PC Gamer Chat Log

Global-editor-in-chief Evan Lahti leads the developers behind some of PC gaming's biggest hits in a discussion on the state of our hobby and the biggest trends, risks and opportunities in PC gaming today. Joining us: Michael Douse - Director of Publishing, Larian (Baldur's Gate 3)Rebecca Ford - Creative Director, WarframeEyrún Jónsdóttir - VP of Publishing at CCP (EVE Online)Casey Yano - Co-founder, Mega Crit (Slay the Spire)In this 80 minute conversation, our guests talk about making "hyper-engaging" games that defy the traditional advice of appealing to as broad an audience of players as possible; the innovation in game development only happening on PC; Steam as a "democratic" platform; industry layoffs and the emerging use of AI in development; and what we should take away from the standout successes of 2024, like Helldivers 2 and Balatro.

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fallout-enjoyer Chris Livingston about the first season of Amazon's Fallout TV show. Was it rad? Did it succeed at adapting the vaults of the wasteland and selling us on new characters?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Colp about the games they should really get kicked out of their favorite genres for not playing yet. Which classic RPGs are the biggest holes in our back catalog and which lengthy story campaigns are just never getting completed? Shame aside though, maybe there are some games that aren't actually the must-plays people say.

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk about the PC games they remember from their childhood. Mollie hailed from the Learning Land while Lauren was an enjoyer of Humongus Entertainment, but did any of those favorite genres stick with us as adults? And did anyone ever discover The Sims any way other than a friend showing it to them?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Fraser Brown about Dragon's Dogma 2 and all of our time with it so far. Fraser's already clocked over 100 hours adventuring with his pawn, Gorbo while Mollie and Lauren are just getting started. It's been a comedy of errors in weird quest designs, goofy pawns, and wacky combat, but we're all enjoying ourselves despite the critiques so far.

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine who recently undertook the arduous task of ranking lots of common game launchers. The result? Steam is still unbeatable, but why is that? Other broad launchers like the Epic Store and GOG have made improvements over the years and publisher launchers like the EA app have gotten overhauls too. Where are they still falling short in the year 2024?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Robin Valentine who recently undertook the arduous task of ranking lots of common game launchers. The result? Steam is still unbeatable, but why is that? Other broad launchers like the Epic Store and GOG have made improvements over the years and publisher launchers like the EA app have gotten overhauls too. Where are they still falling short in the year 2024?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Wilde about the traditional topic of debate for this decade: yellow paint on climbable ledges in games. Players say they're sick of it; developers say it's necessary for showing players the way. What do we say? Well, we're not above having our own little debate about it, that's for sure.

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about how it feels to actually get good at competitive games. Between Mollie's Tekken tournaments and Morgan's time as a ranked Rainbow Six Siege player, they have stories about how super sweaty matches can really change their relationship with a game. Is getting that good actually worth it?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jacob Ridley about getting into the daunting custom keyboard scene. We've all seen the beautiful keyboards with pleasant ASMR clicking on our social feeds, but Jacob is going to tell us how to actually get started—hopefully without totally scaring us off.