The week in PC gaming: 22nd/28th October

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Welcome to this week’s round-up of PCGamesN’s biggest news and best stories of the last seven days. Lots of Halloween updates and events, some big new releases, and interesting changes afoot among MMOs.

Out this week:

Hotline Miami came out to gasps of horror and squeals of delight. And it has only just begun.

Via Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams has arrived.

Trains vs. Zombies 2, now with an accurate Northeast Corridor rail line, is on Steam. My money is on the trains.

Fallen Enchantress is out, and Stardock are already doing the right thing with it: it’s free or discounted for owners of Elemental (free if you bought in 2010).

Big reads and hands-on

We spent some time with Battlefield 3: Aftermath, and its close-quarters combat.

We spent a lot of time with Riot last week, and learned how the studio approaches making League of Legends a better experience.

Everything we know about Dragon Age 3 so far.

Steve chronicles various SimCity tragedies and disasters.

We talked about the Golden Joysticks.

Spotlight on Greenlight!

eSports and MOBAs

It’s been a quiet week in eSports, although one with more than a little anxiety about the future of StarCraft. We’ll talk about that more this coming week, however. For this last week, the big events were Team Acer’s triumph at DreamHack Bucharest and Rain’s victory in the OSL championship. The news that StarCraft 2 is getting a leveling system is interesting, as well.

Although that was nothing compared to how huge the League of Legends championship was, as Riot finally reported their overall viewership numbers.

Valve are making GOTV available in time for the Electronic Sports World Cup and it includes what looks like some very cool functionality. I’ve always suspected one huge issue with FPS watchability is the lack of an overview map. If that thing tracks events in realtime, Valve may quietly have addressed a major issue afflicting shooters.

Riot released an update to their Twisted Treeline map.

Nick spent some time with Dota 2’s Centaur Warrunner and has a detailed analysis ready for you.

And more…

Guild Wars 2 had its Shadow of the Mad King Halloween event, and its PvP tournaments. It’s quite meaty. Here’s what you can expect.

SOE chief Smedley explains how The Old Republic doomed EverQuest Next.

The saga of Battlefield 3 and color-grading continued, with DICE now declining to support the addition of any more color.

Doom 3 BFG Edition’s Lost MIssion campaign rather less lost that we thought.

Anyone care for a mecha-themed space combat game? Check out Strike Suit Zero’s Kickstarter.

RICE University have put Skyrim on the curriculum.

ComputerCraft will let you create computers and advanced electronics in Minecraft. Cool.

New Regency to make an Assassins’ Creed movie. There are pros and cons.

Vigil’s cofounder and creative director has left the studio.

Notch revealed multiplayer for his 0x10c prototype.

Did you know Blizzard once considered making a Diablo spinoff set in space?

Look, if you’re crazy enough to multi-box, Blizzard aren’t going to say you can’t, but don’t be looking for help, either.

WoW pet battles get a Pokemon mod. As delightful as it is inevitable.

Steam Workshop served up 55 million downloads in its first year.

Things get even more dire at Zynga, with massive layoffs this week.

Square Enix is going steady with Unreal Engine 4.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is getting its first DLC, Slingshot, and we were underwhelmed by what we heard. You can also get the Elite Soldier Pack, which originally came with preorders.

Mode 7 set up Chiptune Rush, a store for chip music.

Mirror’s Edge and Dear Esther artist Rob Briscoe wants to make a STALKER-esque open world game without weapons. Sold.

You could argue it’s always Halloween in Killing Floor, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing something special for the occasion.

SimCity: March 8th. Get ready.

World of Warcraft server transfers are free for users on overcrowded realms.

Left 4 Dead is having a free weekend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is free-to-play… on the test-server that subscribers can use. Just in time for Life Day! But not everyone is thrilled, and Bioware have responded to some of the discontent.

Star Citizen is off to a great start with its funding and now we know the early stretch goals.

ArenaNet are supposedly working on a MOBA.

Details emerge about upcoming Dishonored DLC.

Civilization Online brings Civ to the Asian MMO market.

Windows 8 Marketplace will sell 18-rated games after all.

It’s Halloween for Team Fortress 2, too.

Zero Point Software turn to Kickstarter to complete Interstellar Marines and battle the landsharks.