Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2015 i New Age Gaming

www.facebook.com/ NAGMagazine Emilio Govender You guys ‘n this magazine rock, this is a really an interesting magazine that speaks my kinda language, keep up the good work. Gideon Kotze Oh magnificent leaders of all things gaming in southern most Africa, benevolent Lords and Lordettes of the great constellation of NAG Prime... Santa skipped my ass this year... Bradley Jordan Basic game-play in Sim City, when building more houses you need more power stations and not rely on the a few oldies. I think I should get President Zuma and Eskom a copy Pieter Gouws Oooo another next gen game? So that’s about 30 to 40 gigs of game and what 50 gig of updates and bug fixes? Michael Horn Thanks for the poster. Been waiting for it for a long…

I had to alt+TAB out to start playing the MP3, but it just seemed like such an apt thing to do, blasting The Raspberries’ Go All The Way as my Sidewinder was raised up onto landing platform no. 34, deep inside the cavernous innards of the Ocellus-type, Gidzenko Ring station. The station hung in orbit above the one planet that circled the Chamunda system’s twin suns. I was about to make my first cargo run: a modest four units of food that were required in an outpost about three solar systems away from Gidzenko Ring station. The pay wasn’t that much, but then again the job wasn’t too difficult. I needed that easy start; I needed a job that required little concentration so that I might give my full attention…

RELEASE DATE / 20 March 2015 PLATFORM / 360 / PC / PS3 / PS4 / XBO GENRE / First person shooter DEVELOPER / Visceral Games PUBLISHER / Electronic Arts WEBSITE / www.battlefield.com/hardline THE HEAT IS ON Visceral are under pressure, the kind just short of what’s needed to produce a diamond. DICE’s Star Wars: Battlefront is scheduled for this year (although we’ll probably only see it early 2016) and Visceral need to make sure Battlefield Hardline won’t shine for just a few months then fade into obscurity once players start assaulting Hoth in ATATs and hijacking speeder bikes on Endor. They also have to prove that Hardline isn’t just some elaborate cops and robbers Battlefield 4 expansion sold at full price. Let’s also not forget that they had to…

He arrived suddenly and without warning, an angel of retribution borne, mighty and vengeful, upon the wings of a gathering storm. Basically, some random guy from my Xbox Live friend list dropped out of the network aether and onto the nearby rooftops of Harran, and he had super high level weapons to share with us. I told Geoff, and he said it’s cheating, but one-hitting zombies in the first disorienting and occasionally terrifying hours of Dying Light was a special kind of glorious. Besides, I think Geoff is just jelly that he had to bash things over and over with a busted wrench until they were, like, “Okay, jeez, I give up. Just stop bashing me with that busted wrench.” Meanwhile, back in the zombie apocalypse, it’s not like having…

blackguards 2 continues with the precedent that the first game set: it’s a turn-based RPG following in the legacy from such titles as Vandal Hearts and Shadowrun Returns. The question is, can Daedalic Entertainment continue to milk the Dark Eye universe for all its worth? Familiarity with the previous game is helpful, but not necessary. This time, players are cast as Cassia, a noblewoman whose husband Marwan has some serious issues and orders her to be locked away in a dungeon and her kitten killed [Wut. Ed]. The dungeon in question is a labyrinth populated by rather large spiders whose venom causes insanity in whoever they bite. After four long years and countless bites, she finally escapes, though her face has become severely deformed and there’s little left of her…

The release of the GTX 960 added another SKU to NVIDIA’s 900 series family. This time, the newest addition replaces the GTX 760 which, in comparison to the GTX 780 and the GTX 770, has been short lived on the market. As you would expect the GTX 960 is based on the Maxwell architecture, the GM206 core to be exact. This core is 2.94 billion gates, and built on the same 28nm TSMC node as all other GPUs in the last two years. Given that the full complement GM204 core that powers the GTX 980 and 970 is 3.5 billion gates, it is suspected that with just half a billion fewer gates, the GM206 core could house more functional parts, but at present are disabled giving us a core that…

Website / www.astrum.co.za ERP / R499 Supplier / Astrum South Africa SPECS TOTAL RMS 5W DRIVER 2-inch, 4 ohm FREQUENCY RESPONSE 30Hz ~ 20kHz Doubling as both a charging dock and a Bluetooth speaker, the BT-032D easily syncs with your smartphone or tablet to access the media stored within. It’ll also interface with pretty much any device that can output its audio via a 3.5mm jack, and functions as a 2,600 mAh power bank to keep your tablet/smartphone charged up via the built-in USB charging port. Couple all this with the fact that the BT-032D can also manage hands-free calls, and you’ve got yourself a very useful gadget. Its build quality doesn’t match that of more expensive Bluetooth speakers from better-known brands, and aesthetically it’s not much to look at,…

