Step with me my friend back to the [checks official PC Gamer 2023 calendar] now very distant past of 1999. Stepping out of our time machine we now exist in a PC gaming world where beige PC tower rigs rule the roost, 3dfx Voodoo graphics cards are still a thing, and Team Fortress Classic is being played over LAN in PC Gamer Towers. Oh, and Outcast is hitting store shelves in all its big-box PC glory.
And, despite sales that will go on to be described, at best, as modest; and the fact that its maker Appeal will go on to bankruptcy within two years of it release, Outcast is about to change the scope and vision of videogames as a medium forever. All truly great pieces of art stem from ambition. That desire to push the boundaries of what is considered possible, and with its stunning (for the time) voxel graphics engine, expansive scope, professional musical score and complex in-game mechanics, Outcast remains even to this day one of the most visionary and ambitious games of all time.
ALIEN TECHNOLOGY
Outcast's story of a group of humans transported to a parallel universe and becoming involved in a time-warping adventure over multiple worlds, encountering numerous alien species, and having to defeat a big bad in order to save the Earth was nothing new in 1999, but the fact that Outcast truly reached for the stars in how it did so absolutely was.
With six large and vastly different alien worlds to visit during the course of the game, and for each of those lands to stretch out before your eyes to incredible distances, powered by the game's unique 'voxel engine', was-and you'll have to trust me here, as a guy who played Outcast back in 1999 on his own beige tower rig - truly mind blowing.
Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de PC Gamer US Edition.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de PC Gamer US Edition.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
YELLOW CARD
Flawed deckbuilder DUNGEONS AND DEGENERATE GAMBLERS rarely plays a winning hand
GODS AND MONSTERS
AGE OF MYTHOLOGY: RETOLD modernizes a classic RTS with care
SPACED OUT
After a strong first impression, WARHAMMER 40K: SPACE MARINE 2 runs out of steam
SLIDES RULE
Redeeming a hated puzzle mechanic with SLIDER
DINER HARD
Rewriting the rules of horror in ALAN WAKE
"Kay Vess, galactic tomb raider"
Feeling like Lara Croft in STAR WARS OUTLAWS
LETHAL COMPANY
A return to some explosive post-launch patches.
MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE
Enter the multiverse of modness.
TRACK GPT
Al's teaching sim racers to improve-what about other games?
FINDING IMMORTALITY
Twenty-five years on, PLANESCAPE: TORMENT is still one of the most talked-about RPGs of all time. This is the story of how it was created as a 'stay-busy' project by a small team at Black Isle Studios