Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter Edition 2025, Vol. 20 Issue 02 i New Age Gaming

DEVELOPER RED ROVER INTERACTIVE PUBLISHER RED ROVER INTERACTIVE GENRE MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER PLATFORMS PC PLAY TEST/Join the community playtests by heading on over to the Enginefall Steam Page (QR code above). Currently the game only runs through the Steam platform. When we last caught up with Mister Flak and the Red Rover Interactive team, they were deep into development on Coltrane, an online survival sandbox often summed up as “Rust on Rails.” Fast-forward a year, and the game has shed its working title and hopefully its rusty connections in favour of something more ambitious. Now arriving: Enginefall. We reconnected with South Africa’s Mister Flak, a content creator working on the game and Red Rover’s marketing director, John “Bolton” King, to explore just how far the game has come and why it…

RAZING HELL IN MEDIEVAL ARMOUR This is Doom like you've never seen it before. Gritty, brutal, medieval, and unmistakably metal. Forget Mars. Forget the BFG. This time, the fight against the forces of Hell begins in a world of castles, kingdoms, and twisted chivalry. Think Dark Souls (2011) by way of Doom: Eternal (2020), wrapped in the chaos of a heavy metal album cover come to life. But what made id Software decide to twist sci-fi horror with a medieval bloodbath? And how exactly do you turn a franchise synonymous with high-speed demon-slaying and plasma rifles into something that fits the tone of a brutal fantasy epic? Read on as we dissected the lore and look at how Doom's DNA continues to influence the FPS genre, and continues the boomer…

DEVELOPER: Ubisoft GENRE: STRATEGY/SIMULATION PLATFORMS: PC / XBS / XBX / PS5 This report is dedicated to anyone who, like me, lives in fear of strategic city-builders but occasionally wonders where the appeal lies for fans, and that it’s time to give this a go. Writing after roughly four hours playing the very latest example—Ubisoft Blue Byte’s Anno 117: Pax Romana—I know I got close to the heart of it. Or at least in clear sight. Even the name is intimidating, which refers to the 200-year peacetime era of the Roman Empire. But wait… the Romans you say? Gladiators, chariot racers, military geniuses, knew how to party. Those Romans? I genuinely like the idea of taking charge of all that. Anno 117 does an outstanding job of setting this iconic…

DEVELOPER: FALLEN TREE GAMES GENRE: ACTION / SIMULATION PLATFORMS: PC / PS5 / XSS / XSX The Precinct crossed my radar last year when the demo launched at Steam’s Next Fest during October 2024. The visuals immediately intrigued me, looking like a modernised version of GTA 1 and 2, this game does indeed draw inspiration from those early Rockstar games. Only this time, you don’t play as the criminal, you are a cop. The game is set in 1983 and takes place in Averno City, a typical American city with a strong neo-noir aesthetic. You play as rookie cop, Officer Nick Cordell Jr, and you’re immediately thrust into the gang-ridden streets where random crimes keep you busy but there are bigger fish fry. You also need to unravel the mystery…

DEVELOPER: Rebellion Developments GENRE: SURVIVAL SHOOTER PLATFORMS: PC / NINTENDO SWITCH / PS5 / XO/ XSX / XSS When the open-world RPG genre began to boom, every developer and their aunty started throwing their franchises into a massive sandbox for gamers to explore. However, only a few managed to keep their audience captivated. I, for one, became fatigued by having these massive worlds to explore. This led to unfinished games in my library and a loss of love for the genre. To pull me back in, the game really had to have a good catch. A great story to unravel, slick gameplay throughout, or boss fights that kept me thinking, “OK, maybe this time I’ll win,” are a few of the small yet hard-to-find methods that could be used. So,…

DEVELOPER: MOONHOOD GENRE: PUZZLE ADVENTURE COSY HORROR GAME PLATFORMS: PC / PS5 There’s a peculiar kind of magic in The Midnight Walk, a game that tiptoes between genres like a ghost in a dollhouse. It’s marketed as cosy horror, and that’s not just clever branding. This isn’t your typical haunted house thrill ride. Instead, The Midnight Walk feels like something dredged from a dream: a strange, melancholy journey soaked in warm candlelight and cold dread, where comfort and unease walk hand in clay hand. You step into this world as The Burnt On, a nameless figure in a realm where the sun has vanished and night stretches on without end. Your only companion is Potboy, a sentient clay torch with a flickering glow. Together, your goal is deceptively simple -…

