PC Gamer

Civilization V: The Swedish Saga, part 1 (4000 B.C. to 430 A.D.)

My friends! Gather ’round the fire and prepare to hear an epic tale that spans the entirety of human history. I’ve been posting weekly chronicles of my progress in Civ V’s Gods & Kings expansion, and this week begins a totally new game with a totally new civ — a follow-up to my previous Celtic Chronicle (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Read on to see legends unfold, world powers rise and fall… and maybe I’ll even win this time! Let the Saga begin.

PSA: Origin downtime scheduled for tonight, no Mass Effect 3 or Battlefield 3 multiplayer

Origin servers will be taken down for maintenance tonight from 10 PM to 1:30 AM PDT. According to EA’s notice, Origin will be available in offline mode during those hours, and the single-player portions of EA/Origin games will still be accessible. The multiplayer modes in games such as Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3, however, will not be playable. Additionally, any purchases made via Origin will be added to a queue and delivered after the outage ends.

Team Fortress 2 crew coming to Hero Academy, cross-over hats coming to TF2

Hero Academy, Robot Entertainment’s tactical, turn-based team battle game is coming to Steam on August 8th, and it’s bringing some PC gaming all-stars with it. The entire Team Fortress 2 crew we know and love (and sometimes hate…I’m looking at you, Spy) will be playable. Hop inside to see how they fit into Hero Academy, and check out the TF2 hats you can get by playing it.

Black Ops 2 trailer talks craft with Trent Reznor and Dark Knight Rises co-author David S. Goyer

Treyarch has posted a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 behind-the-scenes trailer featuring composer Trent Reznor, who is best known for being Trent Reznor, and writer David S. Goyer, who consulted on the first Black Ops game, and is best known for his credit as co-story writer on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films. Jump into this post’s guts for the trailer.

Mechwarrior Online trailer shows Centurion class, deals damage with dazzling lazers

A mech that’s effective at all ranges with all lasers, that’s what we like to see. The Centurion mech sounds like a good starting point for new players. A few tons of extra armour give it the resilience to last in a midfield laze-off and its flexible load out options should be fun to tinker with. The new Mechwarrior Online shows the Centurion reducing foes to scrap on beaches, in bases and tight arctic corridors. That last one looks to be Frozen City, the new map that the Mechwarrior Online devs revealed a couple of weeks ago. Take a closer look in the new trailer below.

Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan trailer shows mounted combat

Hobbits are a proud but diminutive race, so plonking one on an eight foot tall battle steed is probably a good idea if you’re planning to do some serious fighting. The upcoming Riders of Rohan update for Lord of the Rings Online will let us do just that. Whether mage or ranger, elf or Hobbit, everyone will get to do some war from beastback. Rich doesn’t trust horses. He thinks of them as secret lizards coated in hair, so a trailer showing hobbits and wizards riding them into battle on their backs is likely to freak him out. That is one of many reasons to post this very video, spotted on VG247.

PlanetSide 2 hands-on preview: soaring over a free-to-play wonderland

I’m standing on the hood of a one-seater ATV while my driver, GamesRadar’s Lucas Sullivan (here’s his side of the story), recklessly shuns roads and opts to bounce over hills. I don’t fall off. In fact, as an engineer, I’m able to repair the vehicle while apparently gripping onto the hood with my toes. It’s stupid and it’s fun, and it reminds me of the nonsense I used to get up to in past Battlefields.

A minute later we catch up with our third squad member, GameSpy’s Dan Stapleton (here’s his take on our adventures), who’s waiting for us to help capture a desert outpost. Lucas gets out of the vehicle. I get in. I run both of them over.

Battlefield 4 beta not just for MoH pre-orderers, “we will continue to support BF3″ say DICE

In a post on Reddit highlighted by CVG, Battlefield 3 community manager Crash explains that DICE are still going to maintain Battlefield 3 over the next year or so. “There are several teams at DICE,” he explains. “Starting work on Battlefield 4 does not mean that we will be abandoning Battlefield 3 or working any less hard to bring you the best expansions we can.”

“DICE and EA are dedicated to continuing our support for Battlefield 3. Just as we’ve continued to support and maintain Bad Company 2, we intend to continue providing the best Battlefield 3 experience we can well into the future and past the release of End Game and Battlefield 4.”

Skyrim mod collection adds Minecraft man, diamond sword, Creepers and rideable pig

Mr. Minecraft aka Steve is a too good an adventurer to stay in one game. The Minecraft man has tunnelled his way out of Minecraft into Skyrim. Look, there he is, eating some bread. It’s like meeting a celebrity. He can become a follower and aid you with a Minecraft bow and a diamond pickaxe, all with the help of a series of Skyrim Minecraft mods on the Steam workshop. Read on for a video of the mod in action.

GTA 4 iCEnhancer mod version 2.1 released, GTA games super cheap in Steam sale

The iCEnhancer has been beautifying GTA 4 for players for more than a year now. The mod uses custom shaders and post-processing effects to massively improve GTA 4′s visuals. Images like the one above from Ducan Harris’ Dead End Thrills demonstrate iCEnhancer’s power. Eurogamer note that version 2.1 has now been released, which is great timing. You can grab a pack of every GTA game for just £4.99 / $12.49 as part of the Steam Summer Sale.