For all its infinite wonder, space is kind of a jerk. It would be bad enough if FTL was about navigating its various deadly pitfalls, but the game goes one further - pitting you against a selection of deadly alien races and their many weapons. Despite all this, and as good as the space roguelike was, I always felt that it could use more variety and options to support the need for repeat playthroughs. Step forward FTL: Advanced Edition, which will be made available as a free upgrade to the base game next year. Along with the already detailed ships, weapons and events, its developers have now announced another race of murderous foe. It looks like space is being upgraded to an ultrajerk.

The new race is The Lanius: metallic scavengers who absorb materials to survive. If that sounds like bad news, their other quirk is their relationship to oxygen. They don't require life support to survive, and, more than that, will actually drain the oxygen of any room they're in. Oh dear.

In the Lanius's announcement post, the game's makers also round up some of the other upgrades planned for the update:


"Lanius Ship: New player ship with its own achievements and alternate layout.
"Type C Ship Layouts: 8 of the original ships will have a third layout that capitalizes on the new content. With the Lanius ship, that makes for a total of ten new starting ship designs.
"Backup Battery Subsystem: Subsystem that can provide temporary reactor power in a pinch.
"New Drones: Expanded drone options includes: the Shield Drone that generates a green super shield for your ship, the Anti-Combat Drone that shoots down enemy combat drones, and the Ion Intruder that blasts into the enemy ship and randomly ionizes systems while stunning and distracting crew.
"Gameplay Refinements: Doors and Sensors can be manned to increase effectiveness; you can now rename crew mid-game; each race has a small variety of colors which allows for easier visual recognition;
"And more to come: We re still balancing and polishing the features that are being added. Be sure to keep an eye out for additional content announcements!"


Subset have also announced that players will be able to toggle the Advanced Edition's bigger changes, for those who want to re-experience the classic brutality of the current version's violent men, rocks and mantises.

At this point, it seems to be a given that PCs - at least those created for gaming over the last couple of years - can easily keep pace with, and in many cases beat, what's currently being done on the next-gen consoles. That's not to say the future is a certainty, especially when a game's performance is often less about the inherent power of your system, and more about the developer's specific efforts to optimise and support a platform.

So what of Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment's Tom Clancy's The Division? It's certainly the prettiest post-apocalyptic wasteland around, but will its dynamic lighting and uber-particles look quite as spiffy on our PCs. According to a community Q&A session with the developers, yes.

"As you know," write the former World in Conflict makers, "Massive has its roots in PC development. We are working hard and we want to make sure that we have a very high quality experience on PC. You can be sure that our PC version won t be a port, but a full-fledged, optimized version! We want to create the best game possible regardless of what platform you play on."

Head over to the full Q&A for more details about the Snowdrop engine, and a description of the destruction engine that incorporates the word "visceral".

Thanks, MP1st.

It's not people that are the casualties of the small slice of war depicted in this trailer, but places. Specifically, it's the Libyan city Tobruk, which gets roundly shelled, shattered and exploded, all to demonstrate Sniper Elite 3's new fancier tech. At least, that's the case for the first minute of the trailer. After that, people are definitely the casualties. One person, to be precise, in a particularly gruesome way.



For the most part, the trailer seems to suggest an openness that was sorely lacking in Sniper Elite V2. But as promising as this teaser may be, my thoughts are largely centred around the final few seconds.

Sniper Elite V2's killcam bothered me for a number of reasons. It's partly because I enjoy sniping in video games. It's a technical challenge that's one of the more interesting interactions you can have with a game's gun. But the pleasure I get from that challenge is completely removed from the effect: the digital rendition of a person's face being disintegrated into dust and jelly.

Part of me thinks that - because of those reservations - the system could have been an affecting, if somewhat trite reflection on The Horror of War. Except, V2 just didn't function like that. It's constant slo-mo shots lingered on its lavish representation of collapsing organs in a manner that felt almost fetishistic. At the very least, it seemed like a cynical attempt to encourage viral videos of skilled or notable gore. There was an assumption that we, as gaming enthusiasts, must like this sort of thing. I didn't.

All of which doesn't take into account the main problem: it was so frequent it became tedious. Every couple of minutes, the game was interrupting itself to show off what its engine could do. It was like Burnout's impressive but frustrating crash animations, only instead of the twisting and scraping of inanimate metal, it's the perforation of a lung and the shattering of a spine.

That said, I don't know how Sniper Elite 3 will implement its version of the killcam. Maybe it'll be done in a way that's more tasteful. I suspect not, given that this trailer seems to be doing the same thing with more graphics. We'll find out for sure when it's released next year.

Simogo has announced that it's developing Year Walk for the PC and expects to release it on Steam in early 2014. Year Walk is a first person adventure currently available only on iOS it received much critical praise for creating a mysterious, creepy vibe loosely inspired by the folklore of Simogo's native Sweden.

If the name Simogo sounds familiar, but you've never heard of Year Walk, you've probably heard the developer's name in relation to another game it released this year, Device 6, which has been making it into a few 2013 game of the year award lists. If Year Walk sells well on Steam, we hope it motivates Simogo to bring Device 6 over as well.

But it's not as easy as flipping a switch. Rather than a straight port, Simogo says Year Walk for PC is going to be something between a port and a remake. The developer is adding new animations and visual effects, as well as overhauling the controls. It'll be WASD and mouse instead of touch gestures (much like when Superbrothers brought its iOS game, Sword and Sworcery, to PC).

The puzzles in Year Walk that relied on the iPhone's tilt and multitouch features have been either redesigned or wholly exchanged for new puzzles Simogo says it even had to create one entirely new location in the game to accommodate one of these new puzzles. If you've played Year Walk, you also know that its companion app plays a big role in the its story, and it's been integrated into the game with a visual overhaul. Other additions are a map you'll be able to pull up at any time and a hint system.

Before running away for a few days of holiday revelry and hardcore gaming, Evan, Cory, and Tyler gathered to reflect on the games they put the most time into in 2013. Watch the whole five-video series on the PC Gamer YouTube channel, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more regular content, gameplay footage, and conversations.

You probably noticed that the Steam Holiday Sale is on and that all your money is quickly disappearing. But your shopping frenzy may have distracted you from the news that Metal Gear Rising: Revengence was also made available to pre-purchase for a 33 percent discount, bringing it to $20. It will unlock and be available to play on January 9.

You can also get the game from Amazon for the same price, but still need a Steam account to play it.

The PC version of the game includes all three DLC missions (Blade Wolf, Jetstream, and VR mission) as well as all the customized body upgrades for Raiden, including the White Armor, Inferno Armor, Commando Armor, Raiden's MGS4 body, and the obligatory Cyborg Ninja.

Other minute additions made to the PC version include the ability to play the game's cutscenes and codecs conversations from the main menu, the ability to jump directly into the boss battles of your choosing, and basic graphics configuration.

Minimum and recommended system requirements are as follows:

Minimum:
OS: XP or Vista or 7 or 8
Processor: Intel Core i5 2400
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTS 450
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 25 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Recommended:
OS: XP or Vista or 7 or 8
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 650
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 25 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

We haven't seen a Metal Gear game on the PC since the first Metal Gear Solid, way back in 1998. It's good to have it back! Hopefully this is another sign that we'll get to play Metal Gear Solid 5 on PC as well.

Did you ever crash to desktop and wish you could sue Electronic Arts over the buggy, unstable quality of Battlefield 4? Well, if you bought stock in the company between the dates of July 24, 2013 and December 4, 2013, you can! Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is seeking to file a class action lawsuit against EA and "certain of its officers and directors," with the claim that EA knowingly misrepresented the quality of Battlefield 4 and how it expected it to preform financially. This is on top of a similar investigation led by Holzer Holzer & Fistel, LLC.

Let's take a look at some of the alternately mind-numbing and hilarious legal speak in Robbins Geller's press release:

"The complaint alleges that during the Class Period , defendants issued materially false and misleading statements highlighting the purported strength of the Company s rollout of version 4 of its all-important Battlefield video game series, which had provided approximately 11% of its revenues in fiscal 2012. Based on the purported strength of the Battlefield 4 rollout then underway, defendants issued strong fiscal 2014 financial guidance for the Company and actually increased that guidance on October 29, 2013 . The price of Electronic Arts stock steadily climbed on these statements, reaching a Class Period high of $28.13 per share by August 23, 2013 and allowing certain of Electronic Arts senior executives to sell their Electronic Arts stock at artificially inflated prices."

The complaint goes on to describe how players and investors alike discovered that BF4 at launch was "riddled&nbspwith bugs," after which EA's stock value declined by as much as seven percent. As a result, the lawsuit alleges that "Electronic Arts would not achieve a successful holiday season 2013 rollout of Battlefield 4." Robbins Geller also calls out the news that DICE halted development on all future projects until it sorted out the Battlefield 4 issues, further hurting stock value. Basically, the lawsuit asserts that EA was aware of all the issues, that it knew BF4 would have a troubled launch, and that it talked it up anyway to sell stock at an inflated price.

"We believe these claims are meritless," EA Senior Director of Corporate Communications John Reseburg told Gamasutra "We intend to aggressively defend ourselves, and we re confident the court will dismiss the complaint in due course."

I feel for people who bought BF4 and aren't able to enjoy it as advertised, and messy, buggy launches are a serious industry-wide problem, especially with multiplayer games. It's clearly not fair to the consumer, but say what you will about EA, I find it hard to believe that DICE expected BF4 to be this unstable. The sale of senior executives' stock at its high point looks bad, but stock fraud may turn out to be too hefty an accusation to hold up.

We think BF4 is a conceptually and creatively great game, but it is suffering from serious technical issues, which I hope will be sorted out sooner than later. Most likely, I think we're seeing a worse repeat of the Battlefield 3 launch, not the world's most inefficient con.

However, if you bought EA stock in the aforementioned dates, you could serve as lead plaintiff if you contact Robbin's Geller within 60 days.

GhostControl is not a licensed Ghostbusters game, but it looks dangerously close to one. It also looks like the only Ghostbusters game I have ever wanted to play. It evokes XCOM, which developer Bumblebee calls out specifically as an influence, along with FTL and Theme Hospital.

Set in a London rendered with pixel art, GhostControl's gameplay is divided into two familiar phases. There's the managerial phase, in which you hire hunters, invest in research, and buy equipment and cars, including one that looks like just like the Ecto-1 Cadillac. Then there's the tactical phase, in which you clear out the haunted locations with your team in turn-based combat.

One cool little touch that makes it different from XCOM is that any damage you incur on the house will actually be deducted from your pay, so there's a incentive to play carefully. Mess the place up really bad and you might even end up losing money on the contract. It seems like GhostControl is full of these small, Ghostbus I mean, ghost hunting specific touches, which is a really good fit for the genre.

GhostControl was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in July for around $20,000. You can buy it now for $18 ( 11) for Windows 8 on the Windows store. I know, I don't want to buy it from the Windows store either, so let's all go ahead and vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.

The upcoming Pillars of Eternity remains mostly a twinkle in the mind's eye of RPG fans, but that hasn't stopped Obsidian Entertainment from peering into its own future. The studio's CEO Feargus Urquhart told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that it's his "hope" to have something more concrete to share by March or April about a second Kickstarter campaign.

Urquhart drops a few hints as to what Obsidian's next Kickstarter might focus on which may or may not be a licensed setting that we've heard of already but in the process also outlines a potentially ambitious new use of the tech that was built to run the studio's current project.

What I m trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC forget console for now with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity?" Urquhart says. "Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?

I would say you could do a lot! Still, Pillars of Eternity only just got a name and a trailer and it's obvious from Urquhart's interview that whatever new Kickstarter project Obsidian is pondering, I'm sure there are plenty of people who are simply looking forward to what it's working on right now.

We re very grateful for what people have given us, and I don t want to go back to the well before we ve proven anything, Urquhart says. That would be really lame of us. But I think we have a good idea and we ve kind of proven things with Eternity to a point. Obviously we have a larger studio, so we actually have people to work on stuff . But I don t want people to feel like we re taking advantage of them.

For a bit more on where Pillars of Eternity is at these days, check out our own very recent and extensive interview with the game's project director Josh Sawyer.