01000011 01101111 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01001011 01101001 01100100 01110011 01001110 01000001 01000111 00100000 01101110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101111 01101100 In a world where technology shapes everything from how we play to how we work, teaching kids to code is like handing them a creative superpower. We’ve seen how coding transforms kids from passive gamers into active creators, sparking joy and confidence as they craft their own digital worlds. It’s not just about preparing them for a career in tech, it’s about nurturing problem-solvers, storytellers, and resilient thinkers. When kids code, they learn to break challenges into bite-sized pieces, tinker with ideas, and bounce back from mistakes. These are skills that shine in school, hobbies, and frankly, for the rest…

Whether you are shooting for live, or running live streams, there is a lot to manage if you are a one-man show or a small indie production. The RodeCaster Pro has changed the way we can mix and record audio for podcasts, events, or even live shows but video has always been a missing component for many of us looking to switch video too. There are already a number of very competent video switchers on the market, but Rode again managed to create a product that sets itself apart from its competitors while delivering user friendly experience. The RodeCaster Video fits right into the Rode ecosystem so if you’ve used any of their consoles you’ll feel right at home. The console features a very nice design both in look and…

I was recently able to indulge in the projector life when I tested out Xgimi’s compact and portable Halo+ DLP projector, and I absolutely loved it. While it didn’t provide as sharp as an experience as a TV would, it was pretty damn close with its impressive brightness and crisp projection quality. The Xgimi Horizon Ultra 2300-Lumen XPR UHD 4K Laser/LED Hybrid DLP Smart Projector has blessed my walls over the past few weeks, and it’s been an absolute delight. The Horizon Ultra features the same auto keystone technology as the Halo+, which detects the angle and position of the projector and then keystones, focuses and zooms the picture to fit perfectly on your wall or display screen. This is one of the best features you could ask for on…

The mid-range tier GPU in the GeForce range, designated by the XX60 naming convention has traditionally been the a fan favourite due to its appealing price versus performance value. In fact, looking at Steam’s hardware surveys, the GTX 1060 was the number one GPU for many years spanning 2016 to 2020. More recently, the RTX 3060 is the second most popular GPU on Steam, with a 5% market share as of May 2025, compared to a 2% share by the 4060. The latest card from MSI, the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G GAMING TRIO OC is a performance boosted 5060 Ti aimed at 1080p and 1440p gamers. This card will give you about an 8% performance boost over a stock GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. MSI’s GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G…

In a world of safe bets and sequels, indie games are still out here taking risks. They bend genres, break rules, and build entire worlds out of sheer creativity and caffeine. These aren’t just games -they’re love letters, experiments, and sometimes complete chaos in the best possible way. Vol. 4 of our Indie Games Playlist is here to celebrate that spirit. We’ve dug up more of the strange, the beautiful, and the downright brilliant titles that might’ve slipped under your radar but deserve a spot in your library - and your heart. So, charge up whatever device you play on, mute the triple-A noise for a moment, and dive into a world where passion beats polish every time. ELROY AND THE ALIENS DEVELOPER / MOTIVITI GENRE / POINT-AND-CLICK ADVENTURE GAME…

DEVELOPER ID SOFTWARE PUBLISHER BETHESDA SOFTWORKS GENRE FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER RELEASE DATE 23 APRIL 2025 PLATFORMS PC / PS5 / XSX/ XSS When people talk about the moment they fell in love with video games, it’s usually something wholesome. Maybe they remember playing Super Mario Bros. on their dad’s dusty NES or catching a Pikachu under a blanket with a flashlight and a copy of Pokémon Red. For me? It was sitting on my mom’s lap while she turned pixelated demons into pixelated goo in the original Doom (1993). Nothing says bonding time quite like the sound of a shotgun echoing through the bowels of Hell. They say smell is the strongest sense tied to memory, but I’m convinced it’s actually Mick Gordon’s guitars. Because every time a Doom soundtrack kicks…

