Sega's Yakuza 0 claims our next GOTY award for its vibrant, quirky and beautiful settings. Find the complete list of awards and personal picks in our 2018 GOTY hub.
Phil: Yakuza 0 is a hard game to summarise. There's the serious story about a young gangster framed for murder. There's the absurd sidequests that parody everything from toilet graffiti to Michael Jackson. There's the teeming neon streets, the arcade cabinets, the pocket racing, the karaoke, the chicken who can manage your real estate business, and the endless supply of thugs desperate to meet your fists. There's a lot going on, and all of it is designed to evoke a specific time and place: the over-the-top excess of '80s Japan.
The setting doesn't just come through the architecture, the furniture or the clothes that NPCs wear, but is also an integral part of every system. Money is earned and spent easily. It bursts out of enemies when you defeat them, and, when you need to upgrade your fighting styles, you do so by literally investing money in yourself. There's a satirical edge to its humour, to the point that—in one of its substories—you drunkenly suggest the tax policy that would go on cause Japan's bubble to collapse, leading to a 'Lost Decade' of economic stagnation. From the story about what it means to be a gangster in a world of greed and excess, to the aesthetic, the design and even the absurdly over-the-top humour, every element of Yakuza 0 feeds back into its setting.
Andy K: This is my first serious foray into the Yakuza series, and those two chunks of city are an absolute joy to explore. I’ve visited enough Western cities in PC games, so it’s nice to experience somewhere on the other side of the planet, and rendered with such a keen eye for detail. They might not have the fidelity of somewhere like Los Santos, but Kamurocho and Sotenbori are just as immersive, and totally transporting. You can almost feel the grime as you walk the streets in your preposterous, shiny '80s suit.
Samuel: I've never felt more broadly attacked by minigames than I have playing Yakuza 0. It doesn't ask me to spend more time in its world so much as insist on it. And that's how I lost two hours in the batting cage, and another hour playing Space Harrier in the arcade, a game I only ever play inside other Sega games (Shenmue 2 being the other). This game is weird and wonderful. I'm delighted it's on PC, and that when you beat people up, money falls out of them. Computer games.
Tom: I didn’t think I’d end up saying this, but I like the story a lot. Gangland dramas can sometimes be sadistic tales about heartless people killing each other pointlessly, but actually want to see Kiryu and Majima land on their feet. I also love the game’s tendency to shift instantly from slapstick comedy to intense melodrama without pause. One moment I’m helping a living statue get to the toilet without pissing himself, the next I’m punching my way through an entire country estate full of gangsters. Majima and Kiryu take it all in their stride with earnest goodwill, and I can’t help but get swept up in it all.
Yakuza 0 shows that size and scenery don’t make a setting great. Personality and detail are just as important, and amid all the bluster and jokes, the game is making an effort to comment on a historical moment in big-city Japan.
Read Phil's original Yakuza 0 review here.
It is terrifying to be an independent developer right now. Before, small teams might compare themselves to a soulless billion dollar industry built on games where Very Large Men shoot other Very Large Men (regardless of the merit of that claim). Now, those same big studios are bringing their absurd levels of manpower and polish to titles that are more empathetic and experimental than ever — often hiring the very indies that used to compete with them. As remasters, re-releases, and long-awaited ports hit every platform imaginable, the time of a game s release has lost all meaning. Katamari Damacy, a title originally released in 2004, can finally be played as God intended — with the power of a NVIDIA Titan RTX. We are lost in a sea of games, and Epic aims to be our new Poseidon.
…I m supposed to say my five favourite games of the year at some point, right? (more…)
With the holidays fast approaching, we’re rolling from one sale into another. Fanatical kicked off its winter sale this week, reducing loads of games and promising more in the days to come. And on top of the flash sales and deals, you can get an additional 10 percent discount with a coupon. PC Gamer Club members get a unique 12 percent discount coupon, so check your inbox later today.
If you’ve got a grudge against orcs, Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Definitive Edition might be just what you’re looking for it. It’s at an all time low with its 75 percent discount. That deal runs out in just over a day, however, so don’t wait around. But if you prefer karaoke and organised crime, check out Yakuza 0, instead. It’s 46 percent off with the coupon.
There are publisher sales, too. Get discounts on THQ Nordic games, including Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, the pretty platformer, and spooky mystery The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
New deals are being added every day, so keep an eye out.
