Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Gamesmaster

It’s hard to understand how modern publishers and developers could think that a single-player experience is something we don’t want. I love the fact that the indie scene gives me games like I used to play back in the day, but publishers such as EA seem to be giving the gaming scene a bad name. Being one of the big boys with their loot boxes and paid games as a service is okay if it is a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, but don’t make other developers follow suit to the peer pressure. There are many games that we won’t get the chance to play because the developer thinks playing on your own is a bad thing and they won’t make their money. I remember when two-player used to…

“CRAMMED WITH MORE ’80S VIDEOGAME, MOVIE, AND TV REFERENCES THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A VHS TAPE AT” With digital worlds more mainstream than ever, what better time for Hollywood to put virtual reality front and centre? Steven Spielberg returns to his sci-fi origins to bring Ernest Cline’s novel about a young geek fighting for his (VR) world to the big screen, and he’s created a breathtaking story. Like Wreck-It-Ralph, or the recent Jumanji sequel, Ready Player One is very much about games even if it doesn’t adapt one specific title. It’s set in the not-so-distant dystopian future, where pretty much everyone lives, works, and does almost everything else in the VR world OASIS created by the late, great James Halliday, who hid a secret somewhere inside. Finders keepers Whoever finds…

Last summer, Fortnite was barely a hamlet-sized dot on 2017’s exceptionally crowded map of games. Developer Epic had released its PvE survival/crafting/tower defence hybrid as an Early Access product in July but, as is the way in such a competitive market, it quickly became overlooked as other, bigger titles began to hit store shelves. Fast forward to today, however, and Fortnite is one of the most popular multiplayer games across PC, consoles, and mobile, not to mention a regularly streamed colossus on Twitch, having confidently surpassed the popularity of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (see p26) after reaching 45 million registered players earlier this year. Celebrities tweet about it (including, bizarrely, comedian Roseanne Barr), mainstream news channels report on it, and analysts are calling it the biggest game in the world. To call…

Gliding down into the world of Fortnite Battle Royale can be a pretty daunting experience, with 99 other players also gunning for that elusive number one spot. After sinking countless hours and racking up some Victory Royales of our own, we’ve put together a set of tips to help both beginners and experts raise their game. BEGINNER GETTING AROUND When you’re starting out, drop as far from the bus as possible to reach quieter areas while you find your feet. If others drop nearby, veer away to a different location so you can look for weapons and materials undisturbed. While you’re searching buildings for items, make sure you cover your tracks by closing doors behind you and not breaking down any external walls. Likewise, if you see open doors or…

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP Knowing when and where to drop at the start of each game is one of the most important factors in PUBG success. That big military base will give you some premium gear, but you can’t use it if you’re dead. Watch carefully to see where other people are dropping, and watch for parachutes during your descent. If you’re a beginner, try to drop somewhere secluded – you won’t get the best gear, but you’ll survive long enough to learn the ropes. BEWARE THE CIRCLE The death circle closes faster and does more damage as it gets smaller – the first few take a long time and deal minimal damage that can be healed through, the last few are deadly and impossible to outrun. Always be aware…

LEARNING THE ROPES Overwatch might not be up there with League Of Legends in terms of sheer roster size, but 27 characters is still pretty intimidating for a newcomer. Luckily, we’re here to help you figure out where to start. The basic tutorial might help if you’ve never touched a first-person shooter before, but there’s a sizeable gap between being able to point a gun and knowing when to rocket jump into concussion blast across the map. Fortunately, there are options. An open training arena lets you toy with hero abilities hassle-free. Friendly and opposing robots let you test your strengths, while there’s enough room to make the most of mobility. There are options for bot matches, too, as a next step before you face the gaming public. We found…

SOUND IS YOUR ALLY It’s all too easy to overlook just how important audio is to Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft has done a stellar job of filling levels with ambient sounds (for example, radios playing or the hum of machinery) to throw you off, as well as making the sound of gunfire and movement extremely detailed. Because of that, a good sound system or decent set of headphones can give you a serious edge over other players. Being able to pinpoint an unsuspecting enemy through a wall or hear someone trying to sneak up on you can make the difference between victory or defeat. On numerous occasions we’ve watched players get killed because they couldn’t hear important audio cues. LASER TAG Laser sights are a neglected tool in Siege –…

