Fallout 4 The Commonwealth needs you
It has been one of the biggest hype-trains in recent history; when Fallout 4 was announced just before E3 2015, people went nuts. And publishers Bethesda played on that, allowing their own promotion engine to be fuelled by the enthusiasm of fans the world over. So when Fallout 4 finally arrived, it is little wonder that a number of people were disappointed by what they got.
Even after all this time, when people should be well aware of how hype often gets out of hand, and when they should know that no game is perfect, they still managed to make themselves believe that Fallout 4 would, somehow, be a game that offered no problems. But by its very nature, Fallout 4 was almost guaranteed to be imperfect; any game as ambitious as this one is bound to have issues to some degree, and Fallout 4 is no different.
People the world over started identifying things that they didn’t like: graphics that were a bit poorer than ere expected, bugs that occasionally lead to hooking up on geometry or seeing odd things like models in strange places, that kind of thing. But it would serve one well, when approaching a game like Fallout 4, that (in the first instance) some truly great games have also had bugs and, most importantly, highlighting individual elements that may leave something to be desired in only truly relevant if these elements ruin the entire experience.
And, quite honestly, in the case of Fallout 4, they do not. You can bitch all you like about the little things that annoy you, but when the game is considered macroscopically (as it should be) there are very few things that might hamper the overall experience, and certainly none that will ruin it. The game begins with the player’s chosen character (created with a robust set of character editing tools) being rushed to Vault 111 in the face of total atomic annihilation. We’re not going into detail here, because spoilers suck… suffice to say that when the character awakens, you find yourself in a very different world, a long time after the bombs fell. After a few short “mandatory” missions that get you into the swing of things, Fallout 4 sort of stands back and says “It’s a great, big world out there… have fun with it”. And so the player begins a massive journey of discovery, in which the central plot plays only a small part. Fallout 4 isn’t about getting from A to B in a narrative; it is about living in a post-apocalyptic world.
To this end, Fallout 4 gives the player every tool it can muster in making the experience as engrossing and complete as possible. From the basic stuff, like character modification through skills and visual elements, and gear modification and improvement, right through to the establishment of settlements, Fallout 4 offers the player an absolute ton of things to do. I found myself spending long sessions tweaking my guns and armour, or fasttravelling between my settlements to make sure that they were properly defended and offered the growing number of residents what they required. I would spend hours constructing buildings in the game’s settlement editor, or hunting through random piles of scrap to find the elusive materials I needed for a particular weapon part. And then I would spend other long sessions exploring the Commonwealth (once called the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the vast setting for this game) and completing missions. Between crafting, tweaking and combat, Fallout 4 has consumed many hours for me, and I still have a ton that I want to get to.
It’s the kind of game that you can spend a good long time playing, with short sessions great for tweaking and crafting, and longer sessions ideal for finding new places, trading and, of course, shooting stuff. And, thanks to the fully open nature of the world, you’ll be spending some of that time running away from enemies you cannot handle just yet, licking your wounds and levelling up before going back to exact a bit of revenge.
While Fallout 4 does give you every tool you need to survive in this world, it doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t guide you in any particular direction (the quests feel more like suggestions that compulsions) and it simply lets you get on with doing your thing within the game world.
And that world is massive. While fast-travelling is an option, this place has been created to be explored on foot, either solo or with a trusty companion (although the dog, for example, becomes more of an annoyance before long, so companions are only suggested for the most patient of players). It is a world that is full of surprises and oddity that you’ll never find if you bounce between fast-travel points, and this convenient method of traversing the map is only suggested for completing tedious tasks, like hauling junk back to your base of operations. There are amazing uncharted places and experiences here, and missing out on them would be a crime. Besides, walking is good for you.
None of it ever really seems overwhelming, either. Junk is automatically stripped down to needed parts by settlement workshops, for example. Traders are relatively plentiful (although you won’t find them fast travelling) and can even be set up in your settlements. The skill tree is simple yet expansive, but the lack of level cap means that you’ll more than likely never have to worry about getting to any particular ability at the expense of others. Combat can be daunting at times, but the game gets you feeling like a bad-ass pretty quickly, complete with customisable power armour and a massive arsenal of weapons that you can trim to suit your play style. It feels like the developers made a world for you to live in, on your own terms, rather than giving you a controlled experience. In truth, the only thing that is really overwhelming in Fallout 4 is the sheer scope of what you can do with it… and that’s a good kind of intimidation.
So, yes, the graphics may not be the best we’ve ever seen. The world may have bugs that aren’t mutated mosquitoes, flies and roaches. The companion AI does leave a lot to be desired. But the truth is that these things can be avoided or, at worst, ignored. And when everything is put together, all of these issues, whether in isolation or combined, do very little to hamper an excellent gaming experience. You may find yourself getting annoyed, even to a high degree, at times, but you will keep coming back. Like with Skyrim, Bethesda have managed to create an experience that is so wonderfully immersive with Fallout 4 that you’ll constantly keep coming back to it, bugs and all. It’s single-player only, which may make some people wonder about the longevity of the game, but with the amount that it offers to do, you’ll probably still be playing it long after you’ve set aside the latest cut-and-paste multiplayer FPS title. It’s not a massive step forward for the franchise, but it doesn’t need to be.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
DESTINY THE FPS MMO WITH PS4 EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
DESTINY THE FPS MMO WITH PS4 EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Since saying goodbye to Halo and parting ways with Microsoft, anticipation has been rife for news of the next project from uber-developers Bungie. For a while we’ve known its name – Destiny – but little else. Now the wait is over, Bungie finally revealing some precious details.
Destiny is going to be a first-person, “shared-world” shooter – kind of like an MMO, but not quite. The setting is a post-apocalyptic Earth. Humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by some cause we don’t yet know, only saved at the last second by the extraterrestrial “Traveller” a huge white orb that now floats over the last remaining human city. Over time, humans have regained some technology and set out once again to reclaim their lost solar system, now rife with hostile alien activity. Players control a Guardian, warriors infused with some of the Traveller’s power, as they fight to reclaim lost frontiers.
Players live in a shared, online hub where they can interact, trade, and group up for missions, before flying off to a number of different locations to do some exploring. Character growth is permanent across all modes and customisation options will be abundant, Bungie claims. Guardians come in a variety of classes, such as the powerful Vanguard or the “magic”-wielding Warlock. Sounds pretty Warcraft, huh? Players will also be able to own their own spaceship, with aerial combat implied to play some part in the game.
With only a little gorgeous gameplay footage to speak of, narrative director Joseph Staten gave an anecdote that lends us the clearest idea yet of what to expect. Staten and a friend team up for a mission, flying to Mars in his ship. There, the pair find “the bones of a lost human civilisation”, an ancient city from the times before everything went to pot. Unfortunately, Mars is controlled by the Cabal, huge rhino-like creatures covered in armour. One thing leads to another, and after some gunfighting, the two are on their last legs. Lucky for them, a mysterious female player speeds in on a vehicle, turning the tide and helping them survive. Players drifting in and out of your game sounds a bit like indie hit Journey from last year.
This is made possible by Bungie’s invisible, behind-the-scenes matchmaking, linking the players in the same area so they end up interacting with each other. The new player tags along with the pair and the two complete their mission, Staten earning a new unique weapon for his troubles. Quests with loot at the end? It certainly sounds like an MMO to us, not that that’s a bad thing. We love Halo, we love good MMOs, and a combination of the two sounds like something we’d come up with in a dream.
Bungie has promised that the entire game will be playable solo but will requite a constant internet connection regardless. They have also made very clear that there will be no subscription fee to play.
We’ve heard a lot about co-op, but competitive, player-vs-player online play will also be returning. The best part, though? The PlayStation versions will get exclusive content. A Bungie game with a
focus on PlayStation! What a strange new world we live in, eh?
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Since saying goodbye to Halo and parting ways with Microsoft, anticipation has been rife for news of the next project from uber-developers Bungie. For a while we’ve known its name – Destiny – but little else. Now the wait is over, Bungie finally revealing some precious details.
Destiny is going to be a first-person, “shared-world” shooter – kind of like an MMO, but not quite. The setting is a post-apocalyptic Earth. Humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by some cause we don’t yet know, only saved at the last second by the extraterrestrial “Traveller” a huge white orb that now floats over the last remaining human city. Over time, humans have regained some technology and set out once again to reclaim their lost solar system, now rife with hostile alien activity. Players control a Guardian, warriors infused with some of the Traveller’s power, as they fight to reclaim lost frontiers.
Players live in a shared, online hub where they can interact, trade, and group up for missions, before flying off to a number of different locations to do some exploring. Character growth is permanent across all modes and customisation options will be abundant, Bungie claims. Guardians come in a variety of classes, such as the powerful Vanguard or the “magic”-wielding Warlock. Sounds pretty Warcraft, huh? Players will also be able to own their own spaceship, with aerial combat implied to play some part in the game.
With only a little gorgeous gameplay footage to speak of, narrative director Joseph Staten gave an anecdote that lends us the clearest idea yet of what to expect. Staten and a friend team up for a mission, flying to Mars in his ship. There, the pair find “the bones of a lost human civilisation”, an ancient city from the times before everything went to pot. Unfortunately, Mars is controlled by the Cabal, huge rhino-like creatures covered in armour. One thing leads to another, and after some gunfighting, the two are on their last legs. Lucky for them, a mysterious female player speeds in on a vehicle, turning the tide and helping them survive. Players drifting in and out of your game sounds a bit like indie hit Journey from last year.
This is made possible by Bungie’s invisible, behind-the-scenes matchmaking, linking the players in the same area so they end up interacting with each other. The new player tags along with the pair and the two complete their mission, Staten earning a new unique weapon for his troubles. Quests with loot at the end? It certainly sounds like an MMO to us, not that that’s a bad thing. We love Halo, we love good MMOs, and a combination of the two sounds like something we’d come up with in a dream.
Bungie has promised that the entire game will be playable solo but will requite a constant internet connection regardless. They have also made very clear that there will be no subscription fee to play.
We’ve heard a lot about co-op, but competitive, player-vs-player online play will also be returning. The best part, though? The PlayStation versions will get exclusive content. A Bungie game with a
focus on PlayStation! What a strange new world we live in, eh?
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Epic Mickey 2 - The Power Of Two Expect Star Wars: Mickey Mouse to follow
Epic Mickey 2 - The Power Of Two Expect Star Wars: Mickey Mouse to follow
Mickey Mouse is desperate to impress, or so Epic Mickey 2 would have you believe. As a sequel to the much-derided Nintendo Wii exclusive, you can’t really begrudge the perennial Disney mascot as he tries to scrape back some dignity, but while Junction Point’s sequel is high on ideas, it fails to learn from the original’s mistakes.
There’s Oswald – the black-and-white star of yesteryear Disney animation – returning in the sequel as Mickey’s cooperative multiplayer buddy and he’s without a doubt the foremost gameplay boon. Possessing a more diverse skillset than Mickey (which really isn’t saying a great deal), his abilities
range from the Tails-like knack for flying really slowly towards the ground, dismembering appendages to use as a makeshift boomerang and a pocket-sized gizmo that charges electronic equipment.
What this does is expand the scope of puzzles ever-so-slightly. Now instead of Mickey just applying paint or thinner appropriately to phase objects in or out of existence, Oswald can activate switches,
reach inaccessible areas and, well, activate more switches. Suffice to say it’s not a game that prides itself on complexity. But it’s hard not to feel that the potential of the central pairing’s respective mechanics is fundamentally wasted, and the game – much like its predecessor – doesn’t quite satisfy
on a gameplay level as it tries pander to both children and grown-ups. It really wants to be a Disney movie.
That much is glaringly obvious from the opening cinematic – a musical number that has the first game’s antagonist returning to repent and offer his allegiance as a bigger bad approaches the denizens of the Wasteland. The videogame is sprinkled with similar songorientated intermissions, but there’s a heavyhanded approach to each descant that’s high on exposition and short on Disney magic.
The game goes to great pains in an attempt to evoke classic Walt with a varying hit rate, from the colourless cow folk that wander aimlessly around the central hub, to the memorabilia that’s littered around 2D platforming excursions. The latter example proves to be something of a surprising highlight, not just because of all the curious oddities dredged from Disney’s past but because of the sheer simplicity to the level design. These segments feel like an affectionate throwback to Mickey’s 8-bit heyday (yes, that’s a good thing).
That’s not to say that the 3D stages are without merit. The world is divided up into small areas to explore, each filled with no end of arbitrary items to collect or find – Disney cash, Mickey ears and
telephone boxes – and some decent, if wholly unoriginal, platforming segments that make for the meat of the gameplay experience. The problem is that the world is so poorly constructed that you have little idea how each area connects, or even how you managed to get to where you are in the first place.
Despite such poor world design, there are some interesting ideas at work here, not least the cause-and-effect dynamic that has Mickey’s decisions reverberated throughout the game depending on whether he paints or thins the world around him. Its implementation is basic – the premise not stretching beyond some superficial differences and varying character interactions – but it’s still engaging enough to usher you towards the game’s end.
