PC Gamer Chat Log

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie come together to announce a Chat Log hiatus and talk about 2024 in review. What was this year like in PC gaming? What big launches did we manage to predict? Which trends have become normalized in PC gaming? There's no doubt that 2024 felt a little aimless as we all invested in our gaming niches

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about developers that we're going to have an eye on in 2025. Some are working on big, announced projects that we're hoping to get updates on while others are quietly working on unannounced projects we're hoping to see reveals for. What about some deep cuts? Which developers have been quiet for a few years and are due to pop out of the woodwork soon?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Chris Livingston about the minigames in our games. Which minigame activities are the most iconic? Which ones secretly suck? And which series does minigames the best?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk about the legacy of dress up games and whether they might be about to explode on PC. It's no secret that everyone loves looking great in their games, but building a game around the concept of fashion hasn't always been big in PC gaming. With some flash in the pan hits like Dress To Impress and the upcoming potential of Infinity Nikki, are dress up games primed to have their moment?

How nostalgic are we about World of Warcraft on its 20th anniversary?On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with certified WoW nerds Tyler Colp and Hervey Randall about the last 20 years of World of Warcraft. What big moments, memories, and expansions loom largest in our minds? When did we know that WoW had really become a cultural touchstone? And what does the future of WoW look like now?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Kara Phillips about browser games! We all have a childhood full of flash games, social MMOs, and websites stocked full of weird minigames. Nowadays, the browser game scene is really different, but maybe it's still thriving in its own niche way. What kinds of browser games are we still playing to this day?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk about their gaming bucket lists. Sure yes, we all want to clear our backlog of games to play, but let's be a little more realistic. What do we want to get done in gaming before it's all over. Which series do we really need to get around to? Which achievements are must-haves?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Ted Litchfield about zombie games. It sure seems like they were the instant hit theme in gaming for a long time but these days they're mostly just shambling along. What do we actually love about zombies as gaming's de facto horde of enemies and will we ever want to replace them with something new?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Elie Gould about horror games. 'Tis the season! Elie is a certified horror fan but Mollie and I are maybe a little less ready to be scared on the regular. What makes our favorite horror games work so well and which genres of horror are peak?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Robin and Lincoln about this year's process for coming up with the PC Gamer Top 100 games list. Which games got cut this year? Which upsets are we having feelings about?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Chris Livingston about patient gaming because Chris might be the most unintentionally patient of us all. Can we ever be patient gamers or are we all too full up on FOMO to ever miss out on what our friends are playing?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jacob Ridley about how much it really costs to get into PC gaming. We talk about the price of building a tower all the time, but that's not all it takes. From peripherals to game prices, we're talking about what it actually takes to get started in PC gaming.

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Jake Tucker about the underappreciated genre of asymmetrical co-op games. Why aren't there more of these great split task games and what are some of our favorites? And how many minutes will it be before Mollie finds a way to bring FInal Fantasy 14 into the discussion?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Wes Fenlon about what happens when a game like Concord gets un-launched. We've seen more cases of live service games with short lives in the past few years and they can sometimes get messy. How long do games stick it out before calling it quits and what happens after that?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tim Clark about the state of microtransactions in our games. When did they get so much less micro and how much have we each shamefully spent on our in-game gear? Now that we've lived through the era of horse armour, loot boxes, and season passes, what's going to be the next trend for games to squeeze cash out of us?

On This week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie round up some of 2024's hidden gems in PC gaming so far. We're a good chunk of the way through the year and you don't want to have missed some of our favorite things we've played so far this year. We've got surprisingly good platformers, at least one Disco Elysium-inspired RPG, and a co-op crafting game that even Lauren forgot to try. Cryptmaster (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/) The Garden Path (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/) Anger Foot (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1978590/Anger_Foot/) Sovereign Syndicate (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1674920/Sovereign_Syndicate/) Ultros (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2386310/Ultros/) Capes (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2081080/Capes/) Penny's Big Breakaway (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1955230/Pennys_Big_Breakaway/) Steamworld Heist 2 (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396240/SteamWorld_Heist_II/) Pepper Grinder (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2076580/Pepper_Grinder/) Fallen Aces (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1411910/Fallen_Aces/) Crow Country (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1996010/Crow_Country/?curator_clanid=32686107) Portal: Revolution (https://store.steampowered.com/app/601360/Portal_Revolution/) Solium Infernum (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893810/Solium_Infernum/) Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238040/Tiny_Terrys_Turbo_Trip/) Aska (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898300/ASKA/) Life Eater (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2632930/Life_Eater/) Norland (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1857090/Norland/) Go Mecha Ball (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008510/Go_Mecha_Ball/) Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2011780/Yellow_Taxi_Goes_Vroom/) Hauntii (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060790/Hauntii/) Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2637990/Duck_Detective_The_Secret_Salami/)

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren put together their theoretical PC gaming time capsule. Which one game would we squirrel away to represent PC gaming? What about a gaming trend or PC peripheral? And what would you put into your time capsule?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Kara Phillips about scoring the best clothes in games. We all know the real endgame of any MMO or RPG is looking excellent in a new set of armor, but how much work are we willing to put in to get there? Which games have the best fashion to aspire to and why is it Red Dead Redemption?

On this week's Chat Log, Mollie and Lauren talk with Morgan Park about getting into new game genres—tips, tricks, and recommendations for where to start with the genres that each of us spend a lot of time in. How do you even get into fighting games? What's the best starter stealth game? And why is finding the place to start with cozy games so daunting?

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Tyler Colp about the gacha game craze on PC that's exploded since Genshin Impact. How many of them are actually worth playing, how can you get into them, and where is this train headed next?