One of the most exciting things about the upcoming Assassin's Creed Botherhood is the multiplyer mode that throws you and a group of friends into a city and asks you to hunt each other down. Ubisoft have released a couple of videos revealing two multiplayer characters. Footage of the mad Harlequin, and the chisel jawed Officer are below.

Meet the Harlequin. He's either mad or very, very confident. It takes a lot of moxie to sneak up on someone while wearing a hat with bells on it. About 30 seconds in we get an interesting glimpse of his terrifying ability to turn the crowds around him into clones of himself, recruiting a mad clown army as he marches through the city. I don't know how Ubisoft are getting hold of my nightmares, but I wish they'd stop.



The officer looks like a much more sensible man, but is also completely psychotic, finishing off enemies with his unique blade, his bare hands and, on one occasion, a gun. His handsome features and more sensible dress make him much more believable as an assassin, but he lacks the moxie, and the hard techno soundtrack of his clownish counterpart.



These characters are only available as preorder bonuses for the console release in November, and it's unclear at the moment whether similar restrictions will be placed on the PC version of the game. We'll know more closer to the PC release next year.

This week: news! News for every genre! Evan chats about Medal of Honor's awkward multiplayer, Civilization V has Gaelic Warriors and why aren't you killing Caesar with them yet, and our Gold-ranked duo of Dan and Andy help us mull over the StarCraft II 1.1.2 patch with us, which deployed yesterday and totally nerfed Thors, but not High Templars, which is unfair. We also remind you to watch the MLG Pro Circuit SC2 tournament in Washington D.C., which begins in just a few hours.

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In anticipation of the forthcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops, a few of us in the office have been sharpening our mad skillz with CoD: Modern Warfare 2.

Ignoring the editorially dubious airport sequence, it's still one of the most popular online shooters going, with difficult to conquer maps that rely on both strategy and skill.

We can't do much to speed up your reactions, but we can help to speed up your PC. If you fancy indulging this weekend, here's a quick guide to getting the fastest frames per second possible.



One of the good things about Modern Warfare 2 is that it's a relatively lightweight graphics engine. It looks great, but most systems – even laptops with integrated graphics - should be able to handle running it at a decent resolution.

On the downside, however, there's not a lot you can actually tweak. Infinity Ward removed the dev console, and hard wired most of the important legacy cvars from the underlying Quake 3 Arena engine. What's more, no matter how much you change the maximum framerate is capped at 90fps. (You should start any tweaking exercise by making a note of your current average frames per second in FRAPS.)

The in-game graphics options screen covers all the usual graphical effects and controls for turning them on and off. As with any game, start searching for speed by turning off anti-aliasing first, and then post-processing effects like Depth of Field and Soften Smoke Edges. These will have the least effect on the way the game looks, and anti-aliasing will yield the highest possible speed increase.

Unless you're using an old graphics card with a very small amount of on-board memory, reducing the texture size won't make an enormous difference to framerates. After anti-aliasing, turning off shadows and specular lighting should give you the biggest boost,  but they'll also have the biggest effect on what the game looks like. Without shadows, characters can seem to float rather than walk on the ground.



If you want to drill down a bit further into the game engine, you can edit the game engine settings. You may find anti-cheat software like VAC takes a dim view of this, but there's a couple of flags that are worth playing around with.

The configuration file is called config_mp.cfg, and you'll find it in main installation folder under 'players'. For Steam users, this is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\players\' by default.

Open up this document in Notepad and you'll find it's a little harder to edit than cfg files from other games (if you're in the habit of playing around with cfg files that is) because the different settings aren't separated by carriage returns. You can resize the window to force long instructions onto a single line, but ultimately you'll rely on CTRL+F to navigate to different cvars.

A comprehensive list of the variables that make a difference can be found in this excellent forum post, but most of them simply relate to the same options in the in game menu. For example, setting 'seta r_dof_enable' to '0' is the same as turning off depth of field the normal way.

What you can do that the game doesn't allow, though, is turn of anisotropic filtering and the heat shimmer around fire. Do this by changing 'seta r_texFilterAnisoMax' and 'seta r_texFilterAnisoMin' to '1', and 'seta r_distortion' to '0'.



