PC Gamer

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive free to play from today until Sunday

An excitable post on the Counter-Strike blog announces that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be free to everyone from today through until Sunday to celebrate the climax of the Electronic Sports World Cup.

“This weekend? CS:GO is free. Download it. Play it. Love it. It’s free. Who knows, we might even put it on sale if you want to keep playing after this weekend,” say Valve. They’ve recently updated their spectator tools with GOTV, an in-game service that should let you check out the pro action happening in Paris this weekend. If you’re suitably inspired, you can start climbing the ranks and taking on CS regulars.

Outlast trailer pants, runs and hides in Massive Mountain insane asylum

Outlast is a new first-person asylum survival game from indie devs Red Barrels, formed of a team that have previously worked on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted and Splinter Cell. You play as a journalist recording his experiences wandering through Massive Mountain insane asylum, an insane asylum next to a massive mountain. As a man of words, you won’t be especially competent in any sort of fighting capacity. The player is shown plodding through poorly lit corridors armed only with a night vision camcorder and his own gasps of panic.

Skyrim console command causes shout shotgun blast

Poor Lydia. Her eternally pledged sword for the Dragonborn makes her nothing more than a guinea-pig for an egotistical nomad with volume problems. This time, she’s blasting off into the sky once more after taking a small hot air balloon’s worth of Fus Roh Dahs—aka The Only Shout That Matters—straight into her face. The resulting hilarious physics grenade comes courtesy of LilCosco08 and a usage of the “TCL” console command which toggles collision detection. Dodge Lydia’s pinwheeling body as you head past for the break for the video.

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm clan system details

Blizzard still hasn’t figured out how to link all of our minds with the protoss Khala yet, but it is giving us more tools to link up with our friends across the StarCraft 2 community. The Heart of the Swarm expansion will be introducing clan support, with a test build going live in the next major beta patch.

Crusader Kings Chronicle, part 7: The Conclusion

For glory! We’ve arrived at the final chapter of an epic undertaking: chronicling an alternate history of Europe in Paradox’s Crusader Kings II. I, King Murchad I of Ireland, have made a bid by right of birth on the Kingdom of England, and my armies are on the march to secure the throne of the long-embattled realm. Here the story ends, in victory or in death. Onward!

Get caught up: The Prologue, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. Also check out the Strategy Chronicles Hub, which will be updated regularly.

Minecraft mega-cathedral built with over 2 million blocks

I considered myself a contemporary Michelangelo after I erected a 50-block mud-house in my voxelized corner of Minecraft. Boy, was I just a clown crashing cubes together after viewing the breathtaking flythrough of an enormous Gothic cathedral composed of over a whopping two million blocks forming rows of spires and a crazily detailed interior. Creator GNRFrancis offers the colossal cathedral as a free download alongside video tutorials detailing the year-long construction process. I’ll just get back to making sure my wooden door swivels correctly.

Prison Architect dev laments cost-strapping console development

Inversion co-founder Mark Morris recently spoke with VG247 about his decision to bus slammer-sim Prison Architect over to the PC instead of Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network, citing the prohibitive cost of acquiring test kits to meet quality standards and telling Microsoft and Sony to “piss off” after calling them “second-class customers.”

Discouraging mod development “doesn’t make sense” says Black Mesa dev

Nailing down the range of possibilities afforded by modding’s creativity yawns past the comprehension of us mere mortals. Yet, for a platform housing exploding horses, rug-cutting Combine, and the nesting-doll appeal of Minecraft’s game-in-a-game sandbox, the PC keeps its lot of closed environments precipitated by developers and publishers as a means for balanced gameplay or brand protection. In an interview with True PC Gaming, Black Mesa Project Lead Carlos Montero flatly stated such a hindrance for mod growth “doesn’t make sense.”

EA’s Peter Moore: “The PC just sprints ahead” in fixed hardware cycle

EA COO Peter Moore spoke with Wired in a wide-ranging interview covering the publishing giant’s transformative adaption to the industry’s shifting practices, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the refreshed focus for PC development. “As you get further into the cycle of fixed hardware, the PC just sprints ahead,” he said. “The things we can do on the PC because of the power of both the CPU and the GPU are unbelievable.”

Crusader Kings II DLC sacrifices history, adds Aztec invasion of Europe

Yeah, you read that headline right. I was just as confused about the announcement of Sunset Invasion, the latest DLC for Crusader Kings II releasing on November 15, as you were…at first. To quote from the official release: “In the latest DLC for the critically-acclaimed strategy/RPG Crusader Kings II, Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studios pose the question—what would have happened if the Aztecs invaded 13th Century Europe?” What it means is that the Count of Anjou could have his heart ripped out of his chest and sacrificed to Quetzalcoatl. I think that’s pretty awesome.