PC Gamer Chat Log

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jody Macgregor about developers we're keeping a close eye on in 2024. Who's working on secret new projects we're anticipating announcements of and who's got some great trailers that are making us hungry for gameplay? Who's promising to shake up their genre in the new year?

In this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Robin Valentine about gaming trends and industry trends from the year that we think will end (or continue) into 2024. What on earth is 2024's release calendar going to look like after this year of big surprises? Aesthetic peripherals are finally in for real but we really need to stop using the words "early access" wrong.

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren quiz each other on their own biggest gaming victories and failures. What's your biggest L? When did you clinch the win?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine about the old days of physical game discs, manuals, and other gaming media. Do we have fond memories of multi-disc installations or are we happy to be all downloads? Digital ownership is very convenient, but are we worried about not owning our games anymore?

On this week's Chat log podcast, Lauren and Mollie talk with Josh Wolens about game achievement hunting. Do you care about your perfect games and do achievements still feel worth chasing? What's the hardest we've tried to score a platinum trophy?

We live in a strange time, where ports are a coin flip between a new masterpiece and garbage - but what does the phrase 'PC Port' even mean? Today we discuss what the future of this concept could be, and where it leaves us.

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren welcome fellow MMO-enjoyer Harvey Randall to discuss the tried and true RPG hotbar combat that still has every MMO in its grasp. Is it time for MMOs to adapt? Or are we trying to fix a thing that isn't broken?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fraser Brown about keeping a spreadsheet of his games, which is way more common than we thought. How deep does the spreadsheet sorting go? Does the superior organization solve shame or compound it?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about the history and future of battle royale games. Where did they come from and where are they headed? Which 100-player free-for-alls did we lose too soon and which subgenre is poised to replace them?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Wilde and Robert Jones about this year's PC Gamer Top 100 list. How did our process for choosing the top 100 games change this year? Which victories are we celebrating and what game grudges are being saved for next year?

In this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie quiz each other with their own gaming "Am I The A-hole?" posts. How many domestic cooking crises can we invent? How many of these game protagonists are in fact YTA?

On this week's Chat Log podcast, Lauren and Mollie each attempt to cast their dream game to film adaptation. Can we come up with an entire ensemble cast? What about a game without any established characters at all? How did we manage to make this simple assignment so difficult?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Wes Fenlon about the emminently important topic of game HUDs. Are minimaps or compasses better? Are diegetic HUDs still cool? Which weirdly obscure objective marker will Wes champion?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Chris Livingston about our time in Starfield since launch. How are we feeling about Bethesda's newest universe? Which traits have been the best to grab and which factions are we eyeing to join?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie each pick games they think are overhyped, underhyped, and just-right-hyped. Which games from our own personal favorite series are we willing to drag and which long-time favorites really do deserve all the hype?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie both try to draft their ideal RPG party pulling characters from any game they've played. Who's the ideal fighter class, and which game has the healer we'd die to recruit?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren welcome special guest Adam Smith from Larian Studios, the lead writer on Baldur's Gate 3. What's the weirdest and coolest D&D lore that Larian injected into Baldur's Gate 3, what actually makes a good RPG romance, and what weird class/background combo is Adam playing?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Ted Litchfield about our first 10-ish hours with Baldur's Gate 3. What sandbox hijinx have we gotten into? Which fights are absolutely trashing us? And which party member does everyone on the team want to date?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Chris Livingston about the small side of Skyrim modding. What's the littlest texture mod we've ever installed, the most useless tweak? Can Lauren and Mollie tell which mods really exist and which ones Chris dreamed up?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Jody Macgregor about their favorite game soundtracks and theme songs. Which title screens give us goosebumps and what was our childhood repeat song?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fraser Brown about the state of MMOs and also some of the weird MMOMs of their childhood. Which genres deserve to be massive that aren't yet and what MMO trends should we really do away with this decade?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Morgan Park about what it's like gaming with their significant others. Do co-op life partners actually make good co-op game partners? Which games do we always share and which are strictly solo?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with PC Gamer's resident The Witcher fan and lore fiend Lauren Aitken about the first volume of season 3 episodes. How is Geralt's little found family surviving all this season's intrigue and what Witcher stories are we looking forward to yet to come?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie own up to the games they've put down and never returned to. Which games got rage quit and which were simply too long? How many JRPGs have we actually finished, seriously?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie chat with Robin Valentine about all of the press and publisher gaming showcases in June. Which big announcements finally made it out and which surprise reveals are really worth watching? Oh, and we can't forget about that Starfield Direct, can we?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren dig up all the best lesser known games from the first half of 2023. Mollie has yet another rhythm game to champion and Lauren is full of cozy game recs, along with picks and reviews from the rest of the PC Gamer team so you don't overlook any excellent releases.