“YOU’LL BE PURSUED BY A GERMAN AGENT WHO FOLLOWS YOU ACROSS THE MAP” Format PC, Mobile Developer Stave Studios ETA Winter 2018 Web bit.ly/gmota Inkle’s brilliant mobile adventure 80 Days meets Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel? With a generous dose of WWII espionage, some sumptuous art, and words from one of the writers behind the excellent Fallen London? Over The Alps, the debut from London-based indie studio Stave Studios, has the kind of pitch that should have anyone with more than a scintilla of good taste giddy with anticipation. While it’s not going to shy away from the dark side of war, Stave is hoping to capture some of the romance and excitement of playing a spy. Which is probably quite a challenge when you’re holed up in a…

“ROCKSTAR’S MAGNUM OPUS WAS CHOCK-FULL OF HOMOPHOBIA… GAMING’S POSTER CHILD WAS ANYTHING BUT INCLUSIVE” As a queer person who’s been gaming pretty much all her life, it’s blatantly obvious to me just how scarce the kind of representation I want, perhaps need, is in videogames. 179. That’s the number of commercially released games my search found that feature queer characters. It might seem a lot, but in the grand scheme of thousands upon thousands of released games, it’s really not much. It’s even less when you consider how few of those characters are even significant. Of those 179 games, only 83 have queer characters who are playable. And of those, only eight feature a main character who is pre-written as queer as opposed to them being queer as an option.…

Right, it’s like this: all you have to do is escape the room as quickly as possible. Sounds perfectly straightforward? Well, there are bears and goats roaming around the place, clocks floating in mid-air, and every now and then the floor is a wall and the ceiling is a staircase. Best foot forward, now. That’s just one of Far Cry Arcade’s little curios. Arcade is accessed through – naturally – arcade cabinets in the game, and includes a powerful map editor so you can create your own little nightmares. Ubisoft started the ball rolling by creating a handful of scenarios, each a self-contained level built with various modifiers to offer a new experience, to show what’s possible. The community will take the reins from there to populate Arcade with, as…

“THE MINIGAMES ONLY SUPPORT TWO PLAYERS, EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN HAVE FOUR ON THE BOARD” Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), XO Publisher Warner Bros Developer Shiver Entertainment ETA Out now Players 1-4 Scribblenauts is a charming little series of games where players can use words to summon an almost unfathomably vast array of objects and alter the world to help them solve puzzles. Found an angry polar bear? Summon a fish to cheer him up. Or summon Cthulhu and let the Old One himself go on a rampage. Positively daft, the series has always been a fun, if shallow, set of puzzle games. Spin-off Showdown takes things in a more competitive direction. A sandbox mode exists for players to muck around in, and features a series of different environments, but the…

“USE YOUR SKILLS TO MANIPULATE CHARACTERS INTO BEING INDISCREET OR GIVING AWAY CLUES” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Focus Home interactive Developer Big Bad Wolf ETA Out now Players 1 Oh dear, we’ve just upset a priest. A cardinal, in fact, but the sort who listens at doors while vulnerable young women are being attacked rather than intervening, so we’re not that bothered about what he thinks. Even if he is rescuing people from the French revolutionary guillotine. Ah. Perhaps he’s a good guy after all. The Council’s opening episode takes place during a soirée thrown by the mysterious Lord Mortimer, owner of a private island and a man with the sort of social clout to bring George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte to his party, along with assorted aristocracy,…

You can turn lanterns on and off! Good to know at night. There’s no need to make your crew and your ship easy targets for rivals. Barrels in your ship’s hold contain planks for repair, bananas for health, and – like these ones – cannonballs. Remember to fill as well as empty them. On islands, keep an eye out for barrels like this. They often contain useful supplies, including bananas – handy if you’re low on health. Defeated skeleton captains drop a glowing skull. Pick it up, and sell it to the Order Of Souls to complete your voyage and get rewarded!…

