Innholdsfortegnelse for #66 i Wireframe Magazine

Info GENRE Action, RPG, roguelike FORMAT PC / PS4 / XBO DEVELOPER Spiritus Games PUBLISHER Prismatika RELEASE Q3 2022 SOCIAL @FabularGame Another day, another action indie roguelike vying for people’s attention. But at least Fabular: Once upon a Spacetime looks to provide some intriguing spins on the genre’s typical trappings. For instance, it isn’t set in either a ye olde fantasy land or far-off distant future, but rather a combination of both. Casting you as a chivalrous space knight on a quest to save your intergalactic kingdom from destruction, doing so means traversing a procedurally generated universe while engaging in top-down melee combat, all in the effort to loot better gear useful for upgrading your ship. Developer Spiritus Games calls this mixture of swords and stars a “techno-fantasy roguelike”. “The…

01. Dark remake After mostly sitting out “Not E3” earlier this year, Double-A specialist publisher THQ Nordic had a surprising amount to show recently as part of an hour- and-a-half digital showcase. The headline announcement by far was news that cult classic survival horror series Alone in the Dark is set to return, this time via a remake developed by Pieces Interactive. The short trailer gives off some serious Resident Evil vibes, right down to the eerie-looking mansion and an ability to play as a male or female protagonist. Fortunately, the 2008 version’s incessant blinking mechanic has been blinked out of existence. Phew! 02. Stayin’ switching Rumours of a Nintendo Switch hardware revision or a new console outright are forever swirling. The dream of something like this happening anytime soon…

Few video game genres exist where you can draw a clear line from origin all the way up to the reputation and prominence it still has today. The anti-gravity racer, however, by nature of it being so niche in its mechanics and distinct in design, is one of them. It was in 1990 specifically, with the launch of F-Zero on the SNES, that mass audiences got their first taste of what it could feel like to reach high-octane speeds without the use of wheels, instead using a ship’s thrusters combined with the Earth’s natural forces to zoom past racing rivals amidst a swathe of futuristic environments. This baton was eventually picked up and brought into the full 3D space thanks to the polygonal power of PlayStation, when a group of…

Live-action games have only recently begun to escape the taint of history. Whether you remember the 1990s or not, you probably know about the CD-ROM boom and its glut of grainy, schlocky ‘Full Motion Video’ (FMV) experiences – something now viewed as an awkward phase in gaming’s teenage development. And this reputation is far from undeserved, since many such ‘interactive movies’ barely passed muster on either side of that equation. It would surprise no one to discover them sealed off in a box marked ‘evolutionary dead end’. Nothing stays in its box forever, though, and in the last decade, game designers have successfully rethought the value of live action. Sam Barlow’s 2015 classic Her Story was undoubtedly the flag-bearer for the resurgence, while its highest profile boost was Netflix’s Black…

The term comes from the theatre: the idea is that in addition to the three walls on stage, there’s an imaginary fourth wall that the audience can see through, but the actors can’t. So when an actor breaks that fourth wall, it’s an exciting, unexpected event – an acknowledgement of the artifice of it all, a recognition that they’re in a play, in a theatre, talking to an audience. A sudden grounding of the suspension of disbelief. Video games have been breaking the fourth wall almost from the day they were invented. Every time you’re told to ‘press A to jump’ and the like, the game is acknowledging the space outside the game world, breaking the illusion. But some games go further than that, leading to some of the most…

Info GENRE Puzzle, adventure FORMAT Switch (tested) / PC / XBO DEVELOPER Cave Monsters PUBLISHER Wings/Cave Monsters PRICE £15.99 RELEASE Out now SOCIAL @cavemonsters VERDICT It’s British. It’s barmy. It’s bound to make you smile. It’s also in need of some refinement, but don’t let that put you off. 67% The simpler a video game is, the more precise its individual parts need to be. This is certainly true of Lord Winklebottom Investigates, a pointand-click murder mystery that has you playing as a 1920s giraffe detective. With its locations and objects depicted with (admittedly lovely) static images, it’s left to the voice acting, plot lines, and some good old British humour to engage the player in its Agatha Christie- and Sherlock Holmes-inspired yarn. For the most part, Lord Winklebottom delivers.…

