Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 186 i GamesTM

I don’t think we’ve seen the full impact of what Monolith managed to achieve with Shadow Of Mordor yet, but it must be coming. To my mind its introduction of the Nemesis system is up there with Batman: Arkham Asylum’s combat as a piece of action game design that should and will be imitated by other developers. So why the hesitancy? Well, for a start I think there was a lot of scepticism surrounding Warner Bros.’s latest Lord Of The Rings tie-in, much as there was when Arkham Asylum was about to release. We’ve been burned pretty frequently by licensed products and SOM looked a little too much like Assassin’s Creed for comfort at times. Once it landed and we could all see its final quality and competency it was…

“ Many will say that Foundation was too little too late, but those people would be doing themselves a disservice ” There’s a startling trend emerging in the modern industry. What – in 2017 – constitutes as a ‘finished game’? Venture a decade back and ‘Going Gold’ would have been the general adage, the moment that a game transitioned from active development to being printed and pressed. Now, the lines have become blurred, much to the detriment of the early adopter and to the benefit of those able to keep their preorders in their pants for a few extra weeks. Three ‘indie’ games stand above the rest in this respect, standing as a testament to the thought that good things come to those who wait: League Of Legends, Minecraft and,…

“ Both long-time fans and people who are new to the series can enjoy a fresh new Splatoon experience ” HISASHI NOGAMI NINTENDO EPD CONCEPT • A multiplayer-centric third-person shooter where bullets and explosives are traded for rollers, paint bombs and all-out messy mayhem. INFORMATION Details Format: Switch Origin: Japan Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo EPD Release: Summer 2017 Players: 1-8 Developer Profile One of the internal studios at work within Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters (and one of the newest, having only been established in 2015), Nintendo EPD has one seriously eclectic resume, including three Zelda entries and a couple of contributions to Animal Crossing. Expect a lot more cuteness with Splatoon 2 then. Developer History The Legend Of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes 2015 [3DS] Star Fox Zero 2016 [Wii U] Super…

“ Battalion 1944 is an infantry-based first-person shooter with an emphasis on raw skill. No grinding, no exosuits, just you and your skill as a player. ” PRESS RELEASE BULKHEAD INTERACTIVE CONCEPT • Upstart studio Bulkhead Interactive is going old school with Battalion 1944, a multiplayer-only shooter for those that miss the golden age of FPS gaming. INFORMATION Details Format: PS4, PC, Xbox One Origin: UK Publisher: Square Enix Collective Developer: Bulkhead Interactive Release: 2017 Players: TBC Developer Profile Bulkhead was born from the merger between two UK indie studios, Deco Digital and Bevel Studios. The partnership began in an effort to get Pneuma: Breath Of Life out of the door, one of the first console titles to ship built on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4. Developer History Pneuma: Breath Of…

Format: TBC Publisher: Broken Rules Developer: In-house ETA: TBC 2017 1 This beautifully-styled puzzler has been on the convention circuit for a while now picking up buzz with its peculiar tale of an old man who, you guessed it, is on a journey. There are three key factors to why it’s such a fascinating release – first, the artwork is gorgeous with something of a storybook illustration feel. Second is the puzzling mechanic that sees you manipulate the environment to create a path, dragging items around to see what new routes it creates – it’s simple, but it makes the world tactile and invites a lot of investigation. Third is the story itself, which rarely for a game, will ponder issues of ageing, memory and more.…

t’s interesting to be able to catch up with you between major game releases. What do you get up to in gaps like this where you’re not directly promoting a new title? Frank: It kind of depends on the release. We both obviously have really different responsibilities, but typically you’re just working either on sustaining marketing for this one or the actual production of the next one. Kiki: I think we have the big ‘tent pole’ projects and then we also have a lot of smaller things going on both in terms of internal studio infrastructure and also a lot of our ancillary storytelling programs. Frank, for instance, has a whole franchise team, which works across the studio in terms of shepherding the universe and canon across all of the…