“IT’S OFTEN HARD TO REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT A GAME AND NOT AN ANIMATED FILM” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher SeithCG Developer SeithCG ETA Out now Players 1 This newest project from Lionel ‘Seith’ Gallat – previously known for his work on big-budget animated features such as Shark Tale – is a classic adventure of a timid rodent discovering his own strength and courage. It’s utterly charming, but for all its polish, Ghost Of A Tale just isn’t much fun to play. Tilo is one of the best looking and most beautifully animated videogame heroes in years, all twitchy ears and dainty reaches. An obsessive level of polish shows in every move he makes. From the most desperate clamber to the idlest glance, he shows his personality entirely…

It’s Still Good! Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver Format PC, Dreamcast, PS1 Developer Crystal Dynamics Released 1999 Some games age poorly, but not Soul Reaver. We won’t claim it still looks fresh as a daisy, but it plays very well considering its age and is easy to recommend. Dimension-bending puzzles, smart combat, and a storyline from Uncharted’s own Amy Hennig – you could do a lot worse than pick this one up on GOG or PSN. Classic Moment! Mega-Lo-Mania Format PC, SNES, Mega Drive, Amiga Developer Sensible Software Released 1991 This classic RTS for the Amiga and consoles taught us all a brutal lesson about nuclear weapons. You could nuke your opposition for an instant kill, but fallout meant you couldn’t build there, and the threat of nuclear countermeasures meant…

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS GamesMaster is just like a battle royale game, only instead of 100 people on an island, it’s three journos in an office, and instead of killing each other, they just make a magazine. And then kill each other. Robin Valentine The age of shooters has been tricky for editor Robin – his twitchy fingers and primitive reaction times make him a truly awful marksman. Still, at least he’s not bad at hiding in bathrooms for hours on end. That’s actually pretty similar to his typical workday. Favourite shooter ever: Left 4 Dead Rob Crossland Our art editor’s a man of many hobbies. His latest extracurricular activity? Hatching himself a whole flock of hens with his new incubator. We will, of course, be dropping…

In an era when story and cinematic cutscenes are pushed front and centre more than ever, Doom bucks the trend. It’s a game that emphasizes chaotic, gory fun over everything else. Better still, the game is fully aware of its ridiculousness,. Gameplay is frenetic and faster than any other shooter I’ve played, forcing you to be aggressive rather than get behind cover. You’re encouraged to injure demons with your gun before performing a takedown, a fun and unique loop that rewards you with brutal animations and precious health. And as you progress and are given bigger demons to kill, the takedowns only get gorier. Whether you’re trying to find your way to the next area while enjoying some downtime, or killing the biggest demon yet with your chainsaw, Doom is…

The independent games scene is a vibrant and exciting place. Switch’s portfolio in this respect is slowly growing, and this year will see some superb additions. We’re very excited about Fantasy Strike for example, a cartoony fantasy beat-’em-up (currently in Steam Early Access) determined to welcome new players. One character allows you to hit people with a ghost , another can stop time, while yet another is a panda that gambles. And that’s just one game! Join us as we take a look at what else is coming to shake up Switch’s portable world. Just Shapes & Beats, from Berzerk Studio, isn’t quite like anything else we’ve seen. The self-described “musical bullet hell” game comes with a full story mode, which can be enjoyed solo or with…

The Wild Eight is a top-down survival game all about crafting, scavenging food, and avoiding wolves while trying to stay alive in sub-zero temperatures. In many ways it’s a lot like a third-person The Long Dark. You might remember Leon playing that before and freezing to death. Guess how he gets on here… 0 MINUTES Day one. If I’ve learned anything by now with Hurley Access it’s never to get cocky. The Wild Eight is a harsh survival game set in Alaska, and named after the eight characters you can play, each with different perks and abilities. I pick William for his +5 cold resistance, because survival games have taught me that if you can freeze to death, you will freeze to death. And as it happens, I do freeze…

