PC gaming is in something of an odd period at the moment. The stagnation of consoles' graphical abilities and their investment in motion controlled tech (Kinect, Move) means that the PC has almost become a third wheel in the games market. Almost.
On the other hand, great things often grow from muddy waters. Take a look at the The Ball which uses the standard Unreal Engine 3 but does something genuinely interesting with it. Bethesda's Brink is based on the six-year-old Doom 3 engine, but still manages to look fresh and vibrant, because of extensive customisation and its distinctive art style.
New PC technology isn't going untapped, too, and there are plenty of games that take advantage of the latest hardware. DirectX 11 may not seem like the grand shift that was DirectX 9, but its incremental tessellated goodness makes games look a gazillion times better than they ever would on a console. And that's scientific fact.
There's also a big push to take advantage of those multiple cores in your PC, too, so you can finally justify spending �654 on a Core i7 Extreme Edition. We've focussed on new games and sequels in our list of titles to look out for in 2011, but there's also a whole host of expansion packs and DLCs coming our way.
Fallout: New Vegas' first DLC, Dead Money, is coming to the Xbox 360 first, but we're certain it'll find its way onto the PC soon. There's also the excellent-looking and supposedly final Dawn of War II expansion, Retribution.
2011 is set to feature some top PC games, and it looks like there's a big drive to make sure we don't miss out on any of the action thumb-twiddlers like to indulge in. Our games look better, too. Why do people buy consoles again?
Read on for our pick of the best PC games to play this year.
The Old Republic
Release date: Who knows?
Admittedly, we've had our doubts about The Old Republic. The seemingly interminable development cycle combined with unconfirmed reports that the budget's spiralling out of control had an air of the APB about it. As it stands at the moment, it's probably not going to be the disaster that Realtime World's folly was, and it could actually compete with ? dare we say it ? WoW.
Of course, BioWare isn't Realtime Worlds, and all its (space worm) eggs aren't in this (space) basket: it has Mass Effect and Dragon Age to fall back on.
The new PvE quest we played introduced the new Jedi classes, and we were given the choice between the pugnacious Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan, or the dignified Alec Guinness Obi-Wan. From here, we had to slaughter herds of Flesh Eaters, which are flabby terrestrial hammerheaded lunk types. It seems they're under the control of a rogue, unlicensed Jedi (apply to your local council).
It starts out MMO-ey enough, and the cartoony Clone Wars-style graphics are simplistic enough to make you believe this is less than an ageing engine. But it has a charm of its own, and we soon warmed to it, which is pretty critical.
We ? understandably ? couldn't get into the long game, but initial impressions are favourable. The only concern we have is combat, which feels just a tad disconnected with its number button mashing. Otherwise, though, the force is strong in this one.
Dragon Age 2
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, those lovable chaps from Bioware, seem to spend most of their lives somewhere above the Atlantic. They've just made yet another trip across the pond to promote Dragon Age II, the sequel to last year's RPG blockbuster, but they don't seem to be suffering from any form of jetlag. They must have invested in some pretty decent power-ups.
One of Dragon Age's biggest boons for PC gamers was that, despite console co-development, it looked and felt like a proper, fullblown PC game.
Dragon Age II looks set to continue Bioware's dedication to the platform: "We had to make some changes in the way the camera works and the interface," says Muzyka. "But in every one of our games we always strive to make a sort of handcrafted approach to the interface design, so each one is designed from the ground up to work ideally on that platform. That's what we're striving for. So, we're co-developing on the different platforms, trying to optimise it for the mouse and keyboard so people can enjoy it more on PC."
Dragon Age II starts in parallel with Origins, beginning about a third before the end of the original. It sees you take the role of Hawke, a human character who finds himself caught up in the DarkSpawn's continuing crusade. From what we played so far, it's shaping up to be every bit as involving and mature as its progenitor, and might even better it.
Bullet Storm
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Last year's Just Cause 2 with it's huge Southeast Asia open world proved that games can still have a lot of fun and not get bogged down in violent pontification.
Bulletstorm looks set to continue the trend; like Just Cause 2, it provides combat fun in the form of a short length of rope which can tether people and fling them through the air. Who would have thought that the simple addition of a length of technological whip-like material could make games so much fun.