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie put their heads together to decide which game recommendations could turn their parents, roommates, dates, and everyone else into dedicated PC players. Can we crack the code on gaming moms and console converts?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Wes Fenlon about all the summer showcases coming up next week: Summer Game Fest, Xbox, the indie game shows, and the Starfield event. What are we looking forward to seeing and can we forecast any totally unexpected announcements?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about party games and how they've helped keep in touch with friends. Which Jackbox Party Pack is actually supreme and, wait, does Fall Guys count as a party game?

In this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine about the underwater levels, shooter on rails levels, forced stealth levels, and all the other tropes we've been forced to play. They aren't all bad, but we've all been driven to fury by inst-fail stealth, haven't we? Are any of these level tropes actually good?

In this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Ted Litchfield about videogame romances. Does the BioWare style party member romance still rule or are we looking for something a little more complicated these days? Oh, and how ready are we to die on a hill for our taste in RPG mates?

In this bonus episode, we talk with four veteran FPS developers at the 2023 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Joining us are: Evan Nikolich - Senior design director, Apex LegendsDavid Fifield - General manager for Hunt: ShowdownAlan Wilson - CEO Tripwire Interactive, design on Rising Storm & Red Orchestra 2Brian Etheridge - Publishing director, Tripwire PresentsIn this 80 minute conversation, we get these developers talking about what they love in competitive shooters today and what influences their design. Game balance, difficulty, weapon design, and much more are on the table.

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Wes Fenlon about the redemption arc of game to television adaptations. From The Witcher and The Last of Us to Arcane and Castlevania, which new shows and movies are actually adapting videogames into great screen experiences? And how much do we really care about shows staying true to a game's story?

In this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Sarah James about all of our MMO player characters. Do we secretly recreate ourselves or just treat our characters like wild dress up dolls? And why is it that trolls give Sarah the ick?

In this bonus episode, we talk with the four developers behind indie legend Dwarf Fortress and brilliant roguelike Caves of Qud (which was, itself, inspired by Dwarf Fortress!). In an hour-long conversation, Dwarf Fortress's Tarn & Zach Adams and Caves of Qud's Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew discuss: How they each tackle simulating their game worldsMaking procedural generation actually produce meaningful storiesBeing surprised by what their own games could doTheir thoughts on current AI tools like ChatGPT, and how they differ from their own procedural generation systemsThe Sims

In this bonus episode, we talk to five veteran RPG designers at the 2023 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Joining us are:Mike Laidlaw (Jade Empire, Mass Effect, the Dragon Age series)Paweł Sasko: (The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077)Strix Beltran (Hiddden Path's upcoming D&D RPG, State of Decay 2)Lis Moberly: (Obsidian's upcoming Avowed, Cursed to Golf, Singularity)Josh Sawyer: (Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment)Throughout an 80 minute conversation we talk about whether what players expect from RPGs today, how their personal experiences playing RPGs have informed the games they make, writing characters that really resonate with players, tabletop games and more. Mike Laidlaw describes how the Dragon Age writers' room operated, while Paweł Sasko talks about designing the Bloody Baron quest for The Witcher 3 and the enormous challenges of Cyberpunk 2077's first-person mode.

On this week's PC Gamer Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie bare their souls to the cozy gamers of the world. How do they make their rigs look so cute and which games are we begging them to start recommending?

In this week's PC Gamer Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Tyler Wilde about the cancellation of E3 2023 and their collective memories watching or working it in years past. What were the real golden years of the event and which notoriously chaotic press conference does Tyler remember attending?

On this week's PC Gamer Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie terrorize one another with the best (and worst) gaming merch they've seen. Which gaming tat is S tier and which is just so tacky Mollie has to have it?

On this week's PC Gamer Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Katie Wickens about the eventual Sims 5. Which former expansions really deserve to be in the base game? And how are we feeling about the prospect of multiplayer?

In this week's Chat Log Podcast, Mollie and Lauren talk with associate editor Tyler Colp about the first Diablo 4 beta weekend. How hellacious was the road to level 20? And is Diablo basically an MMO now?

In this week's Chat Log Podcast, Lauren and Mollie talk with features producer Chris Livingston about the continued dominance of crafting games. Which PC games actually have the best recipe for crafting and which deserve to be punished for excessive ingredient crimes?

What's PC Gamer Chat Log? Who are hosts Lauren Morton & Mollie Taylor, and what do they like? Here's a quick introduction to our new weekly show about PC gaming.Find more links to the show: https://www.pcgamer.com/tag/podcast/

In this week's Chat Log Podcast, Mollie and Lauren talk with senior editor Wes Fenlon about creature catching games. Are Pokémon-alikes ever going to claim the same foothold that farm life sims have found on PC?

For the premiere episode of Chat Log, Mollie Taylor and Lauren Morton introduce themselves, PC Gamer's new low-key podcast, their favorite genres, and start making some predictions about the huge year for PC gaming that 2023 is going to be. Spoiler: RPG players are eating *good.*