Only a little over a year ago, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was released in Early Access to an unsuspecting gaming world. The brainchild of former ARMA modder Brendan Greene (the eponymous PlayerUnknown), PUBG was delivered in early 2017 by then-little-known South Korean mobile developer Bluehole. Though the game had a winning concept from the off, few could have predicted its meteoric rise. Only a few months into PUBG’s time in Early Access, its concurrent players started increasing almost exponentially. 400,000 players in July became 800,000 in August, which became 1.5 million by September, breaking DOTA 2’s record to become the most-played game on Steam. By the time it came out of Early Access, PUBG had three million concurrent players, and to date has sold over 30 million copies. Since its official release…

The Rainbow Six series has a long and storied history, with many varied iterations. It started as an almost simulation-like experience, before transforming into a more approachable tactical game with Rainbow Six 3. It dropped the ball with the dumbed-down Lockdown, but made a better gamble with the spectacular Vegas. Then came Siege, perhaps the most radical take on the series to date. With no real single-player content the entire experience is focused on a tight, asymmetric multiplayer mode. A team of defenders are besieged by a team of attackers, each with access to a set of operators who all have differing weapons and gadgets. And all of this happens across levels that are almost fully destructible, meaning the series’ traditional tactic of breaching and clearing could now come from…

Format PC Dev Alchemedium ETA 2018 Web bit.ly/gmtofutail Ryan Brolley was working in what he calls “a boring day job” when he had an idea for a procedurally generated puzzle game. He wasn’t in the industry at the time, he merely wanted to start making a game. It was only supposed to be a learning experience, a starter project to acclimatise to game development. “I had this simple idea – [I thought] it would be easy to execute,” he laughs. This was six years ago. During that time, A Tofu Tail has changed quite a bit, though it still has its original theme. “I was doing a lot of research into Japanese lore, and found out that the kitsune, the Japanese fox – its favourite food is tofu,” he says.…

“IT’S GORY AND GRUESOME, BUT IN THE MOST GRIMLY GLEEFUL WAY THERE IS” Format PC Publisher Fatshark Developer Fatshark ETA Out now Players 1-4 The original Vermintide was a delightful Left 4 Dead clone that put the fantasy trappings of the Warhammer universe to excellent use. Instead of boring old zombies we got to battle hordes of cheeky ratmen called Skaven and instead of just shooting our way through, there was robust melee combat to get to grips with. The game’s overall design was derivative of Valve’s classic, but the final execution was refreshing. To describe this sequel as simply bigger and better is not entirely inaccurate, but it does the game a disservice. Vermintide II is a truly massive overhaul that polishes what was there before to a fine…

“COMEDY IS RARE IN VIDEOGAMES AND COMEDY THAT ACTUALLY LANDS ALL THE RARER” Format PC (reviewed), Mobile Publisher Amanita Design Developer Amanita Design ETA Out now Players 1 Some games are just pure joy. Mario games have long since captured this undiluted strain of fun: playful, varied, and only too happy to mix things up. Every moment is an amusing discovery, and you can’t wait to share it with someone. Then there’s Chuchel. It’s pure mania. Every moment is hilarious, bizarre, and you have no idea how you’re going to explain any of it to anyone. Essentially a point-and-click puzzle game in the vein of Amanita Design’s previous games Samorost and Machinarium, Chuchel mixes things up with sheer absurdism. You play as the titular Chuchel, a ball of black fluff…

While there’s no shortage of distractions on offer around Kamurocho and Onomichi, the most substantial side-quest on offer is Clan Creator, an RTS minigame where you command entire street gangs in full-on brawls. You’ve got your standard foot soldiers, but the stand-outs are leaders with special skills such as AOE attacks or even healing. Some leaders you can recruit through side-quests, but you can also unlock rare ones – including series regulars Majima and Daigo and even real Japanese Pro Wrestlers – using Clan Codes that Sega has been sneaking around online in the run-up to launch (more are planned post-launch). Yet Clan Creator lacks the quirky charms of Kiryu’s past careers as a taxi driver or a real estate magnate. Besides, when you already get to bash in street…