Do you remember that episode of Muppet Babies where they shrank down in a tiny submarine and went into Gonzo’s body through his belly button? You probably don’t; you’re probably far too young. And I’m not even sure if it was Gonzo. It doesn’t matter: the point is, it was really weird. One minute they’re mucking about in the nursery, and the next minute they’re navigating through Gonzo’s alimentary canal. And that’s just what Lost in Play feels like. No, hold on, that’s a terrible image. I don’t mean that Lost in Play is like worming your way through the guts of a beloved puppet. I mean that it constantly surprises you, throwing in giddy little trips of the imagination, bizarre little snippets of oddness. Here’s a seagull playing draughts…

Nice rendering, Dave Collecting retro games is an expensive hobby these days, but then, there are certain old games that have always been absurdly pricey. Just look at Rendering Ranger: R2, an obscure run-and-gun released solely for the Japanese Super Famicom in 1995. An expensive game to pick up even 20 or so years ago, it’s only skyrocketed in price since, with asking prices going from around £800 for a loose cartridge to over £3000 for a boxed copy. Annoyingly, Rendering Ranger isn’t one of those games that’s collectable even though it’s slightly rubbish, like Stadium Events, say – it’s a lesser-known work from Turrican developer Manfred Trenz, and it’s an absolute corker. Much like Turrican, you control a masked, gun-wielding space warrior capable of blasting gigantic warships out of…

Info GENRE Turn-based RPG, tactical FORMAT PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBO / XB S/X / Switch DEVELOPER Firaxis Games PUBLISHER 2K RELEASE Q1 2023 SOCIAL @FiraxisGames Not every superhero saves the day with a smile, and Firaxis’ more strategic spin on the Marvel universe proves it. Taking its name from the nineties comic-book series of a similar name, Marvel’s Midnight Suns forgoes the squeaky-clean idealism you’d expect from characters like, say, Captain America and Mister Fantastic, in favour of a far grittier tone. Choosing to instead focus on the supernatural side of this world comprising countless heroes, after Hydra revives an ancient evil, it combines cinematic battles and in-depth character progression with a new flavour of the tactical gameplay the studio is known for. Wouldn’t it have been…

Hank the bear was trekking through the forest with his friends, minding his own business, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the shrieking of an electronic voice brought him to a halt. Pressing a green button on a curious metal shark, Hank learned the story of how humans fled the forest. From this moment on, he decided to open his own bed and breakfast in the hope of coaxing humans back into the countryside. Developed by Romanian studio Gummy Cat, Bear and Breakfast puts us in Hank’s hairy paws, gathering resources and materials to restore decrepit cabins to their former glory, thus providing comfortable stays for potential guests. After cleaning and restoring cabins, we’ll have to craft beds, vanity tables, and footrests to add an extra dash of comfort. Trash can…

Info GENRE Survival FORMAT PS4 (tested) / PC / Switch / XBO DEVELOPER Herobeat Studios PUBLISHER Handy Games PRICE £24.99 RELEASE Out now RELEASE @HerobeatStudios Like a nature documentary, Endling wants to tell a story as well as display the brute facts of life. Just as the TV lens frames real-life creatures with tales of hardship and heroism that prick your sense of empathy, this survival game wants you to root for a vixen and her cubs sniffing out food among man-made rubble and pollution. The result is a melancholic rumination on rapacious human appetites, and a close-up shot of one four-legged family’s tribulations. In isolation, each half of this equation is easy to appreciate. From your foxy perspective, humanity is an ongoing natural disaster and constant thorn in the…

The games for… BIG ADVENTURES Elden Ring / Bandai Namco / 95% (Issue 61) Assassin’s Creed Odyssey / Ubisoft / 93% (Issue 1) Yakuza: Like a Dragon / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / 90% (Issue 45) Amnesia: Rebirth / Frictional Games / 87% (Issue 46) Death’s Door / Acid Nerve / 87% (Issue 55) The Last Campfire / Hello Games / 86% (Issue 47) Resident Evil 2 / Capcom / 86% (Issue 7) Stray / BlueTwelve Studio / 86% (Issue 65) Lost in Play /Happy Juice / 86% /(Issue 66) Journey to the Savage Planet / Typhoon Studios / 84% (Issue 33) The games for… REPEATED PLAY Hades / Supergiant Games / 94% (Issue 44) They Are Billions / Numantian Games / 88% (Issue 20) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice / FromSoftware / 87% (Issue…

