PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds ‘ esports aspirations shouldn’t come as a big surprise. “Ever since I started, way back with the DayZ mod for Arma 2, making the DayZ Battle Royale mode, I always envisioned battle royale as a great esport,” Greene says. Those competitive battles are in the genre’s DNA, but when it came to Battlegrounds, Greene set out to make a good game, first and foremost. Throughout the year, tournaments have pit Battlegrounds players against each other for glory and prizes, and

Amid Evil is ostensibly a first-person shooter but it feels more like a racing game. I never played Heretic 2, but Amid Evil feels like how Heretic would play in Quake’s engine, developed by someone with… maybe an unhealthy guarana habit. Playing Amid Evil, with its speed, its bullet hell pace and sharp-edged hell-inspired worlds, feels like a fever dream. While it all sounds quite orthodox, Amid Evil does a few tiny things to elevate it above the iconic games it apes. Published by New Blood Int

Early ideas for Overwatch heroes included a hockey player with jets on his skates, a cat with a jetpack and a bear that dual-wielded AK-47s, the game’s development team revealed at Blizzcon yesterday. My favourite was a Russian woman who rode around on a bear carrying two rifles, and during her ‘ultimate’ the bear reared up and grabbed two guns of his own. Below that are designs for the Jetpack Cat, which Blizzard has mentioned previously—I especially like the grumpy pose on the far right. The a

The League of Legends World Championship is the culmination of the year’s competitive LoL. The Worlds pantheonIt would seem an impossible task for anyone but SK Telecom T1, the dynasty that rules League of Legends. This year, they hoped to score another win, picking up the threepeat and earning their fourth World Championship. It would seem an impossible task for anyone but SK Telecom T1, the dynasty that rules League of Legends. Samsung has earned a World Championship in the past, with Samsung

What if you took Piranha Bytes’ much-loved RPG Gothic 2 and made it four or five times bigger? That’s the question that a fan-made mod called Gothic 2 Returning claims to answer, adding more than 300 new quests, 100 named NPCs and enough swords to bring down an army of cave trolls. The mod comes from a small group of Russian fans, who recently released version 2.0 alongside a video showcasing the project in action. The team claims the new content adds up to more than 250 hours of gameplay. The m

Time spent with family can be special—especially if it’s spent huddled around a computer monitor as you play games together. That’s why, two weeks ago, I asked our readers to share their best memories of playing PC games with their family . The thread quickly filled with stories that warmed my heart, and it’s inspired me to find a way to get my own family playing games this holiday season. Dad’s biggest weaknessWhile this first story technically isn’t about PC gaming, it’s just too good not to s

Kaplan and his team were given six weeks to come up with a game concept after the MMO Titan, which they were working on, was scrapped. They started exploring a new IP—an MMO that Kaplan referred to during the panel as Crossworlds. “The game that we were talking about making was an MMO and it was going to be class-based. The image below is what he came up with, and the similarities between these characters and what would come to be the Overwatch lineup are striking. Crossworlds wasn’t the only id

When one connection isn’t enough however, link aggregation or bonding two network connections together can boost throughput. Games don’t use much bandwidth so a 1 gigabit connection is enough, but link aggregation can help with file transfers. In this time of transition from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps wired Ethernet, a more available, and affordable strategy to consider is Link Aggregation, which also goes by the names of link bundling, and port aggregation. It was then revised in 2008 to 802.1AX, the “L

I can still remember with perfect clarity the first day I ever played World of Warcraft. The good news is I made up for that evening cut cruelly short by years of weekend WoW binge-sessions. Vanilla World of Warcraft was a game that I sunk hundreds of hours into, and it’s probably one of the few games I can honestly say has defined me as person. With the announcement of World of Warcraft: Classic at Blizzcon this weekend, I, like many of you, have been taking time to reminisce over those late ev

Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition is coming out on November 15, developer Obsidian Entertainment has announced, and it looks to be a decent deal. Also, the Definitive Edition gets you all the extra goodies that were included in the Royal Edition of the game, which includes the original soundtrack, a digital collector’s book and a novella set in the Pillars universe. The edition will also feature some new DLC, called the Deadfire Pack, which is a reference to the upcoming Pillars sequel. If

