Winner of our Best Singleplayer of 2015 award, Andy once described The Witcher 3 as one of the best RPGs he d ever played. I d struggle to argue with that, and its subsequent official expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine have only served to improve upon an already fantastic game. An ever-expanding list of unofficial user-made mods has pushed the boundaries of what this game has to offer further still, the latest of which to catch our eye is Reaperrz s Enhanced Edition overhaul.
While rumours of an official Enhanced Edition were quashed by CD Projekt Red back in January, the developer recently confirmed a Game of the Year iteration is in the works. The Enhanced Edition mod is independent of both, but alters things like the game's default stats and abilities, meditation and alchemy settings, equipment weight and durability, and talent caps and levelling, among a number of other things. The mod also makes significant changes to the game s combat and damage systems and modifiers a new Hardcore Enemies setting, for example, lifts foes 11 levels above the player. Yikes.
The list of changes the mod makes is pretty exhaustive full details of which can be found via its Nexus page. If you're interested, you might also fancy checking out YouTube person Origier does Gaming s extensive overview, which details everything from installation instructions to how said changes affect your game.
Following the rollout of Team Fortress 2's major Meet Your Maker update earlier this month, Valve has issued a patch to address some of the biggest problems with the new matchmaking functionality. The company acknowledged last week a lot of the most pressing concerns, and many of them are now fixed thanks to the new patch.
First of all, match leaving in casual mode will no longer incur a penalty, but to balance that out, Valve will increase the penalty in competitive mode in a forthcoming update. "The current system increases matchmaking ban times based on the number of abandons over a period of time," the notes read. "We are making a change to more quickly move serial abandoners into really long ban times. We will also subtract the maximum number of rank points possible, per abandon. The amount lost will be far higher than what could normally be lost in a completed match."
As for changes that will come into effect with the new patch, queue times should now take less than 90 seconds across the board, and empty player slots in in-progress games will now be filled up more frequently. Vote-kicking functionality has been added, and players can now select their preferred maps (though if they're added to an in-progress game, that won't apply until the next match).
Valve also outlined further plans for future updates, including ways to address griefing and high ping. The full update notes are over here. In the meantime, read Josh Wilkinson's impressions of the new matchmaking update here.
A new hunter is available for Evolve: Stage 2, the free-to-play rebirth of the asymmetrical man versus nature multiplayer game from Turtle Rock Studios. Electro Griffin is a neon-dipped Robocop ready version of Griffin, outfitted with a dopey new look, some altered abilities and weapons. Chief among them are The Laser Storm, an electric SMG that can be fired while running at full speed that slows the monster, and The Final Lockdown, a short range harpoon that does damage over time.I played a few rounds with him last night, and while Electro Griffin doesn t fundamentally shake up the trapper playstyle, his wild electric SMG and neon stylings are enough to make him stand out from the pack. And it's nice to see Turtle Rock get playful and bright with Evolve's otherwise grim aesthetic.Hopefully, Electro Griffin s quick release represents the pace at which we ll get drip fed content updates for Evolve. I may not play it everyday, but if Turtle Rock throws in a new map, hunter, or monster at a steady pace, I ll hop back in every time to give it a peek Evolve needs regularity in order to maintain a healthy player base this time around.
If you've ever wanted to explore the environments of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from the first-person perspective, this mod might be just the thing. Created by Nexus Mods user Skacikpl, it gives players the ability to slide into the more immersive viewpoint while wandering the world, and going by the latest gameplay trailer, it looks like it works really well.
Work on the mod actually began in March, when the creator said the possibility of a public release was dependent largely on whether he could fix some persistent technical issues, which at this point seems unlikely." But he stuck with it, and earlier this month decided it was time to let other people give it a try.
As you can see from the video, it's still not perfect, but it's getting there. FOV is adjustable, but Skacikpl cautioned that it's designed to work with mouse and keyboard only, and does not properly support controllers. It's also meant strictly as a tool for exploring, and the game will automatically pull back to the third-person view for combat.
Current controls and implementation do not make fighting as enjoyable or reliable as one would wish, Skacikpl wrote. Maybe if i had more insight into how some of the subsystems in the game worked (and a lot of more free time) I'd be able to override some of it for a more suitable solution, but for now i believe that having a decent exploration FPP experience is enough.
The Witcher 3 first-person mod is available for direct download here.