“IT’S A GAME WHERE A WELSH FAIRY FLICKS A BOGEY AT A DIE SO YOU CAN CHEAT IN A GAME OF CHANCE” Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment Developer Level-5 ETA Out now Players 1 Our boy king usurped, his loyal subjects scattered around the world, and a band of followers dead set on helping our hero bring peace to the world by uniting it under a single, newly formed, banner. Ni No Kuni II’s story seems straightforward enough, but there’s an underlying tension consistently dragging you out of the action. After all, our hero who just wants peace brings it about through force. So is Ni No Kuni II actually a sharp satire on the toxicity of power and hereditary monarchy? Nope, it’s a game where a…

SEA IT ALL You’ll see the sea a lot. Don’t knock it, people pay loads for a home or hotel room with this sort of view. Much, if not most, of your time will be spent on your ship travelling between islands rather than adventuring on them, so it’s just as well that the sea looks amazing. Go for a paddle; it’s like being at Weymouth, only everybody’s out to kill you, instead of just the seagulls. PERPETUAL EMOTION There’s an emote wheel as well as a dialogue one. You can clap, point (but don’t do that, it’s rude), and more ways to show how you’re feeling without words. You don’t have to use it for other people’s benefit; take advantage of emotes for your makeshift holiday! Here for example,…

“BIG, GREEN, ANGRY, AND STOMPY, THE RAVENII ARE THOR: RAGNAROK’S HULK WITHOUT THE CHARISMA” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Modus Games Developer Iron Galaxy ETA Out now Players 1 We’re quite keen on Shadow Of The Colossus here, as you may have noticed recently. So when another game comes along that offers the chance to climb enormous monsters but, this time, chop off their limbs and decapitate them, we’re interested. The devs at Iron Galaxy have decided the eerie loneliness of SOTC isn’t for them, however, and have stuffed the game with things to hit and climb. And they’ve done it in the most generic way possible. Yes, with orcs – or maybe, because they’re so big, ogres. Big, green (later red), angry, and stompy, but called Ravenii, they’re…

Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Pub Focus Home Interactive Dev Passtech Games ETA Out now Players 1 Why save the world all by yourself when you can delegate? In this fantasy adventure, you command an army of stone warriors, and discover that rarest of treasures: a strategy game that actually works on consoles. Masters Of Anima succeeds by keeping things simple. You control the wizard Otto, who can run around and attack in typical action-RPG fashion. He, in turn, summons and orders around ‘Guardians’, golem-like minions. For the most part, you’ll command one category of warrior at a time, switching between them on the fly. With the click of a button you can order your archers to retreat, getting them clear of danger, before switching to your protectors and…

“THERE’S NOTHING FUNNIER THAN SEEING OTHER PEOPLE JUMPING IN FEAR!” We’re all used to games giving us choices – where to go next, who to talk to, what to do, whether our hair should be green or purple. It’s the beauty of the medium. But what if we took the freedom and interactivity that games offer and blended it into the realism of a TV show? That’s what the ambitious new CBBC show Last Commanders aims to do. Four teams of players participate from the comfort of their own homes, connecting via Skype to the dystopian sci-fi world of this first-person game/programme hybrid. They experience the action through the eyes and ears of their team’s Avatar, and can talk directly with their virtual counterpart, directing them to complete missions. “Imagine…

GROHL WITH IT A question for you GamesMaster: isn’t it about time we had an unnecessary crossover between a videogame and a rock band? I think you’ll find the answer is yes, and I have just the solution: FooFite Battle Royale. The battle bus can become a tour bus and the band can leap onto the island harvesting material with giant guitar axes. Anyway, any further suggestions for crossover titles? Paul Jones, email Sorry that we’ve not printed the ace PhotoShop of the Foo Fighters that accompanied this email – we feared Dave Grohl’s lawyers would have us for breakfast… As for crossovers – how about Guns N’ Rabbids? Tupac Man? Jet Set Radiohead? [Please stop – Ed] DOCTOR DOCTOR DOCTOR Hey Gamesmaster, I wanna say a big congratulations on…

