the drill: good stuff on page one, less so on page two

THE HIGHS

Tyler Wilde: Justice! After a monument to the players of Eve Online was vandalized at Fanfest, damaging public property and targeting another player whose name was scratched out, the culprits have been identified and permanently removed from the game. Legal action may be on the table, too, judging from CCP s initial statements.

Fanfest is a celebration. I went last year and loved it, and loved all the Eve players I met, and it s a shame such a friendly community is being cast in such a poor light. They take the game very seriously, but they also know it s a game, and that all the piracy and betrayal is just part of the fun until a few take it too far. Scratching an art installation might seem like a minor crime, but CCP s firm response sends an important message: taking in-game rivalries into the real world is never OK. I m glad the vandals aren t getting away with it.

Evan Lahti: We fundamentally have no idea what it ll be like, because zero lines of code have been laid for it yet, but jumpin giblets Unreal Tournament is finally awaking from its seven-year slumber. Epic s plan to couldn t be more promising; I m outlining the genius of its collaborative roadmap later today on the site. It ll be a return to our favorite gun in PC gaming and one of our favorite modes (Instagib), but might also bring another viable competitive shooter to the PC alongside CS:GO, which essentially stands alone in that category at the moment.

Wes Fenlon: It's been a great week. Unreal Tournament is coming back as an honest-to-god free, not free-to-play, game, as Evan has already said right there above me. But the highlight of my week has definitely been our exclusive first look at Killing Floor 2. I spent about 12 hours at Tripwire's offices talking to them about the game and seeing it in action, and it was a blast to write about.

I love that they're focused on a fairly underrepresented genre, the co-op wave-based shooter. And they're doing it the old-fashioned way Killing Floor 2 is a simple game that harks back to the shoot first, ask questions never style of 90s FPS. Of course, the technology they've worked into the game for procedural gore and permablood is all new. We talked about so much stuff, I ended up writing a separate short feature on Tripwire's approach to weapon design and breaking out a separate interview with John Gibson. I just wish they'd told me when the damn game was coming out. I want to play it.

Phil Savage: I've been without internet this week and, besides suffering the occasional itch of phantom websites, it's been a good excuse to dip into my Steam backlog. The biggest surprise has been DmC. I'm not going to say it's the best third-person brawler I've played Bayonetta but whenever I felt like I was done with its frantic hacking and/or slashing, a clever concept level kept me moving forward. The best of these is called The Plan, and involves Dante breaking in to the big-bad's evil lair. As he infiltrates the tower, chalk drawings are overlaid throughout the level as a stylistic flashback to the heroes' plan. It's inventive and interesting, and a great example of how to use aesthetic flourishes to keep the player guessing.

Tim Clark: My debilitating, I m-almost-certainly-going-to-end-up-living-under-a-bridge addiction to another game (see this week s Lows on the following page) has meant my Don t Starve save sits, frozen and no longer loved, around the 270 day mark. I haven t even managed to tear myself away long enough to try the excellent looking Reign Of Giants DLC beta. However, the announcement that the game will contrary to all Klei s previous protestations be getting a multiplayer component this summer, is both a surprise, and enough to tempt me back. I m curious to discover how having friends on hand to help will alter the game s famously harsh vibe.

Will there be new ways of resurrecting your chums when they die? Could there be new threats that have to be tackled together by players? Might there even *shiver* be a PvP component? The studio is still being shy on details, but the prospect of foraging for Beefalo dung with three fellow survivors is enough to pull me back in. Much like Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III. Just when I was out!

Tom Senior: I like to ride the cutting edge of videogame technology, so this week I installed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines released in, er, 2004. It's really good. It's as though all of the people on the internet who've dubbed it a smart RPG with a satisfying branching narrative and neat social mechanics were right after all. I'm still busy navigating the many entwined subquests hidden around the detailed starting hub.

I've broken the Masquerade (the vampire code of conduct) only once and retained most of my humanity, in spite of the bit where I drank the blood of a vagrant and then vomited it all back up on the floor and ran away. If, like me, you've wanted to try Vampire Colon The Masquerade Dash Bloodlines for ages, I d recommend it, as long as you don t mind bursts of weak combat between the interesting vampire society stuff. Be sure to check out Wes' guide to getting it running smoothly with the essential unofficial patch.

