Far in the future, after SOE’s preposterously huge MMOFPS has come and gone, I see myself in a dark bar. I’m old, and I’m sharing the room with other old men and women hunched over drinks, barely illuminated by weak lights. On the wall, a video screen loops in silence. It shows rolling hills and green plains. Russet cliffs and brown, rocky bluffs. A voice behind me pipes up. “That looks like Indar.”

His companion looks up from his drink, leans toward the screen, and grunts. “Aye.” PlanetSide 2’s dusty, dry continent – the only one open to beta players as I write – is pockmarked and vertiginous, scarred by valleys and linked by bridges. One such bridge appears on screen. A voice from the back of the bar: “I died there.”

Every death in PlanetSide 2 is memorable. Every kill is important. Moments lodge themselves in your mental logbook, last stand defences or death-or-glory assaults. The game pits three factions against each other – the Terran Republic, the Vanu Sovereignty, and the New Conglomerate – and each is staffed entirely by players. The result is a conflict as vicious and duplicitous and anarchic and tactical as our species can be. PlanetSide 2 – like PlanetSide before it – generates individual and team heroism like no other game.

The once-dead drinker continues his story. “I was New Conglomerate, driving a Vanguard tank when we spotted a column of Vanu Magriders moving along that bridge. My gunner panicked and ran. I held on as long as I could. They got me in the end.

A hush descends as the old eyes around the bar start to recall bridges, bases, places. They’ve died there too, on that bridge and others like it. They down their drinks in memory. PlanetSide 2 has an incredible way of making the conflict you’re part of feel like the most important thing in the world. Get caught defending the Crown – a relatively small hilltop base with commanding views over the tactically important Zurvan area – and it’s easy to forget there’s another battle going on, with soldiers both friend and foe dying, not more than a dropship ride away. Your job – your duty – whether it’s to man an anti-air gun to shoot down Liberator gunships, or to set up a sniper rifle firing-lane along the Crown’s dusty track entrance-way... it feels like nothing else matters.

Although the game is still in its beta stage, it works spookily well. There are a few stumbles: base capture and resource systems are being endlessly tweaked, and to witness bullet entering enemy flesh feels less physical than it does in an infinitely smaller scale shooter such as Battlefield 3. But the things PlanetSide 2’s beta takes away are nothing compared to what it gives: a near limitless supply of glorious war stories, moments of bravery, stupidity, and the gamut of actions and feelings in between. Here we’re going to zoom in on some of my favourites, viewed at the different orders of scale this colossal game makes possible.

The Taking of Tawrich



1: Hvar Tech Lab

Pressing F11 on first spawning into the game will automatically assign you to an open squad. Having done just that, I found my eleven squadmates clustered around the central walkway of the giant Hvar Tech Plant in the bottom left corner of the continent of Indar. Flying to their location would’ve taken too long, so I elected to drop in on them. PlanetSide 2’s drop pods are flimsy casings launched from a mile up in the sky: given some control over where I could aim my pod, I managed to join up with my newfound friends as they bustled around, organising themselves into firing ranks. Below: a counterpart squad of New Conglomerate soldiers. Above: us. Our situation looked tenuous. And then I heard a roar. Another two Galaxy dropships, each easily capable of packing twelve inside their spacious holds, came soaring overhead. Both engaged their vectoring thrusters and came to rest on spare landing pads on Hvar’s top side. Our squads joined, a mass of red and black, as we swarmed down the elevator shaft and cut through the now-overwhelmed New Conglomerate squad. Hvar was ours for another three hours.



2: NS Secure Data Lab

All of PlanetSide 2’s vehicles cost resources to spawn. Each player has a pool of these resources – more are generated by capturing and holding bases – and each resource has a specific application. Polymers enable the spawning of fast attack vehicles like the Lightning tank. Catalysts are for beefy tanks and gunships. Alloys are for transport vehicles such as the Galaxy dropship and Flash ATV, and Auraxium is for in-game shop items which include useful things such as rocket launchers, and less useful things like zebra-print skins. Use a vehicle and get it destroyed too soon, and you won’t be able to spawn the same type again for a while. During a battle at the NS Secure Data Lab – a staging post between Hvar and Allatum – the Prowler battle tank I’d just rolled off the parking lot was rear-ended by a low-flying Vanu Scythe gunship. It blew up, and I was reduced in stature: forced to take a tiny Flash ATV into combat, rather than the safer twin-cannoned Prowlers my squadmates were rolling around in. No matter: I switched to the Engineer class and stuck close to my new tank-driving friends to patch up their vehicles.






