PC Gamer

THE SPY
The Spy throws a lot
of stuff at the wall. If
the wall isn’t very
sticky, that’s not The
Spy’s fault.

3’s a bit of a mixed blessing when

you’re The Spy. On the one hand,

it’s an opportunity to be proven

absolutely correct: a rush of

confirmations as longstanding

rumours morph into flashy

15-second trailers that show

absolutely nothing at all (here’s

looking at you,Starfield)! The Spy

da’s space RPG definitely exists.

The Spy was incorrect, however, to assume that we’d

learn anything at all about it in LA.

There’s the flipside for you. E3’s scattershot blast of

confirmations and denials reveals that The Spy sometimes

gets things wrong, too.Borderlands 3? We didn’t see it:

Gearbox instead spent its time at E3 showing press an

under-wraps shooter-turned-card-game (?) called

‘Project 1v1’. That doesn’t mean its not happening:

indeed,Borderlands 3has probably now been delayed to

2020 per a Take-Two earnings call in May. In any case it

wasn’t at E3, so it’s functionally dead to The Spy.

Also dead to The Spy: Sam Fisher, who we most

resolutely didnotsee at the airfield (Fisher!) nor at

Electronic Three.Splinter

Cell’s absence from

Ubisoft’s lineup was

addressed by Yves

Guillemot after the show in

an interview with Geoff

‘Geoff Keighley’ Keighley,

the Ubi boss clarifying that

they’d like to return to the series, but have nothing to say

at this time. This means it’s probably in the works,

somewhere: they wouldn’t bring back human gravel pit

Michael Ironside simply for a cameo in Ghost Recon:

Wildlands. The Spy likes to think that Sam Fisher is

simply deep undercover: probably doing the splits above

the head of an unwitting Vivendi executive.

MISSING IN ACTION

Although Microsoft put on a good show by Microsoft

standards – which is to say that it showed a lot of games

that made loud men in the front row go “woo” – an

expectedFable 4announcement was nowhere to be seen.

The grapevine says its in development by Forza Horizon

developer Playground Games, which featured among the

list of Microsoft’s latest acquisitions. And, indeed, it said it

was working on an open world game last year. And it’s

probablyFable. And if Microsoft isn’t ready to show it off

yet, then that means its probably quite far off. Look for it

next year, unless Big M decides to go back to its

conference comfort zone and just say quasi-futurist things

about television for a full hour. “I’ve got your Cyberpunk

2077 right here!” Phil Spencer might bellow, grabbing his

crotch and revealing a reworking of Freeview.

Where were you, UK-based triple-A game developers

who make games other than racing games? Aside from

being granted fresh freedoms within the squishy,

anonymising tracts of Microsoft’s acquisitions gullet.

There are rumours that a rapidly-expanding Splash

Damage has a hand in some of those new Gears of War

games, but no specifics emerged at E3. And it’s been three

years sinceArkham Knight: where was Rocksteady? Lots

of people – The Spy included – were expecting it to finally

take the lid off its long-rumoured Superman game –

possibly-fake leaks suggest that it’s called ‘Superman:

World’s Finest’ – but alas, we did not see it.

Claims that Rocksteady

missed the show because

Sefton Hill had to erase

Superman’s ’stache from

every frame of the trailer

were made up, by The Spy,

just now. Spy out.

The Spy

1

Remedy’s writer’s block horror

adventure,Alan Wake,hadanE

demo this issue. Tim Edwards reminds us

that the game featured a zombie JCB

whichwakesandthenstagesamonster

movie-esqueattackonthestruggling

author. We learned that hiding from a giant

destruction machine inside a flimsy house

is a bad idea. A better idea is blowing up

theemptydriver’scabinwithaflare.

3

Writer Logan Decker employed all of

the tools in his arsenal for what he

politely called “physical diplomacy” in his

Prototype review. This amounted to

slashing, beating, shooting and stabbing

people with ropey tentacles made from

protagonist Alex Mercer’s own flesh.

Mercer is a jerk but the idea of filling out

backstory by consuming bystanders for

their memories is fascinatingly weird.

2

Face Off

asked “Are

microtransactions

the future of

gaming?” Tim

Edwards was right

in that they took

off. Ross Atherton

was correct that

they can be a pain.

ISSUE

203, August 2009

ON THE COVER

Star Wars: The Old

Republic

IN THE CHARTS

Battlefield –

Jordin Sparks

This month in... 2009

IT’S BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE

ARKHAM KNIGHT: WHERE WERE

ROCKSTEADY?

NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT

BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?

The Spy