MARCH 2012
MARCH 2012
#224 VOLUME 19, NUMBER 3 MARCH 2012
#224 MARCH 2012 E PLAYLIST 13101310 1310 EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Logan Decker Managing Editor Chris Comiskey Senior Editor Evan Lahti Associate Editors Josh Augustine, Tyler Wilde Interns Lucas Sullivan, Gavin Townsley, Greg Henninger Contributors Desslock, Rob Zacny, Richard Cobbett, Florence Ion, Andy Mahood, S wen Vincke, Ryan Scott, Phil Flick, Chris Perry, Chris Thursten, Will Porter, Nathan Grayson, Graham Smith, Tim Stone, Tom Francis, Henry Winchester, Rich McCormick, Tom Senior, Chris Donlan, Jon Blyth, Steve Hogarty, Seamus Bellamy, Gordon Ung, Alex Castle, Andre w Beck Edit Squirrel Tabasco ART Art Director Dan Fitzpatrick Designers Monique Convertito, Mark Rosenthal, Boni Uzilevsky Photographers Samantha Berg, Alex Chousa, Mark Madeo, Barak Sharama, Kevin Sharp BUSINESS Vice President, Consumer Media Kelley Corten, kcorten@futureus.com Publisher Kristen Salvatore, ksalvatore@futureus.com Vice President, Sales & Business Development Nate Hunt, nhunt@futureus.com National Director of Sales Isaac Ugay, iugay@futureus.com Regional Sales Managers Brandon Wong, brandon wong@futureus.com Stacy Gaines, sgaines@futureus.com Greg Ryder, gryder@futureus.com Jen Doerger, jdoerger@futureus.com Account Executive Samantha Rady, srady@futureus.com Advertising Coordinator Heidi Hapin, hhapin@futureus.com MARKETING Marketing & Sales Development Director Rhoda Bueno eCommerce & Fulfillment Director Lisa Radler Consumer Marketing Director Stephanie Blake Newsstand Director Bill She wey PRODUC TION Production Director Michael Hollister Production Manager Larry Briseno Senior Production Coordinator Dan Mallory Print Order Coordinator Linh Chau-Ward FU TURE US, INC. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400 South San Francisco, CA 94080, (650) 872-1642 www.futureus.com Chief Operating Officer Rachelle Considine Vice President & Chief Financial Officer John Sutton Vice President, Internet & Mobile Products Mark Kramer General Counsel Anne Ortel SUBSCRIP TIONS To Subscribe: www.pcgamer.com/subscribe BACK ISSUES To Order: www.pcgamer.com/shoporbycalling 1-800-865-7240 Future US, Inc. is part of Future plc. Future plc produces carefully targeted magazines, websites and events for people with a passion. We publish more than 180 magazines, websites and events and we xport or license our publications to 90 countries around the world. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FU TR). Future Plc 30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, Ba1 2b w, England www.futureplc.com Tel + 44 (0) 1225 442244 (Bath) Tel + 44 (0) 7042 4000 (London) Non-executive Chairman Peter Allen Chief Executive Mark Wood Group Finance Director Graham Harding “Don’t worry Georgie,” I said. “This human scum’ll get what’s comin’ to him. Let’s get outta here. Go hit the coconut bar.” I grabbed a scruff of hair on George’s enormous, simian back. “Come on you big fool. We’ll get ’em later.” We turned around, and I lit a fresh cigarette. “Stupid ape,” yelled Senator Clavis. “Monkeys don’t smoke!” I stopped, my back still facing him. “This one does, Mr. Clavis. This one does.” And then we left.
P C G 1310
Scoring TOR
It’s always been PC Gamer’s policy to playgames through to completion at least oncebefore writing our reviews. But as gamesbecome increasingly complex and open-ended,“completion” isn’t easy to define—particularlyin the case of MMOs. Not only do they requirehundreds and conceivably even thousands ofhours to explore every narrative path with everyclass and character configuration, but they alsoevolve over time. And the pre-baked contentavailable at launch is only one aspect of a gamelike The Old Republic, whose creative community and ambitious post-launch plans will
determine its long-term fate—and whether or not you’ll still be playing it a year from now.
So when we review an MMO, we have to balance respect for the game (by experiencing
enough content to assign a fair verdict) with our readers’ desire to read our review of that
game within their lifetimes. You demand a comprehensive, exhaustive evaluation, but you
don’t pay us to take our sweet time.
Our initial MMO review scores (such as our verdict on The Old Republic in this month’s
review on page 60) reflect how well a game lives up to its promises at launch, and as such it
is not subject to change. But launch day for MMOs is only the beginning. That’s why we
created our Massive Attack section: because MMOs are only as good as their latest
iteration. PC Gamer has correspondents monitoring new content, new game mechanics,
and all the amazing stuff people do in every multiplayer game we’ve
ever reviewed that’s still online today.
PC gaming isn’t like gaming on any other platform, and MMOs
aren’t like any other kind of games. So the traditional preview-review-score-and-snore cycle doesn’t work for their developers, for us, or for
you. TOR left the dock in excellent shape; you can count on PC Gamer
to let you know—in print and online—if it stays that way.
LOGAN DECKER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Twitter: @logandecker
Evan Lahti
Senior Editor
I’m amazed at how well Tribes:
Ascend’s devs have kept up with
community feedback in the beta. It’s
patched practically every week!
Chris Comiskey
Managing Editor
Skyrim shows no signs of releasing
its hooks in my flesh. Sixty hours in
and I feel like I just started. God
help me.
Josh Augustine
Associate Editor
The name’s Nine. Cypher Nine. Imperial
Agents are cool, deadly, and (in the
case of my character in The Old
Republic) so very nice and huggable.
Tyler Wilde
Associate Editor
My longest BF3 headshot traveled
1,241 meters as it arced over Wake
Island and into my personal record
book. Now to beat it!
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MARCH 2012