3: Allatum Bio Lab

Every hex of Indar’s map has at least one capture point that the game’s three sides can take. If these points are held for long enough – and your side holds an adjacent hex – then the area turns to your side, affording resource bonuses that can be used to buy vehicles and items. Larger bases have up to six of these points. Allatum Bio Lab’s six points – A through to F – are more tightly clustered than most, owing to its strange construction. The Lab stands on stilt-like legs, its open top ensconced by a wibbly blue shield. The shield prevents direct entry, but is transparent, meaning sneaky players standing on top of the base can call out enemy movements to teammates. With my oversized MAX suit armour giving me the bearing and firepower of a walking tank, I was able to direct my squad to capture the points under my stompy feet. When some inquisitive New Conglomerate players dressed in the armour of the light assault class tried to boot me from my roost, I warmed up my cycler chaingun – one of two heavy weapons glued to my robo-arms – and swatted him out of the sky. The Bio Lab slowly came under our control.



4: TI Alloys

A successful base capture is reflected by the capture bar in the bottom left of your screen. As players stand uncontested near an area’s named points, they turn it to their side. The more players, the faster the bar fills up for the entire hex, granting increased resources to the capturing side. But the capture bar is also affected by ‘influence’: if a surrounding area is held by one team, their capture bar will already have a block of their team’s influence in it, meaning it takes less time to turn a nearby area to your side. By the same token, it’s tougher to strike out into unknown territory on the map: a mild resistance can stymie all but the most dedicated of squads. TI Alloys was a tough capture: its position in the middle of the map meant that all three factions exerted a claim, and Vanu and NC troops could be spotted milling around the nearby buildings and scurrying through fields. Filling the capture bar was a case of scaring off any would-be heroes with bursts of gunfire from my squad’s MAX suit-clad heavy hitters. Once the takeover was complete, the Terran Republic was free to push again across the continent.



5: The Crown

The Crown is home to a meagre three capture points. It’s also the site of some of Indar’s fiercest fighting. It sits right at the centre of the map, and offers strategically excellent views of the surrounding countryside: a great place to plan a platoon’s next move, or blunt an incoming assault. One such strike under cover of darkness by a Vanu group almost shifted my Terran brethren from the region. The Vanu led with Liberators, the armoured gunships hurling fire from the sky in the manner of World War One artillery chewing up no-man’s land. I’m not too proud to say my friends and I hid, keeping ourselves indoors. One brave soul mounted an anti-air gun to spew out some flak, giving us enough time to sprint to vehicle console and scramble our own fighters to clear the air. The enemy Liberators – powerful at range but lumbering in a dogfight – were outmanoeuvred by a half squadron of nimble Mosquito fighters. I watched as my friends cleared the skies and then turned their chainguns on the Vanu land push below. Unsupported by an airforce, their Magriders crumpled and the assault dissolved back into the night.



6: Peris

Each faction has its own aircraft. The Vanu Scythe is a flying saucer, with the ability to stop and turn in mid-air, before scooting out of trouble. The New Conglomerate Reaver is a big and bulky gunship, armed with rockets as standard in addition to an air-to-air chaingun. I’ve spent a lot of time fl ying the Terran Republic’s Mosquito. It’s not got the armour, weaponry or agility of the other factions’ ships, but it does have something they lack: raw speed. Pressing Shift engages an afterburner. At fi rst, I used it to fl y particularly hard into cliffs; now, I deploy it when my evasive manoeuvres have taken me behind a rock face, or when I’m sure I’ve shaken the bandit on my six. Air combat provides one of PlanetSide 2’s highest spikes of adrenaline, but it also allows for great versatility: sky-types can spend their time battling each other, paying little attention to the ant-men scooting around on the ground. Or, they can equip their vessel with air-to-ground missiles and a punchy, focused chaingun, and pick out tanky targets on flybys. I prefer using air-to-air rockets and teaching the bulkier NC Reavers a lesson about.



7.1 Point A

Galaxies, when landed, become mobile spawn points, making them essential in the spearhead of an attack. They can also take a staggering amount of punishment. After my Terran friends and I realised where our Vanu usurpers were springing from, we were able to focus all firepower on the offending Galaxy. Amazingly, instead of acquiescing to our gunfire and blowing up, the Galaxy’s pilot hopped back into the cockpit, lifted his charge into the air, and fl ew his burning, half-wrecked ship out of trouble. Or, so he thought. The moment he pulled his craft clear of our ground weapon range, a Terran Mosquito dropped into the six o’clock position behind him, its chaingun opening up with a cheery chattering noise. Even then, the Galaxy stayed intact, lumbering like a listing whale. The Mosquito was in turn tackled by a Vanu Scythe running interference for its bigger pal. Successfully chasing the Mosquito off, the Scythe turned in the air and rocketed directly upward; the last I saw of the Galaxy, it was disappearing over a rocky ridge, burning wings just pinpricks of light in the distance.