Unlike Just Cause 2, Bulletstorm is a far more linear experience, powered by ye olde Unreal Engine 3, and overseen by Epic's Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski. As a result, it's a step ? okay, more of a slight ledge ? above your standard Unreal fare. But it's a stupid amount of amusement, too.
Enemies just seem to be waiting to be skewered, or decapitated, or gibbed, in a variety of amusing ways. You can pull them out of helicopters and kick them onto rather vicious cacti. You can wrap a pair of grenades around their necks and explode their noggins.
There's no jumping, and no crouching in this game, although the player character can perform momentum-defying power-slides. Thankfully, there's also no stupid sticky cover system too.
The Xbox 360 build we played was graphically competent and easy to get to grips with, but it's a game that we believe is likely to prove just as at home on the PC as on the consoles. It's also being developed by Painkiller's People Can Fly, so it already has a high pedigree of mentalism and FPS nouse.
Crysis 2
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
As it stands, Crysis 2 is in something of a weird position. Its prequel shook up PC gaming, and probably made enough money to line developer Crytek's pockets for the next few millennia. But Crytek needed more Euros to make more astonishing games engines, and decided to release Crysis 2 on the PC and consoles.
Despite our initial jaw-dropping reaction to Crysis 2 on consoles, the multiplayer Xbox 360 build didn't actually look all that good. In fact Crysis ? which has just celebrated its third birthday ? looks better.
It's not necessarily Crytek's fault: the limited hardware of the 360 resulted in a apparent lack of anti-aliasing, and the intensely detailed levels simply became busy, jagged messes. The multiplayer gameplay was also generic as hell, a team-based affair differentiated only by the fact that you could jump quite high, and go invisible from time to time.
No one bought Crysis to actually play the game, though. PC gamers bought it to push their rigs as far and hard as they could, to justify the �400 they just spent on a new graphics card. We've yet to see the PC build, but a number of co-developed console games (Just Cause 2, AvP, Lost Planet 2) have actually proved to be rather punishing to our desktops. Here's hoping Crysis 2 pushes it just that little further.
Shift 2
Release date: Quarter 2011 sometime
"According to professional drivers, night driving is scary as F**K," says Marcus Nillson, senior producer at DICE.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 is also scary as f**k, going for much-needed realism in a series that so far is defined by slightly cartoony and chavtastic motoring. The (ignition) key to playing Shift 2 is to get out of the floaty third-person perspective and seat yourself firmly in the cockpit.
Here, it's a different game, every bit as stomach churning as being behind the wheel in a real race. Your vision is permanently letterboxed by the claustrophobic confines of your helmet, and the dashboard shines when the headlights of a pursuer hit it.
It's a game where you can't afford to make mistakes. Accidentally ram a barrier on the first corner and your bonnet juts up, obscuring your vision of your opponents and the track. It's frantic, terrifying stuff, and a nice move for the franchise.
The presence of Nillson, who has established himself on DICE's Battlefield series make sense, too, and hopefully his understanding of tense online battles will shine through in Shift 2's multiplayer. Our only slight concern is a lack of support for the Track IR head movement gizmo, which is surely designed for games like this.
Dead Space 2
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
One thing sorely missed in Dead Space's vacuous setting was multiplayer. This time around a team-based multiplayer element has been added and in true Left 4 Dead style, you get to play as humans or hideous necromorphs. The humans have weapons, the monsters have unique attacks.
Play as The Pack, for example, and you're a hideous baby thing able to pounce on humans and chomp away. The necromorphs also have a unique X-ray sight system, whereby they can see the human's nerves and eyeballs as they panic. The biggest problem is Dead Space's slightly clunky, slow controls remain; particularly when playing as a human.
The controls were fine in the claustrophobic confines of the USG Ishimura, where a slow-turning speed meant you couldn't quickly respond to an enemy attack. But in multiplayer, it feels awkward and clumsy. Admittedly, we played the PS3 build; hopefully mouse and keyboard will make the multiplayer a must-play.
Sims Medievel
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
We had a look at The Sims Medieval earlier this year, and the latest build is looking fairly impressive. We were basically shown a king being tortured by various means, such as a wizard casting painful-looking spells on him, and a complete, confusing refit of his throne room to make it look like somewhere Def Leppard would live.
We were also introduced to combat, and for the first time ever you'll be able to fight a fellow sim to the death. Great stuff!
