Dishonored 2 was easily my favourite game of last year, and so it's little surprise that I enjoyed this standalone expansion so much. In many ways it's a similar prospect—a bunch of new Dishonored 2-style levels (and even a returning old one), offering more opportunities to stalk through Karnaca, offing jerks. Good, but not revelatory. And yet, it goes further, switching up exactly the right things to make the action feel meaningfully different. It's a great example of an efficient expansion: more of the same, but also something new.

Billie Lurk is the perfect character to lead this epilogue. The main Dishonored games centre around fundamentally sheltered people coming into the squalor of common life—experiencing it in some cases for the first time. Focusing on the murkier characters of Dishonored's story—primarily Daud and Billie—gives the expansion stories a new context, making them an important tool for fleshing out the world. To Emily, for instance, the witches are a threat—an enemy to overcome. But Billie has history with the faction, which lets Arkane reframe your sympathies as more insidious forces take control.

My play style in Death of the Outsider was more lethal than in any previous Dishonored game, and for what I perceived as justifiable story reasons. The expansion facilitated that switch by doing away with the Chaos system. It made sense to do: Billie's influence in the world is less obvious than Corvo or Emily, and her personality has already been forged in betrayal and bloodshed. Again: a small systemic tweak, but one that's rooted in the story being told, that encourages you to try something different.

That's also achieved through Billie's powers. She has fewer options than Corvo or Emily, but her power recharges without the need for vials of blue magic juice. The resource management element is clearly something Arkane felt was important for the main game. But for this shorter, more focused story, it's nice to be set free. To see a space and have the freedom to attempt whatever tactic your toolset allows, without the worry of its consequences down the road.

It's not all clever tweaks, though. Death of the Outsider also features some brilliant environments—missions that, in some instances, rival Dishonored 2's. The bank heist is a standout. After spending a huge chunk of time in the surrounding environment during the day, you return at night to break into Karnaca's most secure bank. It's a brilliant sequence, full of ingenious infiltration methods and different options depending on what strands of the space you pick away at. It's easily my favourite level from anything this year.

It was a toss up whether my personal pick this year would be Death of the Outsider or Prey. Each offered a different take on the immersive sim concept—Prey taking the System Shock approach, while Death of the Outsider built from Dishonored's more Thief-style systems. And each had some significant problems—for Outsider, the last mission's new enemy type made working through that space a chore. But, in both cases, the positives outweigh the negatives. I think Death of the Outsider is marginally my favourite, right here, right now. But Prey is the one I'm more likely to replay—and will doubtless enjoy more on a second go through. In a year when pure singleplayer experiences have struggled commercially, both deserve your attention and time.

Disclaimer: One of the writers for Death of the Outsider, Hazel Monforton, is a contributor to PC Gamer.

Bethesda launched a new, and entirely light-hearted, campaign at The Game Awards tonight aimed at saving single-player games—and to help get the job done it's running a sale. 

"While Bethesda and its family of studios produce and publish a wide array of games (including some of the pioneering games in the multiplayer and esports space), single-player games are a big part of the Company’s DNA and will continue to be as they work to develop and publish narrative-driven single-player games in the future," the studio said. 

"To celebrate the single-player gamer, Bethesda is running a sale this weekend across its current catalog of single-player games with prices up to 50% off digitally, as well as at select retailers. "

Here's what they've got on Steam:

• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - $30
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition - $20
• Prey - $20
• Doom - $15
• The Evil Within 2 - $30
• Dishonored 2 - $20

Bethesda also announced that it will donate $100,000 to the ESA Foundation to help fund scholarships for future developers, "who might one day make an amazing single-player game that you'll love." You can learn more about the program at esafoundationscholars.org.

While exploring Karnaca’s Upper Cyria district, I find a taxidermy shop hidden down a side street. The owner is pleasant enough, but because Dishonored games turn me into a raging kleptomaniac, I investigate the locked door in the back. I wait for her to turn away, snatch the key from her belt and descend into a dingy basement. Then, suddenly, I’m on fire, having just triggered a tripwire. Why does a taxidermist need an elaborate security system? Something is going on here, and I intend to find out what it is. 

At the bottom of the stairs it becomes clear why she was so keen to keep people out of her basement. On a table I see the ravaged corpse of a Bloodfly victim. And in a nearby cell, there’s a nest of the vile insects and a terrified man begging to be set free. A nearby crank handle, which operates the gate, reveals the grim truth: this woman has been kidnapping people, subjecting them to Bloodfly attacks, then harvesting the amber, which can be sold for a pretty price. A twisted business, and a dangerous one too. If those Bloodflies escape, Karnaca could get infested. Didn’t she play Dishonored 2? 

I spring her would-be victim from his cell and he thanks me, sharing the location of the key to a room where the woman keeps her ill-gotten blood amber. I’ll be taking that for myself. But first thing’s first: dealing with the shopkeeper. I go upstairs and find her cowering in the corner, clearly aware that the jig is up. She begs me to forget about it and let her go, and offers to stuff any animal I want for free. But Billie Lurk is not so easily swayed, at least not by the offer of a free stuffed animal. I choke the woman out, sling her over my shoulder and head underground.

A feast for flies

I tote the woman over to the cell and sling her in. She snoozes in a crumpled heap, oblivious to the fact that I’m turning the squeaking crank handle, lifting the metal gate. The Bloodflies are whipped up into a frenzy as they sense a meal, and when the gate slides away they swarm into the cell, feasting on the hapless taxidermist. Now, by doing this I’m probably just increasing the chances of infestation, but it’s worth it for a moment of deliciously ironic justice. I go back upstairs and find the key the guy told me about, unlocking a treasure trove of blood amber. I swipe it, but before I leave, I decide to finish the Bloodflies off. 

A well-placed incendiary bolt is all it takes to engulf everything in cleansing flame. I feel like I’ve done the city a favour, and the detective investigating the remains of what just happened will have a nice puzzle to solve. I also throw the corpse on the table in a furnace. Better safe than sorry. I leave the shop and slink back out into the streets of Upper Cyria to continue my mission. And this is why I love Dishonored: these little stories you can stumble into as you explore the world, and the opportunities you get to tell your own.

It’s when you notice the little details in games that they really come alive. Those little things that hint at some sort of existence outside your control or awareness. They could be art props made to suggest who lived in the spaces you’re romping through, or little room layout details that show how the world works, but some of the touches that bring games to life the most come through animation.

This is a celebration of incidental animations that don't help you win or make you lose or do much of anything important. They just happen, and you probably don’t even notice them, or think about how much work they actually took. There’s a madness to incidental animation, that so much effort has been lavished into producing something so ancillary, something which many players might never come across. But it can make the difference between a game feeling right and feeling that little bit off. It’s about conjuring that suspension of disbelief. It’s where the magic is.

This selection of great incidental animation can’t hope to be exhaustive, since it’s simply compiled from the games I’ve played, and even within that paltry selection it’s only the things I’ve noticed, remembered and captured (with some pointers from some friends). But hopefully it’ll give you a new appreciation of the little things.

Assassin's Creed: Origins: Wet Bayek

Props to that special moment when a game nonchalantly plays out a very human response to something you’ve put your character through. Bayek doesn’t complain at you getting soggy, but his little hand and foot shakes give a sense of the person under all the stabbing. 

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Wringing out the ponytail 

Relatedly, Lara’s attention to her hair after coming out of water is a reminder of the tricky nature of dealing with long locks in extreme conditions. It’s just one of the many little animation details in Rise of the Tomb Raider, but several friends pointed towards it as their favourite and heck, they’re right.

Prey: Q-Beam wobble

Who was it at Arkane Studios who realised, "The Q-Beam absolutely has to comprise three objects which wobble as you move"? They are a genius. Weapons in games rarely passively react as you move around, and OK, that’s maybe because it’s a little distracting, but here in the Q-Beam, it’s wonderful. 

Overwatch: Junkrat's grenade launcher

Another delightfully ramshackle weapon is Junkrat’s Frag Launcher. The way all its jiggling bits and pieces move as you walk do a great job of communicating Junkrat’s pegleg limp, and the way the flap on the end of the barrel flips as you fall really gets a sense of momentum across. You can almost imagine how his insane launcher actually works.

Titanfall 2: Alternator

Still on guns (because games are basically guns, right), I just love all the unnecessary (i.e. necessary) movement in Titanfall 2’s otherwise fairly straight Alternator submachine gun. Little bits flick back and forth as you fire, simply to express and celebrate its name. The Alternator was designed by Respawn animator Ranon Sarono, who’s a master of the gun animation form. His showreels and game gun jokes on his YouTube channel are recommended viewing.