7.2 Point E

Tawrich is a large facility on the border of Terran and Vanu territory. When the New Conglomerate push south into Vanu lands, they often leave Tawrich lightly defended: making it a perfect prize for a mildly organised group of Terran Republic types. I assisted in one such push, a smattering of air vehicles supporting a larger ground group that I was a small part of. En route, our flyboys spotted a lone Liberator, setting off from the south and heading north to support a Vanu thrust elsewhere on the vast continent of Indar. Before he could bring his powerful belly gunner to bear on us squishier sorts down on the ground, our organised Terran pilots shot him out of the sky in their nippier Mosquito fighters. I watched the dogfight unfurl through the scope on my Infiltrator’s sniper rifle as I stood next to Tawrich’s point E. By the time the Vanu’s Liberator was molten slag raining to the ground, we’d nabbed half the base, splitting off in groups of two or three to capture a point, before reforming to move efficiently across open ground. Squads moved together to different corners of the base. Then came the Vanu fightback.



7.3 Point D

Tawrich is similar to many of PlanetSide 2’s main facilities: it’s huge, multi-layered, and a bit confusing to run around. Tubes and jump pads provide a quick way around the staggeringly big facility areas, but there’s no guarantee of where they’ll lead without testing them yourself. Some will carry you downstairs, others take you directly to the facility’s outbuildings. Some of these outbuildings exist way out, half a kilometre or more from the base they’re servicing. Others are much closer, antechambers to the facility proper. Tawrich’s D point is in one such building, and is often the preliminary staging post in an attack – or a successful defence. Point D provides shelter and space for infantry to hole up, as the more open spaces around the feet of the game’s facilities are usually swarming with tanks and hot projectile doom. In this example, both the ground around and the skies above Tawrich are quiet. Too quiet. I flick open the map and check Indar’s hotspots. Glowing exclamation marks light up the space to the north and east of Tawrich, meaning the brunt of the Vanu counter-attack will be here soon.



7.4 Point G

Tawrich’s point G and F are the facility’s centrepoints, and the fi rst places the Vanu concentrated their defensive counter-push. Dressed in the stealth suit of an Infiltrator, I phased out of the visible spectrum just before a Vanu taskforce barrelled around the corner, ducking behind a computer as the purple-clad scum tried to resecure their lost base. My suit’s power dying and the enemy standing in state, I was in trouble. Steadying my rifle, I brought it to bear on the nearest enemy’s head. In stealth mode – activated like most of PlanetSide 2’s class-specific abilities with the F key – players can’t shoot. But I was about to run out of juice. The second I heard the fizzle effect that signified my visibility, I squeezed off three rounds at my target’s helmet-clad face. He dropped like a bag of alien-worshipping bricks, and the errant rounds that whistled past his descending corpse hit his friend. A third enemy killed me in a few shots, but it was a second before he too was knocked out of action by a resurgent Terran squad. I was revived by a hero medic, and the Vanu gains at point G were scrubbed from the map.



7.5 Point F

As if on queue, a squad of Vanu troops turn up. I’m loosely grouped with two dropships-worth of Terran forces, and these Vanu are our purple and green mirror images. I hop into a MAX suit to try to even the odds a little. The MAX can swap heavy weapons depending on the situation: here I stick antipersonnel chainguns – heavy cyclers – onto both of my hands. I stay at the top of a wooshy golden elevator with my squadded-up friends. Together, we kill a stream of Vanu, but it doesn’t stem the tide. Eventually, after a short lull in the massacre, a brave soul pops from his vantage point near Tawrich’s point F, and finds a Vanu Galaxy dropship wedged between pillars a step below one of our own transports. The act of flying to get the vehicle in there without any of us noticing is worthy of an appreciative nod, but this is no time to be congratulating: the enemy have infiltrated our newly taken base, and it’ll take a concerted effort to flush them out. Vanu MAX suits – sleek where the Terrans’ are bulky – pour from the Galaxy as it serves as a spawn point. My friends and I pour as many bullets as we can in their general direction.