It's good to know the cfg file is there, and better to know that Black Ops will support the dev console, but the most useful change you can make is to change 'seta drawLagometer' to '1'. This brings up a small square which graphs your network throughput and will let you know if you have a spiky server connection, rather than graphics problem affecting your game.

Do remember that editing the config_mp.cfg file is at your own risk, and if you screw it up you can just delete it to restore default settings.

At more than half a million words long, the strategy guide for Fallout: New Vegas will be the biggest ever released, and will dwarf famously giant literary classics like War and Peace. It's also roughly the same size as the script for one of designer Chris Avellone's previous games, Planescape: Torment. Trufax, and more of which below.

The hefty tome will list every enemy in the game, detailing where they can be found and what they carry, and give the player more information on the many factions that inhabit the new wasteland. The guide also painstakingly maps over two hundred locations in the world, and lists every item in the game. As a secondary use, you ever find yourself in a post apocalyptic wasteland, you'll be able to strap it to your chest and it should double up as a useful piece of armour.

The book comes in two flavours, the standard edition for $25, and the bigger, harder edition for $35. The latter should be better at stopping bullets.

For more information, check out the strategy guide blog. Alternatively, check out our preview. The game's due out next Tuesday in the US, and Friday 22nd worldwide.

Released last year, Trine was beautiful platformer with body-swapping puzzles and co-op. A sequel is in the works, and a new video released this week suggests it's going to be more of the same, with online co-op making it even easier to play together.



The original Trine was was a platformer in which you could switch between three archetypes: a wizard, a warrior and the thief. Each had their own special powers, from the wizard's ability to draw walkways and boxes into the world, to the thief's ridiculously useful ability to use her grappling hook to reach almost any location. Also, the warrior could smack things real good. The game was even better when played in co-op, with three players taking control of each character.

Half the fun was learning to combine each character's abilities to beat the next deathtrap. The thief would use her grappling hook to fire herself over a spike ridden pit and onto the high platform. There she would stand, smugly sniping attacking skeletons. The wizard would then turn to the warrior and say something like, "How about I conjure a box, and then stand on it, and then you, the warrior, throw me up there?" Then the wizard would conjure a box and stand on it, and the warrior would throw him straight into the spikes for a laugh.

The problem was that everyone would have to crowd around one monitor to play, which was a fiddly process, even though it made it easier to elbow the warrior in the ribs. But when Trine 2, the office is going to have a new game to play at lunchtimes.

Blizzard have been busy prodding Starcraft 2's soft insides with the balancing stick, releasing the second patch for the game in a month. Read on for a summary of the changes.



Are you a Zerg player? Do you like having lots of life? Well it's time to do the happy dance, because almost all of the Zerg's buildings have received a welcome health boost. The Hatchery, Lair, Spawning Pool, Spire and Ultralisk Cavern have all become significantly tougher. The Hatchery health buff is particularly important, making it that much easier for Zerg players to cling on to their expansions. On the offensive side of things, Roaches have gained a range boost, and the Infestor's immobilising Fungal Growth attack now prevents Protoss units from using their Blink ability.

Terran players are likely to be more disappointed with the changes. Barracks now require the player to build a Supply Depot first, a problem for players who like to strike out and throw an early barracks down near the enemy base for cheeky early rush attacks. Combine this with the increase in Supply Depot health and the clear message seems to be that Blizzard think Terrans are too expansive, and would rather they stayed at home, safe and secure behind a walled-off ramp. To further hamper the Terran rush, the Reaper speed boost upgrade will now require a Factory, and the speed of Medivac troop transports has been reduced.



The Protoss remain relatively untouched, but a Zerg-like boost to Nexus health is good news for the space-elves. Void Rays have been rebalanced to be more threatening early on. Their power at Damage level 1 has been increased, but their Damage level 2 upgrade has been significantly reduced, making Void Rays less effective against armoured units.

You check out the full list of changes over at the Starcraft 2 blog, but it looks as though the Zerg are tougher, the Terrans are slower and the Protoss escape relatively unscathed. What do you think of the changes?

Duke Nukem: Next Gen is a fan made project that aims to remake the original Duke Nukem 3D in the Unreal 3 Engine, and it’s being built with the support of the game’s publishers and developers. Read on to discover how the modders convinced Take Two to greenlight the game.



In the blog post announcing the game, project lead Frederick "Fresch" Schreiber describes how he got permission to make the project. His first tactic was to send screenshots of his work in process to creators of the Original Duke Nukem 3D, George Brussard and Scott Miller "The shots managed to convince Scott Miller to a certain degree" he says, "But the project was only doable if Take-Two would approve it."

His next step was to head straight to Duke Nukem Forever developers, Gearbox "thinking that Gearbox might have a better relationship to Take-Two, than 3Drealms, I contacted AdamF, who passed me through to P J Putnam, Vice President and General Counsel of Gearbox Software. Luckily Gearbox was interested in supporting the project, which resulted in a personal non-commercial license to Duke Nukem.”

It's still a work in progress, but Fresch has already got a team together, and is working on getting a multiplayer prototype ready for public release as soon as possible. Check out the video below for the first footage of this darker but much shinier remake.

Civlization V hasn't been out for long, but there’s already a wealth of user made maps, mods and scenarios available. Here’s our pick of the best from the early rush of Civ V mods. Whether you want to rebalance the economy, change the pace of the game, or play on a huge, scale version of the planet Earth, there’s something for you in the selection below.



Civilization V has a great mod browser built into it. It helps you search for the highest rated mods as voted by the community. All of the mods on this list can be downloaded and installed from inside the game, but you can follow the links for information on each one.
1. Dale's Earth Map


Civilization V has plenty of nations, each imbued with their own sense of personality, but the game's randomly generated worlds means you're never playing on the actual countries they represent. Dale's True Start Map Pack adds a decent world map with a built in scenario that puts every nation in its right place. For some, playing on a carefully modelled facsimile of our own planet takes the surprise and discovery out of the exploration element of the game, but the more you play, the less familiar the world becomes until you’re looking at a vision of what the world would look like with the Songhai Empire as the dominant superpower.
2. Queen of the Iceni


This mod adds the Celts as a playable faction. Led by Queen Boudica, the Celts represent a menacing military threat. Their two specialised units include a Gaelic Warrior, who operate much like traditional Warriors, but move more quickly over difficult ground, and the Sons of Morrigan, a special unit that gains health every time it defeats an enemy unit. Combine these guys with Boudica's Battle Fury trait, which grants nearby units extra attacks in combat, and the Celts represent an excellent choice for players of a military mindset.
3. E3 Combat Scenario


This is the professionally designed scenario used by Firaxis to demonstrate Civ V's combat and diplomacy at E3. If you don't feel like clawing your way up from the the dirt and just want to jump straight into a well developed world then this is the map for you. It puts you in charge of Ceaser's forces, poised to kick off a massive war with surrounding nations. There's a variety of techs already on the map, from cannons to attack helicopters, so it's a great way to get to know a lot of different units without having to put in all of the time and effort associated with researching and building them.
4. R.E.D. modpack


R.E.D. has been around since Civ IV, it stands for Regiment and Ethnic Diversity, and aims to give all the units in the greater variation. It also addresses some of the more ridiculous scale problems that combat can throw up, such as a squads of twenty foot tall infantrymen fighting tiny tanks, or 18th century Ships of the Line dwarfing Aircraft Carriers. The new units aren't precisely to scale, so you'll be able to see them easily on the map, but they're a bit more realistic. A load of formations have also been added, so your units won't always line up in exactly the same way, making your units seem a bit less like mass produced counters on a board.
5. Economy Mod


Many players have found that Civ V’s economy growth and research speeds are out of whack, with players often reaching Medieval tech decades before they should. A small team of modders has set about rebalancing the entire economy of the game with this mod. Tech costs have been increased and building costs reduced to slow down research rate and bring technology in line with the level of infrastructure in your empire. This mod also incorporates a couple of UI tweaks, the best one being DireAussie's build order overhaul, which improves the UI for putting together build orders, and adds some useful shortcuts to help you manage your cities' production more easily.
6. Legions


One of the very first mods to appear, Legions removes Civlization V’s insistence that military units occupy separate tiles. The inability to stack several army units on top of one another has added a whole new tactical element to combat in Civ V, but if you couldn’t care less where your archers should go, and the formation of your troops when attacking a city, then this mod will handily remove those restrictions.
7. World War X