DEVELOPER: BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS GENRE: ACTION ROLE-PLAYING GAME PLATFORMS: PS5 / XSX / XSS / PC Oh, it’s YOU. Hi. The cat’s-paw of the Septims arrives at my review at last! This calls for a celebration! Cheese for everyone! No wait, scratch that…cheese for no one. However, I do have a great alternative for cheese, it’s mods! Mods and mods galore! Oblivion Remastered is thriving with all the latest mods right now, and I’m gonna toss a couple mods your way that’ll hopefully make your experience far more enjoyable. Grab your Adoring Fan and your trusty Blade of Woe and let’s dive on in, to this fine ensemble of mods I’ve gathered for you, all from the hub of modding, Nexus Mods! As a precaution though, modding for this game…

DEVELOPER: STUDIO FAR OUT GAMES GENRE: ACTION-ADVENTURE DESTRUCTION PLATFORMS: PC / PS5 / XBX / XBS In Deliver At All Costs (2025), subtlety is the first casualty - and likely the last one, too, buried beneath the flaming wreckage of a fish market you drove through at 90km/h. Equal parts Crazy Taxi and GTA 2, this is the kind of game that hands you the keys to a 1950s pickup and says, “Drive like your rent depends on it.” Because, well, it kind of does. You play as Winston Green: part-time genius, full-time hothead, and the kind of courier who treats traffic laws like Skyrim treats fences (optional). He’s down on his luck and out of options, so naturally, he takes a job with a delivery company run by people…

DEVELOPER: COMPULSION GAMES GENRE: ACTION-ADVENTURE GAME PLATFORMS: PC / XBX / XBS South of Midnight isn’t just a game - it’s a hymn for the haunted, stitched together with heartache, hope, and Southern magic. Some games want to dazzle you. Others want to challenge you, punish you, make you feel like a digital deity or a one-person apocalypse. South of Midnight? It just wants to sit with you for a spell. It doesn’t shout. It hums. It’s a slow wade through knee-deep bayou water. A front porch story told between sips of sweet tea. A lullaby for things long mourned but never forgotten. It’s not the flashiest action-adventure you’ll play this year, maybe not even this week, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of the most heartfelt. Hazel…

DESIGNER: ERIC BARONE / COLE MEDEIROS PUBLISHER: CONCERNEDAPE PLAYERS: 1-4 PLAYTIME: 45-200 MINUTES We’ve all been there: trying to unwind after a long week, imagining ourselves living that idyllic farm life surrounded by crops, animals, and a tight-knit community of quirky villagers. You’re harvesting tomatoes, watering the plants, chatting with your neighbours, and just generally living the dream. And while Stardew Valley lets you escape to this peaceful rural paradise in pixelated glory, the board game version… well, it’s a little more intense. But that’s exactly what makes it so fun. Welcome to the world of Stardew Valley: The Board Game, where the stakes are higher, the days are shorter, and instead of relaxing strolls through a calm village, you’re racing against the clock to save Pelican Town from the…

Gaming visuals have soared thanks to Unreal Engine 5 and cutting-edge GPUs, delivering jaw-dropping realism. But where do we go from here? VR offers immersion but often feels bulky and uncomfortable. So, some companies are revisiting an old idea: 3D. Not the red and blue glasses kind, we’re talking glasses-free 3D. No extra gear needed. Samsung’s new Odyssey 3D G90XF monitor embraces this tech and delivers a 27-inch 4K experience with content that appears to leap off the screen. It’s a bold step toward more immersive gaming, without the weight of VR headsets or outdated tech getting in the way. While other companies have been playing around with glass-free 3D for a while now, Samsung has built its software and hardware package from scratch. This means starting right from the…

