Modding is a strange thing in the world of PC gaming. For years it has existed as a fairly underground thing; something would be game designers would do in their spare time, and something that only the very hardcore would consider doing to their games. When Steam came it seemed even more obscure, until the Steam Workshop took off with its support of a few games, most notably Skyrim.
The Steam Workshop allows players to upload their mods to Steam and distribute them for free. Players can then “subscribe” to mods which automatically download and apply themselves to the game. Valve, the owners of Steam, threatened briefly to start charging for mods, given the popularity of the service. The backlash was astronomical. Such was the force of the pushback from the community that Valve shelved any plans they had and allowed the workshop to continue unaffected. PC gamers are often very vocal and precise in their complaints and, given they were the driving force behind the success in the first place, they were well within their rights.

As games have sought to become more and more realistic over the years they have only succeeded in doing so in one capacity; visually. Games are more and more impressive to look at, opting to pursue real life graphics instead of stylised ones that the new technology can offer. The games themselves though are not any closer to being realistic portrayals of anything, yet alone war. The Armed Assault series, though, has always sought to be a little more realistic.
One gunshot will take you down, and you’ll be relying closely on your team mates for support. They can heal you, well only the medic can, but you’ll be having to work closely together as a team. Communication is key – calling out precise locations of enemies is crucial as is having excellent accuracy. The maps are enormous, the travel options are extensive but you need to patient; this isn’t Call of Duty. This is Armed Assault.

One of the most popular movements in gaming recently is free to play. Particularly inspired by the surge in popularity of mobile games, free to play games have shone on PC for a couple of years, and now are making their way onto consoles as well. It allows a low point of entry (or a zero point of entry) and allows people to play and enjoy the game for nothing. Where these games earn their money is by then allowing people to pay for in game currency to allow them to unlock weapons and perks to allow them to shine against other people.

Some games do an extremely poor job of that; allowing people to simply buy their way to success. This term has spawned the “pay to win” moniker, something extremely unpopular with the growing player bases of free to play games as they look to simply enjoy themselves and prove their abilities with skill, rather than money. By walking that fine line Heroes and Generals has, so far, proved to be extremely popular.

The most beautiful game in existance released this year. That game was The Order: 1886 from Sony Santa Monica and Ready At Dawn Studios under the Sony name. The game released as a Playstation 4 exclusive in March and has become the benchmark for game graphics in this generation already, and one that will be extremely difficult to top. The game takes place in an alternate reality Victorian London where monsters have started to appear.

The game wasn’t enormously well received; with many people wishing the game’s writing and gameplay lived up to the incredible attention to detail that the artists and designers managed to squeeze into the game. The game has seen updates since, such as the addition of a photo mode (allowing players to customise the game to create beautiful pictures), and a few price drops should ensure the game has at least a decent chance of finding an audience.

ArmA is a popular videogame series born from the ashes of a previous series and development studio. While many people will know the super realistic military simulator series on its own merits, not to mention three pretty good games, they will certainly know it as the series that gave birth to DayZ; which is, aside from minecraft, one of the biggest cultural phenomenons in gaming and, yes, it features zombies.

Operation Flashpoint is, however, the place where all of this nonsense began. Yes it didn’t look pretty, but back when Flashpoint was a series it didn’t matter so much about how your game looked. It was tense, it was tactical and it was extremely difficult. This wasn’t a game designed for people with short attention spans or no patience. This was exclusively for PC gamers and a good thing too. While the name still exists, with different people manning the helm, the series is a far cry from its former glory.