7.6 Point C

The Terran Republic held Tawrich for another ten minutes before the purple Vanu tide overwhelmed us. The New Conglomerate had refocused its efforts in the north, hitting Terran territory over Vanu areas, leaving the purple forces free to repel smaller pushes like ours. I came back the next day on a reconnaissance run in a Mosquito, and the area was deathly silent. Connected by one hex to Terran land, I landed my aircraft in a quiet bit of desert and hopped out. I was at capture point C. To take it would be to draw attention to myself, to drag the gaze of an entire faction onto my own head, without a squad to back me up. But I had my Mosquito outside, the fastest escape option in the sky. I took a look at the capture point, and headed inside to turn it to the Terran Republic. Three minutes later, the point having fl icked over to Terran control, I was shot by a sniper who’d responded to reports of problems in Tawrich base. Three hours later, and the whole place belonged to the Terran Republic again. They say war never changes, but PlanetSide 2’s wild, varied war is one fi ght I’ll gladly sign up for.

Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, what if the nations of the world decided to forget the X-COM project and just have Robocop fight their alien wars for them? It might work!

In 1994, a game was released called UFO: Enemy Unknown. You may have heard of it, or even now be mid-way through its inaccurately named remake. (Psst: They're Sectoids!) It was followed by several sequels and spin-offs - Terror From The Deep, which was much the same only much harder and rather more blue, X-Com: Apocalypse, which wasn't half bad... even if it wasn't finished, and X-Com: Interceptor, having a valiant if ultimately unsuccessful attempt at a space-sim spinoff.

And then there was... this. A game that even now, X-COM fans just usually agree not to talk about - a game that betrayed the series, its heritage and the fan base to such an extent that even saying the words "X-COM: Enforcer" can... can.... BLEURGH! Oh, damn. Those were new shoes.

But was it that bad? Now the pain has faded, maybe it's time for a retrial...



CLERK: All rise for the honourable Judge QWERTY and his sexy black cap.

JUDGE: Good morning, gentlemen. Ah. X-COM Enforcer, is it? Splendid. My egg timer is broken, and I do rather fancy some soldiers after dispatching this one to Madame Guillotine.

DEFENCE: Your honour, I know my client is facing an uphill battle here, and will never convince the world that it is a true-blooded X-COM game. I intend to prove however that on its own merits, it is a perfectly enjoyable action game for what it is, and one that deserves a second chance.

PROSECUTION: A true-blooded X-COM game? Your honour, it is not fit to share the syllables! Allow me to remind the court of what the defendant actually is. After the games that came out, two more projects never reached fruition. There was X-COM: Alliance, which was a failed shooter years before that bloody Syndicate thing put the last nail in the coffin of 2K Marin's FPS thing-

DEFENCE: Objection! Hearsay.

JUDGE: Sustained. For now.

PROSECUTION: We'll see. Then there was X-COM: Genesis, which was to be a remake of the first game's strategic roots, only hopefully with an interface that didn't feel like the designers were stabbing your brain with crystal shards of pure 'urrrrgh'. When that was cancelled...



DEFENCE: When it was cancelled, X-COM: Enforcer was hastily produced in order to make at least some money. Yes, mi'lud, these facts would appear obvious to a chimp - as my colleague proves. Since when though does a game's origin have any bearing on its final quality? Sometimes, it is in desperation that genius is revealed. Not in this case, obviously. I'm not insane. Still, it's worth remembering that at release, X-COM: Enforcer was not without its supporters. I call the first witness to the stand.

JUDGE: Please state your name for the purpose of narrative expediency.

WITNESS: Sir Reginald Metacritic, Grand Poobah of Gaming and Keeper Of The Scores.

DEFENCE: Do you remember when X-COM first came out?

METACRITIC: Indeed, good sir. 'Twas years ago, back when people understood what an 'average' was, and didst not routinely crap their pantaloons with fear that some tiny blog in the Outer Hebrides might sully their hard-earned score with dissenting opinion. X-COM Enforcer came out to mixed or average reviews, based on 15 critics, with a sweep of scores from 25 through to 81.

DEFENCE: But most were in the middle, you say? Not the bottom? Could you perhaps give us an example of one of these 'reviews', in its objective glory? Where 'objective' of course means 'I agree with it' or 'I am blissfully unaware that all reviews are inherently subjective?'

METACRITIC: Certainly. "While the game does have its sophisticated side, it's pretty much nonstop action. There are a few games on my hard drive that are perfect for when I've only got fifteen minutes to kill and Enforcer is right at the top of the list."

JUDGE: I see. And that quote would be from...?

PROSECUTION: "People Who Are Wrong Magazine", your honour.

DEFENCE: Objection!

JUDGE: I'll allow it, having seen the defendant's choice of camera angle.