This might not be the busiest weekend in the esports calendar, but there's still enough to keep you occupied until Monday rolls around including CS:GO finals in China, the ongoing spectacle of the North American League of Legends scene, and StarLadder's Dota debut in Los Angeles. If you're into Hearthstone or enjoyed the HomeStory StarCraft series, you'll definitely want to be tuning in to SeatStory Cup V.
League of Legends: NA Championship Series
LoL's regular season play steps it up to cover for what is otherwise a quiet weekend. You can catch top-tier play in North America starting at 21:00 CEST/12:00 PDT on both Saturday and Sunday, with four best-of-threes being played on each day. You can find more information on the matchups, schedule and livestream on lolesports.com.
Dota 2: StarLadder i-League StarSeries
The first StarSeries LAN in the USA takes place in Los Angeles this weekend with $300,000 on the line. This is a good chance to see a slate of top Dota 2 teams play ahead of the International in a couple of weeks. Play is ongoing today, and continues on Saturday starting at 09:30 PDT/18:30 CEST. The action starts on Sunday at 14:00 PDT/23:00 CEST with the grand final beginning at 17:00 PDT (or 02:00 CEST the following day in Europe). Find the livestream here.
Hearthstone: SeatStory Cup V
There are a number of top players taking part in SeatStory Cup V this weekend. It's the Hearthstone version of the legendary HomeStory series: a serious competition in relaxed surroundings, giving you a chance to see pro players in a different light. Play begins every day at 14:00 CEST/05:00PDT and you can find the livestream here.
CSGO: Pro Gamer League 2016 Summer
This weekend is a little short on CS:GO, but you can still catch the finals of PGL 2016 in Wuhan on Sunday. The roster is primarily composed of Chinese teams with a handful of almost-top-tier western squads. The finals begin at 05:20 CEST on Sunday, which is 20:20 on Saturday night in the USA. Sadly there's no English stream for this event, but you can find the Chinese one on each match's HLTV.org page. Here's the final.
After weeks of weird poster teasing, Riot Games has officially revealed League of Legends newest champion the rider and mount duo Kled.
The announcement was made during the EU LCS stream following the week eight, day one game between Fnatic and Splyce where a teaser trailer showed the one-eyed, beard-sporting, pirate hat-donning Kled (who looks a wee bit like a cross between existing champions Ziggs and Gnar), as he d reunited with his mount on the battlefield.
It s appears to be quite a heartfelt moment for the pair. See:
Beyond that, details are thin on the ground for now, however it s likely more will be revealed in the coming days.
Telltale s The Walking Dead Season 3 will debut this year, marking the return of series protagonist Clementine and the first appearance of newcomer Javier. At E3, we got a brief glance at the duo in action however Telltale has now teased more story info on how the partnership will unfold, alongside some new screenshots.
Playing as both characters, Season 3 sees a slightly older, more mature Clem in her teenage years and, much like Lee Everett was to her in Season 1, she s now young survivor AJ s impromptu guardian.
While [Season 3] absolutely continues the story of the previous two seasons, it also serves as a new entry point for fans who've yet to be caught up to speed, says Telltale. Players who are new to the series will have a chance to learn more about Clementine's backstory, while at the same time, those who have played previous seasons will have a story that's uniquely tailored to the diverging paths they've taken in the past.
With regards to Javier, Telltale notes that while players will eventually play as both characters, they may not be playing each character within the same frame of time.
Refamiliarise yourself with The Walking Dead Season 3 s E3 trailer above and check out the new screens below.
It s a format break! This week, Samuel, Andy, Phil and Chris run through some of their personal picks for the PC Gamer Top 100 our annual list that definitely makes everybody happy and not mad at us. What did they vote for? Why did they vote for it? And which game lets you hold two fistfuls of iron wank?
The PC Gamer UK Podcast is a weekly podcast about PC gaming. Thoughts? Feedback? Requests? Get in touch at pcgamer@futurenet.com and use the subject line Podcast , or tweet us with #pcgpodcast.
The Terraria 1.3.1 update that came out in May was released to mark the game's fifth birthday. But the 1.3.2 update that's just gone live is the one that really brings the party.
Literally, I mean: You may now use the Party Girl's Party Center to fire up the festivities, and the town NPCs may start their own under the right conditions. The update also adds party essentials to the game, like balloons (and balloon animals), party hats, streamers, presents, the Pigronata, and more.
Behind the scenes, beehive-type bees have been nerfed in expert mode, unnecessary player synchronization calls have been significantly reduced which should improve performance on servers with high player counts, rain clouds are craftable, town NPCs will try to avoid falling into cliffs when they're away from their home area (the emphasis on try in the patch notes suggests their effort will not be met with great success), and the Sort feature will now work on chests. There are quite a number of bug fixes on tap as well.
Developer Re-Logic said in the 1.3.2 changelog that it's already working on the equally-excitingly-named 1.3.3 update. Details and a release date haven't been nailed down just yet, but the studio said it will focus on the Underground Desert.
It s impossible to perfectly balance any game, but the money system in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has succeeded in making an astonishing number of weapons viable more so than in any previous version of the game. Most of the guns in CS:GO are useful in the right circumstances, but even so there are a few that aren t worth your precious dollars. In this article I ll go over the weapons I think are either bad or over-priced. Remember that these are my opinions: everybody s preferences are different.
The R8 Revolver
Those of us who played CS:GO when they first released this gun remember a game that was almost unplayable. It was so powerful that there was no point buying other weapons. Valve quickly realized their mistake and fixed the issue in a patch a few days later. The R8 s primary fire has a slight delay before it shoots, making it a lot slower than the Desert Eagle. Its secondary fire fans the hammer much like McCree from Overwatch except it s rarely useful in CS:GO. Here s what it looks like in-game:
As you can see it s highly inaccurate. I suppose if you give it some time, eat your vegetables and practice like there s no tomorrow, you can probably hit a parked bus from two feet away. With a bit of luck. But then you consider that the R8 costs $850, which is $150 more than the Desert Eagle. Even if they both cost the same, I can t find a good reason why anyone would prefer the R8.
Dual Berettas
These guys may look cool, but twice as many pistols doesn t mean twice as good. They have high rate of fire and lots of ammunition, but they aren t accurate at all. If you want to invest $500 in a pistol, that money is better spent on a Tec-9, CZ75-Auto or a Five-Seven. Some of you might argue that Christopher GeT_RiGhT Alesund from NiP has used the Dual Berettas a lot in the past, but I would suggest that he would ve been better off with a different pistol.
PP-Bizon
The PP-Bizon s magazine holds 64 bullets, which is a lot more than any other SMG in the game. But it stops there. The PP-Bizon has inferior damage, accuracy and armor penetration, which are the three most important qualities you look for in a weapon. It s simply not worth investing in. All the other SMGs can do what the PP-Bizon can do but better, except shoot 64 rounds without reloading but by that time the player using the PP-Bizon is usually dead.
The AUG
The AUG is an assault rifle used by the CTs. It has incredibly good armor penetration and its damage isn t bad. It s also pretty accurate if you know how to use it. Why wouldn t I recommend that anyone use it, then? Because it costs $3300. That s $200 more than an M4A4 or M4A1-s. You get a scope that gives you a smaller field of view when you can shoot just as accurately if not more with any of the M4s without the scope. The AUG isn t a bad weapon per se, but it doesn t make sense to buy one instead of an M4.
SG 553
The SG 553 or Krieg 553 is the terrorist counterpart of the AUG. It s basically the same weapon (give or take a few points here and there) but it costs a massive $3500 when you can get an AK-47 for $2700. In my opinion the AK-47 is the best assault rifle in the game. Compared to the AK-47, the SG 553 is an awful weapon that no one should buy. Ever.
Here s what the spread looks like when you burst:
Essentially, the SG 553 is a very expensive AK-47 that s a lot harder to control.
The M249 and the Negev
These are the classic troll weapons in Counter-Strike. Getting killed by any of these weapons means you just got owned. It s almost as bad as getting knifed, and no one wants to get knifed in CS:GO.
Both the M249 and the Negev have a lot of spread and high recoil. They do put out a lot of damage per second: if you spray. The problem with spraying with these weapons is that they re almost impossible to control. Admittedly the first bullet is pretty accurate, but that alone doesn t warrant a price tag over $5000.
What really makes them bad weapons is the fact that they slow down your movement more than any other weapons in the game more than the AWP, even. We all know that being mobile is the key to staying alive in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and you re not while you re using heavy machine guns.
Did I mention these weapons are used when you want to humiliate your opponents? Pro play is no different. Just have a look at this round by Nathan NBK Schmitt:
This time NBK accidentally bought the Negev but decided to keep it. All I can do is guess, but I think the guys from former Copenhagen Wolves wish that round never happened. As you can see it s still possible to make big plays with weapons you re not supposed to use. CS:GO is a skill-based game and if you re good enough you can make anything work. I do however strongly recommend that you stick to weapons that make more financial sense to buy. You ll simply win more games that way.
Find all of our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive guides here:
