THE HIGHS

Tom Senior: Buddy system

I found the Battlefield 5 trailer to be really confusing and impossible to unpack. The series is going back to World War 2, but it seemingly has a knowing action movie tone, terrible overwrought Oliver Twist accents (please stop doing these. I’m looking at you, Tracer) and a cricket bat wrapped in barbed wire. It was weird.

I have no idea what this will end up looking like in the game proper, but I was encouraged by the detailed improvements DICE outlined this week. The squad system has felt off to me since Battlefield 4, and that’s a big reason why I stopped playing. I love Battlefield’s spectacle, and sense of scale, but without coherent squads too much of the game involves running to the action. The class changes—particularly the decision to give everyone medic skills—is curious as well. Hopefully we’ll see more at E3.

Joe Donnelly: I’m a Souls man

Glasgow is in the middle of heatwave, so I naturally plan to spend the long weekend ahead poking around in Blighttown, the Tomb of Giants and New Londo Ruins. Yes, Dark Souls: Remastered is now with us, and while I really should be doing other things—like sunning myself in the searing 23 °C heat outside—I'm unashamedly looking forward to jumping back into a repopulated version of my favourite game world. I know, I know, mods have probably elevated the lacklustre 2012 PC port beyond what this reworking offers, but I'm a sucker for Dark Souls, what can I say?

This post from Souls person Illusorywall speaks to a pretty trivial addition to the remaster, but I now can't wait to hear it in my own game.

Tim Clark: De-escalation Protocol

Hey, so you know how sometimes we sneakily write a low which is actually just another high? Will this time my high is sort of also a low. Last night I had an amazing time playing the Escalation Protocol event that's part of Destiny 2's new Warmind expansion. For the first time I lucked into a group of eight other high-level guardians, and together we creamed all seven levels of swarming Hive enemies and the vast health pool bosses. I didn't get amazing loot, but I did manage to chalk off the third part of the Nascent Dawn quest. The real joy was the chaos as we went ham with our supers at once. It was only afterwards that the problems started.

In text chat: "Hey Clark, get out of the area so we can bring our buddy in." I explained I didn't want to leave, I wanted to grind for the sniper rifle, and that it's supposed to be a public event. From there things degenerated fast. First they surrounded me and started punching me. Then several of them started calling me a fag (because it's always that) and saying I was ugly. And let me tell you I was wearing a beautifully coordinated outfit. I went to make a cup of tea, took the dog for a piss, and when I came back they were still at it. Begrudgingly I left. None of this will be a huge shock to anyone who's played games on the internet, but it is a problem largely of Bungie's own making. Had they made it easier for groups greater than three to group up, this would be a non-issue.

Yesterday, designer Jacob Benton addressed the lack of matchmaking for Escalation Protocol in the This Week at Bungie blog, arguing that the activity has been balanced around three players and it'll get easier as more people hit the level cap. That hasn't washed though, seeing as three of the best PvE players in the world recently struggled for 8 hours to beat it without additional help and they were all max level. For all the great strides Warmind has made, it's bizarre how hard Bungie has made it for players to enjoy one of the best parts of the DLC. Bizarre, but at this point not surprising.

Wes Fenlon: Reconsiderate

Games don't sit still anymore. So many of the PC's biggest games, which would've once spawned sequel after sequel, now simply grow and change, morphing almost beyond recognition over the years. For players, it's great, but it does cause one wrinkle for us: a review of a game like, Warframe, is barely applicable two or four years after it's written. So we decided to do something a bit out of the ordinary this week: we've re-reviewed some of the PC's biggest games, focusing on the ones where we felt like there was something significantly new to say. We've also left the original reviews up, so you can compare our earlier thoughts to our fresh 2018 takes.

Chris Livingston: Bases loaded (image)

We had a recent discussion about which games are just too damn long, and for me it was baseball games on PC (rare as they are). I've always wanted to play a full season, 162 games, but I have always run out of steam at some point and given up. 162 games is a lot of damn games. Too many.

With Super Mega Baseball 2, I decided to compromise: I set my season length at 54 games, a third of a full season. I still gave up: I've been playing one game per day, but midway through the season I realized I wasn't going to make it, and just simulated the last 20 or so games. Why is this a high? Because my team—which I customized to look (sort of) like the PC Gamer writers—still made the playoffs. World Series, here we come. The playoffs are three best-of-five rounds, and that I definitely have the patience for.

Andy Kelly: Tanks a lot

I've been getting back into Overwatch lately, on a purely casual basis, and I only want to play as Orisa. There's something about her combination of support and tank that I find really satisfying. I love being able to take and dish out a good amount of damage, while popping shields to protect my teammates. It's a fun way to play, and perfect for someone like me who's useless in a straight fight.

But it's her Halt ability that I really love. This orb, which can be activated mid-flight, pulls players towards it and slows them. It's great for yanking pesky snipers from high ground or bunching groups of enemies up and making them an easy target for my cannon. She's slow and massive, making her a sitting duck at times, but playing as her is the most fun I've had online in ages.

THE LOWS

Tim Clark: Rest in Peace

Yesterday we learned that John "TotalBiscuit" Bain had died from cancer at the tragically young age of 33. It'd be exactly the kind of hypocrisy he hated if I were to pretend we saw eye to eye on his thoughts regarding the games press, but it'd be equally remiss not to remark on the passing of one of the most influential figures in modern games criticism, without whom videogame coverage on YouTube and beyond would look very different.

TotalBiscuit's Curator page is the most popular on Steam for good reason, and seeing the outpouring of respect in our comments reflects the impact he had on many PC gamers. I was also particularly struck by the reactions of Trump and Day9, two friends who shared his love of Hearthstone. I like to imagine some fans will be playing his disastrous all-legendary deck on ladder today in tribute.

Tom Senior: Anger management

“Why?” was the question on my mind when I heard a reboot of Rage might be on the cards. The original 2011 shooter vanished into ignominy after a botched launch troubled by tech issues. The new game does look fun, actually, but I decided to revisit the original anyway and see whether it had been fixed, and if so whether there was any fun to be had with it still so long after release.

Well on my PC it still suffers from all the tech issues that affected it back in the day, but I did enjoy the energetic enemy animations and the goofy weapons. Sadly a lot of this is hidden inside a proto-open world and lame crafting systems. I don’t hate crafting systems per se, but I hate when they get in the way of the action. In this sense Rage feels particularly dated, and I hope the sequel gets away from all that completely.

Joe Donnelly: Old (firm) habits die hard

So I used to do this thing. Which I know is a wee bit weird. And while not particularly superstitious, I used to swear by it. I'm into football/soccer in a big way, and I'm a Glasgow Celtic fan. They play city rivals Rangers, known collectively as the Old Firm, at least four times per season over the course of the July-May league campaign, with possible surplus cup matches wedged in between. What I used to do, when I still bought FIFA every year, was simulate a Celtic versus Rangers game that'd act as a figurative precursor for the real thing. If Rangers won in FIFA, I was in a state, I'd get doubly nervous—but if Celtic triumphed I was delighted. Of course, it rarely worked out the way I'd planned in real life, and more often than not left me disappointed and broken.

This was years ago, and I've since switched to Pro Evolution who, up until now, had neither Celtic or Rangers in-game. To be honest, I'd forgotten about the whole thing. Until Konami announced this week that PES 2019 has obtained the official license for Scotland's Ladbrokes Premier League. I now look forward to seeing my green and white-hooped icons darting around the footie sim powered by the Fox Engine. But I'll once again be a gibbering mess in reality, after some more ill-informed match day predictions.

Andy Kelly: Ego trip

My high was Overwatch, and so is my low. Playing it's a generally positive experience, with way fewer dickheads than a lot of online shooters. But there's always one little dictator in the chat questioning or criticising your choice of hero. I get this in competitive where team comp's an important factor, but in quickplay? These people need to get a grip.

Sometimes people will ask nicely if someone will go a tank or healer, and that's fine. But it's the people who demand that you change that do my swede in. It's my game, pal: I'll play it how I like. This probably shouldn't annoy me as much as it should, but it's become a pet hate of mine.

Chris Livingston: Kick harder

I know lootboxes have captured the attention over the past year when it comes to gambling in games, but there are two bigger culprits: Early Access and Kickstarter. And while I don't think gambling is inherently bad, that's how people should look at the act of spending money on a product that isn't complete. This week we learned that after raising over $3 million on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and about that much from other investors, Ossic X ran out of money to produce their 3D headphones. They shipped a total of 80, leaving thousands of orders unfulfilled.

Kickstarter isn't a store. The products you see aren't done. There's no guarantee what you'll get or if you'll get it at all. It's a gamble, and you could walk away with nothing. I'm not telling anyone how to spend their money—I've used both Kickstarter and Early Access numerous times—I just think if anything in gaming should be given the label of gambling, it's this.

Wes Fenlon: Goodbye, Gas Powered Games

Earlier this week, news circulated that Wargaming Seattle, aka the development studio once known as Gas Powered Games, was shutting down. Even if you don't know either name, you've probably heard of some of their games: Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander, Demigod. The news was sudden, but my understanding is that the studio isn't closing immediately. I hope everyone finds new work and lands on their feet.