METACRITIC: Ahem. Another, by the name of-

PROSECUTION: (under breath) Idiots Monthly

METACRITIC: -says "Despite a few small design quirks, this is one release I found I just could not stop playing from the moment it was installed on my hard drive. I heartily recommend it to all of you who want an adrenaline rush of the highest order."

DEFENCE: "An adrenaline rush of the highest order." Does this sound like a game that warrants our opprobrium? Can the prosecution not comprehend that, just perhaps, this was a bit of harmless fluff made in desperation, and perfectly acceptable for what it was?

PROSECUTION: Objection, your honour, my opponent is farting words again. I have no idea what possessed certain reviewers at the time... though we definitely shouldn't rule out Satan... but the game speaks for itself. Just look at it. Look at it with your pitiful human eyes! I mean eyes. I have no vested interest whatsoever in preventing Earth ever building another unstoppable alien killing machine.



DEFENCE: Have you seen Deus Ex recently? I admit, even for the time this was no looker, and these days it's like staring at the Elephant Man's naked holiday snaps, but that is besides the point. Since when was a game's technical merits what mattered rather than the actual quality of the game?

METACRITIC: Well, there was Crysis...

JUDGE: Sssssh, you. But I agree. Let us look at the game in more detail. Perhaps someone would provide a little additional context here, just so that we're clear.

PROSECUTION: With pleasure, your honour. X-COM Enforcer takes place during the First Alien War, in an alternate timeline. You play as a robot charged with keeping the world safe, and probably not a USB cable, on a mission to kill the franchise. Sorry, did I say franchise? I mean aliens. Your inventor and boss for the game is Professor Able Standard... not simply the most annoying Mission Control ever, but the only person in the entire history of the world to envy the vocal stylings of Wallace Shawn.



DEFENCE: Ah, yes, the Professor. I concede that his is a voice so grating, so annoying, that players spend the whole game hoping he gets murdered by the aliens. I would remind the court though that he actually does. Let it never be said that X-COM doesn't give you what you want!

PROSECUTION: Unless you play on Easy mode, just to see what it's got, in which case it throws in a blocker to stop you finishing the game. Which is not douchey of it at all.



DEFENCE: Fine. But this is still circumstantial, at best.

PROSECUTION: Indeed? I would say it is stunningly indicative of the game's general bad attitude, demonstrating a contempt for the player from the very beginning to its last awful breath. Would, for example, my esteemed colleague care to remind us all of the first mission's objective? The mission objective that sets the tone for the 35 or so wretched, soul-sucking stages of the accused's accursed playtime?

DEFENCE: Actually, I've got a headache.

PROSECUTION: I've got aspirin, if that'll help.

DEFENCE: Fine. You run around a big base and blow up alien teleporters.

PROSECUTION: How many teleporters?

DEFENCE: ...twelve. Twelve alien teleporters.

PROSECUTION: Gosh, that does sound thrilling. Roll the clip!



PROSECUTION: Of course, your honour, that was merely the tutorial. I am sure that things are totally different after this, as the real game kicks in. Perhaps my colleague would tell us what wonders await on the first proper stage, once the game has had this opportunity to 'warm up'.

DEFENCE: Um. Blowing up more teleporters. But not all the missions are like that! Sometimes you have to protect civilians, as they stand around oblivious to the aliens. Sometimes you just have to kill a lot of aliens. Occasionally, you ponder the role of humanity in a cruel existence, and decide that... philosophically... it's to smash shit up until there is no more shit to smash. It may not be Escape From Castle Wittgenstein, but sometimes, I would argue, there is fun to be had in simplicity.

PROSECUTION: There, there, no need to cry. Now, your honour, don't get me wrong. I am certainly not saying that the makers of this fine, fine piece of... fine entertainment took no enjoyment in their work. I merely query whether that limited enthusiasm would have been better spent on other things than, for example, perfecting the only real environment detail in this stage...



JUDGE: Gadzooks, as the kids like to say. That does seem an odd thing to actually expend effort on, and in a room you never need to visit to boot! I shall take copies of the young lady in the vines for careful study later. Before that though, perhaps someone could explain what supposedly makes this game a member of the illustrious X-COM family in the first place? Beyond the mere license, of course.

DEFENCE: Certainly. This is not a completely brainless shooter. It's only perhaps 98% brainless shooter. As you kill enemies, they drop Data Points, because of course they do, why not? Between levels, these can be spent on upgrading the Enforcer and improving weapons.