Animal espionage action “Metal Gear Solid but what if Solid Snake was replaced with a gecko? Not a person codenamed ‘Gecko’ but an actual, human-sized gecko” appears to be the pitch behind this unabashedly indie-fied take on Konami’s PSone magnum opus. As far-fetched as Covert Critter first appears on the surface, however, it actually does well to parody the po-faced nature of Kojima’s tactical stealth series while still paying true affection to it. It’s made all the more impressive when you consider that it was made by two people as part of a game jam in just twelve days. They hardly kept us waiting, huh? You play as Koss, a cigar-chomping covert operations specialist who must use his skills of camouflage, distraction, and evasion to thwart the efforts of the…

I really, really hate those dogs. And that killer mermaid, or whatever the heck it is. Yes, I decided to take a return trip to Playdead’s 2016 side-scrolling nightmare Inside this month, and was surprised to find just how little the intervening years have dimmed its raw, oppressive power. Like the Danish studio’s debut, Limbo, Inside follows the progress of a solitary boy across a stark landscape. In Limbo, the world felt like a Gothic fairytale storybook; Inside, on the other hand, goes for pure sci-fi dystopia. The absence of dialogue or descriptive text forces you to comb your surroundings for clues. There are signs of some sort of biological or environmental catastrophe everywhere – perhaps even both. The sky is perpetually grey and sunless, while a trudge through a…

You don’t need me to tell you how drop-dead gorgeous Cuphead looks. But I’m going to anyway. Studio MDHR’s mastery of the hand-drawn, rubber hose style evocative of 1930s cartoon serials never fails to be absolutely on point; it’s there in every jump of the frame, inventive boss transformation, and the way faux film scratches appear on screen as the fights grow ever more intense. The recently released DLC, cleverly subtitled The Delicious Last Course, proves the developers haven’t missed a step in the five years since the base game released and wowed everyone who played it. In addition to an entire new isle to roam, the main inspiration for an Inkwell return trip is Ms. Chalice being made a playable character. Her fleeting appearances before always hinted at a…

When Belgian studio Happy Volcano set up its stand at London’s EGX in September 2021, there must have been at least a hint of apprehension in the air. With the world only just emerging from the pandemic, it was the first time Happy Volcano’s work-in-progress, You Suck at Parking, had appeared in public. The team may have enjoyed the process of building the arcade racer up from a quick, physics-based prototype, but how would British gamers take to it? Fortunately, as players eagerly gathered around the pair of laptops running the game, designer and studio co-founder David Prinsmel realised that he and his team were on the right track. “We constantly had ten people around the booth,” Prinsmel recalls. “People were waiting to play the game. After two hours, we…

Info GENRE Metroidvania/shooter FORMAT PC / PS4 / PS5 / XBO / XB S/X / Switch DEVELOPER Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team PUBLISHER Team17 RELEASE TBC 2022 SOCIALS @SuperMegaTeam From the moment a gigantic mechanised boss rears up in front of you, firing off a kaleidoscope of burning projectiles, it’s clear that The Knight Witch isn’t your typical Metroidvania. You’re just a few minutes into the prologue, and you’re fighting Emperor Erebus, the tyrannical ruler whose relentless pursuit of wealth has brought the planet to the brink of environmental collapse. But you’re a Knight Witch, a member of an elite band of warriors who have the power to knock Erebus off his perch. Doing so means dodging waves of bullets and returning fire with your standard shots and card-based…

Forever Ago There’s a growing sub-genre of games about moving from place to place with a camera, whether it’s the eco-fable Alba: A Wildlife Adventure or Scavengers Studio’s upcoming SEASON: A Letter to the Future. Forever Ago, developed by Third Shift, strikes a similarly thoughtful tone: it’s about a middle-aged man named Alfred and the road trip he embarks on following a personal tragedy. With dog in tow and camera in hand, Alfred travels in his camper-van, making friends, solving puzzles, and documenting his progress in photographic form. Flock If you’re hankering for another meditative game in the vein of thatgamecompany’s output – think Flower or Journey – then the upcoming Flock is well worth keeping an eye on. In essence, it’s about the freedom of flying – you soar…

Are you a solo developer working on a game you want to share with Wireframe? If you’d like to have your project featured in these pages, get in touch with us at wfmag.cc/hello When thinking about ‘cinematic’ influences in games, the mind might jump to beautifully framed and lit cutscenes, epic action set pieces, and a lavish scope. Gloomy Juncture is heavily inspired by cinema, certainly, but it doesn’t have any of those – it veers closer to the pessimism and grimness of Taxi Driver and Oldboy as opposed to Hollywood’s conventional blockbuster fare. In search of that rawness, one-person studio Filipe Rodrigues opted for a sketch-based art style for this first-person adventure. And despite hoping to capture the essence of noir movies of the seventies, its aesthetic is also…