Forget everything you know from Angelina Jolie’s portrayal. This Tomb Raider, much like the 2013 game, is a reboot in every sense if the word. Now played by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, 2018’s Lara is much more grounded and believable than the back-flipping, robot-killing, overconfident version of 2001. If you’ve played the game then you’ll already be familiar with the plot, but there are still a few surprises along the way. The film opens with Lara struggling to get by. Working as a bike courier in central London, she’s determined to make it on her own without help from the Croft empire, but she can’t even afford to pay for the gym where she gets a beating in the ring every week. Times are tough for ‘I want to try…

We live in a bold new era of multiplayer shooters. The joys of online ranged combat have never been so popular – Fortnite alone has 45 million players – or so rife with potential. But keeping up isn’t easy, and that’s where GamesMaster comes in. Over the following action-packed pages we’ll take you on a tour of duty through every essential online shooter experience available. If you’ve never played them, we’re here to tell you why you should and how to get started. If you’re already embracing the shooter revolution, we’ve got all the latest on your favourite game and tips for mastering it. So read on, soldier – you might even learn something……

Most Battle Royale players may not even realise that Fortnite has a fully-fledged PvE mode, let alone one that was originally intended to be the game’s core feature. But you should consider picking up Save The World even at its Early Access price tag, not least because any V-Bucks earned freely throughout its campaign can be spent on cosmetic items in Battle Royale. What’s more, Epic’s comprehensive tutorials offer a great way of learning advanced building techniques that can then be applied to your PvP tactics for securing that sweet Victory Royale online.…

Blizzard has done what it does best with Overwatch. The Irvine studio has a history of taking existing ideas and polishing them to a mirror shine, from reinventing the MMORPG with World Of Warcraft to bringing card games to the masses with Hearthstone. Combining the maps and classes of Team Fortress 2, and smashing them against DOTA-style abilities, Overwatch manages to be so much more than the sum of its parts. Overwatch pits two teams against each other in six-on-six skirmishes. Whether pushing payloads through London or holding the centre of a Greek town, teamplay is always top priority. Shooting plays a part, but this isn’t a game for lone wolves. At the centre of Overwatch is a web of counter-play and team compositions. With the ability to switch heroes…

“SURFACING LEVIATHANS WILL GIVE YOU A FRIGHT” Format TBA Developer Mighty Moth ETA Spring 2019 Web bit.ly/gmabove It appears to be becoming a habit among today’s indie developers: a small team tinkers with an idea in their spare time before taking the plunge and forming their own studio to finally get their game made. And Above’s origins are no different. A group of Danes calling themselves Mighty Moth is behind this top-down adventure where you fly around a world of sky pirates and sea monsters. It’s set in a flooded world, with just a few patches of land poking above the surface to form archipelagos. For the most part you’ll soar over them, the camera taking a distant bird’s-eye-view of a pillarbox-red propeller plane reminiscent of the one in Pilotwings.…

“ONE OF THE MOST HEART-RENDING CLIMAXES WE’VE PLAYED FOR ANY VIDEOGAME PROTAGONIST” Format PS4 Publisher Sega Developer Sega ETA Out now Players 1 Despite the Yakuza series having been around for over a decade, it’s only been in the past year that more people have become enamoured with its quintessential Japanese charm, which makes it even more bittersweet that its first outing designed exclusively for PS4 is also a swan song for its protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. After Nathan Drake and Geralt Of Rivia, we may have become more accustomed to saying goodbye to videogame characters for good, but Sega doesn’t just succeed in delivering an emotional finale, it does so while continuing the series’ careful balance of the heartfelt with the absolutely bonkers. Newcomers may find the story initially daunting.…