Far Cry 2: jammed shotgun

Technically, Far Cry 2’s gun-jamming animations don’t fit our criteria for incidental animation because they directly affect the game, but they’re just so expressive. The sheer annoyance of the player character, as demoed here by Tigerfield, is just wonderful, and completely matches your own reaction to finding your gun suddenly refusing to work.

Far Cry 2: Hand

Far Cry 2’s filled with incidental animation. The way the player character’s hand interacts with the world around you set new standards.

But here’s the real incidental animation gold in Far Cry 2: the fingers change position to turn the watch’s bezel one way or the other. I’m sure Ubisoft Montreal could have designed it more efficiently, and I’m so pleased they didn’t.

Head over to page two for more wonderful incidental animations, including indie Quadrilateral Cowboy, Dishonored 2 and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Metal Gear Solid 5: iDroid 

Look in the background, and you’ll see Snake’s thumb mirroring your control of the iDroid menu on a little side-mounted joystick. Utterly pointless. 

Quadrilateral Cowboy: Bathroom 

Blendo Games’ Brendan Chung is something of a connoisseur of incidental animation, so I asked him to pick out what he’s most proud of from his own games. He chose the bathroom in QuadCow’s Valencia Villa. "The bathroom is way too detailed and interactive considering it has no gameplay impact and is not part of the critical path," he says. Every cabinet opens, every component works. "The excess I'm most happy with is how both the shower and sink, after you turn their water off, continue drip-dropping for a few seconds before completely stopping. I am secretly hoping this becomes industry standard."

Who fancies starting a campaign? 

Prey: Boiling curry 

Or maybe it’s a stew. Either way, this combination of a lovely shiny shader effect and a very simple undulating mesh brings a pot eternally cooking in Talos-I’s kitchen to life, if you should ever notice it. Chances are, you won’t. 

Dishonored 2: Audiograph 

Even more Arkane, here’s Dishonored 2’s wonderfully characterful audiotape player. Watching the handle wind around and its punchcard jigger in and out makes having to stay nearby to hear the tape almost bearable. 

Destiny 2: Sweeping bot 

This bot, found in a dead end in the depths of Destiny 2’s social area (if you put the time into exploring it), is a callback to a sweeping robot which featured in the first Destiny’s Tower social space. We can all cherish its heartbreaking dedication to a thankless task—perhaps it’s a reference to all the effort that went into animating it?

Little Nightmares

If you take a moment to watch them from safety, you’ll see one of Little Nightmares’ awful chefs perform a little under-face scratch which is just fantastic.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus: Reactor

Most incidental animation is small, but it doesn’t need to be. A way into his new adventure, B.J. Blazkowicz enters a vast hall that houses a reactor at its far end. The hall’s monumental machinations serve absolutely no function, the flying saucer-looking thing having no discernible purpose, and yet there it all is, but you were too busy shooting Nazis to see it.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus: Digital readout 

Still on Wolf 2, someone Machine Games went to the effort of making actual digital readouts on the assorted Nazi control boards that you probably never spent any time looking at, ensuring they count meaninglessly up as far as the digits allow. This is perfection, and an exemplar of the form. 

So here’s to the most lavish of incidental animation. Let it only become more so.

The voting for the Golden Joystick Awards presented with Omen by HP closes in just under three weeks (November 3rd), and before that happens, we want to see our favourites from the last 12 months get the recognition they deserve. Not to manipulate the process because we want all the PC games to win in every category, or anything, but because there are so many amazing projects nominated that we want to celebrate. 

If you vote, too, you get a free digital copy of The Best PC Games Ever, which we published earlier this year. Take a look here for more information on what's inside, but it contains a great making of feature on the All Ghillied Up mission from Call of Duty 4, retrospectives on classics like Red Alert 2, Deus Ex, Max Payne 2 and tons more. All you have to do is vote, enter your email, then you'll receive instructions on claiming this lovely-looking digital book.

There's a bunch of great PC games up for awards at the Golden Joysticks this year. Rock-hard modern classic Cuphead is up for best visual design, for example, and offbeat horror platformer Little Nightmares is deservedly nominated for best audio. The best indie game category is full of great PC titles, of course: Dream Daddy, Everything, Friday the 13th, Night In The Woods, Pyre, Slime Rancher, Stories Untold, Tacoma, Thimbleweed Park and What Remains of Edith Finch. And that's just a few of the categories. There are three eSports categories, and the best PC games category has the likes Total War: Warhammer 2, Endless Space 2, West of Loathing, PUBG, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam and a bunch more—check out the voting page and pick your favourites. 