If you think that diplomacy is just a load of useless chin wagging, and define ‘peace’ as the bit when you build your forces up before crushing everything, you might want to check out World War X. It's an all out war mod that ramps up the aggression of the AI, lowers the cost and build times of all military units and turns the world into a snarling bear pit of angry, tooled-up nations just spoiling for a fight.
8. Copasetic UI Update


Civilization V’s UI is already miles better than the previous games. Where once you had to wade through a world of menus and construction screens to get anything done, now everything is a few clicks away. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, though, and modders have already gone to task on the slick new system, adding more information to the interface, and streamlining the experience even further. The Copasetic UI update from Cope makes a few small but extremely useful changes, such as having city labels showing how close a city is to expansion and, in poorer towns, the number of turns left until citizens start starving to death.
9. Larger Scale Mod


If you're bothered by the one unit per tile stacking restrictions, but don't want to use Legions as a workaround, there are other mods out there devoted to making Civ V a less fiddly game by increasing the overall size of the game. Db0's Larger Scale Mod aims to allow more space between cities, giving units more room to manoeuvre and allowing for larger empires in general. Happiness penalties have been reduced, so an average empire can cheerfully exist with a dozen cities. City defences have been buffed as well, which makes military victory that much harder, and gives all nations more opportunity to expand.
10. Useful Extras


And finally, here's a few smaller mods that have proved popular with the community. They may seem menial, but they fix a few niggling problems with the game, and add some useful extra UI tidbits to make managing your empire easier. Searching for these in Civilization V's in game mod database should turn them up fairly quickly, and they're a breeze to install.  First up we have the second most popular of all the mods in Civ V's mod database is the Simple Clock mod, which simply adds a clock at the top of the screen, making it easier to stop yourself from playing until two in the morning. The Luxury Resource Display mod gives you another version of the strategic resource display that lets you see luxury resources instead, useful when your capital city starts demanding fur, or uranium, or something. Last but not least there's the surprisingly popular Simple Spacebar Mod, which lets you end turns with a tap of the spacebar.

For more Civilization V mods check out the in game database, and the ever expanding list of projects over at Civ Fanatics. If you fancy creating a scenario yourself, check out our map making guide.

Ever fancied yourself as a Counter-Strike master? Ever thought about going pro? There's a lot to consider, even once you're among the best players around. Professional gaming's no easy gig, and there's far more to it than simply knowing how to aim a crosshair at an opponent's face. As such, we've been chatting to Elliot Welsh, aka. 'wez' of leading competitive gamers Team Dignitas, to find out his ten top tips for moving up the ranks in the world of professional Counter-Strike.

1. Get your hardware sorted
If you want to compete on an even playing field, the last thing you want is a dated rig or sloppy internet connection holding you back. In a game whose combat is as finely balanced as that of Counter-Strike, just a slight framerate drop can be catastrophic. "Low fps can affect your recoil, bullet registration and smoothness of your game," says Elliot. "If you're stuck with a terrible computer, you don't really have much chance online against someone with a top-end machine. Also, a good computer and connection will be the same conditions you'll be playing on when you turn up to a tournament, so you won't have to adapt to different conditions when you set up on the day."


2. Find a team you get along with
Sometimes in life we're all thrown into a situation where we have to work with people we aren't so fond of. Like at PC Gamer, for example. Bloody scoundrels, the lot of them. But there's no doubting that getting on with your team mates is going to make things a whole lot easier down the line. In fact, it might even be better to pick friendly souls with potential to improve than switching in the cream of the crop without knowing them well. "Playing with people you get along with will make you enjoy the game much more, and undoubtedly be more likely to stick together," says Elliot. "Changing your lineup every month won't do you much good, even if you're replacing a player with someone slightly better."

3. Practice your tactics in the best environments
If you're considering competitive Counter-Strike, the chances are you'll already spend a fair number of hours playing the game. But practicing in the right environments is key to your continual improvement. Deathmatch servers are a good place to start - "You respawn as soon as you die, so you're constantly shooting and it's a good way to improve your gunplay," Elliot explains - and clan war practice is pretty much essential. Use a chat program such as mIRC to search for practice games against other teams, and try out all the tactics you've been mulling over in your head. "I'd advise having ten minutes after each match you play to assess what you did wrong, what you did right, and how you could improve," adds Elliot.