PROSECUTION: Indeed, it is just like the research system of the actual game, only... with all due respect and deference... completely not, you fool. This is a simple unlock system that sits as uncomfortably as a man who realises he forgot his trousers in the middle of a church service. The closest this game comes to being remotely tactical is that you can only carry one gun at a time, and with new ones simply beaming in, it's far too easy to lose something powerful in favour of something dreadful, like the freeze ray. Not that any of the weapons are much good, mind you.

DEFENCE: Not even the nuclear launcher?

PROSECUTION: ...okay, I'll give you that one. Nuking stuff is pretty awesome.

DEFENCE: I would also put it to the court that while this is a shooter of... undeniably limited means... it does bring back almost all of the original game's iconic aliens. Sectoids. Snakemen. Even the Chryssalids show up. You can't say waiting to see if they do doesn't add any tension!

PROSECUTION: Though since you're a robot, there's not exactly a lot they can do to you. And they're not the only classic X-COM race whose reputation is besmirched by this game. Play the ending clip, where we get to see the High Ethereal mistake his death for a Wizard Of Oz audition...



JUDGE: Was that a sequel hook at the end there?

PROSECUTION: I do believe it was, your honour.

JUDGE: Has there ever been any talk of such a sequel actually appearing?

EVERYONE: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

PROSCIUTTO: I am a type of ham.



JUDGE: Enough of this foolishness. X-COM: Enforcer is hereby found innocent of being the worst game ever made, but guilty of being one of the worst spin-offs ever squirted out on the PC. It clearly exists only as a desperate attempt to get some money back from previous failed projects, regardless of what fans deserved after having their enthusiasm strung out for years without so much as a hint of new X-COM goodness. Had it been merely one of many, or its crapulence restricted to console owners who knew no better, it would have been one thing. As the last official X-COM game prior to the remakes, it was little short of a tragedy - even for a series that had struggled to retain its original magic.

DEFENCE: So, what? Community service? A slap on the wrist?



JUDGE: Well, that was satisfying. Right. Who's up for a proper X-COM game?

PROSECUTOR: Maybe later. I'm playing Dishonored first.

JUDGE: You sicken me.

Chris Roberts' epic new space combat simulation project is going to take a lot of work and a lot of money to realize. The latter part is coming along: as of this morning, Roberts says Star Citizen has earned $455,590 of its $2M goal through tiered pre-orders at robertsspaceindustries.com.

Due to heavy traffic, the site is available intermittently, and a backup site sometimes appears but doesn't display the current funding - chances are high that it's at over $500K as I write. For more on Star Citizen, have a look at our preview of the prototype, the extended five-minute trailer, and our giant concept art dump.

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

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

(Plus more weird tangents. Like Garfield.)

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

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Shepard and crew will be returning to Omega on November 27th in what BioWare promises is the most substantial single-player DLC yet. It'll run you $15/£10 worth of BioWare points to return to the crime-infested asteroid. Eurogamer has spotted what looks like a squad icon for Omega's warrior queen, Aria T'loak herself. Fitting, as she doesn't seem like the kind of asari that would let an outside team go take her domain back for her.

As we revealed in a previous article, the Omega DLC will involve reclaiming the setting of some of Mass Effect 2's most explosive battles from the hands of Cerberus and the Illusive Man. It's set before the events of the finale, and will presumably give us new options to pad out our warscores. Not that we need to, now that we can max it by being a BIOTIC GOD in multiplayer.

Delays and cheating distracted and teams tussled, but the finals of League of Legends’ Season 2 championship tournament are finally here. The two top teams, Korea’s Azubu Frost and Taiwan’s Taipei Assassins will play a best-of-5 series tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. PDT for the title of world champions and $1 million. Let’s take a look at everything that’s been leading up to this match.

This recap will pick up where my previous tournament recap left off, covering Wednesday’s quarter final and semi final matches and setting the stage for tomorrow’s big showdown.

Ending the longest series ever played
 


All eyes were on CLG.EU and Team WE as they stepped onto the stage Wednesday to start their sixth game in their best-of-three series. The drawn-out duel was a big embarrassment for Riot during last weekend’s tournament, when internet disruptions forced multiple restarts and ultimately delayed the already slow matches, prompting the crowd to boo at some points.

The make-up match started with the tournament’s trademark aggression. China’s Team WE came out strong and dominated so heavily so early in the game that many thought CLG.EU was done for.

But if there’s one thing I learned during this epic $2 million tournament, it’s that you never count CLG.EU out. They’re the champions of stalling and epic comebacks. They held off defeat for the entire match, baiting Team WE constantly to step into bad teamfights, to overextend and leave themselves vulnerable. CLG.EU knows that even the best players will make a mistake if you give them enough opportunities, and they’re so comfortable waiting for that moment.