“IT’S ONE OF THE FEW GAMES WHERE YOU ALMOST FEEL BAD FOR THE BOSSES” Format Switch Publisher Nintendo Developer HAL Laboratory ETA Out now Players 1-4 Nintendo fans were well fed in 2017. Super Mario Odyssey, Breath Of The Wild, and Xenoblade 2 put us in a virtual food coma from which we are only just emerging. Kirby may seem a poor choice of halfway house; anyone who inhales food is not to be trusted on matters of the gut. But there’s a simplistic sugariness to Star Allies that makes it easy to wolf down, even if these are empty calories. Co-op is the focus, whether you’re with human pals (you only need one Joy-Con each) or conscripting AI-controlled enemies into your squad. It’s manic. With his fatal inhale and…

“ALL OF THE GLORIOUS PIRATICAL PARAPHERNALIA – PEG LEGS, LUSCIOUS JACKETS – IS EXPENSIVE” Format XO (reviewed), PC Publisher Microsoft Developer Rare ETA Out now Players MMO The idea of a game devoted entirely to the swashing of buckles, the shivering of timbers, and the acquiring of pieces of eight is a jolly rogering appealing one. And yet judging how successfully the idea has been implemented here is surprisingly difficult. This game is a beautiful monster; it will lure you in like an impossibly beautiful siren, and reward your curiosity with laughs and love. Until, that is, it turns on you with more speed and ferocity than a crew when all the grog has gone. There’s loads of fun to be had, but you’ll be sailing some rough seas, that’s…

“NOVELTY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME, WITH EVERY HIGH-OCTANE SETPIECE IMPRESSIVELY UNIQUE” Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher EA Developer Hazelight Studios ETA Out now Players 2 This new title from the creator of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is another two-man story-driven adventure, but A Way Out places control firmly in the hands of two separate players. Each takes the role of a prisoner, and the two are forced to work together to escape. It’s split-screen, but not in the traditional sense – even online players will see each other’s viewpoint, and in several sequences the split changes proportions to suit the moment. It tests players’ ability to communicate through a series of co-op themed puzzles and moments when they must mutally agree on a course of…

Format PC (reviewed), Mobile Pub Eko Dev Eko ETA Out now Players 1 Following 2015’s excellent Her Story, it was hard not to have high expectations for this latest project from developer Sam Barlow. Unfortunately, while #WarGames shares that game’s experimental spirit and live action focus, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as revolutionary Perhaps better dubbed ‘interactive media’ rather than a game in the traditional sense, it’s essentially a TV show where you choose the focus. The plot concerns a group of activist hackers – inspired both in-universe and out by the 1983 Matthew Broderick film – working against the establishment. The action takes place exclusively across multiple computer windows, from video calls to surveillance footage to web pages, and as things play out you’re able to click around to…

Before we called them first-person shooters, they were ‘Doom clones’ – a term that was dropped 1) because it was a bit insulting to these other games that often had a lot of their own ideas, and 2) because it’s impossible to call Quake a ‘Doom clone’ with a straight face. Still, the mid-’90s was a very special time in PC gaming, when a real playfulness and wave of creativity washed over the world of these so-called Doom clones. Before the reallybig money got involved and dour war-based shooters became the be-all, end-all for the genre, there was innovation and experimentation, jetpacks and blasters, cowboys and… pork scratchings? With all that in mind, here are six of the very best first-person shooters from the 1990s –…

Not sure which games to grab? Trust the experts (that’s us) to shine a light of clarity through your fog of confusion. Over this spread you’ll find GamesMaster’s 100 per cent scientifically accurate and indisputable list of the greatest games on modern machines – updated monthly – as well as the top five most vital exclusives on each of the major platforms. Pick one of these up and, buddy, you’re going to have yourself a good time. 1 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD Switch / Wii U Nintendo casually revolutionises the open-world genre with perhaps the best launch title ever. Explore, fight, and cook your way across Hyrule. 2 GRAND THEFT AUTO V PS4 / XO / PC / PS3 / 360 Rockstar’s most detailed, immersive cityscape…