PC Gamer’s Games of 2012

The editors over at PC Gamer are already celebrating the titles due out later this year by cranking out meaty previews of many of 2012’s offerings. Among them are Diablo III, Mass Effect 3, Guild Wars 2, PlanetSide 2, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria:

Some boss monsters now have the ability to spawn floating points of purple light that fire out a beam of death that rotates around them. In frighteningly short order, you can find yourself surrounded by deadly clockfaces, dashing to avoid their swinging hands. They’re one of the few things in Diablo that force you to manoeuvre precisely in order to stay alive, and I’ve died at least once every time the bastard things crop up. They’re brilliant.

It’s a bit of a pain that you have to connect to Blizzard’s servers even to play singleplayer, but if they continue to tweak the algorithms and add new features like this after launch, it may be worth it. Particularly in a randomised game, encountering something you didn’t know existed is a great experience.

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Separately from Shepard’s story, you and your friends can take charge of teams of operatives fighting the battles around the galaxy that the Normandy can’t. Performance here improves that readiness factor, making your war assets count for more in the singleplayer.

These high-level mechanics are supported by a retooled combat and upgrade system. Weapon mods that give you the freedom to customise guns to your taste are a major focus Hudson shares his favourites: (I enjoy the mods that allow you to increase the capacity and rate of fire on sniper rifles, so you can target an enemy at range and still fire off quick shots before reloading. Using a scope on a pistol is a fun way to extend the effectiveness of an otherwise basic weapon.)