It's worth taking your time in Death of the Outsider, the recently-released expansion for Dishonored 2. Its world is dripping in atmosphere, full of detail and side stories that will take you the best part of 10 hours to fully explore.

But, naturally, that hasn't stopped an army of speedrunners using every exploit possible to zoom through the game. The best of the bunch is streamer Bjurnie, who has just achieved a new world record by zipping through the expansion in nine and a half minutes flat. 

If you recognise the name it's probably because Bjurnie also holds the record for speedrunning Dishonored 2, which he completed in a lick under 23 minutes, and is third all-time in the list of runs for the original Dishonored. Something of an expert in the series, then.

There's a few techniques at play in the run, shown at the top of this article, but the most noticeable is known as the 'leap glitch'. Basically, you have to rebind jump to the mouse wheel, preferably on a free-scrolling mouse. Then you jump into a vault and cancel the animation, and if you get the timing right you'll fly miles. It's easier said than done.

Needless to say the run is incredibly impressive, especially considering Death of the Outsider has only been out a matter of weeks. Bjurnie barely puts a foot wrong.

Thanks to Destructoid for flagging the run.

Bethesda has released a new trailer to mark tomorrow's release of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider that features Billie Lurk, the one-time right-hand of the master assassin Daud, demonstrating her considerable talent for killing things. 

"In her effort to rid the world of the Outsider—the mysterious godlike figure looming over the Dishonored games—Billie has some of the coolest powers, weapons and gadgets we’ve ever designed," Bethesda said. "And the missions she embarks upon will take you deep into Karnaca, hunting for Billie’s old mentor, the underworld legend Daud, then beyond Karnaca to the blackest reaches of the Void." 

I like Dishonored a lot, but the trailer highlights the one thing about the series that really bugs me: The series is "all about ultra-powerful supernatural assassins navigating a corrupt, decaying steampunk empire," but you'll be penalized for overindulging in it. Billie in the trailer is clearly on a path to a high-chaos ending, and some players are going to be perfectly fine with. But as much as Dishonored ever offers a happy ending, you need to keep all the supernatural assassinating to a relative minimum if you want to get it. 

That said, punching people out is a-okay, and a quiet approach can be fun—especially since both Emily and Corvo are handy enough in a fight that botching it doesn't necessarily force a quickload. Bethesda recommended giving stealth a chance in its list of hints and tips for Dishonored newcomers: 

• Don’t feel constrained to stick to one particular playstyle. We encourage you to experiment during your first playthrough!
• Always look around for alternate pathways: side alleys, back doors, unlocked windows, overhead balconies, rooftops, and waterways. And be sure to look up! Go vertical when you can, along ledges, rooftops, pipes, etc. You can often sneak past an encounter that way or find an alternate entry or path.
• Give the stealth approach a shot. Sneaking, playing nonlethally, or even ghosting the missions adds even more tension and drama to situations.
• Our stealth model is mostly based on enemy view cones and occlusion. Darkness only matters at a distance, making you more hidden. Up close, enemy facing and field of view matters most so remember to stay behind them or something that blocks their line of sight. And don’t forget to lean! If your body is behind something like a wall, you can lean out to peek ahead.
• You can play the entire game without killing if you choose. For almost all the combat moves, there are nonlethal versions such as combat choke, drop attack and slide takedown.
• Distract enemies with sound by throwing a bottle or setting an alarm clock.   Eavesdrop on unaware enemies to absorb more information related to the world and the events unfolding around you. Similarly, read posted signs. Often characters have follow-up lines if you hang out and listen to them (or click on them further). You’ll absorb more about the world this way.
• Seek out Black Market shops to upgrade gear and buy more ammo.
• Use Foresight to locate more Bonecharms. Don’t forget to assign them and review your Bonecharm loadout periodically. Upgrade the number you can carry at Black Market shops.
• Change difficulty whenever you want. If you're an advanced player or really into stealth, we suggest you try playing on Hard.
• Be sure to check out the tutorial videos to learn more about the game mechanics.
• Quicksave is your friend.
• You can turn off the HUD UI, including goal markers. If you’re a minimalist, experiment with that.
• You can check out the calibration options screen to set your brightness so that black is really black for the best visual experience.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is available for pre-purchase for $30/£20/€30 on Steam.   

Dishonored 2's Death of the Outsider expansion could've focused on Whaler captain Daud, but the decision to instead go with protege Billie Lurk seems like a good one. Her arsenal of ultra-cool abilities and high tech weaponry has impressed so far—and Bethesda has now launched a "Powers, Gadgets and Gear" trailer which hones in on what Lurk brings to battle.

Expect Void Strikes, melee stabbings, her own spin on the game's signature Blink ability, and Hook Mines, among other things. As the headline above probably suggests, the latter are my favourite.

Game director Harvey Smith reckons Hook Mines are designed to be non-lethal, however can be used in certain very fatal manner. Here's Bethesda, as per this blog post: 

"Place this on a wall or floor or ceiling, and it’ll draw an enemy to it. The Hook Mine can be used non-lethally to subdue a person or hide an unconscious body. But if you place enough Hook Mines in an area, you’ll eviscerate anyone caught in the competing magnetic forces." 

Smith adds in the footage above: "It can be quite gory. It’s one of our favorite toys across the Dishonored games."

After chatting with Dinga Bakaba and Christophe Carrier at Gamescom, I had the chance to go hands-on with Death of the Outsider. At the time, I didn't realise Hook Mines could be used to tear my enemies apart, however did revel in planting traps upon rooftops and balconies, luring foes into their magnetic pull radius, and watching them shoot skyward—knocking themselves unconscious en route, in something that echoed The Phantom Pain's Fulton system.   

Much like its forerunners, Death of the Outsider weighs heavily on this sort of idiosyncratic mix-and-matching, and I'm now looking forward to throwing lethal mines into that mix. Dishonored 2's Death of the Outsider DLC is due September 15, however you can read Ian Birmbaum's early impressions here.  

When Dishonored 2's Death of the Outsider was revealed at E3, its launch trailer (featured above) showcased Billie Lurk slaughtering five baddies before rescuing her mentor Daud. With that, the star of the forthcoming DLC's show was immediately clear—however Daud was once considered as the standalone expansion's central protagonist.   

That's according to the game's lead designer Dinga Bakaba, who I sat down with alongside lead level designer Christophe Carrier at Gamescom. 

"We spoke to Harvey and we knew we wanted to explore this part of the universe, which is like the underground," Bakaba tells me. "The powerful are the focus of the main games and DLC was the underground, the assassins, the shady figures, and so we wanted to come back to that. We weren't sure at first, but Billie became more and more interesting as we worked on Dishonored 2. There was an option where we could have just told this story through the eyes of Daud, by the way, but I think that would have been the easy road because his powers are known, it would mean less mechanical exploration. 

"In the end it was cool to choose Billie because she's intriguing… she went through several interesting stages in her life—particularly in Dishonored 2, her main redemption arc is pretty much done, she's paid her debts in a way. And we're focusing on a more personal quest which is where she wants to find her mentor who now has a crazy agenda. Out of loyalty, she will carry on with his ambitions."

Speaking to Billie's mentor, I suggest to Bakaba and Carrier that Michael Madsen's voice feels made for the role. The pair tell me that securing his services in the first Dishonored game was somewhat of a surprise—particularly given both Bakaka and Carrier are fans of his work. But despite Madsen's professionalism and suitability, Bakaba suggests that working with celebrities, while nice, can be more complicated than working with lesser known actors.

"They may have they own personality and world and sometimes it just doesn't match with yours," says Bakaba. Carrier interjects: "Actually in Dishonored we had to change a character because the acting of the celebrity was not matching the character. I'm not going to say who. It was a very cool actor and very cool acting, but it just didn't match the character."

As for the Dishonored timeline post-Death of the Outsider, it doesn't appear Arkane is quite done with Dunwall and beyond just yet. 

"The Outsider is very central to Dishonored of course, but, for example, in this last game, he's not the one giving the power to Billie in the same way that he did with the other ones," says Carrier. "Maybe this marks the end for the Outsider but that doesn't mean it's the end of The Void. It's the end of this Void, but the Outsider is representative of his Void. The Void as a whole will however always exist. 

"People tend to think that the Outside is god and if you kill god then everything ends. That's not the case. We're very attached to the IP, we love it, and the end of the Outsider is more like the end of this era. It's more like they are attached to him in a way and ending his storyline is ending this period. We don't know what we're going to do after that, but it doesn't mean that it's the end." 

Dishonored 2's Death of the Outisder is due September 15. In the meantime, check out Ian Birnbaum's hands-on at QuakeCon which includes words from Arkane's Harvey Smith.