And this might come as a surprise, but Epic Mickey 2 is best played with someone by your side, not only to avoid the bumbling incompetency of an AI-controlled assistant, but also because it’s just more fun with two of you. Every little element of the game has been designed with teamwork in mind, including enemies requiring a quick zap of electricity from Oswald before Mickey can begin to cake them in paint. There are other examples where the game nudges the pairing to work closely together, and solo play therefore doesn’t quite hold the appeal when the game is continually urging you to get a friend involved.
Although, we say friend, when what we really mean is a child. Not in a dodgy way, of course. The game doesn’t possess the same whimsical appeal of the Lego gaming franchise, nor the depth to really sustain the interest of anyone looking for more than a simplistic platformer. But the puzzles lack the complexity to challenge anyone above the age of ten and fan service is so random and scattershot that it misses the mark for anyone it’s aimed for.
The world of Epic Mickey 2 is painted in broad strokes, then, and while its catch-all mentality might not always succeed, there’s fun to be had even if everything feels angled more towards a younger audience. But we’re not that young, and so Epic Mickey 2 doesn’t quite impress as much as hoped. Third time’s the charm, eh?
David Scarborough
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Mickey Mouse is desperate to impress, or so Epic Mickey 2 would have you believe. As a sequel to the much-derided Nintendo Wii exclusive, you can’t really begrudge the perennial Disney mascot as he tries to scrape back some dignity, but while Junction Point’s sequel is high on ideas, it fails to learn from the original’s mistakes.
There’s Oswald – the black-and-white star of yesteryear Disney animation – returning in the sequel as Mickey’s cooperative multiplayer buddy and he’s without a doubt the foremost gameplay boon. Possessing a more diverse skillset than Mickey (which really isn’t saying a great deal), his abilities
range from the Tails-like knack for flying really slowly towards the ground, dismembering appendages to use as a makeshift boomerang and a pocket-sized gizmo that charges electronic equipment.
What this does is expand the scope of puzzles ever-so-slightly. Now instead of Mickey just applying paint or thinner appropriately to phase objects in or out of existence, Oswald can activate switches,
reach inaccessible areas and, well, activate more switches. Suffice to say it’s not a game that prides itself on complexity. But it’s hard not to feel that the potential of the central pairing’s respective mechanics is fundamentally wasted, and the game – much like its predecessor – doesn’t quite satisfy
on a gameplay level as it tries pander to both children and grown-ups. It really wants to be a Disney movie.
That much is glaringly obvious from the opening cinematic – a musical number that has the first game’s antagonist returning to repent and offer his allegiance as a bigger bad approaches the denizens of the Wasteland. The videogame is sprinkled with similar songorientated intermissions, but there’s a heavyhanded approach to each descant that’s high on exposition and short on Disney magic.
The game goes to great pains in an attempt to evoke classic Walt with a varying hit rate, from the colourless cow folk that wander aimlessly around the central hub, to the memorabilia that’s littered around 2D platforming excursions. The latter example proves to be something of a surprising highlight, not just because of all the curious oddities dredged from Disney’s past but because of the sheer simplicity to the level design. These segments feel like an affectionate throwback to Mickey’s 8-bit heyday (yes, that’s a good thing).
That’s not to say that the 3D stages are without merit. The world is divided up into small areas to explore, each filled with no end of arbitrary items to collect or find – Disney cash, Mickey ears and
telephone boxes – and some decent, if wholly unoriginal, platforming segments that make for the meat of the gameplay experience. The problem is that the world is so poorly constructed that you have little idea how each area connects, or even how you managed to get to where you are in the first place.
Despite such poor world design, there are some interesting ideas at work here, not least the cause-and-effect dynamic that has Mickey’s decisions reverberated throughout the game depending on whether he paints or thins the world around him. Its implementation is basic – the premise not stretching beyond some superficial differences and varying character interactions – but it’s still engaging enough to usher you towards the game’s end.
And this might come as a surprise, but Epic Mickey 2 is best played with someone by your side, not only to avoid the bumbling incompetency of an AI-controlled assistant, but also because it’s just more fun with two of you. Every little element of the game has been designed with teamwork in mind, including enemies requiring a quick zap of electricity from Oswald before Mickey can begin to cake them in paint. There are other examples where the game nudges the pairing to work closely together, and solo play therefore doesn’t quite hold the appeal when the game is continually urging you to get a friend involved.
Although, we say friend, when what we really mean is a child. Not in a dodgy way, of course. The game doesn’t possess the same whimsical appeal of the Lego gaming franchise, nor the depth to really sustain the interest of anyone looking for more than a simplistic platformer. But the puzzles lack the complexity to challenge anyone above the age of ten and fan service is so random and scattershot that it misses the mark for anyone it’s aimed for.
The world of Epic Mickey 2 is painted in broad strokes, then, and while its catch-all mentality might not always succeed, there’s fun to be had even if everything feels angled more towards a younger audience. But we’re not that young, and so Epic Mickey 2 doesn’t quite impress as much as hoped. Third time’s the charm, eh?
David Scarborough
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Deadpool The merc with a mouth gets a game. Expect puns
Deadpool The merc with a mouth gets a game. Expect puns
The merc with a mouth gets a game. Expect puns
Wade Wilson is better known as Deadpool, the uniquely psychotic mercenary and occasional X-Men member who has been a favourite of comics fans for years. With increasing fame and media presence, the time has come for the crazy Weapon-X experiment failure to get his own videogame.
Deadpool is famous for breaking the fourth wall, talking directly to comic readers via his distinctive
yellow speech bubbles. His fi rst starring role in a game seems to be no different. The merc with a mouth starts insulting the player before you can even get started, tapping the inside of the options screen and asking if you have any girls “back there.” Cheeky bastard. Even the tutorial is direct,
Deadpool himself telling you to “press X to jump” and such, in a bored, knowing manner. The guy
knows he is in a game, he knows you are controlling him, and he knows you know he knows.
Nolan North, who you may recognise from every other video game ever made, returns to voice Deadpool after portraying him in other games. From what we’ve seen so far, the writing is very funny, full of nerdy references that gamers will enjoy. It isn’t highbrow, but toilet humour is scientifi cally proven to be always hilarious.
Gameplay looks to be standard hack and slash affair, with Deadpool’s signature katanas and dual pistols making up his standard arsenal, and seem like a pretty damn perfect set for a game. Other
weapons are promised, including outlandish stuff like sledgehammers and laser guns. It’s gory as all hell, in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
Recently revealed to also be in the game is Deadpool’s long time partner/friend/worst enemy, Cable.
If the two pair up as well as they have done in their classic comics run, we can’t wait. High Moon is
responsible for the actually pretty decent Transformers games of the last few years, so Deadpool could
shape up to be great.
10 VIDEO GAME EASTER EGGS THAT TOOK YEARS TO FIND
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10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
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The merc with a mouth gets a game. Expect puns
Wade Wilson is better known as Deadpool, the uniquely psychotic mercenary and occasional X-Men member who has been a favourite of comics fans for years. With increasing fame and media presence, the time has come for the crazy Weapon-X experiment failure to get his own videogame.
Deadpool is famous for breaking the fourth wall, talking directly to comic readers via his distinctive
yellow speech bubbles. His fi rst starring role in a game seems to be no different. The merc with a mouth starts insulting the player before you can even get started, tapping the inside of the options screen and asking if you have any girls “back there.” Cheeky bastard. Even the tutorial is direct,
Deadpool himself telling you to “press X to jump” and such, in a bored, knowing manner. The guy
knows he is in a game, he knows you are controlling him, and he knows you know he knows.
Nolan North, who you may recognise from every other video game ever made, returns to voice Deadpool after portraying him in other games. From what we’ve seen so far, the writing is very funny, full of nerdy references that gamers will enjoy. It isn’t highbrow, but toilet humour is scientifi cally proven to be always hilarious.
Gameplay looks to be standard hack and slash affair, with Deadpool’s signature katanas and dual pistols making up his standard arsenal, and seem like a pretty damn perfect set for a game. Other
weapons are promised, including outlandish stuff like sledgehammers and laser guns. It’s gory as all hell, in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
Recently revealed to also be in the game is Deadpool’s long time partner/friend/worst enemy, Cable.
If the two pair up as well as they have done in their classic comics run, we can’t wait. High Moon is
responsible for the actually pretty decent Transformers games of the last few years, so Deadpool could
shape up to be great.
10 VIDEO GAME EASTER EGGS THAT TOOK YEARS TO FIND
TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME
TOP 15 SCARY HIDDEN THINGS IN VIDEO GAMESTOP 15 MOST SCARY THINGS CAUGHT ON VIDEO
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Dead Space 3 Lost on a planet
Dead Space 3 Lost on a planet
When it comes to success stories of the current generation, Dead Space stands tall. Starting out as an
unknown new IP, albeit one with the financial power of EA behind it, the game was a big hit and saw a sequel that was similarly well received. A third game was a given, promising more scares, more action, and even deader space.
Unassuming engineer turned action superhero Isaac Clarke returns to face yet another slew of Necromorph outbreaks. Again? The dude has the worst luck, huh? At the start of the game, Isaac is being grumpy in his apartment, looking morose and sweeping things off desks in a display of his oh-so-tortured soul. He’s kicked out of his funk by the stereotypical army bros kicking in his door, and soon enough he’s back to his limb-severing best.
Isaac as a character is more assured than he was in 2. His sanity, so often called into question before, isn’t an issue, and aside from the odd angsty outburst, he tends to take control of the situation, in part due to the lack of competence from the gibbering cretins that make up most of the supporting cast. From his mute spell in the first game to his mental struggles into the second, Isaac has grown into
an interesting character, different enough to the standard space-marine archetype to stand out and be endearing. You’ll root for him as he struggles to survive and save the world yet again, and this time, he has help.
The big new feature of Dead Space 3 is co-op. That’s right, co-op, which has been in almost every game released in the last five years, is the major selling point in all the game’s marketing campaigns.
Player 2 controls John Carver, one of the standard army guys from earlier, who has a similarly tortured soul thanks to losing his wife and son in a prior Necromorph outbreak. It’s hard to care about Carver thanks to the utter lack of originality. This is a character you’ve seen before in plenty of other
games. Even his name is boring.
Fans have been understandably worried about this. Horror games live and die on their atmosphere, and the best way to ruin any sense of fear is by having another person with you, as Resident Evil has proven. Visceral has solved this problem in a smart way. In single player, Isaac is still almost always alone. Although Carver is still around in cutscenes, he is far less of an important character, with the story subtly changing depending on whether you are playing solo or not. The amount of increasingly contrived ways that Isaac gets split up from the group starts to get a bit silly, but if you want your single-player, lonely Dead Space experience, it’s still here.
But the thing is, even on your lonesome, Dead Space has never actually been that deepdown emotionally scary. If monsters jumping out of airvents, screaming BLAUGAHGAG and walking slowly towards you still scares you witless, then good for you, but that’s the sort of scare that only works the first time, and never when you’ve got plenty of ammo. Isaac has always been so well-armed that you rarely feel helpless. “But wait!” you cry. “On the harder difficulty levels, resources are far more scarce!” It’s true, and the harder difficulty you play on, the more survival-horror-esque the game becomes in regards to inventory management and being careful with your stuff, but it still isn’t scary. Having no ammo or health packs doesn’t make a game horrific, it makes it annoying.
The best scary games work on a dark, psychological level, implying horror rather than outright shoving it in your face. They let your imagination do the work, stirring up true terror through subtlety. Dead Space isn’t subtle. It shoves it in your face, then screams “THIS IS SCARY, ISN’T IT? BE SCARED!” in your ear just to make sure the message is getting across. Another holdout from the survival-horror games of yore is Isaac’s cumbersome movement. He still feels sluggish, and getting
caught in a corner with a bunch of enemies and no means of escaping raises a sigh. New to Dead Space 3 is the ability to roll, supposedly to avoid attacks. In practice, it just doesn’t bloody work. Attempting a timely roll to dodge an attack will almost always result in Isaac being hit anyway. One recurring boss fight in particular comes to mind, where the intention is clearly for the player to roll to the side when the boss charges at him. Yet every time you get hit, resulting in much annoyance and a strategy that involves a lot of legging it and very little shooting.
The second addition to Isaac and Carver’s moveset is a cover system. Astute minds might wonder why a game in which the player faces primarily rage-filled melee-based enemies would need cover, and rightly so. Thanks to the Hollywood Blockbuster Syndrome that seems to infect every horror franchise as they grow (cough Resident Evil cough), Dead Space 3 features human enemies as well as the trusty Necromorphs.
These sections are just awful. Isaac’s moveset doesn’t suit a fast-paced shooter and it shows. The cover system is extremely simple. Aim your gun while standing near a piece of customary chest-high wall and Isaac will crouch down a bit. That’s it. Despite your head and a large part of your torso still being visible, taking cover renders you near-immune to gunfire and makes these sections far too easy.
Towards the end of the game, human and Necromorph opponents are mixed, fighting each other as well as you. It’s here that it really works. Having to gauge the battlefield and adapt to different types of attacks on the fly is thrilling fun, and it’s always enjoyable helping some enemy soldiers take out a huge monster, only to finish them off when they are distracted.