4. Watch demos of other players
Practice might make perfect, but there are numerous intricacies to Counter-Strike play that you may be able to pick up from others. Watching demo videos of other players is a great way to assess their mad skills without fear of being gunned down if you take too long to stop and stare. Professionals will have various different ways of moving, aiming, shooting and reacting to different situations. Just make sure you try out your own moves as well: "All players have different styles," warns Elliot, "and one player's style may not be suitable for you or your team." Demos from Dignitas' players can be found on their website.



5. Forget the rest, play against the best
It's always nice to win, so it might be tempting to select weaker opponents for practice matches. But this can be counter-productive. Unless you're playing at the highest level you're capable of, there's not a great deal of compulsion to improve - and certainly less you can take away from both victories and defeats. "Although playing against people below your own ability will still benefit you in some ways," Elliot explains, "playing against top teams will give you an insight into the level of professional play, and allow you to learn from high level players."

6. Communication is key
As with all team-based games, but perhaps even more so with Counter-Strike, it's important to be in good contact with your team mates throughout a match. A lack of communication can be the difference between a decisive victory and an embarrassing, crushing defeat, so talking to each other is tremendously important. But simply maintaining contact isn't enough: it's imperative to be efficient with your communications. "It's best to keep your calls about what's happening short and quick, and explain everything you know, such as how many enemies you see, if you see the bomb carrier, and what weapons they have," says Elliot. And be sure to get hold of a voice chat program such as Ventrilo or Mumble to utilise during practice: they allow you to speak to your team mates whether you're dead or alive, an advantage not afforded by Counter-Strike's in-game chat system.

7. Embrace the community spirit
You might be tempted to pour all your spare hours into improving your game, but there's more to being a professional Counter-Strike player than simply playing Counter-Strike. Your team could consist of the best players in the world, but if no one knows who you are, you're probably going to end up going nowhere fast. "Playing an active role in your country's Counter-Strike community means that there is more general interest, which means there will be more tournaments and therefore more oppotunities to practice in competitions and under pressure," says Elliot. "Also, it allows you to make friends to casually play with when your team may not be online, so you can still practice even if your team mates aren't around."



8. Master the three pillars of skillful combat
Elliot flags three key things to master in Counter-Strike combat: recoil, flashbangs, and smoke grenades. Counter-Strike's recoil patterns are very different to many shooters, and it's imperative to master the technique: "For most professional players, the general technique is to spray at close range, tap fire at medium range, and tap slightly slower at long range, all while moving in between taps to make you a harder target to hit," suggests Elliot. Meanwhile, good grenade use can make all the difference. "Again, watching a professional player's demo will give you some useful tips," says Elliot, "but it's always best to join an empty server with your team mates and practice them for yourself."

9. Financial advice
Counter-Strike isn't all about the combat tactics. It's also a game in which managing your money is key to high-level success. At a professional level, you'll need to make sure your finances are in check whether you're winning or losing, because ensuring your team is finely in-tune and well-timed with quick purchases is essential. Elliot's top tip? "If you find yourself short on money after - say - losing the pistol round, the best thing to do is save your money by not buying anything for one or two rounds, so you can save up enough cash to purchase a rifle and armour."

10. For goodness' sake, stick with it
It might sound obvious, but the only way you'll reach the dizzy heights of top-level professional gaming is to keep plugging away until you're good enough. It's a lot of work, and something you'll need to treat like a real job as much as play - even during those inevitable times when morale reaches rock bottom. "A lot of dedication is needed to become a professional," says Elliot, "and there will be times when you and your team are trying to improve and results may not always go in your favour. If this happens, the best thing you can do is stick together, and keep playing through it."

The latest Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit video shows off some of the hyper-competitive networking features the game will game will have. Essentially, it's going to start a four-wheeled war with everyone on your friends list. Check out the video below.



The new features will include a Facebook style 'wall' that will let you post comments, screenshots and race videos to your friends. The game will also track your race times and compare your performances with others on your friends list. If someone beats your best time on a certain track, the game's omniscient 'Autolog' service will send you an update so you can immediately respond and take back the number one spot. As the man says, "there's nothing more powerful than beating a friend."