There were strong reactions all round when Bossa Studios announced that it would cancel its skateboard turf-war game Decksplash if it didn’t reach 100,000 players during a free week. That free week is now upon us, lasting until next Friday, and so far around 7,000 players have jumped on board since the launch on Thursday, according to Steam Spy. Roughly 14,000 people have downloaded the game for the free week and half have actually played the game, the stats site suggests, which shows that it’s

The teams have been chosen, the players signed, and now the Overwatch League is ready to go. Each of the 12 teams will play 40 games between January and June before half of them make it into the month-long post season. During these stages there will be three matches a day, four days a week (Wednesday through Saturday). The overall league standings are based on a team’s record across all stages. The top team in each division goes into the post season and gets a bye week, and they’re joined by the

One of our favorite surprises at Blizzcon this year is a massive diorama depicting an epic battle between the Alliance and the Horde. The “Battle for Lordaeron” is a recreation of the jaw-dropping conflict from the World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth intro cinematic. In the cinematic we see the Alliance gathered to lay siege on the Undercity, formerly the Human capital of Lordaeron. But the truly impressive feat here is the fact that every single Horde and Alliance character shown is actually

We’re all eager to hear what the company’s Classic Games team, which works on updating old titles, is doing next. In response, he said the team often talks about how to “reintroduce [older games] to the current market”, specifically mentioning Blackthorne, puzzle-platformer The Lost Vikings, and 1993’s Rock n’ Roll Racing. I don’t know if we have any answers for that, but we talk about it quite a bit.” Rumours are always swirling about remasters of Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3, but it sounds like the

Dogs can’t swimCompared to cats, dogs are a bit of a rarity in Egypt. Unlike real dogs, the dogs in Origins will immediately die upon entering the water. But why can’t dogs swim? Which would win, the ox trying to do its job or the ox that’s in a post-drug love affair with me? You can knock out one (or both, see above image), but you can’t tame them.

This weekend streamers are raising money for Extra Life in support of Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. I’ll be watching our friends at .Awesome—here’s Julez’ Twitch channel which we’ll be hosting on our own—and playing some Call of Duty: WWII (which I’ll probably ragequit within an hour). Meanwhile, our Destiny 2 crew in the PC Gamer Club is raiding this weekend, and when I’m tired of being dunked on by quickscopers I’m hoping I can finally finish Divinity: Original Sin 2 and jump into some

You can now stomp on Xbox One players in RTS Halo Wars 2 thanks to crossplay support, which was added this week. The exception is a new game mode called Ranked 3v3 X War, which has been introduced specifically for this update. You can also play cooperatively in Blitz Firefight (a hoard mode), Terminus Firefight (build a base and survive against waves of enemies), and the campaign. How you level the playing field between players on different systems I have no idea, but I’m intrigued to find out.

Bungie also has its own Destiny Companion app ( iTunes / Android ), but managing gear feels slightly clunkier. Trials Report is a vital site for hardcore PvP players looking to get into the The Trials of the Nine mode. Destiny Tracker Report does much the same in terms of stalking other players, but its site also offers a comprehensive gear database, as does the Destiny DB site . Aside from improving your PvP game, watching her stream will also give you a better sense of the guardian fashion met

Ironsight, a futuristic multiplayer FPS from South Korean developer Wiple Games, is coming to Western PCs later this month with a closed beta that launches November 14. It has a variety of game modes and 14 maps so far, which have destructible bits and dynamic weather that affects the way the levels play out. It has an impressively beefy arsenal of 100 guns, which you’ll unlock and customise as you rack up kills along with weapon and character skins. It does look fun if, like me, you’re into fas

If you haven’t formed your own band of brothers yet then you’ll get your chance next weekend—the game is free from Thursday (November 9) at 10am PST. It will also be half price for the whole of the weekend, which will put it at £15/$20. For that you’re getting slow-paced firefights with large squads in modern, Afghanistan and Iraq-inspired maps. If you’re unsure whether it’s for you or not, then read about Ian’s time with it last year. He was impressed, and the game has come on a long way since