*DISCLAIMER / Most of the letters sent to this fine publication are printed more or less verbatim (that means we don’t edit or fix them for you slow kids at the back), so ignore any spelling or grammatical errors. It’s not us… it’s you. letters@nag.co.za Letter of the Month March 2015 From: Justin Van Huyssteen Subject: Games turned me into a monster Video games have made me into some kind of a monstrous being! They have transformed me from a snot nosed little child to an English major who enjoys reading classic literature and poetry! Oh, how the violent, violent video games I have played have made me so evil! Without a dosage of Manhunt, Hotline Miami and other horrendously violent games I would never have become this calm a…

Son of the ancient god Ba’hatma-nut and founder of the Netherlands, Rodain is incredibly passionate about the colour orange. He’s actually got a tattoo of the word orange on his lower back, but oddly enough the tattoo’s blue. “What do we do now?” The Global Game Jam is a yearly 48-hour game development competition where participants find courage in the face of extreme time adversity. It’s probably the jam event that South Africans most participate in – with dedicated venues, scheduled unveilings and all the other fun little trappings and rituals which help build an atmosphere around manic game creation. South African developers produced 25 entries this year, under the theme “What do we do now?” The full list can be found at the official Global Game Jam site (globalgamejam.org/2015/games).…

RELEASE DATE / TBA PLATFORM / PC GENRE / Multiplayer online battle arena DEVELOPER / Blizzard Entertainment PUBLISHER / Blizzard Entertainment WEBSITE / eu.battle.net/heroes “These objectives, collectively called mechanics, are likely to be the biggest cause of divide between those who enjoy and those who dislike Heroes of the Storm” I consider myself a player of a broad range of games, but of all the types that exist, games belonging to the relatively new genre of MOBA have never held my attention for more than a match or two. The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre doesn’t appeal to me for a variety of reasons, but almost everything that Blizzard creates does appeal to me (except for WoW, because I like my free time), so I find myself oddly drawn towards…

grim Fandango has always had a special place in the hearts of classic adventure game fans thanks to its narrative depth, rich characters, and impressive game length. At its time, it was LucasArts’ most challenging adventure game ever produced, and it’s high time that it received the polish that it’s always needed to make it the game it deserves to be. You’d think then that a remaster is the perfect way to give Grim that polish, and it does a good enough job, but I can’t shake the feeling that more should’ve been done. All of the characters have received a fresh coat of paint in the form of high-res textures that retain their original stylings, so they’re sharper but no more detailed, with the exception of a bit of…

Understanding the GTX 970 bug! More sensationalism than reality. In late January through to early February there was a discovery made via an end-user program that the much-loved GTX 970 graphics card was behaving in a seemingly unusual way when its entire frame buffer (video memory) was used. Essentially, the last 500MiB (yes this is the correct way of writing 500 megabytes as per IEEE standard) of the physically available 4GiB was performing much slower than the larger chunk of the memory pool. The tool used to investigate this was a somewhat simplistic CUDA-based compute program which claimed as its primary purpose was the measurement of GPU frame buffer performance. The program showed relatively linear performance figures for the first 3.5GiB, then a dramatic fall in performance for the remaining…

Website / www.benq.com ERP / R6,199 Supplier / Rectron SPECS NATIVE RESOLUTION 1920x1080 (24”) REFRESH RATE 144Hz (1ms) INPUTS Dual link DVI, HDMI (1.4a), DisplayPort BACKLIGHT TECHNOLOGY White LED For all the money that is generated via professional competitive gaming one would imagine that gaming monitors would be at the forefront for many display vendors. This isn’t the case, even though we have many high scan rate monitors to choose from. Other than that particular aspect of gaming monitors, most vendors ignore or rather choose to walk a middle ground between competitive gamers and casual users. With the BenQ XL2430T the focus is squarely on gaming. In fact, it is particularly competitive gaming. Not surprising given the vendor’s heavy investment into eSports and the deep product line up to match.…

Website / www.corex.co.za ERP / R1,350 Supplier / Corex SPECS DRIVERS 40mm with neodymium magnets FREQUENCY RESPONSE 20Hz – 20kHz IMPEDANCE 32ohm SENSITIVITY @ 1KHZ 112db CABLE LENGTH 2m braided USB cable When a piece of hardware’s selling point is “LIGHTS”, it’s fair to be a little concerned going in. I wish that Razer adopted a more subtle approach to their Chroma range, because, gosh, this headset is fantastic. The lightshow is really just a side note. Build quality and thoughtfulness of design on the Kraken 7.1 is good, but suffers a few shortfalls. Everything feels solid where it should be, and well put together. The ear cups fold up for storage and transportation. They don’t fold sideways for sitting around your neck, but thankfully the large padded cups are…

Website / www.cougar-world.com ERP / R430 Supplier / COUGAR SPECS KEYS Scissor-switch mechanism ANTI-GHOSTING Up to 19 simultaneous key presses BACKLIGHTING Seven colours, optional breathing effect COUGAR’s 200K gaming keyboard is solidly built, employing quality materials to ensure that its ultra-slim frame feels sturdy. At only R430, there’s fantastic value for money here, offering many features that are traditionally locked to expensive high-end keyboards. There’s customisable backlighting (you can switch between seven colour presets, adjust the lighting’s brightness and enable a breathing effect), built-in media keys (activated using a function key modifier, which is also used for many of the keyboard’s more advanced features), and it even gives left-handed gamers the option to have the arrow keys replace the WASD keys. The board is pleasantly comfortable during use, with soft,…

WEBSITE / marvel.com/comics/unlimited RRP / $9.99 (R120) per month / $69.99 (R820) per year Now more than ever, Marvel superheroes are in. Like, seriously in. What used to be the realm of the most stereotypical nerd is now summer blockbuster material, and the world of Marvel comics has never looked more appealing. However, with stories and history stretching back almost 60 years, comic books may be a difficult hobby to get into. Besides the prohibitive costs, there are just staggering amounts of series, crossovers, retcons, events, alternate timelines, and reboots, so most of what you’ll see on shelves is only the tip of the iceberg. What you need is a massive collection to read at your leisure, something that will let you explore everything you’ve been missing out on. That’s…

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then you better stop lurking and sign up for the forums. Don’t judge us from the outside, judge us from the inside. And then once you’re in, don’t judge us at all. Help us judge the outside instead. Join us at www.nag.co.za/forums/ QUESTION / What failed game do you think should make a comeback? Bulletstorm, hells bells that game was fun. - tarisma Fable, but in a similar style to TLC. - Toxxyc Duke Nukem. Forever was a mess but a new game with a properly managed team could revive the series. - LazyDemoni Psychonauts. Granted, Double Fine seems to be sniffing paint thinners lately, but still, Psychonauts. - Squirly My vote is for Hellgate: London. It was a terrible game…

Pippa’s childhood dream was to be the first astronaut to drive a car underwater. Why she chose such a specifically bizarre goal is part of the reason she was eventually institutionalised. This is probably the most name appropriate piece (with regards to the title of my column) that I’ve written in a while. Any person who has been gaming for a significant amount of time will understand the occasional obsession that develops when you play a certain game a great deal. Whether it’s Call of Duty, Dragon Age or FIFA, obsession rears its head in the weirdest places. Actually... wait have I ever explained why my column is called The Game Stalker? No? Well apart from the obvious reason that I play a lot of video games and hence “stalk”…

RELEASE DATE / 17 March 2015 PLATFORM / PC / PS4 / XBO / Wii U GENRE / Racing DEVELOPER / Slightly Mad Studios PUBLISHER / Slightly Mad Studios / Bandai Namco (distributor) WEBSITE / www.driveclub.com “It’s like Shift, but with more cars and a little bit of help from the Stig.” If there’s any particular reason I’d give for someone to play Project CARS, it would come down to a single sentence: “It’s like Shift, but with more cars and a little bit of help from the Stig.” Created by Slightly Mad Studios, Project CARS started out as an Early Access game on Steam and it quickly climbed the ranks to join other racing titles like Assetto Corsa and Bugbear’s Wreckfest, duking it out for pole position in the…

Question / Are you a lone wolf or a team player? DANE “BARKSKIN” REMENDES I’m normally a lone wolf. It’s probably because I grew up playing tons of free-for-all matches in Quake and Unreal Tournament. Still, I like to think I can function as part of a team when it’s needed. CURRENTLY PLAYING Dying Light, Heroes of the Storm, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II DELANO “DELANO” CUZZUCOLI I prefer team play. Working cooperatively towards a goal or against a common enemy is more satisfying. CURRENTLY PLAYING The Talos Principle GEOFF “GEOMETRIX” BURROWS It depends on my mood. Sometimes I’ll happily spend whole matches supporting other players, but other times I’ll ignore everything else and blindly gun for objectives on my own. CURRENTLY PLAYING Grim Fandango HD, Dying Light, Warhammer…

being the new guy in the zombie apocalypse is a tough gig. Everyone expects you to be insufferably useful. “Hey New Guy, I left my little brother trapped in a zombie-infested hovel, would you be a peach and go rescue him for me? I’d go, but I sprained my retina doing push-ups,” shouts one inconsiderate sod while you’re on the way to the bathroom, seemingly oblivious of your desperate need to take care of some deeply personal business. Before you’re even done hurriedly complying to his request because you’re about to leak fluids all over the nice, clean (well, nice and clean insofar as the post-apocalypse allows) floor, someone else is tapping you on the shoulder, excitedly explaining that they could fashion some incense to lessen the supernatural stench in…