Many old types of Necromorphs return, along with various new monsters like the morphing Waster, mutating depending on where you shoot it. It’s pretty impressive, despite being exactly the same idea as the J’avo from Resident Evil 6 last year. Huge boss monsters are suitably slimy and tentacled, and
the sound design is as spot on as ever. Growls, roars, high-pitched shrieks and human-like cries of pain – the Necromorphs are a noisy bunch. They all look wonderfully grotesque and, although not that horrific, it’s still easy to appreciate the gruesome designs.
Aside from the story differences, there are other subtle changes when playing in co-op. Thanks to the signals being sent out by the Markers and his general ill mental health, Carver suffers from bouts of dementia. This causes him to see things that Isaac doesn’t, while inhabiting the same space. Think of the much-applauded phasing feature in World Of Warcraft. Two players, standing in the same spot in the same shared world, each seeing two completely different things but still able to interact with each other. It’s a neat system that more games should use, and gives players a reason to try out Carver to see through his eyes.
This is the part where we would talk about how different it is playing in co-op, the changes in tone, how the two characters work together, and if the game still works when playing with a friend. Unfortunately, the review code we received from EA couldn’t connect to online co-op, so we haven’t been able to test it on this occasion. Keep an eye on Play, though, as we’ll be taking a look at it next issue.
The second big new feature is the weapon crafting system. This adds an RPG spin to the game, with Isaac collecting various materials as he progresses that go towards making shiny new guns. The system shows a surprising level of depth and is one of the best things about the game. Each weapon can have two guns in one – you can strap an assault rifle to a rocket launcher, or Isaac’s trademark plasma cutter to a hydraulic hammer. To these two base guns you can add attachments, upgrade
chips and various other miscellanea to create a truly unique weapon. There are thousands of combinations and each has it’s own model in game. It’s thoroughly impressive, and coming up with your own personal death-machine is a blast. Some of the stuff you can come up with is downright nasty. Want to add a stasis effect to every bullet your shredder/grenade launcher hybrid fires? Yeah, you can do that.
You may well create a weapon so powerful and awesome that you simply don’t need to bother making new ones, but even that isn’t much of a complaint. Weapon crafting is a total hit and the most welcome addition to the Dead Space formula.
Unfortunately, it’s in the resource gathering aspect of making weapons and upgrading your suit that one of the unwelcome spectres of this generation invades the series. An option for Downloadable Content is always present on the crafting screens, and microtransactions allow you to buy extra materials if you find yourself lacking. It’s never a necessity as there’s plenty of stuff to find, but it still feels like an unwelcome intrusion, and if we’re being cynical, rather like EA is pushing microtransactions a little too much. This isn’t iOS, after all.
Otherwise, core gameplay is business as usual. It’s practically the same as the last two games, but an old mantra about not fixing unbroken things comes to mind. Aside from Isaac’s clunky movement, the shooting mechanics are satisfying and stomping on stuff is still as meaty as before. You all know
the drill. Stroll around, shoot monsters, stomp on boxes, mash X to pick stuff up as you walk over it. It’s just a shame that it never amounts to more – it still works, but we’ve been doing rather similar things now for two prior games.
Dead Space 3 is interesting graphically, but also a decent metaphor for the game as a whole. It looks alright throughout, really lovely in some places, but for the most part is so standard it’s hard to get excited about. Character faces are a bit iffy; okay from a distance but get up close and you notice
things like the weird ears (trust us) that can be off-putting. Some of the environment design is stunning with wonderful vistas setting the scene. Vast swathes of space filled with destroyed ships and sprawling, denselypopulated lunar colonies take the breath away. On a smaller level though, design is dull and repetitive. Once you’ve seen a few dark corridors and nondescript snowy plains you know what to expect.
The theme of slight disappointment continues with the story, which is so unoriginal it’s often hard to care. Isaac is a compelling character, and Ellie Langford, returning from the last game, is interesting, but Carver is a clich? and the supporting cast are barely more than cardboard cutouts who exist to be
killed off in a variety of fun ways. The plot is a mishmash of Aliens and the whole “ancient creators” shtick that seems to be increasingly prevalent in modern media, Assassin’s Creed for example, with a good bit of unsubtle social commentary on religious fanaticism thrown in. Isaac and crew travel to another planet, thinking it to be the homeworld of the mysterious “markers” that cause all the
Necromorph nastiness, in an attempt to save humanity. Along the way they are accosted by the Church of Unitology, worshippers of the markers who see Isaac as a big threat in accomplishing their goals. Their leader is English, because he’s evil. Or is he evil because he’s English?
The plot is utterly awash with macguffins and barely explained lingo – Black Markers, Red Markers, Machines, Convergence, Pandora, Codex’s, jam donuts. There is always some all-important item for the group to attain which will open access to the next plot device, and so on. Supposedly important plot revelations are clumsily handled, failing to make much of an impact because you aren’t really sure what’s going on.
When the plot works is when it ditches all the high-concept jargon and focuses on the human element. Isaac is a likeable, interesting character and seeing him struggle with a huge responsibility he doesn’t want, coming to terms with it and growing into his role as a hero is good stuff. It’s about as original as the rest of the story, but because you’ve come to care about Isaac over his long, improbable journey, you don’t mind as much. As the story builds to a suitably epic conclusion, you’ll start to care about Isaac’s ultimate fate as he struggles to save the world, despite knowing that really, it’s all a bit silly.
Padding is an issue. Key plot points are few and far between, with the large gaps being filled by Isaac going on yet another wild goose chase as he searches for the next item he needs. Find that item, and guess what, it’s broken. You need to get two more items to fix the first one. But then, one of those doesn’t work either! Isaac has to fix the electrical system first. And so on, until it gets tiresome. Most games, at a base level, are at least in part about walking to where you are told, but Dead Space 3 rarely gives you a reason to be interested in where you are walking to and why. Samey environments and dull puzzles drag the game to an utter halt at times, and boredom can’t help but creep in.
Several optional missions are included, including some specific to co-op. Getting more bang for your buck is always good, but it’s easy to see why these missions are optional. Less effort has been given to them compared to the main game, with a few lines of dialogue setting you on your way and little else. Most end up with Isaac discovering some goodies that often weren’t quite worth the items he used getting to that point. Visceral made the right move making this stuff optional, and it’s appreciated. Completionists have extra content to enjoy, but those who want to power through the story can avoid some of the extra chaff.
Speaking of chaff, the competitive multiplayer modes from Dead Space 2 have been cut, Visceral focusing their online efforts on co-op. It’s not a huge loss. Multiplayer was a fun little piss-about every now and then, but never the main attraction. A few players might miss it, but most probably won’t even notice. What it all comes down to is simple. Dead Space 3 is more of the same, albeit a tad more action-focused and with more snow.
Diehard fans of the previous two games will have just as much fun this time around, assuming they aren’t expecting broad innovations. Everything is polished and this is clearly a title with a lot of funding behind it, but all the money in the world can’t buy innovation. By no means a bad sequel, it doesn’t quite offer a way for Dead Space to evolve as a series beyond its past two instalments, even if the formula here is still potent. Sam Smith
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When it comes to success stories of the current generation, Dead Space stands tall. Starting out as an
unknown new IP, albeit one with the financial power of EA behind it, the game was a big hit and saw a sequel that was similarly well received. A third game was a given, promising more scares, more action, and even deader space.
Unassuming engineer turned action superhero Isaac Clarke returns to face yet another slew of Necromorph outbreaks. Again? The dude has the worst luck, huh? At the start of the game, Isaac is being grumpy in his apartment, looking morose and sweeping things off desks in a display of his oh-so-tortured soul. He’s kicked out of his funk by the stereotypical army bros kicking in his door, and soon enough he’s back to his limb-severing best.
Isaac as a character is more assured than he was in 2. His sanity, so often called into question before, isn’t an issue, and aside from the odd angsty outburst, he tends to take control of the situation, in part due to the lack of competence from the gibbering cretins that make up most of the supporting cast. From his mute spell in the first game to his mental struggles into the second, Isaac has grown into
an interesting character, different enough to the standard space-marine archetype to stand out and be endearing. You’ll root for him as he struggles to survive and save the world yet again, and this time, he has help.
The big new feature of Dead Space 3 is co-op. That’s right, co-op, which has been in almost every game released in the last five years, is the major selling point in all the game’s marketing campaigns.
Player 2 controls John Carver, one of the standard army guys from earlier, who has a similarly tortured soul thanks to losing his wife and son in a prior Necromorph outbreak. It’s hard to care about Carver thanks to the utter lack of originality. This is a character you’ve seen before in plenty of other
games. Even his name is boring.
Fans have been understandably worried about this. Horror games live and die on their atmosphere, and the best way to ruin any sense of fear is by having another person with you, as Resident Evil has proven. Visceral has solved this problem in a smart way. In single player, Isaac is still almost always alone. Although Carver is still around in cutscenes, he is far less of an important character, with the story subtly changing depending on whether you are playing solo or not. The amount of increasingly contrived ways that Isaac gets split up from the group starts to get a bit silly, but if you want your single-player, lonely Dead Space experience, it’s still here.
But the thing is, even on your lonesome, Dead Space has never actually been that deepdown emotionally scary. If monsters jumping out of airvents, screaming BLAUGAHGAG and walking slowly towards you still scares you witless, then good for you, but that’s the sort of scare that only works the first time, and never when you’ve got plenty of ammo. Isaac has always been so well-armed that you rarely feel helpless. “But wait!” you cry. “On the harder difficulty levels, resources are far more scarce!” It’s true, and the harder difficulty you play on, the more survival-horror-esque the game becomes in regards to inventory management and being careful with your stuff, but it still isn’t scary. Having no ammo or health packs doesn’t make a game horrific, it makes it annoying.
The best scary games work on a dark, psychological level, implying horror rather than outright shoving it in your face. They let your imagination do the work, stirring up true terror through subtlety. Dead Space isn’t subtle. It shoves it in your face, then screams “THIS IS SCARY, ISN’T IT? BE SCARED!” in your ear just to make sure the message is getting across. Another holdout from the survival-horror games of yore is Isaac’s cumbersome movement. He still feels sluggish, and getting
caught in a corner with a bunch of enemies and no means of escaping raises a sigh. New to Dead Space 3 is the ability to roll, supposedly to avoid attacks. In practice, it just doesn’t bloody work. Attempting a timely roll to dodge an attack will almost always result in Isaac being hit anyway. One recurring boss fight in particular comes to mind, where the intention is clearly for the player to roll to the side when the boss charges at him. Yet every time you get hit, resulting in much annoyance and a strategy that involves a lot of legging it and very little shooting.
The second addition to Isaac and Carver’s moveset is a cover system. Astute minds might wonder why a game in which the player faces primarily rage-filled melee-based enemies would need cover, and rightly so. Thanks to the Hollywood Blockbuster Syndrome that seems to infect every horror franchise as they grow (cough Resident Evil cough), Dead Space 3 features human enemies as well as the trusty Necromorphs.
These sections are just awful. Isaac’s moveset doesn’t suit a fast-paced shooter and it shows. The cover system is extremely simple. Aim your gun while standing near a piece of customary chest-high wall and Isaac will crouch down a bit. That’s it. Despite your head and a large part of your torso still being visible, taking cover renders you near-immune to gunfire and makes these sections far too easy.
Towards the end of the game, human and Necromorph opponents are mixed, fighting each other as well as you. It’s here that it really works. Having to gauge the battlefield and adapt to different types of attacks on the fly is thrilling fun, and it’s always enjoyable helping some enemy soldiers take out a huge monster, only to finish them off when they are distracted.
Many old types of Necromorphs return, along with various new monsters like the morphing Waster, mutating depending on where you shoot it. It’s pretty impressive, despite being exactly the same idea as the J’avo from Resident Evil 6 last year. Huge boss monsters are suitably slimy and tentacled, and
the sound design is as spot on as ever. Growls, roars, high-pitched shrieks and human-like cries of pain – the Necromorphs are a noisy bunch. They all look wonderfully grotesque and, although not that horrific, it’s still easy to appreciate the gruesome designs.
Aside from the story differences, there are other subtle changes when playing in co-op. Thanks to the signals being sent out by the Markers and his general ill mental health, Carver suffers from bouts of dementia. This causes him to see things that Isaac doesn’t, while inhabiting the same space. Think of the much-applauded phasing feature in World Of Warcraft. Two players, standing in the same spot in the same shared world, each seeing two completely different things but still able to interact with each other. It’s a neat system that more games should use, and gives players a reason to try out Carver to see through his eyes.
This is the part where we would talk about how different it is playing in co-op, the changes in tone, how the two characters work together, and if the game still works when playing with a friend. Unfortunately, the review code we received from EA couldn’t connect to online co-op, so we haven’t been able to test it on this occasion. Keep an eye on Play, though, as we’ll be taking a look at it next issue.