I’ll be honest - I didn’t want to review the Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition. Not because I thought it would disappoint, but because I love the Wolverine V2 so much, I didn’t want to be tempted. That controller became my daily driver last year, and the thought of replacing it felt a bit like betrayal. And yet… here we are. And honestly? I’m glad we are - because the V3 TE makes a compelling case for being the pro controller of 2025. It’s sleek. It’s smart. It’s got more buttons than a Soulsborne character creation menu. It’s everything a competitive gamer could want - except it’s not wireless. First, let’s address the wired elephant in the room: the Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition is cable-only. This might feel like a…

Noctua is an Austrian hardware manufacturer that you may have never heard of before. The company’s products feature its signature brown and beige colour theme while its engineering and manufacturing offer some of the most efficient coolers on the market today. Everything about Noctua screams premium and even the unboxing experience is a special one. You don’t often see a brand that puts this much attention into the details. From the packaging that offers something to read on almost every surface, to the parts and accessories that bundle with your cooler. It’s a first-class experience all the way. The NH-U12A is the 5th generation of hardware in the 120mm cooler series and sport two of Noctua’s NF-A 12x25PWM 120mm fans. The heatsink, with its seven heatpipes does not look particularly…

HIDEO KOJIMA SAYS, PHYSINT, IS STILL FIVE TO SIX YEARS AWAY While the modern gamer may know Hideo Kojima for his slow-burner of a game, Death Stranding, many of us veterans will remember his fantastic work with the Metal Gear series. Many of us pray for more. Luckily, Kojima has heard those prayers and is currently working on a new action espionage series, titled Physint. Unluckily for us, as Kojima’s studio is busy with Death Stranding 2, the horror game OD and this third new IP, Physint, we’ll likely only see this new stealth title in five or six years from now, perhaps even on the PlayStation 6. D&D’S NEW CORE RULES NOW IN CREATIVE COMMONS Wizards of the Coast has released the updated Dungeons & Dragons System Reference Document…

NAG’s Mixtape Vol. 3 continues our deep dive into the unforgettable scores that elevate gaming from pixels and polygons to pure emotion. From hauntingly beautiful compositions that linger in our minds to adrenaline-pumping tracks that push us to the next level, these soundtracks aren’t just heard - they’re felt. So, grab your headphones, hit play, and let’s celebrate the music that makes gaming magic. SCAN FOR THE FULL PLAYLIST HOLLOW KNIGHT (ORIGINAL GAME SOUNDTRACK) The Hollow Knight Original Soundtrack (2017), composed by Christopher Larkin, is a hauntingly beautiful score that perfectly encapsulates the melancholy and mystery of Hallownest. Larkin’s compositions blend delicate piano melodies with sweeping orchestral arrangements, evoking both the loneliness of the underground kingdom and the quiet determination of its wandering knight. The soundtrack’s rich, layered soundscapes enhance…

DEVELOPER: KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS GENRE: ACTION-ADVENTURE PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION 5 In the ever-expanding tapestry of gaming’s greatest visionaries, few names echo through time like Hideo Kojima. The man who blurred the lines between cinema and interactive storytelling is calling us back - this time, not with a whisper, but with the howl of the wind over desolate landscapes and the crash of waves upon a forsaken shore. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is not merely a sequel but an echo from the abyss, a reckoning with the connections we once forged so desperately. But were they ever meant to last? Or have we only entangled ourselves in a web of our own making? 26 June, 2025. That is when the next chapter begins. When we once more slip into the weary…

DEVELOPER: MINTROCKET GENRE: CASUAL / SINGLEPLAYER ADVENTURE RPG PLATFORMS: PC / NINTENDO SWITCH / PS4 / PS5 / XBX / XBS / MAC It was only a matter of time before Dave the Diver, everyone’s favourite sushi-slinging, deep-sea diving dude, got swept up in the swirling chaos of the Like a Dragon multiverse. And honestly - who better to cannonball into the Blue Hole than human golden retriever and part-time chaos engine, Ichiban Kasuga? THE CATCH OF THE DAY: WHAT EVEN IS THIS THING? Ichiban’s Holiday (2025) is the first paid DLC for Dave the Diver, a wild crossover with the Like a Dragon/Yakuza series. Compared to previous collabs (remember Godzilla’s kaiju cameo that didn’t involve new fish or Dredge’s brief visit that ghosted us just as quickly?), this DLC…

