Welcome to this week’s round-up of PCGamesN’s biggest news and best stories of the last seven days.
Big reads and hands-on
We spent some time with The WarZ.
Tim checks in on our top prospects from Football Manager 12 to see how they do in FM13. The results are fascinating, he says, and I’ll have to take his word for it because I understood every fifth word in this article.
Everything we know about Minecraft 1.5.
This wish list for the new Elite betrays our keen excitement and fanboyish delight. CHASE DOWN THAT BOOTY, SON.
But more seriously we talked to David Braben about Elite: Dangerous and his goals and got some answers about the project. We’ve also seen more art for the project on the Kickstarter page.
Everything we know about 0x10c
Flight Sim versus X-Plane.
Paul went hands-on with Ravaged.
Spotlight on Greenlight.
We talked to Dave Marsh about the Shadowgate Kickstarter.
eSports and MOBAs
The eSports World Cup crowned its champions.
Finally, League of Legends has a ninja. His name is Zed. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to LoL changes. Get ready for more self-expression. Some items will also upgrade via use.
Nadeo contemplate racing game eSports and confront the crushing loneliness and despair of racing. There’s something to be said for this. Of the hundreds of hours I’ve spent on the F1 series from Codemasters, about 75% of my time has been spent on empty tracks or in practice sessions. Of course, there’s another explanation. I can’t put on the television and watch Zerg and Terrans fighting on a distant planet for fun and sport, nor can I watch magical heroes locked in a duel in some death arena. But I can watch people race actual cars around actual tracks as much as I want.
Andrew Groen and I talked about our major takeaways from the MLG Fall Championship.
The Diretide event did not go smoothly, with accusations of rampant exploiting. Also, you can now buy an inflatable Dota 2 donkey. And boy was I relieved when this wasn’t what I was afraid it was.
The walls are coming down between StarCraft 2 servers.
And more…
Valve are hedging their bets with Windows 8 so carefully that they’re aggressively pushing towards Linux. And the beta just started.
World of Warplanes may have a bigger budget than all previous flights sims combined, say Wargaming.
Hawken pricing detailed.
StarCraft 2 set to scale.
Things find a way to get even worse for THQ as the company announced they are basically out of money, meaning delays for both Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light. The stock price took a beating, too.
Elite and David Braben come to Kickstarter.
Planetside 2 really is quite huge, isn’t it? And it may also let you try weapons before you buy them.
Greenlight’s Heroes and Generals was picked up by Square Enix!
Europa certainly looks intriguing.
Sir, You Are Being Hunted pounces on its Kickstarter goal.
Guild Wars 2’s Lost Shores event is going to be huge, and it’s a one-off.
Our favorite Source Filmmaker movies.
Details emerging about DayZ, including its engine and client-server setup.
Bohemia and Dean Hall were not amused by the DayZ bounty mod.
Peter Molyneux reckons he has one more game in him.
Reports of a moribund World of Warcraft may have been premature: it’s back over 10 million subs. Blizzard have also sold a similar number of Diablo 3 copies.
Razer explain their debacle with their latest softward and the Naga mouse. It’s not DRM, they explain, it’s issues with their activation server. Hm, that still sounds bad. But the mouse works fine if you run it offline without the Razer software!
Our first look at The Elder Scrolls Online.
Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free this week. But don’t worry, you can still spend money!
Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition for PC gets a release date.
The crucial Dark Souls mods.
Wargaming.net want you to be comfortable “grinding where you want to grind.” This has been another edition of Out of Context Theater.
Bioware have put out the Mass Effect suggestion box.
Navy SEALs reprimanded for participating in EA’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
Bioshock is free over on GameFly. The Great Chain is well and truly out of hand.
This Aliens vs. Predator mod for Crysis looks cool.
World of Warcraft’s Cinder Kitten is here to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy relief. But just say it with me again: Cinder Kitten. Yes. Approved.
Blizzard have handed out some bans for Diablo III exploits and hacks.
Croteam have some harsh criticism of Windows 8 and certification.
Julian Gollop outlines how multiplayer will work in Chaos Reborn.
Green Man are offering a good deal on Borderlands 2 and XCOM.