The second big new feature is the weapon crafting system. This adds an RPG spin to the game, with Isaac collecting various materials as he progresses that go towards making shiny new guns. The system shows a surprising level of depth and is one of the best things about the game. Each weapon can have two guns in one – you can strap an assault rifle to a rocket launcher, or Isaac’s trademark plasma cutter to a hydraulic hammer. To these two base guns you can add attachments, upgrade
chips and various other miscellanea to create a truly unique weapon. There are thousands of combinations and each has it’s own model in game. It’s thoroughly impressive, and coming up with your own personal death-machine is a blast. Some of the stuff you can come up with is downright nasty. Want to add a stasis effect to every bullet your shredder/grenade launcher hybrid fires? Yeah, you can do that.
You may well create a weapon so powerful and awesome that you simply don’t need to bother making new ones, but even that isn’t much of a complaint. Weapon crafting is a total hit and the most welcome addition to the Dead Space formula.
Unfortunately, it’s in the resource gathering aspect of making weapons and upgrading your suit that one of the unwelcome spectres of this generation invades the series. An option for Downloadable Content is always present on the crafting screens, and microtransactions allow you to buy extra materials if you find yourself lacking. It’s never a necessity as there’s plenty of stuff to find, but it still feels like an unwelcome intrusion, and if we’re being cynical, rather like EA is pushing microtransactions a little too much. This isn’t iOS, after all.
Otherwise, core gameplay is business as usual. It’s practically the same as the last two games, but an old mantra about not fixing unbroken things comes to mind. Aside from Isaac’s clunky movement, the shooting mechanics are satisfying and stomping on stuff is still as meaty as before. You all know
the drill. Stroll around, shoot monsters, stomp on boxes, mash X to pick stuff up as you walk over it. It’s just a shame that it never amounts to more – it still works, but we’ve been doing rather similar things now for two prior games.
Dead Space 3 is interesting graphically, but also a decent metaphor for the game as a whole. It looks alright throughout, really lovely in some places, but for the most part is so standard it’s hard to get excited about. Character faces are a bit iffy; okay from a distance but get up close and you notice
things like the weird ears (trust us) that can be off-putting. Some of the environment design is stunning with wonderful vistas setting the scene. Vast swathes of space filled with destroyed ships and sprawling, denselypopulated lunar colonies take the breath away. On a smaller level though, design is dull and repetitive. Once you’ve seen a few dark corridors and nondescript snowy plains you know what to expect.
The theme of slight disappointment continues with the story, which is so unoriginal it’s often hard to care. Isaac is a compelling character, and Ellie Langford, returning from the last game, is interesting, but Carver is a clich? and the supporting cast are barely more than cardboard cutouts who exist to be
killed off in a variety of fun ways. The plot is a mishmash of Aliens and the whole “ancient creators” shtick that seems to be increasingly prevalent in modern media, Assassin’s Creed for example, with a good bit of unsubtle social commentary on religious fanaticism thrown in. Isaac and crew travel to another planet, thinking it to be the homeworld of the mysterious “markers” that cause all the
Necromorph nastiness, in an attempt to save humanity. Along the way they are accosted by the Church of Unitology, worshippers of the markers who see Isaac as a big threat in accomplishing their goals. Their leader is English, because he’s evil. Or is he evil because he’s English?
The plot is utterly awash with macguffins and barely explained lingo – Black Markers, Red Markers, Machines, Convergence, Pandora, Codex’s, jam donuts. There is always some all-important item for the group to attain which will open access to the next plot device, and so on. Supposedly important plot revelations are clumsily handled, failing to make much of an impact because you aren’t really sure what’s going on.
When the plot works is when it ditches all the high-concept jargon and focuses on the human element. Isaac is a likeable, interesting character and seeing him struggle with a huge responsibility he doesn’t want, coming to terms with it and growing into his role as a hero is good stuff. It’s about as original as the rest of the story, but because you’ve come to care about Isaac over his long, improbable journey, you don’t mind as much. As the story builds to a suitably epic conclusion, you’ll start to care about Isaac’s ultimate fate as he struggles to save the world, despite knowing that really, it’s all a bit silly.
Padding is an issue. Key plot points are few and far between, with the large gaps being filled by Isaac going on yet another wild goose chase as he searches for the next item he needs. Find that item, and guess what, it’s broken. You need to get two more items to fix the first one. But then, one of those doesn’t work either! Isaac has to fix the electrical system first. And so on, until it gets tiresome. Most games, at a base level, are at least in part about walking to where you are told, but Dead Space 3 rarely gives you a reason to be interested in where you are walking to and why. Samey environments and dull puzzles drag the game to an utter halt at times, and boredom can’t help but creep in.
Several optional missions are included, including some specific to co-op. Getting more bang for your buck is always good, but it’s easy to see why these missions are optional. Less effort has been given to them compared to the main game, with a few lines of dialogue setting you on your way and little else. Most end up with Isaac discovering some goodies that often weren’t quite worth the items he used getting to that point. Visceral made the right move making this stuff optional, and it’s appreciated. Completionists have extra content to enjoy, but those who want to power through the story can avoid some of the extra chaff.
Speaking of chaff, the competitive multiplayer modes from Dead Space 2 have been cut, Visceral focusing their online efforts on co-op. It’s not a huge loss. Multiplayer was a fun little piss-about every now and then, but never the main attraction. A few players might miss it, but most probably won’t even notice. What it all comes down to is simple. Dead Space 3 is more of the same, albeit a tad more action-focused and with more snow.
Diehard fans of the previous two games will have just as much fun this time around, assuming they aren’t expecting broad innovations. Everything is polished and this is clearly a title with a lot of funding behind it, but all the money in the world can’t buy innovation. By no means a bad sequel, it doesn’t quite offer a way for Dead Space to evolve as a series beyond its past two instalments, even if the formula here is still potent. Sam Smith
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Dead Space 3
Dead Space 3
Executive producer Steve Papoutsis on why co-op really works for the survival horror series
When Dead Space 3 was revealed with co-op, there was a concerned reaction from fans. Did you expect this reaction?
To be honest when we sat down to unveil the game at E3 we thought there was a couple of ways we could go. We could show what we’d shown before for a Dead Space game, and players would probably feel ‘Oh, it’s just another Dead Space game’. Or we could show the innovations we were bringing to the franchise, so we opted to do that. We showed a bunch of new stuff: exteriors of Tau Volantis, new enemies, human enemies, a giant boss, an epic sequence with the giant drill – we showed a lot of new stuff.
What we wanted to do was show new stuff and show people that we are evolving the franchise. The
addition of co-op on its own – a lot of people are going to have questions about it, we knew that was going to happen. But hopefully by showing people the video game [at events] they can see with co-op that we’re taking it in a very Dead Space direction and we’re innovating with a feature that nobody’s ever done before.
Are you concerned people will just play through single-player only?
A lot of thought and content has clearly gone into co-op. Absolutely. That’s one of the challenges when we started the video game – we knew that we were going to make content that some people just weren’t going to look at because they just don’t want to play co-op. That’s okay. It’s their loss, because they’re missing out on some of the cool stuff that the team’s done.
But hopefully when people see it, read about it, hear about it on a forum and read about how our
co-op actually works and how it’s actually additive through an article like this, people will become more interested and want to play with their friends. One of the goals with adding co-op was to have people be able to experience Dead Space with a friend – the feeling of going to a horror movie with someone. You can go to a horror movie with somebody and you can both be really into it, it’s tense and you’re on the edge of your seat, or you could go with a friend and you’d be drinking your sodas and eating popcorn and laughing but having a great time – we wanted players to be able to experience the game in a number of different ways.
So are you confi dent it will retain the same level of horror as the previous games, even with co-op?
I think it’s going to be similar in terms of what people say at the end. Some people think Dead Space
is really scary, some people don’t think Dead Space is really scary – if you read forums you’ll see a varying opinion. It’s very subjective. I’m not going to make a claim that it’s the scariest game or it’s not the scariest game – it’s up to the individual. The most important thing for us is that we’re making a Dead Space game – a Dead Space game is composed of many things, survival, horror, tension, action, immersiveness and atmosphere. All of those things.
When did you look at co-op? Was it something you considered after Dead Space 2?
Co-op was something we even talking about with the original Dead Space. At one point quite late in
development we had the engineering team set it up so we could play the game in co-op – at that point all we had was another Isaac, it literally was a tacked-on Isaac, and we ran a test and we thought ‘this could be kind of cool’. But we weren’t going to do that unless that character had a meaningful story and was integrated into the story – we couldn’t deliver co-op on that game at the level that we wanted to, so we didn’t do it.
The decision to make Isaac speak split the audience somewhat – how do you feel it’s worked out?
That’s another one of those decisions that’s born out of the story and what’s happening. My feeling was I thought it made a lot of sense in Dead Space that Isaac didn’t talk, because there weren’t a lot of people to talk to; he’s not going to go around talking to himself, that would be weird.
In Dead Space 2 he’s around a lot more characters, plus he’s got a lot on his mind – and he’s kind of pissed off that he’s been incarcerated and they’re pulling shit out of his head, so he’s got some things to say. That was a natural evolution of the character, just like showing his face more often – we wanted to develop more back story around Isaac, more personality around him.
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Executive producer Steve Papoutsis on why co-op really works for the survival horror series
When Dead Space 3 was revealed with co-op, there was a concerned reaction from fans. Did you expect this reaction?
To be honest when we sat down to unveil the game at E3 we thought there was a couple of ways we could go. We could show what we’d shown before for a Dead Space game, and players would probably feel ‘Oh, it’s just another Dead Space game’. Or we could show the innovations we were bringing to the franchise, so we opted to do that. We showed a bunch of new stuff: exteriors of Tau Volantis, new enemies, human enemies, a giant boss, an epic sequence with the giant drill – we showed a lot of new stuff.
What we wanted to do was show new stuff and show people that we are evolving the franchise. The
addition of co-op on its own – a lot of people are going to have questions about it, we knew that was going to happen. But hopefully by showing people the video game [at events] they can see with co-op that we’re taking it in a very Dead Space direction and we’re innovating with a feature that nobody’s ever done before.
Are you concerned people will just play through single-player only?
A lot of thought and content has clearly gone into co-op. Absolutely. That’s one of the challenges when we started the video game – we knew that we were going to make content that some people just weren’t going to look at because they just don’t want to play co-op. That’s okay. It’s their loss, because they’re missing out on some of the cool stuff that the team’s done.
But hopefully when people see it, read about it, hear about it on a forum and read about how our
co-op actually works and how it’s actually additive through an article like this, people will become more interested and want to play with their friends. One of the goals with adding co-op was to have people be able to experience Dead Space with a friend – the feeling of going to a horror movie with someone. You can go to a horror movie with somebody and you can both be really into it, it’s tense and you’re on the edge of your seat, or you could go with a friend and you’d be drinking your sodas and eating popcorn and laughing but having a great time – we wanted players to be able to experience the game in a number of different ways.
So are you confi dent it will retain the same level of horror as the previous games, even with co-op?
I think it’s going to be similar in terms of what people say at the end. Some people think Dead Space
is really scary, some people don’t think Dead Space is really scary – if you read forums you’ll see a varying opinion. It’s very subjective. I’m not going to make a claim that it’s the scariest game or it’s not the scariest game – it’s up to the individual. The most important thing for us is that we’re making a Dead Space game – a Dead Space game is composed of many things, survival, horror, tension, action, immersiveness and atmosphere. All of those things.
When did you look at co-op? Was it something you considered after Dead Space 2?
Co-op was something we even talking about with the original Dead Space. At one point quite late in
development we had the engineering team set it up so we could play the game in co-op – at that point all we had was another Isaac, it literally was a tacked-on Isaac, and we ran a test and we thought ‘this could be kind of cool’. But we weren’t going to do that unless that character had a meaningful story and was integrated into the story – we couldn’t deliver co-op on that game at the level that we wanted to, so we didn’t do it.
The decision to make Isaac speak split the audience somewhat – how do you feel it’s worked out?
That’s another one of those decisions that’s born out of the story and what’s happening. My feeling was I thought it made a lot of sense in Dead Space that Isaac didn’t talk, because there weren’t a lot of people to talk to; he’s not going to go around talking to himself, that would be weird.
In Dead Space 2 he’s around a lot more characters, plus he’s got a lot on his mind – and he’s kind of pissed off that he’s been incarcerated and they’re pulling shit out of his head, so he’s got some things to say. That was a natural evolution of the character, just like showing his face more often – we wanted to develop more back story around Isaac, more personality around him.
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Dead Island: Riptide
Dead Island: Riptide
Full sequel or glorified add-on pack? Techland talks us through its zombie island return…
If Dead Island: Riptide is a sequel, why isn’t it called Dead Island 2 in this age of SEOfriendly internet nonsense? “It’s the next instalment in the series,” clarifies Deep Silver creative producer Sebastian Reichert. “Fans made clear that they want to have more of Dead Island and we also had a lot more ideas to add to the format. When the developer and fans want the same thing, we can deliver
something great!”