Making a game has a bit in common with putting a magazine together. Go figure. That’s according to Denki co-founder and industry veteran Gary Penn, who started his career writing for publications like Zzap!64, The Games Machine, and The One before making the jump to development. It was in 1996, as creative director at DMA Design, that he played a key role in a little title called Grand Theft Auto. Setting deadlines, it turns out, can be useful in both disciplines. While Penn got his start on the editorial side of gaming, making video games was something he was fascinated with from a young age. “I used to make all sorts of different games when I was a kid,” he says, “including computer games as I got older, so it’s…

Info GENRE Business management sim FORMAT PS4 / PS5 (tested) / PC / XBO / XB S/X / Switch DEVELOPER Two Point Studios PUBLISHER Sega PRICE £34.99 RELEASE Out now SOCIAL @TwoPointStudios It’s been 15 years since I left university, but after playing Two Point Campus, it’s like no time has passed at all. The only difference now is that I’m running the place, and I can put Crazy Taxi arcade machines in every hallway if I want to. Although, that would probably take away money that would be better spent on staff training, new classrooms, or perhaps a party at the student union. Decisions, decisions… You start off your career in Two Point Campus at the modest Freshleigh, where expectations are low, and you can learn the business of…

Info GENRE Third-person shooter, sports action FORMAT PC (tested) / PS4 / PS5 DEVELOPER Roll7 PUBLISHER Private Division (PC), Take-Two Interactive (console) PRICE £24.99 RELEASE Out now VERDICT A short yet oh-so-sweet spin on the skating game genre, packed with fluid action that feels rewarding for all skill levels. 82% Momentum is king in the eponymous, near-future blood sport Kara Hassan finds herself taking part in. It’s there each time she forward-flips into a new arena, performs the cool tricks needed to refill her ammo belt, and skirts a rail or rides a wall in the hopes of gaining a better vantage point on her next enemy target. This combination of factors quickly sees Rollerdrome evolve into a delicate dance of dodging, shooting, and grinding in the best way; the…

Carphero Coast City Games / Name your own / wfmag.cc/carphero Enough time has passed from the UK’s recent heatwave for us all to get nostalgic about it every time we have to put on an extra jumper, so there’s no better time for a trip to the sunny, voxelated beach of this enjoyably stressful plate-spinner. You play an overworked, legless cuboid tasked with running back and forth down a dangerously hot beach, fulfilling the needs of fussy holiday-makers. Quick deliveries earn tips, but miss too many and it’s game over. Spend too long on the sand, and your brisk cuboid sprint will gradually degrade to an exhausted waddle. Evokes a distilled, single-player Overcooked. Covert Critter sodaraptor / Name your own / wfmag.cc/covert You know that Simpsons gag with the rainbow…

1 Elden Ring / 95% (Issue 61) A game of massive scale, packed with intelligence and mystery. A towering achievement. 2 Disco Elysium / 94% (Issue 28) Smarter and deeper than anything else; truly an RPG in a class completely of its own. 3 Hades / 94% (Issue 44) Proving ‘roguelike’ isn’t a dirty word, learning- and-dying is a joy from start to finish. 4 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey / 93% (Issue 1) The point where Ubisoft realised over-the-top adventures were the right direction. 5 Telling Lies / 92% (Issue 24) This FMV mystery asks more of the player than most, with rewards to match. 6 If Found / 92% (Issue 44) A compelling and beautifully illustrated narrative, as moving as it is memorable. 7 Yakuza: Like a Dragon / 90% (Issue 45)…

NINTENDO EAD / 1996 / NINTENDO 64 The Mario Kart series, often lauded for how fun and approachable it has made the racing genre for all, actually has a dark side: the Blue Shell. Picture the scene: there you are, ahead of the pack by a country mile, counting down the last remaining turns needed for you to secure first place and win the cup by gunning it across the finish line. But oh no, what’s this? Suddenly an erratic beeping has appeared out of nowhere, until a flying overhead shell comes into view and blasts down on you. You’re robbed of your coins and forced to come to a complete standstill, while other Mushroom Kingdom racers whizz on past and potentially claim the cup. I say… what a cruel…