Dark Spore
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
PC Format had a quick bash on Darkspore's make-your-own-monster bash 'em up, and we were pitted against former PC Zone staff. Needless to say, PC Format bashed Zone, but it was perhaps a mite unfair as our characters were rather unbalanced, the game's critical flaw became apparent: you can invest in creatures more powerful than others, and win pretty much any match.
We like the central premise, though with more balance required before launch.
Portal 2
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Valve has kept fairly shtum about the sequel to 2007's first-person-puzzler, but we do know that it's got the voice talents of Stephen Merchant, two-player co-op and an overgrown version of the Aperture laboratories. Just as Portal got its main gameplay from indie project Narbacular Drop, Portal 2 sprays the innovative Tag: The Power of Paint all over the shop - it's worth a download.
Half-Life 2 2 Ep. 3
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
We know nothing about Episode 3, so this is mere speculation. What we reckon will happen is that Gordon Freeman turns out to be the G-Man in another dimension, Alyx Vance turns out to be a man, and it was all just a dream.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Our omnipotent controller, Dexter, saw Deus Ex: Human Revolution in action at an AMD event in LA earlier this month, and it's looking very, very good.
Developer Eidos Montreal has been really concentrating on making the PC version utterly jaw-dropping, with lovely DirectX 11 effects all over the shop and hand-in-hand support for AMD's latest graphics cards. It plays just like the original, too, so it's got to be a contender for game of the year. If not the decade.
Dungeon Siege 3
Release date: Quarter ? 2011
Chris Taylor requires no introduction, but I'm going to introduce him anyway. He made a name for himself on Total Annihilation and, recently, Supreme Commander, but he's still best known for Dungeon Siege. He's back on the franchise with Dungeon Siege 3, albeit as an advisor. Also working on the game is Obsidian, it of Fallout New Vegas and buggy games fame.
Details are fairly scant at the moment, aside from the story being set in the Kingdom of Ehb and the promise of multiplayer features. Expect a lot more information in our preview next month.
Bioshock Infinite
Release date: 2012
We do have slight concerns about Infinite's setting. Bioshock's underwater world was just about believable: IT WAS HEATED BY THERMAL VENTS. But given the low oxygen levels and extreme chilliness of the Columbia, Elizabeth's low cut top would probably result in slightly more than a case of smuggling peanuts. I'm sure developer 2K has some kind of explanation; THEY'RE ALL MUTANTS.
That said, the setting does look intriguing, and daylight horror is something that very few games have done properly, if ever. The sense of scale and vertigo are well done. It's using the Unreal Engine 3 again, too, so expect nice shiny surfaces and slightly wonky textures.
X COM
Release date: 2011
Rebooting a franchise is never easy, but 2K is taking an unusual step by changing the much loved sci-fiturn-based-strategy into an FPS. It's all looking a bit like the virtual 1950s environment from Fallout 3, albeit with lots of big spaceships.
Spec Ops: The Line
Release date: Quarter R 2 2011
In an age dominated by military FPS games, Spec Ops' third-person tactical perspective could set it apart. Continuing the fine Spec Ops series, it sees you attempting to save a colonel in Dubai, and it promises random, STALKER-style sand storms.
Total War: Shogun 2
Release date: March 2011
Sega's spot-on real-time-strategy series goes back to its feudal roots with Total War: Shogun 2. We're promised a complete overhaul of the engine, which can now support up to 56,000 soldiers in a single battle, as well as some truly stunning environmental and water effects.
Creative Assembly has gone to great lengths to ensure historical accuracy, too. Sieges were fairly unique in 16th century Japan: entire mountain tops were dynamited, and elaborate castles were then built on top. These castles became huge death traps, where the enemy would find an apparently easy way in only to be slaughtered.
Shogun 2 aims to emulate this, and it's another layer of gameplay on an already awesome gaming cake. There's also the addition of sea battles.
DIRT 3
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
F1 had a slightly off reception thanks to the sheer number of bugs in it, but at its core it remained one of the best racers the PC's ever seen. It filled the gap where GRID 2 should have been, and Codies is going back to its beloved rally franchise.
DiRT 2 remains a PCF benchmark stalwart thanks to its impressive DirectX 11-fueled engine, but at the same time it's going to be difficult for DiRT 3 to raise the bar. How can those lovely rippling puddles and windswept flags be bettered? The addition of a gymkhana-style event (cars vs horses) can only be a good thing. And hopefully the lack of the F1's official meddling hands will ensure a bug-free launch.