So, it’s not Dead Island 2, but it is a sequel being released a year and a half after the original – which implies the actual Dead Island 2 threatens to be something much more ambitious. With Riptide, though, Techland is using this opportunity to address fan complaints about the original game,
which was an undeniably interesting experience, despite its overall lack of mechanical polish. “Tons of stuff has been addressed,” says Reichert. “People were unhappy with the firearms so we improved everything about them. Of course, we’ll stay focused on close combat but when you use a gun in the
game now, it’ll pack a wallop compared to the first game.
“The interface was criticised indirectly so we did a lot there: how the minimap works, how the game
communicates that items are too old, mission guidance, etc. Close combat has been further improved, skill trees have been expanded and, of course, a high priority has been to get rid of the
bugs.” Dead Island was considered part of the generation of releases that just ship with a ton of bugs to be patched out later – a bit annoying, so it’s pleasing to know that one of Riptide’s priorities is to sort this out. Nobody wants a half-finished game on day one, and maybe this will help the follow-up
garner further critical acclaim.
“Taking place just after the original game with the same range of characters, plus a couple of new
additions, the new island sounds like a more geographically varied backdrop for players, headlined by the inclusion of water-strewn locales. “Water is an essential new element to the game! Exploring a flooded jungle with the boat is a great new experience that is now available in Dead Island: Riptide. A huge area within a flooded jungle is available to scout,” explains Reichert. Bodes well for
jumpy moments with zombies popping up out of rivers, we suppose – or not so much, if you’re the scared type.
“We also wanted to make sure that the city on the island is much better in terms of contrast. The city in Dead Island was already ugly before the creatures appeared. The new city is just beautiful and offers very interesting architecture.” Improved art direction, then, and an environment that offers a departure from what came before.
In terms of the story, there’s a gameplay-based logic to why Deep Silver and Techland opted to make it a direct continuation. “That seemed most logical as we wanted to continue the experience. You will be able to import your character from Dead Island. So simply take your old character and experience how the story continues – you don’t have to finish the game or reach a certain level. Just
continue your experience! Of course, it is also possible to start a new character.” As you’ve probably seen, Dead Island: Riptide came packaged with its own slightly lame announcement trailer – in the spirit of the original’s internet-dominating tale of a zombie child’s transformation (but ultimately not
representative of the vibe of the game or our experiences), there’s another slightly less ‘powerful’ one with a couple blowing up their boat in the face of relentless zombie hoards. If Tree Of Life director
Terence Malick made bad zombie movies, it’s the sort of thing he’d come up with.
We ask to what extent this marketing is viewed as a separate entity to the development of Dead Island titles. “They show off user stories, but not the actual story of the game,” is Reichert’s short reply. Like it or not (and we don’t really like it), these trailers are now part of Dead Island’s DNA, and we’re sure they’ll get more tenuous as the series rolls on.
Back to Riptide, though. The inclusion of new character John Morgan, who offers a slightly different combat vibe to the existing avatars, has an amusingly specific point of inspiration: a Dead Island mod on the internet. “John is our answer to a tribute video. Check out ‘Fist of the Dead Star’ on YouTube,” advises Reichert. “We love Hokuto No Ken (Fist of the North Star) and when developing
the game we always asked ourselves how we could implement fist fighting into the game to make it more than a just ‘last resort’ action. This video gave us some great ideas. John is of course
not as extreme as Kenshiro, but he is our martial arts expert. And we have a lot of goodies in there to make sure you can enjoy his skills.”
In many ways, Riptide is a reaction to the way players engaged with the original Dead Island, as Reichert recalls. “What we learned is: give players a playground. Don’t force them into a story. Let them tell their own stories. With Riptide we are already looking forward to hear from players how many insane ideas they had to get rid of the zombie plague!”
Right now, we’re getting a bit of a Dragon Age: Awakening-style vibe from Dead Island: Riptide – no bad thing to be compared to one of the best and most-full-featured add-on packs released on PS3, but nonetheless, this looks like incremental progress from the original rather than a glimpse at what
typically comes next with a big sequel.
Nonetheless, we’re intrigued, as those who persevered with Dead Island found it to be a rewarding co-op experience that, at times, felt like a smart interpretation of what it might actually be like to survive in a zombie apocalypse, with a certain ingame logic to the quest system that we’d like to see replicated in Riptide. Whether this turns out to be a semi-sequel or an actual follow-up, Dead Island is a series with serious room to grow.
ZOMBIE GENERATION
PS3’s five most important zombie games
1. THE WALKING DEAD
The new king, just because the zombies in it aren’t actually the point – they’re just a backdrop to human drama. This is probably the first zombie game released on any PlayStation format that isn’t just about killing them, though that’s obviously part of it. Buy the complete series now if you haven’t already.
2. DEAD ISLAND
Like it or not, the trailer for Dead Island guaranteed it a big audience from day one, because people are easily confused by smart marketing – nevertheless, Dead Island was a very good mixture of Borderlandsstyle gameplay and survival horror that could easily be excellent if its ideas are developed this time around.
3. DEAD NATION
Sophisticated twins tick zombie slaying from House marque that most of you probably own, thanks to the free PSN giveaway following the hacking saga in 2011. We love it, since, rather than just plonking players in random levels, it has a terrific sense of progression throughout its undead infested
world.
4. RESIDENT EVIL 5
Are they zombies anymore in Resident Evil? Well, yeah, in all but name. They may not wander slowly towards you in Dawn Of The Deadesque fashion, but they still feed on the flesh of the living. Resi 5 is a terrific coop experience and a very good singleplayer game, too.
5 BORDERLANDS: THE ZOMBIE ISLAND OF DR. NED
We enjoyed this good value DLC pack, since it applied zombies to Borderlands and somehow made it work wonderfully well – ?8 for one of the best zombiebased experiences on PS3. That’s ruddy good in our book.
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10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
10 CREEPY VIDEO GAME URBAN LEGENDS
Full sequel or glorified add-on pack? Techland talks us through its zombie island return…
If Dead Island: Riptide is a sequel, why isn’t it called Dead Island 2 in this age of SEOfriendly internet nonsense? “It’s the next instalment in the series,” clarifies Deep Silver creative producer Sebastian Reichert. “Fans made clear that they want to have more of Dead Island and we also had a lot more ideas to add to the format. When the developer and fans want the same thing, we can deliver
something great!”
So, it’s not Dead Island 2, but it is a sequel being released a year and a half after the original – which implies the actual Dead Island 2 threatens to be something much more ambitious. With Riptide, though, Techland is using this opportunity to address fan complaints about the original game,
which was an undeniably interesting experience, despite its overall lack of mechanical polish. “Tons of stuff has been addressed,” says Reichert. “People were unhappy with the firearms so we improved everything about them. Of course, we’ll stay focused on close combat but when you use a gun in the
game now, it’ll pack a wallop compared to the first game.
“The interface was criticised indirectly so we did a lot there: how the minimap works, how the game
communicates that items are too old, mission guidance, etc. Close combat has been further improved, skill trees have been expanded and, of course, a high priority has been to get rid of the
bugs.” Dead Island was considered part of the generation of releases that just ship with a ton of bugs to be patched out later – a bit annoying, so it’s pleasing to know that one of Riptide’s priorities is to sort this out. Nobody wants a half-finished game on day one, and maybe this will help the follow-up
garner further critical acclaim.
“Taking place just after the original game with the same range of characters, plus a couple of new
additions, the new island sounds like a more geographically varied backdrop for players, headlined by the inclusion of water-strewn locales. “Water is an essential new element to the game! Exploring a flooded jungle with the boat is a great new experience that is now available in Dead Island: Riptide. A huge area within a flooded jungle is available to scout,” explains Reichert. Bodes well for
jumpy moments with zombies popping up out of rivers, we suppose – or not so much, if you’re the scared type.
“We also wanted to make sure that the city on the island is much better in terms of contrast. The city in Dead Island was already ugly before the creatures appeared. The new city is just beautiful and offers very interesting architecture.” Improved art direction, then, and an environment that offers a departure from what came before.
In terms of the story, there’s a gameplay-based logic to why Deep Silver and Techland opted to make it a direct continuation. “That seemed most logical as we wanted to continue the experience. You will be able to import your character from Dead Island. So simply take your old character and experience how the story continues – you don’t have to finish the game or reach a certain level. Just
continue your experience! Of course, it is also possible to start a new character.” As you’ve probably seen, Dead Island: Riptide came packaged with its own slightly lame announcement trailer – in the spirit of the original’s internet-dominating tale of a zombie child’s transformation (but ultimately not
representative of the vibe of the game or our experiences), there’s another slightly less ‘powerful’ one with a couple blowing up their boat in the face of relentless zombie hoards. If Tree Of Life director
Terence Malick made bad zombie movies, it’s the sort of thing he’d come up with.
We ask to what extent this marketing is viewed as a separate entity to the development of Dead Island titles. “They show off user stories, but not the actual story of the game,” is Reichert’s short reply. Like it or not (and we don’t really like it), these trailers are now part of Dead Island’s DNA, and we’re sure they’ll get more tenuous as the series rolls on.
Back to Riptide, though. The inclusion of new character John Morgan, who offers a slightly different combat vibe to the existing avatars, has an amusingly specific point of inspiration: a Dead Island mod on the internet. “John is our answer to a tribute video. Check out ‘Fist of the Dead Star’ on YouTube,” advises Reichert. “We love Hokuto No Ken (Fist of the North Star) and when developing
the game we always asked ourselves how we could implement fist fighting into the game to make it more than a just ‘last resort’ action. This video gave us some great ideas. John is of course
not as extreme as Kenshiro, but he is our martial arts expert. And we have a lot of goodies in there to make sure you can enjoy his skills.”
In many ways, Riptide is a reaction to the way players engaged with the original Dead Island, as Reichert recalls. “What we learned is: give players a playground. Don’t force them into a story. Let them tell their own stories. With Riptide we are already looking forward to hear from players how many insane ideas they had to get rid of the zombie plague!”
Right now, we’re getting a bit of a Dragon Age: Awakening-style vibe from Dead Island: Riptide – no bad thing to be compared to one of the best and most-full-featured add-on packs released on PS3, but nonetheless, this looks like incremental progress from the original rather than a glimpse at what
typically comes next with a big sequel.
Nonetheless, we’re intrigued, as those who persevered with Dead Island found it to be a rewarding co-op experience that, at times, felt like a smart interpretation of what it might actually be like to survive in a zombie apocalypse, with a certain ingame logic to the quest system that we’d like to see replicated in Riptide. Whether this turns out to be a semi-sequel or an actual follow-up, Dead Island is a series with serious room to grow.
ZOMBIE GENERATION
PS3’s five most important zombie games
1. THE WALKING DEAD
The new king, just because the zombies in it aren’t actually the point – they’re just a backdrop to human drama. This is probably the first zombie game released on any PlayStation format that isn’t just about killing them, though that’s obviously part of it. Buy the complete series now if you haven’t already.
2. DEAD ISLAND
Like it or not, the trailer for Dead Island guaranteed it a big audience from day one, because people are easily confused by smart marketing – nevertheless, Dead Island was a very good mixture of Borderlandsstyle gameplay and survival horror that could easily be excellent if its ideas are developed this time around.
3. DEAD NATION
Sophisticated twins tick zombie slaying from House marque that most of you probably own, thanks to the free PSN giveaway following the hacking saga in 2011. We love it, since, rather than just plonking players in random levels, it has a terrific sense of progression throughout its undead infested
world.
4. RESIDENT EVIL 5
Are they zombies anymore in Resident Evil? Well, yeah, in all but name. They may not wander slowly towards you in Dawn Of The Deadesque fashion, but they still feed on the flesh of the living. Resi 5 is a terrific coop experience and a very good singleplayer game, too.
5 BORDERLANDS: THE ZOMBIE ISLAND OF DR. NED
We enjoyed this good value DLC pack, since it applied zombies to Borderlands and somehow made it work wonderfully well – ?8 for one of the best zombiebased experiences on PS3. That’s ruddy good in our book.
10 VIDEO GAME EASTER EGGS THAT TOOK YEARS TO FIND
TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME
TOP 15 SCARY HIDDEN THINGS IN VIDEO GAMESTOP 15 MOST SCARY THINGS CAUGHT ON VIDEO
10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
10 CREEPY VIDEO GAME URBAN LEGENDS
Call Of Duty: WWII
Call Of Duty: WWII
How returning to the past has helped reinvent a stagnant multiplayer experience
As Activision dials back the clock and softly reboots the triple-A franchise that’s ruled the shooter roost for well over decade, it’s clear Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games really wants to hark back to the series’ good old days. And with a just a taster of its new approach to multiplayer showcased at E3, we’re excited to see that what’s old has finally become new again.
The classic multiplayer modes you know and love return – so you’ll still get to run around in TDM and the like – but it’s the new additions that are causing a real stir. War mode is COD’s answer to Battlefield’s long-serving Conquest scenarios – a fresh multiplayer experience that pits two teams of players against one another as they battle through three interconnected missions.
One such setup sees players fighting up a hill to secure a truck in one section, battling to hold back the enemy while building a bridge in the next and protecting a tank as it crosses in the finale. The team-based orientation smacks of Overwatch, but we all want more from online shooters than simple
deathmatches, so the arrival of War Mode is a positive sign for the series.