yes, The Talos Principle is a first-person puzzle game made by the same people who gave us the mindless extravaganza that is Serious Sam. It’s a bit perplexing, even more so because The Talos Principle is actually a damn good game, especially in a sea of similar, lacklustre titles attempting to cash in on the success of Portal. Players are placed in the role of an android who awakens in what appears to be the ruins of an ancient garden. Guided by an unseen, omnipresent voice who identifies himself as Elohim, the android sets out to prove himself worthy by solving puzzles and displaying the ability to think and reason. It’s apparent from the onset that the environment is some sort of holodeck-esque simulation, with Elohim and his unseen henchmen…

PSU Corsair AX1500i PSU R5,799 / www.corsair.com GRAPHICS EVGA GTX 980 Classified R11,999 / www.evga.com OS DRIVE OCZ Vector 150 R2,899 / www.ocz.com STORAGE DRIVE WD Black 4TB FZEX R3,199 / www.wdc.com CHASSIS Corsair Obsidian 900D R4,299 / www.corsair.com DISPLAY BenQ XL2430T Gaming Monitor R6,199 www.benq.com KEYBOARD Razer BlackWidow Ultimate R1,899 / www.razerzone.com COOLER Cooler Master Nepton 280L R1,399 / www.coolermaster.com MOUSE GAMDIAS Zeus gaming mouse R869 / www.gamdias.com MOUSE MAT Razer Ironclad R599 / www.razerzone.com SOUND Creative Sound Blaster ZxR R3,599 / www.soundblaster.com HEADPHONES HyperX Cloud R1,299 / www.kingston.com INTEL INTEL CORE I7 5960X R13,999 / www.intel.com MSI X99S XPOWER AC R6,199 / www.msi.com CORSAIR…

Website / www.gigabyte.com ERP / R5,499 Supplier / Rectron SPECS CHIPSET Intel X99 MEMORY 4x 280-pin DDR4 CPU SUPPORT LGA 2011-v3 EXPANSION 4x PCIe 16X, 4x PCIe 1X SIZE ATX For years on end, GIGABYTE’s orange and black overclocking boards have been legends of sorts within the community. From the original X58-A right up to the latest X99-SOC Champion, they have always been met with great expectations and for the most part they have risen to expectations. Unfortunately as we had feared when the X99 chipset was introduced, most vendors including GIGABYTE had a good motherboard, but there was the Rampage V Extreme which stood lightyears ahead of the rest. It seemed we were destined to have a repeat of the X79 lifecycle with no alternatives to a single motherboard,…

Website / www.razerzone.com ERP / R700 Supplier / Corex SPECS SENSOR Optical, up to 10,000 DPI BUTTONS Five, programmable ACCELERATION 50 G REPORT RATE (USB) Up to 1,000 reports per second Razer’s DeathAdder has always been a firm favourite in the gaming world – a no-frills workhorse that does its job exceptionally well. Over the years Razer has improved on the design, like by upgrading its sensor technology, but it’s still largely the same brilliant right-handed mouse. And there’s now a Chroma edition. The DeathAdder Chroma is every bit as comfortable as its brethren, and will prove suitable for any style of grip. Rubber pads on the left and right side of the mouse are a thoughtful inclusion, lessening the chance of losing control of the mouse during particularly intense…

Website / www.luksbrands.com ERP / R1,999 Supplier / LUKS Brands SPECS BATTERY LIFE Up to ten hours RUGGED FEATURES Water resistant / drop proof CHARGES VIA USB Rugged design is at the core of the Air Raid’s philosophy, and thus it promises to tirelessly endure even after drunk aunt Brumhilda spills her sobering cup of coffee all over it, or after clumsy cousin Steve drops it down a flight of stairs. This Bluetooth speaker (which comes packing two driver units) bleeds quality, featuring an aesthetic inspired by military radios and seemingly only the best materials used to assemble its sturdy structure. The quality of the audio produced is noticeably higher than most Bluetooth speakers, and it’s definitely far louder. It’ll easily fill any room or give life to outdoor parties,…

That's just,like, your opinion, man It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. Of course, that all happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away – but right now, on Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and every other hive of scum and villainy on the Internet, it’s also a period of war1 even if the mostly anonymous, um, “rebels” of HASHTAG GAMERGATE and their zealously impressive (or impressively zealous, I can’t decide) anti-I-don't-even-know-what-anymore campaign against the evil Galactic Empire of people feeeemales who have the jobs they desperately want haven’t accomplished anything more than a lot of rolled eyes. I suppose if you’re the sort of person who wages a war armed almost…