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Best worst crime-dad Kazuma Kiryu might be making a return to PC sooner than expected, if the whirring coming from Steam’s database is any indication. We’ve known for a while that Yakuza Kiwami (a remake of the first in Sega’s brawl-o-RPG series) was headed to PC, following up on the successful launch of 80s-set prequel Yakuza Zero – we just didn’t know when. As reported by VG247, folk on Twitter have spotted them loading launch tubes via SteamDB. Achievement lists are going up, keys are being prepped – here’s hoping for a launch this side of chrimbo.
Is… is it over yet? Are the Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals finally finished? Just a couple more hours to go now, you can do it deals herald, you can get through this. You’ve got a week and a half holiday coming up soon, just get through the afternoon and then you can go and lie in a dark room and not dream about Cyber Monday graphics card deals you might have missed for the seventh night running.
Ahem. Sorry, I don’t know what came over me there. Probably the Cyber Monday PC gaming deals fatigue settling in, or the Black Friday fever dream I seem to have been living this past fortnight. But your deals herald is stronger than that. Nay, THE DEALER is stronger than that, and with a renewed sense of vigor that may in fact be frenzied despair, I thus present to you the final monolithic installment of our Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC deals bonanza. Gone are the deals swept away by the ever-grabbing hands of internet shoppers. All that’s left is the best of the best that are still up for grabs, from graphics cards and monitors to SSDs, gaming headsets, CPUs and mice and keyboards and more. If you’ve yet to do your Cyber Monday shopping, act fast, as these PC gaming deals won’t be around for long.
I’m sure everyone’s feeling a bit of Black Friday fatigue by now (trust me, I want this all to be over just as much as you do), but in the interests of those after that one, last, final deal to end all deals, I present to you our newly refreshed Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals hub. I’ve cleared away all the deals that have been swept into oblivion by the almighty wave of discount-grabbers, leaving you with the best of the best PC gaming deals that are still available. Whether you’re after a new graphics card, monitor, SSD, gaming headset or even a new CPU, mouse and keyboard, your deals herald will provide. Here are all the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals you can grab right now.
Black Friday is almost over here in the UK, but the deals train is still going strong for all you folk over in the US. It seems like forever ago that I boarded at Deals Station Central, but there’s still a fair old time before we all reach our final destination that is the culmination of November’s online deals frenzy, Cyber Monday. Thus, it falls to me, your ever faithful deals herald to continue striving away at the deals-based coal face to bring you the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals around.
Now, I’m not saying you should just spend a load of money for the sake of it. Indeed, you should only really partake of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals madness if you really need to upgrade to something. I ended up buying a laptop today, not because it was cheap (although that was certainly a factor), but because the battery on my current workhorse is practically bursting out from beneath my touchpad. Or at least I think it’s my battery. Either way, it’s getting on a bit and I could do with a new one. So, if you are> thinking about upgrading your PC, Black Friday and its accompanying deals jamboree Cyber Monday can be a great time to pick up some deals on the cheap, whether it’s a new graphics card, CPU, SSD, headset, or mouse and keyboard. So let’s dive straight in and see what bargains this year’s Black Friday has to offer.
Can you taste the Black Friday deals turkey yet? (Happy Thanksgiving, by the way, to those celebrating) Can you smell those sweet, sweet discounts wafting through the cracks in your screen that tell you, yes, it is> time to buy a new gaming monitor, and maybe find a deal on a new graphics card, CPU, SSD and literally every other PC component under the sun? Yes, you say? Me too! And have I got the best PC gaming deals for you this fine Black Friday eve.
For I, your trusted deals herald, have been beavering away this past week (month, year, it seems so long ago) to bring you the best Black Friday deals the internet has to offer. You’ll find everything here for building a new PC, including all the best Black Friday graphics card deals, monitor deals, SSD deals, gaming laptop deals, CPU deals, headset deals and please send help because I actually can’t stop saying the word ‘deals’ (DEALS).
Despite it being only Wednesday, the Black Friday deals jamboree is well and truly under way. With more deals than you can shake a stick of RAM at, now is the time to get some tasty PC gaming deals on the cheap, especially if you’re after some nice new hardware. To help you make sense of all the deals madness, I’m here to help, as I’ve gone and gathered up all the best PC gaming Black Friday deals I can find, including deals on graphics cards, gaming monitors, SSDs, laptops and more. Yes, my soul is now nothing more than a withered husk, but at least it saves you the trouble of trawling through the internet yourself in search of the best savings. On that note, let’s get down to the business of all them deals, shall we? Here are the best Black Friday deals the internet has to offer.