Sledgehammer has also taken great pains to address the fact that you’ll once again be playing as the Axis in multiplayer. And while Swastikas will appear in the game’s story campaign (where you’ll exclusively play as the Allies, including a female member of the French Resistance), that particular symbol will be absent from online play. Since avatars are fully customisable – whether they be Axis or Allies – you’ll also be able to play as a nonwhite German while fighting in Nazi colours. Sledgehammer says multiplayer is all about inclusivity rather than historical accuracy, and it hopes the balance it’s struck will promote that mindset when it goes live in November.
COD: WWII’s campaign has also been given an overhaul, with the almost ubiquitous health regeneration system the series helped make so commonplace now traded for a medkit system (much like those used in the original WWII games). It makes firefights a lot more intense, although you’ll often be in a squad with a medic you can rely on for on-call health relief. The bulk of the story will take place across France, Belgium and Germany, and while it’s as set-piece-driven as the modern
or futuristic COD of today, the absence of exo suits and wall-running makes everything feel retro chic, in the best kind of way.
10 VIDEO GAME EASTER EGGS THAT TOOK YEARS TO FIND
TOP 15 MOST SCARY THINGS CAUGHT ON VIDEO
10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
How returning to the past has helped reinvent a stagnant multiplayer experience
As Activision dials back the clock and softly reboots the triple-A franchise that’s ruled the shooter roost for well over decade, it’s clear Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games really wants to hark back to the series’ good old days. And with a just a taster of its new approach to multiplayer showcased at E3, we’re excited to see that what’s old has finally become new again.
The classic multiplayer modes you know and love return – so you’ll still get to run around in TDM and the like – but it’s the new additions that are causing a real stir. War mode is COD’s answer to Battlefield’s long-serving Conquest scenarios – a fresh multiplayer experience that pits two teams of players against one another as they battle through three interconnected missions.
One such setup sees players fighting up a hill to secure a truck in one section, battling to hold back the enemy while building a bridge in the next and protecting a tank as it crosses in the finale. The team-based orientation smacks of Overwatch, but we all want more from online shooters than simple
deathmatches, so the arrival of War Mode is a positive sign for the series.
Sledgehammer has also taken great pains to address the fact that you’ll once again be playing as the Axis in multiplayer. And while Swastikas will appear in the game’s story campaign (where you’ll exclusively play as the Allies, including a female member of the French Resistance), that particular symbol will be absent from online play. Since avatars are fully customisable – whether they be Axis or Allies – you’ll also be able to play as a nonwhite German while fighting in Nazi colours. Sledgehammer says multiplayer is all about inclusivity rather than historical accuracy, and it hopes the balance it’s struck will promote that mindset when it goes live in November.
COD: WWII’s campaign has also been given an overhaul, with the almost ubiquitous health regeneration system the series helped make so commonplace now traded for a medkit system (much like those used in the original WWII games). It makes firefights a lot more intense, although you’ll often be in a squad with a medic you can rely on for on-call health relief. The bulk of the story will take place across France, Belgium and Germany, and while it’s as set-piece-driven as the modern
or futuristic COD of today, the absence of exo suits and wall-running makes everything feel retro chic, in the best kind of way.
10 VIDEO GAME EASTER EGGS THAT TOOK YEARS TO FIND
TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME
TOP 15 SCARY HIDDEN THINGS IN VIDEO GAMESTOP 15 MOST SCARY THINGS CAUGHT ON VIDEO
10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
Far Cry 3 Another day for me and me in paradise
Far Cry 3 Another day for me and me in paradise
There can be little doubt that Ubisoft is the bravest of the big publishers. Where others concentrate on smoothing off as many edges as possible to produce ultra-polished (and often bland) triple-A fodder, Ubisoft encourages ideas-driven development, even it that leads to failure. 2008’s Far Cry 2 was perhaps the most obvious example of this culture – an extraordinarily brave, bleak, system-driven shooter that divided critics and fans alike. Those who loved Far Cry 2, though, really loved Far Cry 2.
While Far Cry 2 had clear problems and questionable design decisions throughout, it introduced three concurrent systems that defined its combat encounters; fire, enemy injuries, and the buddy system. The first is selfexplanatory and immediately gratifying, but the others only revealed themselves to those who stuck with the game. The way enemies would tend to injured comrades, or chase down
the player when crippled, led to the types of emergent stories that would light up message boards for months. Add in a system where a buddy character would randomly join in your fight, risking permadeath, and you had a recipe for greatness, even in a problematic framework.
Far Cry 3 keeps only one of those systems, ditching the other two in favour of a much more consistent, rules-driven, polished world. Yes, you can still set fire to huge sections of the jungle and it’s even more impressive than before, but enemies are now either dead or fullyfunctioning, and there ain’t a buddy in sight. It’s something that’ll be instantly disappointing to Far Cry 2 lovers, but this isn’t Far Cry 2. It’s a huge, gorgeous beast of a game that marries the core tenets of Far Cry gameplay (an open world with skirmishes approachable in any way you can think of) with a vast island landscape to explore, and crucially, to hunt.
Yes, Ubisoft may have ditched a couple of systems, but it has introduced a new one – wildlife. Every inch of Rook Island is teeming with animals, from spritely goats, chubby pigs and noisy boars all the way up to hissing Komodo dragons and snarling Sumatran tigers. There are even bull sharks swimming in the water, and coming across one when you’re not expecting it is so terrifying this reviewer had to pause the game and walk out of the room, shaking his head.
The animals do whatever they want, so a tiger might attack a nearby goat, it might launch itself at an enemy, or it might stalk and pounce on you when you’re setting up a perfect sniper shot. It’s a layer of emergent madness that’s quite unlike anything else. Red Dead nudged towards this at times, but it wasn’t as integral to the experience. They’re not just there for show, either. You’ll need to hunt and skin animals to craft almost anything useful, from a rucksack for loot to a pouch for your ammo.
And why do you need to quickly learn Bear Grylls-level survival skills? Well, after you (young, handsome and out-of-his-element Jason Brody) and your travelling companions are captured by madman Vaas, you manage to break free from his prison camp and set about rescuing your mates. But you know nothing. Thankfully, you’re taken in by the local warrior tribe, the Rakyat, who all sound
like Jemaine from Flight Of The Conchords and scored with tattoos, or ‘the tatau’, gifting you skill-tree abilities like machete takedowns or a steady aim.
After a couple of hours in Rook Island, you don’t feel like a rookie any more. Far Cry 3 features some 38 narrative missions, all of which are bookended by marvellously acted and animated interactions with the game’s bonkers cast, and just playing through them would take well over 15 hours. Doing that alone, though, would be criminal. The world boasts an almost endless supply of side quests, ranging from hunting missions to Assassin’s Creedstyle camp liberations.
These liberations actually provide the most open gameplay in Far Cry 3. They’re exactly as you’d imagine; you find a distant vantage point, use your magical camera (don’t know where Brody found this, but it’s definitely better than an iPhone 5) to scan the area and tag all the enemies within (who can then be seen through walls, for some unknown reason), and then plan your attack. Stealth is normally the best option, but difficult to maintain – usually you’ll take out one or two guys and be spotted, reverting to an in-and-out predatory attack as you pick the opposition off one by one. Watching them freak out and shoot blindly into the thick grass is especially gratifying, and as you level up (an XP system drives Far Cry 3), you’ll unlock some startling abilities, including the power to stab a guy in the neck, pull the pin out of his grenade and kick him into his mates. When it all clicks – man, is it something to behold.
And even when things don’t go to plan, Far Cry 3 is a very solid shooter – more so than its predecessor. The weapons feel great, the blasting is cathartic, and the destructible and flammable scenery helps to create some serious spectacle. Oddly, though, many of the narrative missions ditch the open world for linear blasts that could have been plucked from any shooter you care to mention.
These vary wildly in quality. The more open missions are just as enjoyable as camp liberations, and some heavily scripted events nail the spectacle you’d normally expect in Call Of Duty, but there are too many that throw enemies at you in narrow corridors and barely allow for any sort of tactical play.
A lengthy section of missions towards the middle of the game sees Far Cry 3 turn into a kind of first-person Uncharted, with mystical tombs, treasure and Brody constantly commentating on his surroundings. He even says ‘no no no no’ at one point. And whoever thought that chucking three heavy (juggernautstyle) enemies into the tail end of an escort mission has clearly been chewing on one too many mushrooms.
Thankfully, things do turn around, and the overarching narrative is both compelling and alluringly psychedelic. Hallucinogens are a pillar of the story and the gameplay, and there are some outstandingly trippy sections that really do leap out into the realms of the surreal. It helps, too, that Vaas is such an outstanding antagonist, brilliantly acted and truly creepy. Like a great cinema baddy, any time he’s on screen is a treat, even if you want to put a bullet in between his sullen eyes. So well realised, in fact, are some of the bolder sections of Far Cry 3’s story, that other parts feel totally out of place. Brody’s aforementioned wittering robs the most atmospheric scenes of some of their gravity, while the endlessly repeating incidental dialogue constantly prods against your immersion. If this was
a movie, it would be savaged for its wildly inconsistent tone, but it’s not. Anything this big and open has to be afforded a few luxuries and a few missteps.
It’s not perfect, though. The world chugs a little on PS3 – the machine’s starting to show its age – and it certainly doesn’t look anywhere near as beautiful as its PC brother. It’s still a marvellous technical achievement, but one that feels a little hamstrung by the box you’re playing it on. Worse is the overbearing HUD, which revels in showing you how much XP you’ve gained, what new crafting items are available, and what your mission objective is. None of this can be switched off, so you never truly feel like you’re lost on the island, more that you’re playing the videogame of being lost on the island. Thankfully, the intrusive and inane music can be muted so you can enjoy the
sounds of the jungle.
Quite why, too, you have to find and scale huge radio masts to open up sections of the map is a mystery. The climbing mechanic is not fun, merely functional, and the views from the top are shrouded with a teal haze. It’s just busy work, and while each climb is rewarded with new side quests and free guns, it’s still a pain. Overall, Far Cry 3 is probably a less interesting game than Far Cry 2 – particularly from a design perspective – but it is a more accessible and possibly more accomplished one. Certainly, those who struggled with the restraints, respawning checkpoints and degrading
weapons of Far Cry 2 will find a sequel that addresses each and all of these annoyances. It’s a best videogames of all time that begs to be enjoyed.
By smoothing off those edges, though, Far Cry 3 has lost some of the raw drama of its predecessor. As sublime as its combat can be, there’s never a moment as real or shocking as losing a buddy in Far Cry 2 (and the dreadful realization that your syringes just aren’t going to save him – so you’re going to have to put him out of his misery yourself). Instead, Far Cry 3 makes its mark in its narrative (and maintains its Ubisoft progressiveness), taking you to places that no game has ever managed before.
Some have tried to do psychedelia, but nothing has ever gone this deep. Not even close.
Ultimately, it’s important to not judge what Far Cry 3 isn’t, but enjoy what it is. Yes, it isn’t the genre-redefining Far Cry 2 follow-up it could (and perhaps in an idealised world, should) have been. It is, however, a beautiful, thrilling and supremely well-made open world shooter; a true epic. There’s enough content to challenge open world RPGs, even, and unlike those games, the combat is as good as any FPS on PS3. If not better.
It’s vital that best videogames of all time like this keep getting made. The triple-A world needs to be driven by ideas and concepts, it needs big best videogames of all time to make mistakes and take bold steps into new territories. Far Cry 3 does all of this, and even though it’s not the game some want it to be, it simply must be admired.
Jon Denton
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10 MOST MEMORABLE PRESIDENT TRUMP JOKES AND CAMEOS
10 CREEPY VIDEO GAME URBAN LEGENDS
There can be little doubt that Ubisoft is the bravest of the big publishers. Where others concentrate on smoothing off as many edges as possible to produce ultra-polished (and often bland) triple-A fodder, Ubisoft encourages ideas-driven development, even it that leads to failure. 2008’s Far Cry 2 was perhaps the most obvious example of this culture – an extraordinarily brave, bleak, system-driven shooter that divided critics and fans alike. Those who loved Far Cry 2, though, really loved Far Cry 2.
While Far Cry 2 had clear problems and questionable design decisions throughout, it introduced three concurrent systems that defined its combat encounters; fire, enemy injuries, and the buddy system. The first is selfexplanatory and immediately gratifying, but the others only revealed themselves to those who stuck with the game. The way enemies would tend to injured comrades, or chase down
the player when crippled, led to the types of emergent stories that would light up message boards for months. Add in a system where a buddy character would randomly join in your fight, risking permadeath, and you had a recipe for greatness, even in a problematic framework.
Far Cry 3 keeps only one of those systems, ditching the other two in favour of a much more consistent, rules-driven, polished world. Yes, you can still set fire to huge sections of the jungle and it’s even more impressive than before, but enemies are now either dead or fullyfunctioning, and there ain’t a buddy in sight. It’s something that’ll be instantly disappointing to Far Cry 2 lovers, but this isn’t Far Cry 2. It’s a huge, gorgeous beast of a game that marries the core tenets of Far Cry gameplay (an open world with skirmishes approachable in any way you can think of) with a vast island landscape to explore, and crucially, to hunt.