That moment came when Froggen initiated a fight with a wall of pain in front of Team WE right as their Maokai initiated onto CLG.EU. That forced the entire enemy team to walk through the shredding wall and run headfirst into a teamfight stripped of their armor and magic resist. It was a slaughter. From that moment, CLG EU pushed forward and turned the game around for a victory.

I will never count CLG.EU out until the game’s over—there’s not a situation so bad that they can’t come back from it.

Not a one-trick pony
 


CLG.EU proved they can take it aggressive as well in their semi-finals series, where they chose poke-heavy lineups that allowed them to pressure Korea’s Azubu Frost from afar and disengage from teamfights if they didn’t like the matchups.

In the first match against AZF in the semi finals, CLG.EU’s jungler Snoopeh got two ganks on top lane the first few minutes. They pushed for their first inhibitor kill at 20 minutes, about the same time they normally run to their opening lanes in their stall games. The second inhibitor was taken out by 30 minutes and CLG.EU was just toying with AZF at that point. In more five minutes, they’d pushed the nexus and won the game.



It was very uncharacteristic for CLG.EU, and it caught Azubu Frost completely off guard—it was the most one-sided match I’d seen so far. But Azubu Frost was quick to show the world that they wouldn’t be tricked again, and a masterful manipulation of the champion ban and pick stage left them with great matchups and a less-than-surprising opponent.

The comeback
 


It takes incredible mental fortitude to come back from a horrifying loss like AZF just took and play confidently, but AZF is as professional as they come. While CLG.EU was laughing and smiling between matches, AZF’s coach came out and was helping them re-roll their arm sleeves and prepare for the next match.

The result was even more surprising than the first game. AZF shut down Snoopeh’s jungle early, stealing his red buff and slowing down his ganks. Without Snoopeh’s support, CLG.EU was losing on all three lanes as AZF advanced with the confidence and determination of an immortal.

By the 15 minute mark, AZF had a gold lead of 25%, the best any team has had against CLG.EU in this tournament. CLG lost every fight, due to AZF’s knack for separating them in teamfights and applying quick pressure to the weakest spot to force a retreat. AZF dominated with 13 kills and zero deaths, destroying the CLG.EU’s nexus before the thirty minute mark with almost double the gold earned (60k to 31k).

Big mistakes
 


AZF came out dominating the third match as well. CLG.EU let their top lane player, Shy, get Singed, the tanky champion he absolutely shredded with earlier in the tournament, and Shy punished them for it. He pushed top lane with incredible ease, killing opponents in 1v3 scenarios and escaping without dying. It looked like he had the game signed, sealed, and delivered for his team, but at 30 minutes in, they made the worst string of blunders I’ve seen in a professional game.

It was almost like they wanted to die. Every player on AZF ran out by themselves in places that they could easily be ganked, and CLG.EU was happy to oblige, sending AZF player after AZF player to the respawn pit. It was a huge swing that the announcers could only try to explain by saying that the pressure must’ve gotten to AZF and completely destroyed their decision-making process. AZF ended up winning the match and securing their place in the finals, but not without a serious mental scar.

Assassination attempt
 


The Taipei Assassins, AZF’s opponents in the finals tomorrow are going to try to abuse that weakness as much as they can. Other than that series, Azubu Frost has looked indomitable the entire tournament, playing almost perfectly. They’ve shown their Achilles’ heel, though, and if anyone can take advantage of it, it’s TPA.

Like I mentioned in our preview of the tournament teams, TPA is used to fighting from the bottom and achieving victory against all odds. They’re one of those special teams that rise to their challenger’s level and can play a perfect game when they need to, like they did against the team favored to win the entire tournament, Moscow Five, on Wednesday. They pushed their pressure early, they won their creep shots on every lane, ensuring that they always had more gold than their opponents, and they took every tiny advantage they could to keep Moscow Five backpedaling.

Like AZF’s Shy, TPA’s Stanley showed top lane dominance with his favorite champion Nidalee, destroying his lane’s turret in less than 10 minutes and commanding a strong presence the entire match.

The game lasted 45+ minutes, but TPA showed incredible awareness, fighting in M5’s base like titans and killing M5 under their own turrets, only trading one of their lives for three of M5’s. Even more impressive was their timing, pushing that fight exactly when Baron was respawning, ensuring them double rewards for winning one fight. It was so smart and required way more map awareness than I’ve ever had. If anyone still doubted TPA by Wednesday, trouncing the team that many people consider to be the best in the entire world certainly convinced anyone holding out.

What to watch for on Saturday
 


The best-of-five series between Korea’s Azubu Frost and Taiwan’s Taiepei Assassins is going to be absolutely crazy. Here’s the most exciting elements you’ll want to watch out for between these two teams.


Top-lane dueling: If Shy can get Singed and Stanley can get Nidalee, we could see an epic duel of the top lane titans. I’d expect to see bans used for both, but we can dream.
Pressure early and often: Both of these teams have proven that they can play hyper-aggressively and win matches. That should mean lots of teamfights and lots of exciting plays in the series.
Force the mistake: AZF showed their weakness Wednesday, and TPA is hoping that the added pressure of the bigger stage, in a bigger stadium, with more money on the line than before will be too much pressure for AZF to take.
Speeding up the play: TPA faced a lot of aggressive teams in the tournament, while AZF has mostly faced slower paced EU and NA teams. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly they can adjust to the faster pace of TPA.


You can watch the finals on Riot's HD livestream when they kick off tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. PDT.

Josh Augustine spends more time playing MMOs and MOBAs than most people spend sleeping. He’s written about them for PC Gamer as an intern, editor, and freelancer. He’s currently a game designer at Sony Online Entertainment and would love to talk with you on Twitter.

Panau party time! The team behind the Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod announced a weekend-long public beta test over Twitter, C4-ing open the gates for hundreds of players to pile in and unleash chaotic hell for 48 hours.

As previous gameplay videos suggest, adding multiplayer support to Panau's vast open world sends the shenanigans into overdrive with exploding cars, exploding buildings, and exploding explosions.

You'll need a copy of Just Cause 2 to participate, of course, but if you want in, head over to the mod's official website and download away.

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

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

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

Motoring around Far Cry 2's picturesque African landscapes delivered the brutality of a nation ripping itself apart through civil war to your windshield, but it also brought frustrating moments of downtime when repairing broken engines. Ubisoft's third go-around with the open-world FPS includes driving improvements as a measure against the slim possibility that puttering around the Rook Islands while high on psychedelics becomes a boring affair. As Lead Designer Jamie Keen tells Official PlayStation Magazine UK: "You can just launch your vehicle at 70 MPH off a cliff. It might not end very well -- but you can do that stuff."

"If you want to just travel across coastal roads for hours on end, by all means, knock yourself out," Keen added. "We also have fast travel points that let you move quickly around the world. You never feel like anything is too far way, but it's there and it's the choice that you are making. This idea of player choice is very important to us, that you are the one that’s deciding the pace and what you engage with."

While exploration definitely retains its importance in Far Cry 3, Keen doesn't want vehicular transportation impeding the allure of curiously poking into the brush, saying, "We want you, when you are wandering around the world, to just get lost out there and go off and explore, have a look around it and just satisfy your curiosity, but know that at any moment, things can just switch and you are suddenly on the receiving end of tigers or an enemy patrol or something like that." Our hands-on preview delves deeper into crossing bullets against sharpened fangs after driving around the twisted wilderness.

Soon to hit the Public Test Realms, Mists of Pandaria's 5.1 patch is the first step in what will be an ongoing conflict between the Alliance and the Horde, escalating and spreading across the new continent with each major update. The first wave will focus on the eastern coast and the Krasarang Wilds region, where Alliance players will represent the new Operation: Shieldwall faction, and Horde players the opposing Dominance Offensive.

Earning rep with these new factions will be primarily accomplished through daily quests that involve defending and attacking outposts, killing opposing faction players and NPCs, and capturing strategic objectives. You'll also be able to spend the currency from these accomplishments to upgrade your faction's bases and hire NPC guards.

Also coming is an update to Pokémon mode pet battles in the form of Battle-stones, allowing you to upgrade the quality of any pets from Poor to Uncommon, and Uncommon to Rare. Whether this will retroactively award a leveled pet the stat points from being a higher quality isn't specified, nor whether it will affect fixed quality pets like the ones awarded to Blizzcon attendees and purchasers of the Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 collector's editions.

Lastly, two new Brawler's Guilds have arisen in the seedy underbellies of Stormwind and Orgrimmar. The first rule of the Brawler's Guild is that we don't talk about the Brawler's Guild. But what I'm doing now is technically writing, so I'm sliding by on a technicality by following the letter, but not the spirit, of the law. It sounds similar to Oblivion's Arena quest line, challenging players by "testing their solo PvE mettle against some of the toughest creatures found in World of Warcraft." You'll also be able to spectate other brawlers' matches. But be aware, as the patch notes specify: "If this is your first night at Brawler's Guild, you have to fight."

Read the full patch notes here.