“A FOCUSED LIBRARY FILLED WITH UNIQUE NICHE GAMES THAT YOU WOULDN’T FIND ON ANY OTHER PLATFORM” Ask the average gamer about the current state of Sony’s PlayStation Vita and they’ll most likely confidently reply that the console’s been dead in the water for some time. It’s a valid comment to make, particularly when you consider the number of great Vita games that rarely get covered in today’s mainstream gaming press, but it’s not wholly accurate. In fact, if we’re completely honest, it’s downright wrong. There were 126 games were released for the PS Vita last year – sure, a large number of them were digital or exist only as weird and exotic delicacies in Japan, but they’re out there and they add further weight to the proof that Sony’s supposedly-dead…

DETAILS FORMAT: PS4 OTHER FORMATS: Xbox One, PC ORIGIN: France PUBLISHER: Focus Home Interactive DEVELOPER: Cyanide Studio PRICE: £32.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1-2 ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes When it comes to the sneaky world of virtual stealth, it’s easy to imagine the genre has already reached its pinnacle with the likes of Metal Gear Solid V and Dishonored 2 . So with Snake and Corvo having set the furtive bar so high, is there really a place for a foul-mouthed goblin with a drug addiction? Styx: Shards Of Darkness – the sequel to 2014’s promising yet ever-so-slightly broken Master Of Shadows – certainly isn’t the best stealth game you’ll ever play, but that doesn’t mean it won’t tickle that covert-shaped itch. Developer Cyanide…

SOMETIMES IT SHIFTS AND BECOMES A SIDE-SCROLLING PLATFORMER, OTHER TIMES IT SWITCHES TO A BULLET-HELL SHOOTER DETAILS FORMAT: PS4 OTHER FORMATS: PC ORIGIN: Japan PUBLISHER: Square-Enix DEVELOPER: PlatinumGames PRICE: £49.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1 ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes Director Yoko Taro has remained in relative obscurity, despite having worked at several large games companies in publishers. However Nier: Automata is much more than the sum of the collaboration between this quirky director and action game creators PlatinumGames. Combining the style of PlatinumGames’ hallmark action with the creativity and sheer weirdness of Yoko Taro’s direction and story, what we’re left with is a game that feels like it only exists in the mind of a forum-dweller’s dreams. We kicked off Nier: Automata being introduced to two principal characters, the androids 2B…

COLLECT THE COINS There were 30 coins in the game and the idea was that these needed to be collected so that Dizzy and Daisy could afford to buy themselves a house once they were reunited. MANY OBJECTS Fantasy World Dizzy had 32 objects including three heavy boulders, four shiny gold coins, a dragon egg, thick rug and a bottle of whisky – down the latter to get Dizzy drunk. LOTS OF SCREENS The game was made up of 60 screens and there was a lot of traipsing back and forth as you collected objects and used them so solve the numerous puzzles that appeared on pretty much every one of them. AVOIDING DEATH Dizzy faced 12 hazards from fire to deep water to spikes, hawks and lava, but luckily,…

“ Destiny 2 looks bold and exciting, in a way its predecessor could never quite grasp ” In many respects, Activision Blizzard has had something of a difficult year. Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare failed to attract the critical and commercial reception the publisher so clearly believed it deserved, while Destiny continued to fail in its attempts to maintain a consistent beat between launching new content, refreshing in-game events and cultivating a competitive culture. The counter to all of that, of course, is that the acquisition of King Digital continues to pay huge dividends, microtransactions for Black Ops III continue to be hugely profitable for the company, while the successful launch of Overwatch more than compensated for Infinite Warfare’s shortfall in sales. This has given the company some amount…

It was back in 2006 when Microsoft released the first version of the XNA Build to aspiring developers with the promise of easy access to PC development tools and the potential to release games on the Xbox 360. This year, ID@Xbox is bringing that process full circle as Microsoft gets set for the launch of the Xbox Live Creators Program, which will soon allow bedroom hobbyists and small studios alike to develop their own games on both Windows 10 and Xbox One with the potential to release their work on both platforms. Right now the Xbox Live Creators Program is part of the Xbox Insider program as it continues to be finalised and refined, but as ID@Xbox regional lead Agostino Simonetta told us, it’s an exciting new step in the…

CONCEPT • A third-person shooter with a strong focus on experimenting with team combinations in order to develop your own playing style. INFORMATION Details Format: PS4, Xbox One, PC Origin: USA Publisher: Deep Silver Developer: Volition Release: 18 August 2017 Players: 1 Developer Profile Volition has long specialised in the creation of open-world environments, the studio then filling those spaces with the tools and means for the player to create carnage. Prior to the launch of Saints Row, Volition’s games had been fairly serious in tone and content, but the Illinois-based team has found its groove in the production of outlandish characters undertaking wacky, surreal goals. Developer History FreeSpace: The Great War 1998 [PC] Red Faction 2001 [Multi] Saints Row 2006 [Multi] Saints Row IV 2013 [Multi] High Point Red…

“ Your Stage [is] an innovative rally route creation tool that allows you to produce an almost-infinite number of unique stages at the press of a button ”PRESS RELEASE CODEMASTERS CONCEPT • This seeks to combine the thrills and realism of Dirt Rally with the fearless fun and excitement previously seen in Dirt 2 and Dirt 3. INFORMATION Details Format: PS4, PC, Xbox One Origin: UK Publisher: Codemasters Developer: In-house Release: 9 June 2017 Players: TBC Developer Profile Codemasters is one of the oldest British game studios. Founded in 1986, the legendary outfit has gone on to develop some of the most famous franchises of all time, including Colin McRae Rally, the Dizzy series, Operation Flashpoint and many more. Codies will live forever. Developer History F1 2011 2011 [Multi] Grid…

Format: PC Publisher: Fluxscopic Ltd Developer: In-house ETA: TBC 2 As a RPG that attempts to mix the fantastical with the everyday, Mayhem In Single Valley is a fascinating hybrid of concepts. It’s a game in which your task is to try and leave town, but having witnessed a strange attack, hero Jack has other issues to deal with, too. It’s a game in which you can use a tissue to grab a spider out of a bathtub and then choose to flush it or set it free, but also one where you can dodge lightning bolts and get your throat chewed on by squirrels. There’s all sorts of interesting things going on, not least of which is an apparent karma system and a structure that reminds us of classic…

WE’RE PRETTY SURE EVEN SUPERMAN 64 WOULD BE MARGINALLY BETTER IF IT HAD A CO-OP CAMPAIGN DETAILS FORMAT: PS4 OTHER FORMATS: Xbox One, PC ORIGIN: France PUBLISHER: Ubisoft DEVELOPER: Ubisoft Paris PRICE: £49.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1-4 Online ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes ‘Press R3 to knock out’ reads the text prompt, one of the first of many tutorial prompts you’ll get throughout Wildlands . It’s that done-to-death situation, you’ve seen a thousand times before, where there’s a guard facing away from you and unless you run out in front of him, he’ll never turn around. He is there to teach you the same lesson every other game has told you – this is how to do a stealth. You’ve done this before. In fact, you’ve done a…

DESPITE THE VAST EXPANSE OF POSSIBILITIES, LEGO WORLDS IS A SHALLOW EXPERIENCE THAT WILL STAGNATE WITH ALARMING SPEED DETAILS FORMAT: Xbox One OTHER FORMATS: PS4, Switch, PC ORIGIN: UK PUBLISHER: Warner Bros DEVELOPER: TT Games PRICE: £24.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1 (2 online) ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes For every touch of genius in this gorgeous, block-choc world, there’s half a dozen irritations to dampen your enjoyment. A crappy camera, poor inventory system, a useless map, a confusing navigation page, the maddening music (thank god you can turn it off – you’ll know what we mean when you meet your first Troublemaker): it’s deep, itching-beneath-the-skin levels of frustration. Because beneath all that, there’s bold, bright, and brilliant touches… but how many will actually bother to play long enough to discover it?…

Released: June 17, 2000 Publisher: Eidos Interactive Developer: Ion Storm System: PC, Mac, PS2 DESPITE EXISTING FOR over two decades, the ‘immersive sim’ is still difficult to define. But, for many, it is the quintessential gaming experience; a genre that houses but a handful of games, many of which are widely considered to be among the best ever committed to code. These games are complex constructions, wildly ambitious efforts that eschew common design and narrative practices to create experiences unlike any other – as if it is yours, and yours alone, to command and dismantle. Where Looking Glass Studios first breathed life into the genre with Ultimate Underworld – and later refined it in Thief and System Shock – it is Ion Storm’s Deus Ex that continues to stand as…

THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT • This first-person stealth adventure was groundbreaking in so many ways. It was one of the first PC stealth games to use light and sound as central game mechanics, with its first-person perspective opening up a whole new avenue of intuitive design and approach to designers and players alike. While it focused heavily on stealth, its sublime AI, level and mechanical design makes it a must play. SYSTEM SHOCK 2 • Created in partnership between Looking Glass Studios and Ken Levine’s Irrational Games, System Shock 2 is unquestionably one of the best games of all time. It elevated itself above the original by providing an unparalleled sense of place, drowning the player in its terrifying, mystifying atmosphere. System Shock 2 does a great job of undermining…

“ There is just so much going on in that game ” SETH SHAIN, ARKANE STUDIOS “A game that was hugely influential to me was the original Deus Ex . I was just beginning college when I played it for the first time… there is just so much going on in that game. The narrative was so well told, it’s an amazing immersive sim and it has just got all of these amazing systems; it was full of all of these little moments that were so impactful. It really inspired me. It’s been the great pleasure of my career to work very closely with the people responsible for that game for the duration of my career. Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare, Steve Powers and Marty…

“ We saw some titles, which didn’t have a very good launch because of a lack of content ” KATSUHIRO HARADA BANDAI NAMCO CONCEPT • Tekken 7 adds some new systems to its extremely popular 3D fighting base and looks to dethrone Capcom as the king of the fighters. INFORMATION Details Format: PS4, Arcade, Xbox One, PC Origin: Japan Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: In-house Release: 2 June 2017 Players: 1-2 Developer Profile The ever-colourful Katsuhiro Harada has been the project producer on every instalment of Tekken to date, transitioning into a series figurehead in recent years, doing more public appearances as the ‘face’ of Tekken. Also, has a friendly rivalry with Yoshinori Ono, Street Fighter’s producer. Developer History Tekken 1994 [PSone, Arcade] Tekken 3 1997 [PSone, Arcade] Street Fighter X…

“ Being constantly compared to the current slew of colourful shooters on the market made us realise we needed to stand out from the crowd ” CLIFF BLESZINSKI BOSS KEY PRODUCTIONS CONCEPT • It’s low-gravity shooter mayhem as the Law and the Breakers compete for dominance. This is a hero shooter with a mean streak. INFORMATION Details Format: PC Origin: USA Publisher: Nexon Developer: Boss Key Productions Release: TBC 2017 Players: TBC Developer Profile Cliff Bleszinski needs little introduction since he’s been at the forefront game design for the last 20 years. Boss Key, however, is a studio built with his game design philosophy running through it and this is its first release. Developer History Jazz Jackrabbit 1994 [PC] Unreal Tournament 1999 [Multi] Gears Of War 2006 [360] Bulletstorm 2011…

How do you create an original story within one of the most analysed, celebrated and scrutinised works of fantasy of all-time? It’s simple, you don’t build just one, you build thousands. Monolith Productions – much like JRR Tolkien himself – is in the business of ‘mythopoeia’, of establishing myth and of cultivating adventure within the war-ravaged land of Middle-earth. Set in the six-decade window between The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, Monolith seized the space it needed when it came to creating 2014’s Shadow Of Mordor – even if it meant treading on so much of the entrenched lore and tone that was established by Tolkien so many decades ago. Not that it sees much of a problem with that. “Lord Of The Rings is kind of…

“I’VE TOTALLY BEEN ASKED BY PEOPLE REPEATEDLY WHETHER WE HAVE SPECIAL TOOLS FOR WRITING IN THE IN-WORLD THING WITH PATHS THAT CAN CROSS AND I’M ALWAYS LIKE ‘WELL, NO’” As you begin Tacoma and your contracted AI Communications Specialist Amy Ferrier signs in to access the titular abandoned space station, she logs in with sign language to spell her name on the augmented reality interface. It’s a small moment, one that will likely be repeated as the game progresses and your player character needs to interact with more systems further on in the station, but it’s a choice that carries interesting analogues throughout Fullbright’s follow-up to Gone Home . Issues surrounding communication lie at the heart of the biggest challenges and biggest successes…

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT CAN OCCUR WHEN AMBITION CLASHES WITH EXECUTION DETAILS FORMAT: Xbox One OTHER FORMATS: PS4, PC ORIGIN: Canada PUBLISHER: EA DEVELOPER: BioWare PRICE: £49.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1-4 ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes In many ways, Mass Effect Andromeda is truly impressive, a testament to the trials and tribulations that many developers face when tackling triple-A videogame design in the modern era. It’s an example of what can occur when ambition clashes with execution, or the lack thereof, as is the case in BioWare’s latest endeavour. While Andromeda has its rare moments of clarity, they are so often punctured by consistent problems surrounding narrative, characterisation, gameplay and technical stability, helping to create what is perhaps BioWare’s most uneven RPG to date. As a studio,…

YOU’LL OFTEN MEET SKETCHY CHARACTERS, WHILE BEING MADE CONSTANTLY AWARE THAT YOU’RE JUST AS SUSPICIOUS AS THEY ARE DETAILS FORMAT: PS4 OTHER FORMATS: PS3 ORIGIN: Japan PUBLISHER: Deep Silver DEVELOPER: Atlus PRICE: £49.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1 ONLINE REVIEWED: N/A For a game that’s themed around thievery, Persona 5 hasn’t plundered much from the games that have come and gone since the release of Persona 4 back in 2008. If you’ve played either the third or fourth game in the series, you’ll be right at home here as many of the systems and themes have been carried over to this new instalment. Having said that, Persona 4 is regarded as one of the greatest RPGs to come from Japan, so that’s no bad thing – and there are…

DETAILS FORMAT: Switch OTHER FORMATS: Japan PUBLISHER: Shin’en Multimedia DEVELOPER: In-house PRICE: £16.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1-8 ONLINE REVIEWED: Yes There’s seldom a better showcase for a new handheld than a flashy racing game. Ridge Racer blew us away when we first saw it running on PSP, WipEout 2048 did the same on Vita and while Switch isn’t strictly a handheld, we got the same kind of thrill from seeing the slick and stylish Fast RMX pelt along at 60fps in portable mode here. It’s a game that sits squarely between F-Zero and WipEout, blending the genuine future motorsport feel of the latter with the arcade handling and presentation of the former and doing so to great effect. And while it’s a clear homage that occasionally veers a…

“ I still remember playing it religiously ” ED BOON, NETHERREALM “A game I love? Oh, that’s easy! It’s got to be Robotron: 2084 . There was this arcade game called Robotron that came out in like 1982 and I just became obsessed with it. I still remember playing it religiously, it was the fastest-paced game I had ever played – before or since. If you’re good at it, it’s the one that probably draws the most adrenaline out of somebody. It’s one of those games that when you play it all day you close your eyes and you can see it there, playing out right in front of you. That will always be 'my' game. We actually have a…

NINTENDO SWITCH MANUFACTURER: NINTENDO PRICE: £279.99 IN THE SWITCH Nintendo has unleashed its most desirable (and powerful) device ever onto the world. By its very nature, the Switch is a premium product; the direct antithesis to the child’s play design of the Wii U and laboured look of the outdated 3DS. A beautiful, vibrant, capacitive multi-touch 1280x720 screen is flanked by two lightweight, detachable controllers (called *shudder* Joy-Cons) that enable robust multiplayer/co-operative experiences and stunning triple-A gaming both on the move and in the home. The modular design, despite looking like it could be the console’s greatest gimmick, is in fact its greatest strength – perfectly bridging the gap between console and handheld play. Whether you’re using Switch from the sofa – plugged away safely in the included dock that…