Yes, Ubisoft may have ditched a couple of systems, but it has introduced a new one – wildlife. Every inch of Rook Island is teeming with animals, from spritely goats, chubby pigs and noisy boars all the way up to hissing Komodo dragons and snarling Sumatran tigers. There are even bull sharks swimming in the water, and coming across one when you’re not expecting it is so terrifying this reviewer had to pause the game and walk out of the room, shaking his head.
The animals do whatever they want, so a tiger might attack a nearby goat, it might launch itself at an enemy, or it might stalk and pounce on you when you’re setting up a perfect sniper shot. It’s a layer of emergent madness that’s quite unlike anything else. Red Dead nudged towards this at times, but it wasn’t as integral to the experience. They’re not just there for show, either. You’ll need to hunt and skin animals to craft almost anything useful, from a rucksack for loot to a pouch for your ammo.
And why do you need to quickly learn Bear Grylls-level survival skills? Well, after you (young, handsome and out-of-his-element Jason Brody) and your travelling companions are captured by madman Vaas, you manage to break free from his prison camp and set about rescuing your mates. But you know nothing. Thankfully, you’re taken in by the local warrior tribe, the Rakyat, who all sound
like Jemaine from Flight Of The Conchords and scored with tattoos, or ‘the tatau’, gifting you skill-tree abilities like machete takedowns or a steady aim.
After a couple of hours in Rook Island, you don’t feel like a rookie any more. Far Cry 3 features some 38 narrative missions, all of which are bookended by marvellously acted and animated interactions with the game’s bonkers cast, and just playing through them would take well over 15 hours. Doing that alone, though, would be criminal. The world boasts an almost endless supply of side quests, ranging from hunting missions to Assassin’s Creedstyle camp liberations.
These liberations actually provide the most open gameplay in Far Cry 3. They’re exactly as you’d imagine; you find a distant vantage point, use your magical camera (don’t know where Brody found this, but it’s definitely better than an iPhone 5) to scan the area and tag all the enemies within (who can then be seen through walls, for some unknown reason), and then plan your attack. Stealth is normally the best option, but difficult to maintain – usually you’ll take out one or two guys and be spotted, reverting to an in-and-out predatory attack as you pick the opposition off one by one. Watching them freak out and shoot blindly into the thick grass is especially gratifying, and as you level up (an XP system drives Far Cry 3), you’ll unlock some startling abilities, including the power to stab a guy in the neck, pull the pin out of his grenade and kick him into his mates. When it all clicks – man, is it something to behold.
And even when things don’t go to plan, Far Cry 3 is a very solid shooter – more so than its predecessor. The weapons feel great, the blasting is cathartic, and the destructible and flammable scenery helps to create some serious spectacle. Oddly, though, many of the narrative missions ditch the open world for linear blasts that could have been plucked from any shooter you care to mention.
These vary wildly in quality. The more open missions are just as enjoyable as camp liberations, and some heavily scripted events nail the spectacle you’d normally expect in Call Of Duty, but there are too many that throw enemies at you in narrow corridors and barely allow for any sort of tactical play.
A lengthy section of missions towards the middle of the game sees Far Cry 3 turn into a kind of first-person Uncharted, with mystical tombs, treasure and Brody constantly commentating on his surroundings. He even says ‘no no no no’ at one point. And whoever thought that chucking three heavy (juggernautstyle) enemies into the tail end of an escort mission has clearly been chewing on one too many mushrooms.
Thankfully, things do turn around, and the overarching narrative is both compelling and alluringly psychedelic. Hallucinogens are a pillar of the story and the gameplay, and there are some outstandingly trippy sections that really do leap out into the realms of the surreal. It helps, too, that Vaas is such an outstanding antagonist, brilliantly acted and truly creepy. Like a great cinema baddy, any time he’s on screen is a treat, even if you want to put a bullet in between his sullen eyes. So well realised, in fact, are some of the bolder sections of Far Cry 3’s story, that other parts feel totally out of place. Brody’s aforementioned wittering robs the most atmospheric scenes of some of their gravity, while the endlessly repeating incidental dialogue constantly prods against your immersion. If this was
a movie, it would be savaged for its wildly inconsistent tone, but it’s not. Anything this big and open has to be afforded a few luxuries and a few missteps.
It’s not perfect, though. The world chugs a little on PS3 – the machine’s starting to show its age – and it certainly doesn’t look anywhere near as beautiful as its PC brother. It’s still a marvellous technical achievement, but one that feels a little hamstrung by the box you’re playing it on. Worse is the overbearing HUD, which revels in showing you how much XP you’ve gained, what new crafting items are available, and what your mission objective is. None of this can be switched off, so you never truly feel like you’re lost on the island, more that you’re playing the videogame of being lost on the island. Thankfully, the intrusive and inane music can be muted so you can enjoy the
sounds of the jungle.
Quite why, too, you have to find and scale huge radio masts to open up sections of the map is a mystery. The climbing mechanic is not fun, merely functional, and the views from the top are shrouded with a teal haze. It’s just busy work, and while each climb is rewarded with new side quests and free guns, it’s still a pain. Overall, Far Cry 3 is probably a less interesting game than Far Cry 2 – particularly from a design perspective – but it is a more accessible and possibly more accomplished one. Certainly, those who struggled with the restraints, respawning checkpoints and degrading
weapons of Far Cry 2 will find a sequel that addresses each and all of these annoyances. It’s a best videogames of all time that begs to be enjoyed.
By smoothing off those edges, though, Far Cry 3 has lost some of the raw drama of its predecessor. As sublime as its combat can be, there’s never a moment as real or shocking as losing a buddy in Far Cry 2 (and the dreadful realization that your syringes just aren’t going to save him – so you’re going to have to put him out of his misery yourself). Instead, Far Cry 3 makes its mark in its narrative (and maintains its Ubisoft progressiveness), taking you to places that no game has ever managed before.
Some have tried to do psychedelia, but nothing has ever gone this deep. Not even close.
Ultimately, it’s important to not judge what Far Cry 3 isn’t, but enjoy what it is. Yes, it isn’t the genre-redefining Far Cry 2 follow-up it could (and perhaps in an idealised world, should) have been. It is, however, a beautiful, thrilling and supremely well-made open world shooter; a true epic. There’s enough content to challenge open world RPGs, even, and unlike those games, the combat is as good as any FPS on PS3. If not better.
It’s vital that best videogames of all time like this keep getting made. The triple-A world needs to be driven by ideas and concepts, it needs big best videogames of all time to make mistakes and take bold steps into new territories. Far Cry 3 does all of this, and even though it’s not the game some want it to be, it simply must be admired.
Jon Denton
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BIOSHOCK INFINITE THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
BIOSHOCK INFINITE THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
WELCOME TO THE MOST AMBITIOUS FPS EVER SEEN ON PLAYSTATION – IRRATIONAL’S EPIC IS SO FAR A RELENTLESSLY GIVING EXPERIENCE, AS WELL AS YEARS AHEAD OF ITS TIME IN NARRATIVE DESIGN. BIOSHOCK INFINITE’S ART DIRECTOR, SCOTT SINCLAIR, TELLS US HOW IRRATIONAL BUILT A WORLD THAT TELLS A TITANIC STORY IN ITSELF...
If it takes two years to make an effects-driven, huge budget Hollywood film, then BioShock Infinite’s five year-plus development cycle tells you that making an equivalent videogame is a far harder undertaking. When we play the first few hours of Irrational’s long-awaited FPS, it becomes clear why that’s the case: this clearly exceeds the standard of contemporary shooters in a way that exposes the lack of maturity in games. And we don’t just mean that in the sense that every shooter has a story targeted at 12 year-olds or silly levels of violence – most of them do, true – but in the way that it shows off what the PS3 can do with storytelling through environmental design, world-building and writing.
It’s a startling piece of work that hits every audience on one level (it’s a shooter, after all, and you can throw fireballs at people), but has a layer of substance that’ll resonate with a more specific type of player. Crosshairs are drawn on certain elements of American history and the great fa?ade of patriotism, that feel like they’re deliberately crafted to make the audience feel uncomfortable. When
we first witness BioShock Infinite exploring racism, for example, and the way it permeates the sinister culture of breakaway floating country Columbia, our initial thoughts are that it’s a brave subject to touch upon in a game – we get the same feeling when we’re walking around a morally dubious museum describing conflicts from America’s past, or watching the many in-game propaganda films that relay Columbia’s disturbing ideologies.
But this kind of subtext shouldn’t be the exception in videogames; it shouldn’t be the rule, either, but big triple-A experiences really could be offering us more narrative meat than they are now. BioShock Infinite is really refreshing in that regard. It’s like the result of years of progress in FPS design that never actually happened – the world of Columbia isn’t just a pretty backdrop, it’s telling you the story, in an even more heightened way than the intricate design of Rapture did in the previous two games.
“At Irrational, we create within a process for evolution that relies heavily on extreme iteration to answer tough challenges,” art director Scott Sinclair explains to us. “A core sample of our levels would reveal equal parts happy accident, narrative direction, historical reference, combat influence,
technical constraints, and painful course correction.”
Iteration was the key behind Columbia’s creation – the themes slotted in naturally around the subject
matter as Irrational developed the concept behind Infinite. “When you make games where the environment is a primary character, there are simply too many variables that need careful consideration to produce stories like this,” Sinclair recalls. “When resting on one’s laurels, this process allows you to back up and recognise that you are too comfortable to create at your peak. The only way we know how to zero in on the correct direction is by examining the exquisite corpse of a first idea as we flush it. Stormy night turned into summer sunshine, European Red Light turned into 4th of July Americana, and the narrative conflict started solidifying from American history.”
This process steered Infinite out of well-trodden fictional territory and into something a little richer. “This was a drastic departure from the clich? fictional struggle of the religious faction vs. the technology faction that we were building everything in the service of. The 15-year-old in me was bummed for a second, but it quickly became apparent that Ken made the correct calls to elevate our shooter.”
That thematic texture aids the tension within the world’s atmosphere, too. Without spoiling the dramatic, brilliant opening that recalls the original BioShock, Infinite introduces its world as a shiny happy utopia, with people praising Columbia’s leader Father Zachary Hale Comstock and morning sunshine dizzying your vision of buildings gliding above clouds. Your character, the Deckard-esque Booker, is after a specific girl, Elizabeth – and his checkered past as a Pinkerton agent is a point of ambiguity that’s delivered to the player through an early flashback.
The world is magnificently realised; we see two environments, a fair with a number of interactive amusements like target ranges, where you’re introduced to the game’s vigors (plasmid equivalents) and a boardwalk that collects shops and other attractions into one scenic locale. There’s far more
besides – but revealing them would dive too much into the story, a surprising, twist-heavy tale as anticipated that literally throws you around the city. After Booker is discovered in Columbia and
outlined by the authorities as a threat, the pace lurches forward, with players meeting and liberating Elizabeth, before the foundations of Columbia’s devious, false idol-worshipping society starts to come undone.
We ask Sinclair what lessons Irrational took away from creating Rapture for the original BioShock in building Columbia. “The no-spin answer would honestly be very little to nothing at all,” he says. “Everything, including process, was brand new. On a much higher level, the primary lesson learned is that story informs everything we create.”
That’s the advantage of having a story that’s continually moving – BioShock Infinite isn’t burdened by the same hours of downtime that we see in every other game. There’s no boring underground trudge, endless wall of spawning enemies in dull locations; every moment feels orchestrated, not to add extra time to Infinite’s lifespan, but to supplement your experience as a player. It all matters, and it all works. When BioShock Infinite is building up to the big action setpieces, you’re treated to fine moments of storytelling and characterisation, revealing more about the world and Elizabeth. The pacing is just continually exciting, and that’s something that feels like the result of having so many years of development, as well as a luxury of Irrational’s immense reputation that few other studios are afforded.
With the vigors in your hands and the skyline rails to traverse, it brings something mechanically new to the FPS, too, and as mentioned last issue this is a superior shooter in the way the previous BioShock was not. Later on, Elizabeth is able to spawn objects around you using ‘tears’ – wish fulfillment-powered rips in reality that can create cover for you or turrets, as well as some damn memorable gameplay moments that expose you to different parts of time and popular culture. Again, we don’t want to spoil it for you. There are a few characters whose intent is undeniably cloudy, as
well as a few choices that hint at multiple strands in the narrative, such is the DNA of the series as we understand it.
BioShock shows the lack of progress in layered narrative from its contemporaries by creating a world that is a living story piece. It’s a crucial part of what Irrational has been working on for so many years. “It is everything,” Sinclair explains. “Without it, the quality of your art amounts to texture resolution and frame rate. We are mostly artists, with traditional media art back grounds. I was
an editorial illustrator for years before I thought it would be cool to play with polygons. For better or worse, the quality of everything we create here is judged on an editorial and fine-art level before
we allow the engine to dictate anything. It makes for a one hell of a hair-raising optimisation phase, but the end result speaks to you many levels above the classification of ‘videogame’.”