DEVELOPER: FROMSOFTWARE INC. GENRE: ROGUELIKE, SURVIVAL GAME PLATFORMS: PS5 / PS4 / XBS / XBX / XBO / PC While the souls-like genre has always had a large fan base, the 2022 release of Elden Ring by From Software undoubtedly caused a massive boom. Its emphasis on storytelling and exploration opened the gates to fans of other, more casual open-world games, who just weren’t expecting to get whooped as they so readily did. After taking that whooping and enjoying it, we’ve seen many other developers attempt to make souls-like games, with varying success. However, nothing quite scratched that Elden Ring itch like Elden Ring could. Nearly a year after the DLC for the original game released, From Software has a new Elden Ring title for gamers to dive into, but…

DEVELOPER: CLAYMORE GAME STUDIOS GENRE: REAL TIME TACTICS PLATFORMS: PC / NINTENDO SWITCH / PS5 / XBX/ XBS Ignoring the more recent Commandos 2 and 3 HD Remasters from 2022 it’s been over two decades since we’ve seen a real, isometric real-time tactics game in the Commandos series. Just like the superhero movie franchises started doing a few years back, though, we’ve finally got ourselves an origins story of how the Commando team was formed before the 1998 game Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines and, with that, a modern stealth adventure to sink our military teeth into. I distinctly remember playing Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines back in 1998 when I was a much smaller nerd on the family work laptop with a trackpoint mouse in the middle of the keyboard. Yes,…

Look, we get it. Building a robot from scratch seems like the kind of task you either need to be Einstein for or just have so much time and money on your hands that you’re pretty much an oligarch (that's a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence to us non-Einsteins, not a name for an Ork). But I’m here to tell you that getting into robotics and even coding is a lot easier than you might think. Besides picking up some cool IoT tech, like a Raspberry Pi or a variety of Arduino boards and components, there are beginner and child-friendly kits that will have you constructing weather stations or remote-controlled bots in no time. Woah, woah woah, slow down, I hear you shouting, “Ok…

While high-end GPUs often steal headlines with their insane specs and equally daunting price tags, AMD’s Radeon RX 9000 series, built on the RDNA 4 architecture, is quietly reshaping the landscape for mainstream gamers. The new architecture was first unveiled at CES 2025 and then showcased at Computex with more products entering the market, the RX 9070 XT, RX 9070, and RX 9060 XT target the sweet spot of 1080p and 1440p gaming, and with this range, AMD is challenge Nvidia’s dominance and Intel’s emerging Arc lineup. TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN: RDNA 4’S MIDRANGE MIGHT AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture is the backbone of the RX 9000 series and it is a refined evolution of its predecessor, RDNA 3. Fabricated on a 4nm TSMC process, RDNA 4 GPUs strike a balance between power…

Someone’s uncle Ben once said, “with great power, comes great responsibility,” and in my time reviewing the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 G835, those words weighed heavy on my soul. You see, this gaming notebook makes you want to create great things, build great things, and of course, play great games. But before we continue, I do feel it’s my responsibility to tell you the price of this wonderful machine up front. Just so you don’t fall in love and get your heart broken before you even turn this page. The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 G835 is a high-end gaming notebook with all the latest goodies under the hood, including that powerful GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, the price for this unit is a sweet, sweet R100,000. Yup, it…

It shouldn’t surprise you, excited reader, that here at NAG, we love 3D printing. Well, most of us do. One of us still calls filament ink and wonders where the paper goes. Still, even with these ridiculous comments, we somehow managed to score ourselves the latest bed slinger combo from Creality, the Creality Hi Combo, for review. The Creality Hi Combo is a typical open-air 3D printer, but it comes bundled with Creality’s CFS (Creality Filament System), which allows for multi-colour printing (and some other cool features we’ll touch on later), and a couple of modern features that show how far 3D printing has come. The Creality Hi Combo feels like a step up from the K1 Max. Yes, I know they are two different kinds of printers, but the…