PC Gamer

CS:GO patch to add custom controls for sound spatialization

Sound spatialization algorithms are not something the average gamer thinks about. It’s a Carmackian phrase; I can already see your eyes beginning to gloss over from reading it. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, however, is making a big deal about its intention to provide unparalleled control in sound by opening up more audio tweaking options than the standard, “How loud is the yelling compared to the shooting and the music?” They’ve even provided colorful charts and graphs to explain what this means.

Impire preview–hands-on with Dawn of War II meets Dungeon Keeper

When you’re Báal-Abaddon, an unstoppable hell demon with a nasty temper, you expect to rule over a vast empire of loyal subjects. You don’t have to earn it: Iron-fisted rule is your birthright. But when a rather stupid sorcerer conjures your spirit up from the depths and summons you—minus your fearsome demonic powers—into the not-so-imposing body of a three-foot-tall imp, you have to settle for an Impire.

Paradox Interactive’s demo of Impire begins with poor Báal-Abaddon coming to terms with his new stature in a drawn-out conversation with greedy sorcerer named Oscar van Fairweather. I start skipping through the conversation because there’s no voice acting yet, and Oscar likes to ramble; Developer Cyanide Studios calls this build “pre-pre alpha.” I get the gist anyway: I’m a rather pathetic imp now, stuck in a pitifully small dungeon, and expanding my underground realm (and murdering a whole lot of decent folk) will hurry along the restoration of my demonic prowess.

Sleeping Dogs PC-specific features include DX11 support, high-res texture pack, and more

It’s almost time to wake up some Sleeping Dogs, but first, we PC folks are being thrown a bone (ha ha, dog jokes). A trailer for the soon-to-be-released open world crime drama (preview here) runs down the PC-specific features we can expect, including DX11 support, multi-GPU support, a day-one high-res texture pack, and “increased world density,” which isn’t fully clarified.

Steam to start hosting non-game software

First: movies. Now, Valve has announced that it wants to be your supplier for non-game programs. Beginning September 5th, you’ll be able to grab a variety of software ranging “from creativity to productivity” that “take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.”

World of Tanks to be overhauled with new physics and improved graphics in Update 8.0

Wargaming has announced a huge update for World of Tanks — Update 8.0 — which includes an “improved game engine,” new features, and new content. Most notably, the update is said to introduce “realistic tank movement physics” to the engine. See the bullet points and trailer inside…

Civilization V: The Swedish Saga, part 4 (1868 A.D. to 1951 A.D.)

My friends! Gather ’round the fire and prepare to hear an epic tale that spans the entirety of human history! I’m in the middle of chronicling my progress in Civ V’s Gods & Kings expansion, with a new entry every Wednesday. Last week, the Industrial Era saw my Swedish Empire and its Grand Army march from sea to shining sea in the pursuit of bringing lasting peace to the world. Despite our best efforts, however, it seems that world war is just on the horizon. Read on, as the next 100 years will change the world more than any century that came before!

Need to get caught up? Here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

PC Gamer UK Podcast: Episode 73 – Hammer vs. Deer

This week Owen, Chris and Tom Senior discuss the Source 2 rumours, SW:TOR free-to-play, the decline in WoW subscriptions and their very real and surprisingly detailed fear of vomiting uncontrollably while using the Oculus Rift. Also featuring the Steam charts, Skyrim, The Walking Dead adventure games, and your questions from Twitter.

Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer shows Smartgun carnage, macho marines, polite conversation

This latest look at Aliens: Colonial Marines answers an important question. What are the marines seeing when they look through the Smartgun’s heads up display? Were they playing a bit of Tetris to take their minds off the hordes of charging aliens? Sadly not. They were actually watching a readout dishing out XP for every alien kill. Double kill! Triple kill! Godlike!

That explains their gung-ho attitude. Maybe it was all a game to them, right up to the moment where a Xenomorph got too close and they met a horrifying end. Hear Gearbox devs chatting about the Smartgun and more in the latest developer diary, which contains a few tantalising, wafer-thin slices of in-game footage amid all the well-mannered talking heads.

Mechwarrior Online trailer provides pilot lesson, delivers hot lasers to robot faces

As much as I’d love to be a mech, there are definitely some drawbacks. You can fire a kaleidoscopic array of lasers out of your face, which is neat, but if you overdo it you shut down and have to spend several minutes gently venting hot gas, which has to be on the list of most embarrassing things that can happen in public. Perhaps that’s the reason that you won’t actually be the mech in Mechwarrior Online. In the cockpit, you’re a pilot in a cockpit, with legs and everything.

Mass Effect 3 Firefight pack brings multiplayer weapons to single player campaign

A post on the Bioware blog announces the availability of a the new Firefight Pack for Mass Effect 3. It’ll shift a selection of the recently added extra multiplayer weapons to Shepard’s locker in the single player campaign, giving you a chance to thwart the Reapers with the Indra and Krysae sniper rifles, the Harrier battle rifle, the Reegar Carbine and, if you really want to embarrass them, the Geth SMG, which gets faster as it fires, but would barely bother a badger even when fully revved up.

The Blood Pack Punisher SMG and the Adas Anti-Synthetic rifle are the only two new weapons added by the pack, which costs $2 / 160 Bioware points, and is available now through the Origin download store accessible in-game.