Page 44 - PC Gamer - UK (February 2020)

GAME S
FE ATU REOF THE DECADE

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HI ST OR Y HAL L OF F AME EA R L Y A C C E S S I LO CA L P L A Y TA C T I C S I PREDICTIO NS

THE ELDER SCROLLS V:

SKYRIM

RELEASED November 11, 2011 | DEVELOPER Bethesda | PUBLISHER In-house
Chris: How do you make a singleplayer game that
thousands of people will still play on a daily basis
almost ten years after its release? Make it moddable.
Does anyone talk about 2016’s Doom these days? No,
because what is there to talk about after you’ve
finished it? But 1993’s Doom is still making news
regularly because it’s still being modded after 26 years,
and I guarantee people will still be modding Skyrim
for another decade, too. No need for years of
downloadable content, no season passes required. Just
give passionate and creative players the tools and
freedom they need to craft their own fun.
It helps that even vanilla Skyrim is all about freedom
and creating your own adventures. Its big open world
DARK SOULS is packed with quests, stories, characters and lore, but
once the tutorial is completed there’s very little
pushing you in any one particular direction. You can go
where you want and be who you want – you’re the
RELEASED August 23, 2012 | DEVELOPER From Software | PUBLISHER Bandai Namco
Dragonborn, sure, but you can play for hundreds of
hours without ever kicking off the questline that
Wes: How many games can brag Bandai Namco made it happen. From introduces dragons into the world.
about birthing a genre? It’s a short there, Dark Souls’ influence carved That same spirit of freedom applies to Skyrim’s
list. First there was Rogue. Until we three new trails. It sold and sold and extreme moddability. Nexus Mods, a Skyrim modding
all got some collective sense and sold, and so did the sequels, making hub, reports over 1.7 billion downloads, and more than
christened the first-person shooter, From Software the most respected 60,000 different mods. That keeps the ageing RPG
there was the Doom-clone. Metroid developer in Japan not named fresh with new adventures, companions, locations,
and Castlevania fused into a beloved Nintendo. Its success on PC in the weapons, spells, and complete overhauls of game
style with a hated name. And this West encouraged other Japanese systems long after you’ve completed the vanilla
decade, From developers to bring experience. Just this week alone, 56 new Skyrim mods
Software gave us DARK SOULS MADE their games over, appeared on Nexus Mods for the nine-year-old RPG.
the Souls-like. No too, and today it’s There’s an entire lifetime of new experiences for
other game in the THE INTERNET rare for big players to discover, and a way for Skyrim to endure
2010s has more Japanese games long after Bethesda has moved on to other games.
dramatically REALISE JUST HOW not to launch on
changed how we PC, or at least get a
talk about games, IMPORTANT delayed port.
particularly Finally, Dark
difficulty. Nothing MODDERS ARE Souls made the
has so quickly internet realise just
inspired so many how important
knock-offs. modders are to PC
More importantly for us, Dark gaming. Without Durante’s DSFix
Souls is the reason I can browse mod the series may never have taken
Steam today and see games like Ni No off on PC. The standards for quality
Kuni, Nier: Automata, and Bayonetta. ports are now far higher. Meanwhile,
It may be the only time in history an From Software got George R. R.
online petition changed the world. Martin to help write its next game,
Something like 90,000 people said Elden Ring. It’ll probably be out
they wanted a PC port, and publisher before his next book.

3 MARCH 6, 2013 M ARCH 20, 2013 M ARCH 26, 2013
E ARLY AC CESS
SIM CIT Y
BIOSHOCK
INFINITE
What promised to be
Steam launches its
201 a triumphant reboot Early Access The long-awaited
sequel launches to
program, letting devs
for the series turns
into a rolling disaster
praised for its
as its dysfunctional sell still in- critical acclaim,
development games.
always-online The landscape of PC story-telling – though
features stir up ire gaming is forever a later backlash
with fans. changed. questions its politics.
44 FEBRUARY 2020