The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Since we last saw The Witcher 2 at GamesCom something's changed about it. A brief walk-through showed someone's mother tied up and being tortured, with her breasts exposed. The amount of internet controversy it stirred was bizarre and ridiculous: This is a medium where it's okay to improbably implode someone's head with a mortar, but as soon as there's some bared female flesh, it's "OH NO SOMEONE MIGHT SEE THAT". Grow up, internet.
Boobs aside, The Witcher 2 is beginning to look like one of the year's biggest PC games, thanks in no small part to its miraculous, home-brewed engine. Its draw distances are stunning, the lighting effects impressive, and the huge battles awe-inspiring. If Crysis 2 doesn't quite live up to our expectations, The Witcher 2 certainly will. You can now pre-order it from www.gog.com for a reduced price.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
The split of Operation Flashpoint hasn't been good for the franchise. Although ARMA has legions of fans happy to mod its engine, it's also distinctly lacked quality control. Codemasters' own continuation of the licence has gone too far the other way and became one of most boring war games we ever played.
We're sitting on the fence about its sequel Red River. Codies promise intense four-way co-op action, but with no SDK or level editor it's unlikely to entice ARMA fans.
DC Universe
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
You would have thought that between City of Heroes and Champions Online the superhero MMO was sewn up. But, inevitably, the big comic studios want to get in on the action, so we'll be fighting alongside Superman and Wonder Woman in DC Comics' tie-in.
Developer Sony Online Entertainment wants to make Gotham City and Metropolis far more tantalising, and has looked to the destructible scenery of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction to make the cities open worlds of chaos. If SOE can pull this off properly ? serverside physics are notoriously tricky ? it could be a serious challenger to The Old Republic's franchise-based MMO.
Fear 3
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Business as usual for the increasingly complex horror shooter (is Alma your mum or your gran or your daughter?) but horror film maestro John Carpenter's input will put this (decapitated) head and (dislocated) shoulders above the previous two slightly wonky entries.
We're promised mech-style power armour aplenty, and hopefully it'll move away from those 1970s office blocks. It looks bloody scary, too.
Arkham City
Release date: Quarter 4 2011
Arkham Asylum was a big surprise; a Batman game that managed to differentiate itself from the films just enough for it to be its own entity.
Arkham City is the new home for all Gotham's least wanted, ruled over by demented scientist Hugo Strange. Two-Face will enter the fray, and Catwoman will make an appearance, too, as well as the Joker and Harlie Quinn. Asylum's levels were a little closed-in, so an open-world city should prevent any feelings of claustrophobia.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
The second sequel to the anachronistic historical future drama thing has already been released on the consoles to a round of applause. The franchise just seems to be getting better and better. The PC version has been set back by a few months; we're guessing it's ready now, but that Ubi wants to milk those overpriced console sales as much as it can.
This one takes the action to Rome, and sees Desmond Miles re-enter the body (not like that) of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who has the usual leaping and stabbing abilities. The plot concerns the rebuilding of the ancient Italian capital, but it's the addition of cloak and dagger multiplayer that looks like Brotherhood's biggest plus point. There are also horses, and the ability to use ranged weapons while mounted.
It looks set to perfect AC's bleached, combat-driven world.
Diablo 3
Release date: TBA
Regardless of which side of the art style argument you fall, what we've seen of Diablo 3 is a beautifully slick RPG experience, with fluid combat, properly differentiated character classes, and a major emphasis on rapid-clicking action.
The levels we've played to date have shown gratifying levels of detail in every area; from the way enemies fall apart at the seams in a fountain of gore and blood, to simple inventory management, it's a pleasure to play.
With three-player co-op and PvP via Battle.net, the action ramps up massively, and these modes round the game out to offer an experience that's akin to running WoW dungeons with your friends, only from a top-down perspective. This is definitely one to watch.
Driver: San Francisco
Release date: 2011
Despite us giving the last Driver game ? Driv-three-r ? just 18 per cent, the GTA-lite series seems to be continuing unabated.
This one looks slightly more interesting, though, thanks to the ability to 'shift' between cars, which basically means you can swap consciousnesses with fellow drivers. If you're in a sticky situation, or have a rubbish car, you can float out of your own brain and dive into someone else's.