THE LOWS

Tom Senior: I like to ride the cutting edge of videogame technology, so this week I installed WWII stealth game Velvet Assassin released in, er, 2009. Okay, I've been stuck in a strange time warp this week. Unlike Vampire, literally nobody has recommended Velvet Assassin to me. In fact, I've been actively put off it. I was was advised that it was shonky and strange, and not in a quirky 'flawed experiment' sort of way. Bad games can still be entertaining, but games like Velvet Assassin sit in the valley of bland, forgettable mediocrity, which is worse.

Guards spotted me through walls. The endless Nazi bunkers were dull to explore. If you backstab characters using the assassination prompt, you'll kill them, but if you equip your knife and stab them manually they turn around, mildly annoyed, and shoot you in the face. Playing Velvet assassin wasn't fun, but it was useful. Seeing games get it wrong only increases my appreciation for the games that get it right. Speaking of which, I've still got some Dishonored DLC to finish.

Phil Savage:: I don't really care about Dark Souls. I've played the first one a bit, and it seems okay. But it's not really my thing. That's a problem when you work in an office full of people who play and talk about games. From every direction, I'm hearing about death after death at the hands of some giant meat-slab with a bastard-huge weapon, or the first frightened few steps into the sprawling caverns of twisted nightmares. I've overheard theorycrafting, whispered secrets and endless amounts of boasting. It's great when a game can build that sense of community; that shared feeling of discovery and adventure. Unless, you know, you're not taking part.

Evan Lahti: I have to admit, Sunset Overdrive looks like a great time. I ve always enjoyed Insomniac s games, especially the charming Ratchet & Clank series they produce some of the most entertainingly whimsical games in the business and I lament that we re we continue to game in a time where console exclusives (Xbox One, in this case) are a thing now that all of the platforms are essentially running on the same, x86 architecture. There s always room for another open-world mayhem game on PC. I guess we ll just have to wait to hear more about the next, rumored Just Cause game will be like on PC.

Wes Fenlon: The entire gaming industry is still figuring out Early Access. Is this a great way for developers to balance their games based on fan feedback, or is it a dangerous precedent for pay first, play later that leads to messes like The War Z? Unfortunately, I think the answer is both, which means we're going to see a lot more incidents like strategy game Towns shutting down mid-development. The developers ran out of money and could no longer support the project, leaving many promised features unimplemented. It's a bad ending for everyone. The devs aren't running away with millions of stolen dollars, but people who paid for the promise of a better game are left high and dry. Hopefully, as Early Access becomes more common, we'll see more success stories and fewer abandoned, disappointing projects.

Tyler Wilde: I m also sour about an Early Access game: Earth: Year 2066, which was pulled from Steam. I played it, and I can t imagine anyone honestly believing that this hobby project, or participation in its development, was worth $20. Not only that, it was promoted with stolen artwork and the developer swatted away all criticism warning others away. It s so frustrating that brilliant games like Starbound are being undermined by opportunists on Early Access, and if Steam really is becoming even more open, I worry about its uncurated future.

Tim Clark: Look, don t ask what I d do for 1,600 Hearthstone Arcane Dust right now. I said don t. But yes, I d do that. And probably also that, even with my parents watching. Have I hit rock bottom this week? Hard to say. I certainly haven t been winning much, which has resulted in petulant deck deletions, reflexive card pack purchases, and an increasingly foot-stompy approach to not having the Legendaries I want. ( My kingdom for a Cenarius! ) I ve essentially become the Veruca Salt of Control Druids. Hmm, maybe that d be a good deck name?

I ve also taken to obsessively listening to the Value Town podcast while walking my dog, Batman, and trying to kid myself I could play a few cool hands with Kripp and Trump. Despite the fact there is literally no-one I can t lose to. This is what a psychotic break looks like isn t it? Still, it s nothing an ultra competitive tournament against my colleagues next week won t cure. At least the bloody hounds have been nerfed.

May 2, 2014

The week’s highs and lows in PC gaming

Dota 2

Every Friday the PC Gamer team shines a torch into the dilated pupils of the week that was. As usual, read about the good stuff first, and then the not so good stuff on the second page

THE HIGHS

Samuel Roberts: Our first proper look at The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter made my week. I feel like I m looking at a hit in the making, and as a fan of almost any game that uses a Pacific Northwest-like backdrop the source of which is my ongoing obsession with Twin Peaks, as well as a strong liking for Alan Wake and Deadly Premonition and the richness of the environmental design and intriguing story, will no doubt find it an audience. It s so far from Bulletstorm in tone and pacing, and no doubt the ex-People Can Fly staff at The Astronauts are enjoying that difference.

Cory Banks: Ludum Dare 29 took place this past weekend, and it was the largest competition yet. Almost 2,500 games were created by some sleepless devs, an all-time high for the event. Take a second and think about that: Developers made 2,500 games over a weekend. I was just happy I got my laundry done.

Even better: all of these games are free. You can scroll through the entire list, but we ve picked out a few of our early favorites. Phil was fascinated by Beneath The City, a Thief-inspired, turn-based stealth game that challenges you to save your sister from a prison. Ian s early favorites are Beneath The Trolls, where you have to escape from a troll-filled cavern, and Atomical, which shrinks the escape theme of the game jam down to the atomic level. Even if these don t grab you, there are plenty more to choose from. If you re somehow out of games to play this weekend, you ll surely find something in this list.

Evan Lahti: Cheating is nothing to celebrate, of course, but we got loads of positive feedback on our investigation of hacking in multiplayer PC games this week. After the months of research that our writer Emanuel Maiberg dedicated to the story, we learned that the battle between cheating manufacturers and game developers is a constant one, and that the users of cheats themselves aren t universally the villains that we think they are.

An interesting fact that didn t make it into the final feature, Emanuel noted on Reddit, is that apparently games ported from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 like Homefront were some of the most hackable because they were designed for a closed system.

Phil Savage: The mod scene is in an interesting place these days. On some level, you could argue that it had declined that the rise of accessible game engines like Unity means would-be developers have a better platform for hobby projects. Even where this isn't the case, the biggest projects are more likely to be released as standalone games as seen with The Dark Mod or Black Mesa.

Really, mods are just outgrowing the games they were once attached to. But even as this process continues, there are still plenty of people dedicated to expanding and improving the games that they love. We saw that plenty of times this week: the standalone Stalker: Lost Alpha introducing cut content back to Shadow of Chernobyl, Deus Ex: Revision bringing a new style to the immersive classic, Supreme Battlefeel beautifully retexturing Supreme Commander, and Morrowind Rebirth going back into labour. I wish mods were declining. That way I'd have more spare time.

Chris Thursten: The Dota 2 patch notes dropped at about two in the morning on a weeknight, which was actually pretty convenient given that I was still up and playing Dota at the time. I spent the next half hour going over the changes with my team on Skype. These bursts of social theorycrafting are one of my favourite things about a new patch even though Reddit will be reliably ahead of us in terms of unpicking the implications of every single change, there s something special about doing it ourselves. Now that the worst of the new bugs have been nixed (nyxed?), it s a great patch. I really like the changes to Axe moving Counter Helix to pseudo-random distribution might reduce the chances of a infini-spin rampage, but it raises the skill ceiling of the hero. He now plays a little more like Lone Druid, in that you re encouraged to keep an eye on your proc rates to ensure that you get those Counter Helix spins when you need them.

I m less in love with the changes to Phoenix, who has become one of my favourite heroes since he was introduced in January. Fire Spirits definitely needed a nerf I m not too fussed about that part but the massively increased cast point on Icarus Dive makes the hero a little bit less fun. His old hair-trigger escape-or-chase button meant that you could really push your luck with dives, whereas now you need to make sure you give yourself space to dive back if anything goes wrong. He feels less ballsy, now, which is a shame. I appreciate that a large number of people will have no idea what I m talking about. That s because you weren t up at 2am reading patch notes! Seriously, what s wrong with you.

Ben Griffin: Praise be, the Star Wars canon is being reined in. To prepare for the upcoming trilogy, it has been announced that the bloated, heaving Expanded Universe that stretches 36,000 years before The Phantom Menace and 130 years after Return of the Jedi is largely being jettisoned. That includes each and every Star Wars game, too. Will that give Visceral and EA a little bit more creative licence with the franchise in the future? Here s hoping.

THE LOWS

Cory Banks: I m pretty disappointed that Bungie isn t planning to bring Destiny to the PC. I m not a Halo fan by any means (though the series insistence on constraining your choice of weapons is one of my favorite FPS design choices), but a shooter MMO with Destiny s scope could surely find an audience on our platform. I applaud Bungie for at least being open enough to explain why it s holding off on the port, but I still think the studio is making a mistake. Prioritizing the PlayStation 3 version over the PC? Doesn t seem very forward thinking to me. Good luck with that.

Samuel Roberts: I echo Cory s disappointment over Destiny not coming to PC any time in the near future. I m sure the project, as it stands, is complicated for Bungie to pull off on the PlayStation and Xbox formats already, but skipping the PC is puzzling to me, particularly as the game's roots seem to draw heavily on many games that made their name on the platform. Destiny is arriving on two formats that can surely only have a year left in lifespan for a series that Bungie can potentially run for a decade, it s baffling to still not have that commitment to PC. I m sure it will happen eventually, though.

Phil Savage: I really liked Stealth Bastard. It skilfully combined puzzles, platforming and deadly robots, making for a well-paced campaign with some memorable levels. The developers have now announced Stealth Inc 2 having long since dropped the Bastard to appeal to family-friendly console markets. Normally, news of a sequel to a game that I like would be good news. Not this time: it's a Wii U exclusive.

I don't own a Wii U. Not many people do. At the end of 2013, Nintendo announced that it had shipped (not sold) 5.86 million units. For comparison, 5.35 million users are logged into Steam right now. Overall? Around 75 million. Stealth Inc 2's developers do have a reason for using Wii U, and if you squint a bit it almost makes sense. To paraphrase: Nintendo s console doesn't have many games, so it s easier to be noticed by the users it does have.

I kind of see what they're getting at, but limiting your potential audience seems crazy. If you're worried about people discovering your game, we can help. Email me and, if your game is good, I'll write about it. I'd rather do that than post a thirty-second trailer for a DLC map-pack.

Evan Lahti: Last week s Highs & Lows was published just as Dark Souls 2 was released, so we didn t get a chance to fully scold From Software for the issues the game experienced at launch. Though a 4/28 patch addressed a start-up crash affecting some players, the latest word from Namco on the VAC bans being wrongly issued by the game is that they ll have more information in the coming days.

Chris Thursten: I m not sure I ve disagreed with Ben this much since he killed an innocent backpacker with an axe for no reason. LucasArts distancing themselves from the Star Wars Expanded Universe feels like the final nail in a coffin that has been steadily building around the series since 1998. Like many others I used to love Star Wars it s one of the few fandoms I ve ever really belonged to - and the Expanded Universe was integral to that. It's what made Star Wars a world rather than just a series of movies and it s what protected the enthusiasm of its fans when the first shit movies started to appear, then the crappy cartoons, the awful games, and so on. The notion was this: that LucasArts could turn out bad products, but they d be drawn from a good place. Star Wars has been growing steadily more facile since LucasArts started to downplay the EU, and now that they re not bound to it at all there s nothing stop it from becoming a jumped-up firework display of a toy advert in earnest.

This is particularly true of the games. The best Star Wars games X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Star Wars Galaxies, the Jedi Knight series are completely embedded in the EU not only in terms of their subject matter but also their philosophy. X-Wing is a simulator, for crying out loud it s founded on the notion that this is a coherent universe which can be simulated with a degree of accuracy. Throwing out the EU is a big FU to the fans, and an abdication of responsibility to present Star Wars with any degree of coherence in the future. I d be furious if the prequel trilogy hadn t already burned out my capacity to have feelings.

Ben Griffin: So this guy asks for my thoughts on episode one of The Wolf Among Us. It s good but really short, I tell him. Like half an hour long. Really? he says, surprised. Yeah, the whole thing is set in a bar. Turns out this is complete bollocks. The episode is actually several hours long and traverses a number of locations I was just playing on a friend s save file. I wondered why nothing made sense...

Apr 25, 2014

The week’s highs and lows in PC gaming

Call of Duty®: Ghosts

Each week PC Gamer probes the previous seven days to scientifically establish what rocked our world and made us despair for its future. As usual, we begin with the good stuff

THE HIGHS

Tyler Wilde: It s my birthday as I write this, so that s nice. Or is it? I m never sure whether or not I m supposed to enjoy getting older. I did enjoy playing Watch Dogs recently. I m disappointed by the fidelity-breaking parts of the world (the dumb pedestrians, the lack of consequences for terrorizing Chicago), and by the lack of experimentation in the story missions I played but where it s open-ended, where I can choose my own plan of attack (or plan of sneaking), and where hacking is a real tool for survival, I m happy to say that Watch Dogs diverges from GTA and leans in the direction of Far Cry. I m most surprised that I m looking forward to the story. I can t tell if Ubisoft wants Aiden Pearce to come off as a badass, or if he s supposed to be the way I see him: a loser who messed up his life and his family by running around in a trench coat acting like a big time tough guy when he d be better off at home watching Hackers again. I like my goober version of Aiden, so I m sticking to it.

Wes Fenlon: We're two weeks into our Dark Souls 2 coverage, and I'm still over the moon with the work that modder Durante has done for us. First, he analyzed the Dark Souls 2 PC port. Then he wrote a tweak guide for the average user to make the game look better. And now he's debuted a brand new tool with us that he calls GeDoSaTo that enables downsampling, texture modding, and other graphical enhancements in Dark Souls 2 and other DirectX games. It's still a work-in-progress tool, but I can't wait to start taking 8K screenshots with GeDoSaTo on the Large Pixel Collider. And the fact that he's helping gamers mod Dark Souls 2 the very minute the game launches on PC that's just too cool. I'm glad we can help spread the word.

Evan Lahti: Hell yes, Rising Storm got a big update. The indie-developed WWII FPS is one of our favorite games over the past few years, but it could certainly benefit from a larger playerbase. It s great to see Tripwire pouring more content into it in addition to making its sibling game Red Orchestra 2 temporarily free earlier this week.

Tim Clark: It s entirely improper for someone of my age to get excited about box art, but Dragon Age: Inquisition is delivering almost Frank Frazetta amounts of epic here. Luckily, we ve had plenty more to go on that just the box art this week. Like Chris s huge interview with the game s executive producer, info on the game s digital edition bonus content, and this very saucy looking gameplay trailer. Although it s of course right to remain cautious given that not everyone thought Dragon Age 2 was an unalloyed triumph, but the delay to The Witcher 3, and the fact Bethesda will surely revisit Fallout before doing another Elder Scrolls game, means Inquisition effectively has the high fantasy field to itself.

Andy Kelly: FRACT OSC is a first-person exploration game that sees you wandering around a bizarre, abstract world that shifts and pulses with music as you solve puzzles. It s initially confusing and a bit aimless, but as you feel your way around its surreal, vivid world, it starts making a weird kind of sense. It doesn t hold your hand at all, which demonstrates a trust in the player I wish more developers would have. As you solve puzzles you unlock different parts of a giant step synthesizer. You can create bass lines, pads, and synth leads, tweaking volume, tone, filters, and pretty much everything you d expect from a VST, but represented in 3D. I know nothing about the developers behind this, but they already have my attention. If you like exploratory games, music, and puzzle-solving, it s pretty much a must play.

Tom Senior: My game library shrank drastically last week thanks to a severely throttled internet connection (more on this later), but Dark Souls somehow worked, even with its cumbersome Games for Windows Live wrapping. I'm glad. My abortive first attempt ended in frustration, and not because of the game's oft-mentioned difficulty. It's easy to play it wrong. The bonfires scattered throughout the world offer comfort and replenish your health flasks, but bring nearby monsters back to life. I would run and re-run an area to amass souls and level up, locking myself into a cycle of boredom. I was trying to game Dark Souls as an RPG, when I should have been mastering Dark Souls as a combat game.

Now, with light armour and a fire-enchanted club I dodge under each enemy's thrusts and swings, and deliver crunchy critical hits to their exposed spines. I'm moving through each area at a satisfying pace, and can finally admire how the world has been intricately knotted together. I've been locked into the game by a scuppered connection, so perhaps this the Stockholm syndrome talking, but now I love the mystery and melancholy vibes of Lordran. I hope Dark Souls 2 can capture that too.

THE LOWS

Andy Kelly: The image of an in-game rendered soldier from a presentation slide at GDC was used this week to run teaser stories about the next Call Of Duty game. Yes, that s right, the next CoD will contain soldiers. I don t have anything against Activision s world-conquering series. I don t play it, but people like it, so whatever. But it says everything about the paucity of the series ambition that a close-up of the hyper-realistic pores of a face is considered newsworthy.

Before Ghosts came out, they wouldn t shut up about that dog and its fur. Now maybe they ll do a series of elaborate making of documentaries about that guy s pores, and how you can make out individual blackheads if you look really closely at his nose. Call of Duty is formulaic because Activision won t dare mess with the formula. It s the gaming equivalent of a Marvel film. A dumb, flashy distraction. But I really wish they d make some attempt to innovate beyond frivolous visual details.

Wes Fenlon: I'm afraid that the dream of net neutrality is dead. The Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC soon plans to introduce new regulations that would allow Internet Service Providers to charge different prices for the data they're carrying. This is doomsday scenario I outlined a few months ago when I wrote about how net neutrality affects PC gamers. Companies like Comcast could charge Netflix or Valve more money for a faster connection to their end users, since their services require vast amounts of data. Those kinds of costs will likely end up being passed down to people like us.

And it's not just about the money. If the Internet isn't open and equal, ISPs could charge us more for access to certain sites, or block services entirely to promote their own stuff. Comcast's Video on Demand vs. Netflix, for example. I think something like that happening is less likely, but I'm still worried about it, and unless some good news comes out of the FCC soon, things aren't looking great for the Internet as we know it.

Evan Lahti: CS:GO has been my main game for four months, and it s wonderful. What it s made me unhappy about, though, is how absurdly few shooters we have on PC that feature competitive matchmaking. Across the other genres, StarCraft II, Dota 2, Hearthstone, League of Legends, and Smite all offer skill-based matchmaking. Can you name another FPS with a smart matchmaking mode? I love dedicated servers, but CS:GO s five-on-five, structured, carefully-balanced competitive mode is so reliably tough and fair (save for the handful instances where I ve been matched with hackers) that it s the only thing I play. It makes me long for the return of arena shooters. I m hoping something like Extraction will help fill this near-void.

Tyler Wilde: I spent the beginning of the week getting over a flu I picked up at PAX. It was horrific. If you ever go to PAX, douse your entire body in hand sanitizer every two hours. Drink a bit of it, too. I m also very disappointed, as I touched on in my From The Archives column over the weekend, that I can t play along with the NHL playoffs on my PC. I m not mad at EA and 2K for focusing their sporting efforts on the consoles a few years ago, I d probably have made the same decision but I do hope someone plugs the gap. On PC, where modding and customization reign, it doesn t even matter to me whether or not sports games are licensed by the NHL, NBA, MLB, or whatever. It would be convenient to have the rosters and stats built in, but if not, I ll figure out how to get 2001 02 Evgeni Nabokov in his number 35 solid black jersey into the game, don t worry about that.

Tim Clark: While I m delighted with our first guide article for Hearthstone, which details the decks that are dominating the current metagame and explains why they re so effective, I m also conscious of the fact we ve probably just helped unleash even more Zoo Warlocks onto the server. Which, as shown here, is unfortunate. However, next week our expert will be showing you how to build your own killer deck, so perhaps a PC Gamer reader will come up with a perfect countermeasure for all those Zoos. (Other than fire, obviously.) To help the process, we ll also be listing our 40 favourite cards soon. I d be curious to know which ones you think are must haves in your decks. Hit me up here with suggestions. Job done.

Tom Senior: My internet router has existed in a state of near-death for a week now, allowing only the faintest breath of data to reach Steam's authentication servers. At times like this I'm reminded that my digital library is a transient thing, reliant on systems that may one day fail, or fall to market forces. Will Steam last forever? Gamespy's shutdown has inspired some quick action from 2K, but what will happen when Games for Windows Live meets its maker? Dedicated fans have been known to set up their own servers to save games from the scrapheap, but often it's down to publishers to maintain a game's online infrastructure, and that may not always be in their financial interests. Physical media is hardly infallible I've lost a few golden oldies to dust and disk scratches but the death of third-party authentication systems threaten to take relatively recent games out of circulation. I can only hope Dark Souls survives the GfWL cull.

Apr 24, 2014

Dark Souls 2 review

DARK SOULS™ II

I am not going to die before I get my corpse. I can make it, despite the hordes of hollows lying in the shadows, just waiting to hoist themselves up to my eye level to snack on my face. I used my last estus flask after a fleshy dog-thing lunged at me from the shadows, mistaking my bone staff for its chew toy. But that s okay: I can still get to the edge where I fell, while trying to cross a chasm by leaping through the air. I missed.

Suddenly I see it, a splash of green highlighting the barely visible horizon. I creep forward, keeping my shield raised in case a feral hollow charges me. That shield doesn t help much when one attacks me from behind, though, so I quickly try to roll away. And that s how I toss myself right off the edge of the world, losing 25,000 souls in the process. "You Died," says Dark Souls 2. Again.

Never change, Dark Souls.

There were rumors and concerns in the early days, when we knew nothing about what developer From Software had planned for us, that the sequel to the legendarily difficult Dark Souls would be made easier. In hopes of attracting a larger audience, the people who had heard the faithful proclaim its greatness, the next version of the Souls series would be more accessible, less obtuse, and far less punishing.

Those rumors were misleading. Rest assured: This is not Dark Souls for babies. And even if you've mastered the complex combat mechanics and subtle intricacies of the first game, that knowledge will not be enough to make up for everything that's new, expanded, and different in the sequel. Dark Souls 2 teaches you, very early on, that you still have a lot to learn.
Walking dead
Dark Souls 2 curses you right from the beginning. Your character begins as a faceless amnesiac who is drawn to the kingdom of Drangleic, where memories are forgotten and heroes become hollows undead who require souls to keep their humanity. Your only chance to fight the curse is to collect four great, old souls and confront the king of this cursed land. You'll need to collect lots of lesser souls to level up you skills, purchase items and services, and trade with those you meet. If you die (sorry, when you die) you lose the souls you've collected and must find the spot you died in to retrieve them. Fail before you hit that spot and they're gone forever. That will happen a lot, too.

Like the first game, exploring a new area requires patience and risk in equal measure. I love the dread I experience when I approach a fog gate, a sort of progress marker that often means harder challenges lie ahead, including bosses. I question whether I'm ready to move forward. Sometimes I am often, I am not. It s at moments like this when I feel that Dark Souls 2 is trolling me. I encounter one fog gate in Earthen Peak, a factory for poisonous sludge, and steel myself for a brutal duel with the boss I d been expecting. I change weapons, add buffs to do more magic damage, consume life gems to heal full health, and return myself to full humanity by using a Human Effigy. But though the open gate, there s only a bonfire the game s safe haven. All of my prep was for nothing.

In another area, I throw open a door that opens into a wall. I feel like the developer knows exactly what s going through my head and does its best to confound me. That keeps my exploration consistently interesting just as I think I know what s next, Dark Souls 2 takes a sharp left turn.

Praise the sun!

The bonfires also serve a dual purpose they re the fast travel points that connect Dark Souls 2 s areas. They're linked at Majula, a hub village where you encounter merchants, blacksmiths, and the Emerald Lady. She s the only way you can level, spending souls to improve stats that are more clearly expressed than they were in Dark Souls. That means you ll be returning to Majula more than you did Firelink Shrine. Don't imaging a bustling hive of activity. The residents of Majula are lonely, depressed, filled with dread and absent of hope like a summer camp for emo LARPers. Each has a story to tell, if you're patient enough to listen, and all are voice acted with impeccable detail. Their stories are how you discover the history of Drangleic, and watching their plight unfold through conversation draws me in far more than audio logs or cutscenes. I want to unravel their mysteries, and I have to pay careful attention to find the clues in each character's dialogue especially if I want their help.

The hub structure is one of a few changes that either streamline existing systems, or provide new challenges to veteran players. Multiplayer in Dark Souls 2 now uses Steamworks and dedicated servers instead of the dreaded Games for Windows Live of its predecessor. Many of the game s covenants guilds that task you with multiplayer duties, such as defending areas or invading misbehaving players worlds are more socially focused. You can still summon random players into your world to help with difficult areas or bosses while in human form. You can even purchase a special ring and engrave it with the same god s name as your friends, increasing your chances of joining them for jolly cooperation. You re given more options when dealing with PvP invaders, as well, though you are way more vulnerable to invasions since they can happen while you re in hollow form.

Majula makes a memorable hub.

Even while fast traveling through bonfires, though, Drangleic never feels much like an open world. Instead, the game pushes you in specific directions, especially in the early game. The Forest of Fallen Giants will lead to a specific path, and when you eventually get to the end, the game just warps you back to Majula. The three other spokes work in much the same way, and rarely connect to each other. Part of the magic of Dark Souls was how the world eventually connects its puzzle pieces to each other, and discovering the shortcuts you could take made the game feel like one solid world.

Dark Souls 2 also struggles to commit to one of its boldest gameplay changes: the importance of darkness. Early info on the game highlighted how players would need to light torches and navigate environments steeped in darkness, as yet another way the game would fray your nerves. In practice, lighting the way is rarely as important as it should be. Torches feel optional in most of the game s areas, and the sections that reward sacrificing your shield arm to carry them, such as No-Man s Wharf and The Gutter, never quite reward that sacrifice enough to be worth the vulnerability. It s a disappointing result to what could have been a key gameplay mechanic, especially since those lighting effects look so spectacular on the PC.
Masterwork
From Software promised us that the PC port would be the definitive version of the game, and it did not disappoint. Resolutions up to 1440p are supported natively, as well as specific settings for texture quality, anti-aliasing, SSAO, anisotropic filtering, higher-detail character models, and more. Even with those settings maxed, I couldn t make the game run lower than 60 fps on a modest Nvidia GTX 750 Ti. That s a massive improvement over its predecessor.

Careful with that flame!

Those who refuse to set hands on a controller will also be satisfied by a new, comprehensive keybinding system. While Dark Souls 2 is still clearly designed for a controller, it now takes only a little bit of setup to build a comfortable control scheme.

The result is a port that looks markedly better than its console cousins, even at standard 1080p on modest hardware. Textures are sharper, while character details are easier to make out. Screenshots and YouTube videos may not convey just how much better Dark Souls 2 looks with everything cranked up.

Dark Souls was a brilliant game that didn t explain itself well. Many new players were frustrated even by the tutorial because the game didn t teach its secrets to them. Dark Souls 2 fixes that by giving you way more information about its items, skills, and world, liberating its designers to create even more complex challenges. It is more accessible for new players, but not at the expense of being brutal I ve died more than 150 times in 60 hours. I curse out loud every time a hollow pushes me off an edge, at every fire arrow I can t dodge, at The Pursuer every god damned time I fight him. I die, over and over, one stupid mistake after another. But even though failing sucks, succeeding in Dark Souls 2 feels absolutely amazing. I ll die a hundred more times just to feel that good when I win.