Death of the Outsider, the upcoming standalone expansion for Dishonored 2, put me back on the sunny streets of Karnaca with a knife in my hand and a mission. Daud, the bad guy behind the assassination way back at the beginning of Dishonored, is getting old, so he hands off his to-do list to his protege, Billie Lurk. Her mission: kill the god-like being, the Outsider.

I got to play about an hour of Death of the Outsider’s early missions at Quakecon this year, and frankly I’m in awe of Arkane’s ability to keep reinventing their worlds. Despite somewhat lackluster sales, the quality of the Dishonored series is not flagging. 

Getting to return to the stone parapets of Karnaca is fun on its own, but it’s Billie’s special powers that make the adventure feel like an entirely new challenge. For example, I spent a lot of time experimenting with Semblance. Semblance lets Billie knock out a character and steal their face, wearing their appearance like a disguise straight out of Hitman, another assassin fantasy. After bluffing my way into a gang’s social club, I managed to mug a gang member, steal her face, and use my magical disguise to stroll past guards protecting a private wing.

I can also teleport short distances using Displace—like Corvo’s Blink—but instead of pointing and teleporting, Displace jumps me to markers I can set moments or minutes before I need them. I got a lot of joy out of setting my teleportation marker in front of a heavily guarded door, then walking out into the open and giving the guards a little wave. When they rushed to arrest me, I teleported to my marker in front of the now unguarded door.

Both of these powers are great examples of how Arkane builds systems, then invites players to exploit or break those systems. These kinds of games (dubbed immersive sims by one of the creators of Deus Ex, the granddaddy of the genre) are some of the most intricate worlds in gaming right now, but as a group they’re also having a hard time. After the runaway success of Dishonored in 2012, Dishonored 2 limped through slow sales—a real shame, since we loved it enough to call it Game of the Year 2016. With Death of the Outsider, I feel a familiar worry. The expansion is beautiful and inventive, but I’m afraid that might not be enough.

The immersive sim genre has waned before, and weak sales for games like Prey, Dishonored 2, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has us worried that they might be about to disappear again. Dishonored game director Harvey Smith tells me that he’s noticed the dip in sales, but thinks that there will always be enough of an audience to keep immersive sims in development.  

"And there's always the talent and the resources to make [immersive sims]," says Smith. "The question is, does one particular budget support the audience? What that means is, even if immersive sims speed up or slow down in terms of production, there's always the indie version of immersive sims like—this year you have Tacoma and next year you'll have something else. I think the demand will drive things."

Plus, there's a lot more to be done with the genre. Though he says he's "not the biggest fan" of the author, Smith muses about David Foster Wallace's idea that fiction's purpose is "to aggravate this sense of entrapment and loneliness and death in people, to move people to countenance it," and wonders what the purpose of games like Dishonored is. "Why do I like breaking and entering in games?" he asks. "Why do I like having the power of death? Why do I like being in a shitty situation?"

"The number of subjects that would be cool to tackle with games like this are endless," continues Smith. "First-person, very coherent world where you're looking for resources and combining things and inferring from environmental storytelling and you're free to do any one of several things. You can just imagine all the different settings and problems that could be approached that way. There are a hundred I'd love to see that don't have anything to do with space stations or cities during plagues or assassins or whatever."

As much potential as there is for the genre, Smith acknowledges that it’s frustrating when a game wins awards but the sales don't match that critical enthusiasm. He thinks it's partially down to the world we live in. In a great world, one with "endless food and power" where "your clothes are 3D printed," he imagines people would be more attracted to violent, simulated struggles, games that help us "feel human." As it is, though, what's popular in our turbulent world is not necessarily what's challenging from his perspective.

“What's that fucking show that everyone loves? Big Bang Theory, yeah,” Smith says. “I have this terrible reaction to seeing a clip of that show—I'm just angry. It doesn't work, it isn't funny, why is it so universally loved? It's upsetting because it might mean that what people really need at the end of the day is to eat in front of the TV, chill out … and just have something told to them that is soothing.”

If that’s true, we might be in for a long drought of immersive sims. But Smith believes that trying to predict the future of these things is a fool’s game, anyway. “One of the funny things about games is, if you stay around long enough, you hear everything,” he says. “I've had people say to me, if you're not making a free-to-play game, you won't have a job in five years—and that was ten years ago ... People who predict the future, man, I don't know. The roads of history are paved with the bones of prophets.”

Death of the Outsider releases September 15. We'll see if it paves over any prophets as it rolls out.