It could provide an intriguing game mechanic, or it could just be a way to avoid Driver's obtuse on-foot fighting mechanic. Either way, it'll prove to be super-fun.
Homefront
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
We were hugely impressed with what we saw of Homefront at GamesCom this year: It looked like a John Milius scripted-meld of Half-Life 2's oppressed citizens and Modern Warfare's intense gun battles.
Although it's based on the Unreal 3 Engine, there'll be a whole host of DirectX 11 effects too, and Digital Extremes are working hard to get it as lovely as possible. Best of all is the multiplayer, which offers both server configuration tools and the ability to host your own games.
Space Marine
Release date: Quarter 3 2011
The world of Warhammer 40,000 has never exactly been one of subtlety, and its board game roots mean that exaggerated and unnecessarily muscular men are the norm.
A third person action shooter set in its already elaborate world makes perfect sense, then. Expect a Gears of War-style adventure in a totally bespoke engine, complete with some rather gorgeous levels and some nicely squishy melee attacks.
Yes, it does look quite generic, but the Warhammer franchise has every right to take back generic considering it's what others have copied and made generic.
Red Faction: Armageddon
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
The 2009 sequel to Red Faction ? Red Faction: Guerilla was a pleasant surprise, and the game that finally perfected developer Volition's vision of a world where every building could be toppled and every wall blown through.
Despite its Martian setting, we were disappointed by the lack of aliens ? it's a scientific fact that Mars is full of the blighters. Armageddon goes one better by providing a whole bunch of Dead Space-style nasties, and what's more you can improbably execute them with huge, magnetic chunks of scenery.
RAGE
Release date: Quarter 2 2011
id Software's been mightily quiet of late: its last proper release was the then-system-pushing Doom 3 in 2004. It looks set to carry on pushing the boat out with RAGE, a postapocalyptic adventure with just a touch of the Fallout about it.
RAGE's big selling point ? other than its use of caps ? is its id Tech 5 engine, which is the first to support id's Virtual Texturing, which allows huge textures to be streamed onto static elements in the game, such as the sand and, er, the sand. It results in huge game files, but it also makes it far easier for developers to make multi-platform games, in much the same way as Crysis 2's CryEngine 3 does.
id isn't the only one taking advantage of the new tech: Machinegames ? comprised of ex-staff of Chronicles of Riddick developers Starbreeze ? has announced that it will be making something in the id Tech 5 engine, too. What exactly that'll be we don't know, but it's good that id is opening the engine up to other developers and it could make it a serious contender to the Unreal Engine 3.
Hunted
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
The role playing game has seen some major shifts in the last decade. Deus Ex relocated the genre to a near-future sci-fi setting, and games like Fallout 3 and Bioshock incorporated RPG elements into first person shooters.
Hunted works the other way, moving first person shooter mechanics into a traditional RPG environment. From what we've played the co-op works really well, with the foxy E'lara providing ranged cover while the muscular Caddoc does the hand-to-hand combat. Combine this with Tomb Raider-style puzzles and RPG levelling and it's an enticing proposition.
Hunted could turn out to be one of the sleeper hits of 2011, even if it doesn't look quite as lovely as Bethesda's other big releases.
Brink
Release date: Quarter 1 2011
Splash Damage's co-op shooter certainly stands out from the crowd; its ugly protagonists and ultra-clean settings have to make it one of the most stylish games since Mirror's Edge. It's certainly filling PC Format with a feeling of loveliness, too, and the ageing id Tech 4 engine, which powered Doom 3, has been given a new lease of life.
Brink also looks set to make online shooters look a lot more kinetic with its SMART movement system, which means players can leap over rails and slide through gaps, which makes a big change from the standard duck 'n' jump mechanics of its competitors. It's also highly customisable without losing its distinctive characters; something APB failed to do.
It's the gameplay that's crucial here, though and from what we've played it's an interesting and accessible shooter. Each character has to be present to clear a level ? think along the lines of a more objective-based version of Team Fortress 2, and like that game, you can switch character class and load-out mid-way through the game.
We're thrilled by the prospect of Brink, as it's nice to see a shooter that's moving away from the Call of Duty mould.
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/gaming-news/~3/4sgrZ0pkvfQ/story01.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment