Warlords are coming. Warlords is coming. The World of Warcraft expansion releases tomorrow. Before that, here's a video featuring sounds and moving pictures that tell the story of the Iron Horde. It turns out they'd very much like to invade Azeroth, and the population of Azeroth would very much like to stop that from happening.

For our UK-located readers, we're currently running a competition to win one of five Warlords of Draenor Collector's Editions. For details, see this here tweet.

For everyone else: we'll have early impressions from the expansion this Friday, ahead of Richard Cobbett's full review.

Time again for Valve to unleash CS:GO players upon six newly chosen community maps. Operation Vanguard is the fifth such event, and is now available for purchase. With it, you'll not only get official server access to the community maps, but also a new "Operation Campaigns" system.

"A Campaign is comprised of a series of missions," explains Valve. "Completing a mission results in a Vanguard case drop, or a random drop from an existing weapon collection. Complete a sequence of missions within a Campaign to earn Challenge Stars and upgrade your Operation Vanguard Challenge Coin."

In addition, Arms Race mode has received an update—adding new rules and three new maps. To see a run-down of the how the mode now works, head over to Valve's official guide.

Vanguard is available now. For a full explanation of its changes, charge over to the Operation's micro-site.

GOG's Autumn sale has just launched. Head here to see their selection, and be tempted by some pretty good deals. For instance, for the next 24 hours you can get Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, and a few other D&D games, all bundled at 80% off. That's an absurd amount of great RPGs.

Or how about Deus Ex for 75% off. Or Mark of the Ninja for 75% off. Or Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for 80% off.

Or you can get Mount & Blade for free. To grab the free offer, head to the GOG front page, and you'll find it about half-way down. The offer runs until 2pm GMT on 14 November.

In addition, there's a free copy of The Witcher 2 available if you collect stamps over the course of the sale. To collect stamps, just click the icon on the Witcher 2 giveaway banner on GOG's front page. From what I can tell, you'll need to do it each day of the sale to claim the free game.

Just Cause 3 is coming! As a fan of sticking it to pipeline jerks in Just Cause 2, this excites me. We learned a few details of the upcoming sequel last night, but now... oh right, yeah, the picture. I should explain that.

Y'see, Just Cause 3's few existing screenshots are exclusive to another publication, and our use of them would fall into a questionable legal grey area. Instead—and because I am childish—I'm going to use artist impressions of the game. Thanks to former PC Gamer deputy art editor Andrew Leung for this stunning piece.

Anyway, Just Cause 3's Steam listing is live, and filled with details about Avalanche's sequel. First, the setting: the Mediterranean republic of Medici. Apparently, the map features over 400 square miles of "complete freedom". That makes it roughly the same size as Just Cause 2's Panau.

Also on the Steam page is this feature list:

• "Explore a Mediterranean island paradise with complete vertical freedom skydive, BASE jump and free dive in an open world with virtually zero limits
• "Glide through the air and swoop across mountains with your Wingsuit giving a new way to rain death from above
• "Use your Grapple and Parachute to scale buildings, hijack vehicles, move quickly or tether objects together for creative new ways to cause Chaos.
• "Cause massive chains of destruction in military bases, harbours, prisons, police stations and communications facilities to bring down a dictator
• "Arm yourself with a wide range of explosive weaponry from shotguns and missile launchers to tank-busters and air-strikes
• "Choose from a huge variety of different vehicles to drive including speedboats, jets, helicopters, turbo-fuelled sports cars and super bikes
• "Get adventurous with dozens of challenge missions and collectibles to discover
• "Online community features."

The mantra, then, seems to be "Just Cause, but more of it". We also know that it won't have microtransactions.

We'll inevitably have more news on Just Cause 3 as it emerges. If you fancy, tweet me your own artist impressions of the game, and I'll use them to illustrate future news posts. I will genuinely do this; at least until we have screenshots we are allowed to use.

Last week, I was all, "Wildstar's long-awaited third content drop is ... out next week, on 11 November." It's now 12 November. Is WIldstar's long-awaited third content drop out? It is, yes.

That means players now have access to a new zone, The Defile, and a new solo story, Journey Into OmniCore-1. You can find more about both through these informative pamphlets trailers.

Want to get down to the nitty-gritty details? Here are the full patch notes.

Last week's leaked images of Just Cause 3 should have been cause for celebration, but instead attracted outrage at what appeared to be evidence of a move into the free-to-play space. That's definitely not happening, according to a spokesperson for Avalanche Studios. 

"Following last week's rumours and speculation, we also wanted to take the opportunity to address a few misconceptions," Avalanche co-founder Christofer Sundberg wrote on the studio's website. "Those leaked screenshots were taken from an ancient version of Just Cause 3. 

"Like most games, this one went through an exploratory phase where we looked at different control schemes, different technologies, different business models. Those leaked screenshots show aspects of that process, and in no way reflect the game we are making today."

Sundberg later reiterated that Just Cause 3 "is not a Free To Play game" and "does not feature in-game micro transactions", before confirming that post-launch DLC is likely. It's due some time in 2015.

Jeff Butler, Creative Director on the upcoming Everquest Next and Landmark, has a rig with a surprisingly clean interior given how much cat hair you can assume falls off the back of his two gigantic Maine Coon cats. The cat pictured above is so large that, coupled with the equally huge monitor behind him, for a moment I thought Jeff might just be very small. Jeff was kind enough to show us his high-res gaming setup, along with his necessitated method of cat containment.

What's in your PC?

My gaming machine:

• CPU — Intel Core i7 3770 Quad-Core 3.4 GHz
• Motherboard — Asus Maximus V Extreme Motherboard
• Memory — 16 GB Ram - 4x Corsair Memory Vengeance 16 Dual Channel Kit DDR3 1600 MHz 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
• Drives — Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s, 3 TB Seagate
• Video — EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
• Power Supply — Corsair AX1200
• Case — Cooler Master Cosmos II Full Tower Case
• Display — Samsung 4k UN55F9000AF 55 TV
• Mouse — Mad Catz R.A.T. 7
• Keyboard — Logitech G19 Programmable Gaming Keyboard with Color Display
• Receiver — Onkyo TR- NX
• Speakers — 2 x Polk Audio Monitor70 Series II Floorstanding Loudspeaker
• Speakers — 1 x Polk Audio CS2 Series II Center Channel Speaker

The most interesting thing about this setup is that the 4K display just eliminates the sense that games are made of pixels. Every time I fire up a new game I stare in awe at the screen.

For shooping:

• Cintiq 22HD Creative Pen Display
• Macbook Pro

What's always within arm's reach on your desk?

Within arm s reach at my desk there is usually a giant tuft of fur, or 10. These are often attached to a Maine Coon cat of monstrous proportions. Maine Coons are pretty dog-like in behavior and always want to hang out while I play or draw. My big girl in the picture will come by and pin my mouse arm in mid-raid!

I developed a Cat Storage System for my entertainment center after I realized that I have to keep at least two shelves clear for napping. If you think having enough room for everyone is great, you would be wrong. Each cat always wants to be in the other s spot! So, disagreements over the best napping spots end up with my junk being knocked off of the shelves.

The looks on their faces in this picture are solely because they are not satisfied with their spot. Pretty soon a paw will get someone s tail. 

I also lose my chair pretty often when I got up for a drink, so I got spare. As you can see, the joke was on me. 

Over the years I have collected a lot of stuff from movies and other intellectual properties, so you can see the swords and figures from a few of my favorite anime have accumulated around my desk. Be careful when you open the computer room closet because - sharp! Though I have never had the chance to drive my enemies before me, I am sure all these swords will come in handy one day. Thx Conan.

What are you playing right now?

Currently, I am playing Marvel Heroes 2015 with a good friend who worked with me on an early pitch of the game. C est la vie!

What's your favorite game and why?

My favorite game of all time goes without saying, EverQuest. It got me into the video games industry, but even before that I had 14-16 days of playtime every month, for more months than I care to count. For a brief time before I started working at Verant, I was the highest level player in the world.

Survival games are usually bleak and lonely affairs, even when other humans are about. So it's nice to see Endnight add a two-player cooperative mode to The Forest. The studio announced the functionality today with the usual Early Access caveat that players will almost certainly encounter bugs. 

Two bugs specifically mentioned involve save games: saving in a multiplayer game will overwrite a single player save file, while destroying items is currently a bit creaky. The studio warns to "try not to destroy structures you haven't placed yourself".

The mode is currently limited to two players but more are expected to come, as well as other potential game modes as suggested by the community. The update also introduces a range of general bug fixes and tweaks which can be read in detail on the Steam Community page. 

Andy Kelly took a close look at the The Forest earlier this year, advising that it still needs some work. "The Forest has a lot of potential, and is the only game I've ever played where a severed leg is both a weapon and a crafting material."

I hadn t heard Valkyria Chronicles' familiar violin melody since Sega first released it for PS3 in 2008, but six years later, those strings whisked me back to Gallia and the familiar faces of Squad 7 with an instant hit of nostalgia. With a recent rash of Japanese games being ported to PC in a less-than-ideal manner, however, and a PC Valkyria Chronicles going from rumor to announced to released in less than three weeks, I was nervous it wouldn t be anything more than a quick port. I'm happy to report that my delight with the PC version didn t stop at the violins.

Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy, third-person real-time shooter, alternate-reality World War II JRPG, and miraculously that all comes together beautifully. Confused? It breaks down like this: You command a series of turn-based battles from the perspective of a top-down map, and are given a fixed number of command points per turn. However, when you use command point to select a unit, the camera zooms in to put you in an over the shoulder perspective. (See a GIF of it in action here.) Your movement and weaponry is limited based on that unit s class—Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Engineer, or Sniper—and enemies will shoot at you if you get too close. When you aim, enemies stop attacking and you are shown a circle cross-hair to line up, representing that unit s accuracy—but you only get one shot each time you select a unit, so a miss can be devastating to a strategy with no backup plan. When you are out of command points the enemy takes their turn, so positioning is incredibly important.

This unique combat system forced me to learn strategies on a few different levels. The map view makes me feel like a commander, having to constantly think of the big picture, while zooming into a soldier is a completely different, more personal experience. Whenever I make a wrong move and a unit is shot down, I'm always hit by the same reaction: anger over my mistake, then concern that I won't be able to rescue the unit. The possibility of permadeath for all but the story characters means that if a downed character can t be reached in three turns, they are gone for good. But as the map zooms out, my sympathy fades and I start thinking about how my squad will need to adjust for the loss. Through all this, every victory and defeat feels like my own.

The importance of my personal choices, not just on the battlefield, became even more apparent towards the second half of the 30-40 hour story. The missions ramp up in difficulty and a variety of different weapon choices open up. Each unit, who already differed in both their strengths and personalities, can now be diversified even further to fit niche roles in my squad. Deciding what class to upgrade and which weapons to research means it s no longer just a game about positioning. Though battles can be played slowly and safely to ease the difficulty, the rewards I got for pushing the limits of my squad were worth it, and my connection and love for the specific characters grew stronger each time they made me proud.

Each battle usually required about nine units, but my squad has 20 to choose from, all of which—except three story characters—I picked from a pool of at least 40. Every unit has their own personality, including fully-voiced dialogue, characters they prefer to work with (with whom they have more unique dialogue), and a full page of back story that is only revealed as they fight. The amount of detail and choice is staggering. I grew very attached to my favorite soldiers, cut people from my squad based purely on their attitude, and am still astounded that a character sitting in my barracks unused has the same level of depth, whether or not I'll see it.

Alternate reality

Though its set in an alternate reality, Valkyria Chronicles doesn t shy from the real-life horrors of its World War II inspiration, addressing issues that Western WWII games don t even like to discuss. One mission tasks you with liberating a concentration camp filled with Darcsens, this world s persecuted people. The story can be over dramatic and heavy-handed at times in a uniquely JRPG sort of way—you can switch to the Japanese voice actors and use subtitles if you are off put by the sometimes flat English voice acting—but I was legitimately invested in not just the lives of the characters, but the story of Gallia, the country I was protecting. It s melodramatic, but heartbreakingly real at times—depicting war in the style of a documentary rather than a Hollywood blockbuster.

The campaign is presented in a book format—each new chapter being some significant moment of the war—alternating between long cutscenes and dialogue segments, and battles that sometimes take an hour and a half. The cutscenes lose a lot of their charm due to their fixed resolution, making them look downright terrible on my 1440p monitor, however the gameplay and dialogue segments were nearly flawless. Valkyria Chronicles doesn t have a resolution or framerate cap and has fully customizable controls. The only issue that negatively affected gameplay was the finicky tank controls, which would move unexpectedly whenever I adjusted the camera and made the already hard-to-control tank units even more of an issue. Outside of that, I used mouse and keyboard controls for most of the game, and found them better than the gamepad controls. Durante wrote a fantastic in-depth piece about the quality of the Valkyria Chronicles port, but overall Sega made sure the must-have features were included even if it didn t go the extra mile.

Valkyria Chronicles was an incredibly unique game when it was first released, and six years later I still haven t found an experience quite like it. Apart from the cutscene resolution, its beautiful watercolor style and challenging gameplay haven t aged a day. Yet it s now bundled with all of its DLC for only $20/ 15; a fantastic value for strategy fans and PC gamers who didn t get a chance to play it the first time around. While the port quality might not win any awards, it does the game justice and brings Valkyria Chronicles to a platform where it can shine with other strategy game elite.

When Mass Effect fan Jackie sought BioWare Montreal's help in proposing to her partner, the studio pulled out all the stops. A small team made up of level designer Colin Campbell, writer Ann Lemay, and QA analyst Barrett Rodych put together a completely new level loaded with subtle references to their relationship, then studio manager Marie-Ren e Brisebois cooked up a fake contest as a way to bring them into the studio to play it.

A letter sent to Jackie and her partner, Amy, informed them they'd won "A Day With Our Devs" contest at PAX East, and that part of the prize included playing a new Mass Effect level in order to provide feedback to the developers. Lemay, Rodych and other employees made the whole thing look legit by watching and taking notes as she played. 

"I was really nervous, even having gone through the level 20 times on my own making sure all the doors were working and all the message boxes were working," Rodych said. "But I would do it again in a heartbeat."

The final room contained a single console and Jackie and Amy's names for one another painted on a wall in 50-foot high graffiti. When Amy activated the console, a message popped up stating, "Dear Amy, Jackie would like to ask you something. Love, all of us at BioWare."

Jackie then took out the ring and proposed. "When she got to that room, everyone around was riveted and hoping she d say yes," Brisebois said, and of course, she did. "It was a beautiful sight to see. No matter how grumpy you are, when you see a thing like that you can t help but smile and maybe even tear up a bit."

A happy story with a happy ending—isn't that nice? Well done, BioWare.