Like any piece of entertainment that wants to hit a wide audience but still deliver something smart and specific, BioShock Infinite has relentless detail to draw upon, encompassing themes that you just don’t see in other videogames. While there’s still a huge capacity to muck it up past what we’ve seen, of course – there’s always a strange sense of irony in the parallel between BioShock’s idea of creating a perfect city gone wrong, with the idea of developing a ludicrously ambitious game about that subject – but we’ve rarely experienced such a consistently wonderful interactive experience.
BioShock Infinite is idiosyncratic, a game that dares to divide audiences in a way that won’t just amount to idiots bickering on Twitter about whether certain guns are overpowered or not. It’s about something. This will likely be a politically contentious work, a devouring interpretation of certain parts of American history and hero-worshipping elements of its culture. And you know what? Some of the very best pieces of fiction are in the ballpark of what Infinite is trying to do. Most of them don’t have funfairs floating in the sky or characters that shoot birds and fireballs out of their hands, but hey, you’ll soon find out that’s pretty damn good, too.
“I’m going to Disneyland!” says Sinclair when we ask him to reflect on Infinite’s extended development cycle. “There were some hardships along the way – some friends lost to the sea, and we are a very different studio from what we were four years ago. But we are stronger than ever now. I feel lucky that we were able to weather the scheduling nightmares, and that Take-Two believes in us. I’m still a giant ball of stress, but I’m finally able to put the water bucket down because the fire has subsided. I love this team so much right now. I can’t believe we pulled off what we did with what we were up against.”
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WELCOME TO THE MOST AMBITIOUS FPS EVER SEEN ON PLAYSTATION – IRRATIONAL’S EPIC IS SO FAR A RELENTLESSLY GIVING EXPERIENCE, AS WELL AS YEARS AHEAD OF ITS TIME IN NARRATIVE DESIGN. BIOSHOCK INFINITE’S ART DIRECTOR, SCOTT SINCLAIR, TELLS US HOW IRRATIONAL BUILT A WORLD THAT TELLS A TITANIC STORY IN ITSELF...
If it takes two years to make an effects-driven, huge budget Hollywood film, then BioShock Infinite’s five year-plus development cycle tells you that making an equivalent videogame is a far harder undertaking. When we play the first few hours of Irrational’s long-awaited FPS, it becomes clear why that’s the case: this clearly exceeds the standard of contemporary shooters in a way that exposes the lack of maturity in games. And we don’t just mean that in the sense that every shooter has a story targeted at 12 year-olds or silly levels of violence – most of them do, true – but in the way that it shows off what the PS3 can do with storytelling through environmental design, world-building and writing.
It’s a startling piece of work that hits every audience on one level (it’s a shooter, after all, and you can throw fireballs at people), but has a layer of substance that’ll resonate with a more specific type of player. Crosshairs are drawn on certain elements of American history and the great fa?ade of patriotism, that feel like they’re deliberately crafted to make the audience feel uncomfortable. When
we first witness BioShock Infinite exploring racism, for example, and the way it permeates the sinister culture of breakaway floating country Columbia, our initial thoughts are that it’s a brave subject to touch upon in a game – we get the same feeling when we’re walking around a morally dubious museum describing conflicts from America’s past, or watching the many in-game propaganda films that relay Columbia’s disturbing ideologies.
But this kind of subtext shouldn’t be the exception in videogames; it shouldn’t be the rule, either, but big triple-A experiences really could be offering us more narrative meat than they are now. BioShock Infinite is really refreshing in that regard. It’s like the result of years of progress in FPS design that never actually happened – the world of Columbia isn’t just a pretty backdrop, it’s telling you the story, in an even more heightened way than the intricate design of Rapture did in the previous two games.
“At Irrational, we create within a process for evolution that relies heavily on extreme iteration to answer tough challenges,” art director Scott Sinclair explains to us. “A core sample of our levels would reveal equal parts happy accident, narrative direction, historical reference, combat influence,
technical constraints, and painful course correction.”
Iteration was the key behind Columbia’s creation – the themes slotted in naturally around the subject
matter as Irrational developed the concept behind Infinite. “When you make games where the environment is a primary character, there are simply too many variables that need careful consideration to produce stories like this,” Sinclair recalls. “When resting on one’s laurels, this process allows you to back up and recognise that you are too comfortable to create at your peak. The only way we know how to zero in on the correct direction is by examining the exquisite corpse of a first idea as we flush it. Stormy night turned into summer sunshine, European Red Light turned into 4th of July Americana, and the narrative conflict started solidifying from American history.”
This process steered Infinite out of well-trodden fictional territory and into something a little richer. “This was a drastic departure from the clich? fictional struggle of the religious faction vs. the technology faction that we were building everything in the service of. The 15-year-old in me was bummed for a second, but it quickly became apparent that Ken made the correct calls to elevate our shooter.”
That thematic texture aids the tension within the world’s atmosphere, too. Without spoiling the dramatic, brilliant opening that recalls the original BioShock, Infinite introduces its world as a shiny happy utopia, with people praising Columbia’s leader Father Zachary Hale Comstock and morning sunshine dizzying your vision of buildings gliding above clouds. Your character, the Deckard-esque Booker, is after a specific girl, Elizabeth – and his checkered past as a Pinkerton agent is a point of ambiguity that’s delivered to the player through an early flashback.
The world is magnificently realised; we see two environments, a fair with a number of interactive amusements like target ranges, where you’re introduced to the game’s vigors (plasmid equivalents) and a boardwalk that collects shops and other attractions into one scenic locale. There’s far more
besides – but revealing them would dive too much into the story, a surprising, twist-heavy tale as anticipated that literally throws you around the city. After Booker is discovered in Columbia and
outlined by the authorities as a threat, the pace lurches forward, with players meeting and liberating Elizabeth, before the foundations of Columbia’s devious, false idol-worshipping society starts to come undone.
We ask Sinclair what lessons Irrational took away from creating Rapture for the original BioShock in building Columbia. “The no-spin answer would honestly be very little to nothing at all,” he says. “Everything, including process, was brand new. On a much higher level, the primary lesson learned is that story informs everything we create.”
That’s the advantage of having a story that’s continually moving – BioShock Infinite isn’t burdened by the same hours of downtime that we see in every other game. There’s no boring underground trudge, endless wall of spawning enemies in dull locations; every moment feels orchestrated, not to add extra time to Infinite’s lifespan, but to supplement your experience as a player. It all matters, and it all works. When BioShock Infinite is building up to the big action setpieces, you’re treated to fine moments of storytelling and characterisation, revealing more about the world and Elizabeth. The pacing is just continually exciting, and that’s something that feels like the result of having so many years of development, as well as a luxury of Irrational’s immense reputation that few other studios are afforded.
With the vigors in your hands and the skyline rails to traverse, it brings something mechanically new to the FPS, too, and as mentioned last issue this is a superior shooter in the way the previous BioShock was not. Later on, Elizabeth is able to spawn objects around you using ‘tears’ – wish fulfillment-powered rips in reality that can create cover for you or turrets, as well as some damn memorable gameplay moments that expose you to different parts of time and popular culture. Again, we don’t want to spoil it for you. There are a few characters whose intent is undeniably cloudy, as
well as a few choices that hint at multiple strands in the narrative, such is the DNA of the series as we understand it.
BioShock shows the lack of progress in layered narrative from its contemporaries by creating a world that is a living story piece. It’s a crucial part of what Irrational has been working on for so many years. “It is everything,” Sinclair explains. “Without it, the quality of your art amounts to texture resolution and frame rate. We are mostly artists, with traditional media art back grounds. I was
an editorial illustrator for years before I thought it would be cool to play with polygons. For better or worse, the quality of everything we create here is judged on an editorial and fine-art level before
we allow the engine to dictate anything. It makes for a one hell of a hair-raising optimisation phase, but the end result speaks to you many levels above the classification of ‘videogame’.”
Like any piece of entertainment that wants to hit a wide audience but still deliver something smart and specific, BioShock Infinite has relentless detail to draw upon, encompassing themes that you just don’t see in other videogames. While there’s still a huge capacity to muck it up past what we’ve seen, of course – there’s always a strange sense of irony in the parallel between BioShock’s idea of creating a perfect city gone wrong, with the idea of developing a ludicrously ambitious game about that subject – but we’ve rarely experienced such a consistently wonderful interactive experience.
BioShock Infinite is idiosyncratic, a game that dares to divide audiences in a way that won’t just amount to idiots bickering on Twitter about whether certain guns are overpowered or not. It’s about something. This will likely be a politically contentious work, a devouring interpretation of certain parts of American history and hero-worshipping elements of its culture. And you know what? Some of the very best pieces of fiction are in the ballpark of what Infinite is trying to do. Most of them don’t have funfairs floating in the sky or characters that shoot birds and fireballs out of their hands, but hey, you’ll soon find out that’s pretty damn good, too.
“I’m going to Disneyland!” says Sinclair when we ask him to reflect on Infinite’s extended development cycle. “There were some hardships along the way – some friends lost to the sea, and we are a very different studio from what we were four years ago. But we are stronger than ever now. I feel lucky that we were able to weather the scheduling nightmares, and that Take-Two believes in us. I’m still a giant ball of stress, but I’m finally able to put the water bucket down because the fire has subsided. I love this team so much right now. I can’t believe we pulled off what we did with what we were up against.”
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Best new Android games of 2016
Best new Android games of 2016
Lewis Painter showcases the best upcoming games of 2016
Rush Rally 2
Rush Rally 2 is an upcoming racing game for not only Android, but iOS and Apple TV too – and it boasts some impressive features. First of all, the developers claim that the game will run at 60 frames per second and will feature over 72 tracks across a number of game modes including Rally cross and Rally Championship. There are eight cars available at launch with a plan to add more over time, all featuring realistic physics gathered from “real car telemetry data”. The iOS/Apple TV variants even feature MFi controller support, allowing you to use a gaming controller to play.
The good news is that the developers claim the game is completed, and it’s just a matter of deciding on a launch date. The developers hope that’ll be some time in May, but nothing is confirmed just yet.
Hackers
Hackers, as you’ve probably guessed already, is a game about hacking – don’t worry, you won’t get into trouble with the NSA for this kind of hacking, though. The idea is that you build up your hacking network and then hack your friends and other online players. Though details about gameplay are scarce, the idea is that you have a network, and you have to build up your defences and resources in such a way that you make the core of your network impenetrable to hackers. The game is currently in beta testing, which you can sign up for at tinyurl.com/h85vaac, with a plan to release for Android in the coming months.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
The Elder Scrolls: Legends was first announced at E3 2015, and while there still isn’t a solid release date in sight, it looks promising. It’s a collectable card game, with gamers collecting cards with stats including agility and strength to be used in battles, although there isn’t much else to go on as Bethesda is being tight?lipped about the whole situation.
Bethesda has recently announced a beta test which should be starting soon, and those interested can sign up at tinyurl.com/hcynze8. The game is set to be available for both PC and Mobile and while we assume this means both iOS and Android, there is no platform confirmation so far. The release date is still unknown, but with E3 2016 fast approaching, we imagine it’ll get some kind of mention then.
Leap of Fate
Leap of Fate is an interesting game already available for PC, but is due to be released on mobile ‘soon’. The game is best known for being hardcore. It may have something to do with the fact that you have one life to survive a journey across a futuristic, slightly cyberpunk looking New York. There’s no health regeneration either, so you’ll probably die quickly and have to start all over again. You can play as one of four characters, all technomages (using science to create the illusion of magic), and there are over one hundred upgrades available over four categories: Mobility, Passive, Attack Skills and Equippable Glyphs. You can find out more about Leap of Fate on its official website at tinyurl.com/j8ghja4. There’s no word on the release date for the mobile companion just yet, but we’ll update this when we know more.
Samurai Rising
Square Enix recently posted a teaser for something called Project: Rising with promises that we’d hear more soon. Well, it turns out that the “more” it was referring to was yet another trailer, although this one included a few more details – the only issue is that it’s in Japanese. A Japanese?speaking writer over at Touch Arcade translated the trailer, and gave us the following insight: “…it’s another free to play social action RPG from the same artist responsible for Bravely Default. The game centralizes around four player co?op, with players taking the role of various Final Fantasy?ish classes.” The video specifically mentions the Dragoon, White Mage and Black Mage classes, so it’s safe to assume that other Final Fantasy?esque jobs will make an appearance in the full game. Samurai Rising looks to be a Japan exclusive game at launch, but we’re holding our breath that it’ll come to UK shores sooner rather than later.
Lewis Painter showcases the best upcoming games of 2016
Rush Rally 2
Rush Rally 2 is an upcoming racing game for not only Android, but iOS and Apple TV too – and it boasts some impressive features. First of all, the developers claim that the game will run at 60 frames per second and will feature over 72 tracks across a number of game modes including Rally cross and Rally Championship. There are eight cars available at launch with a plan to add more over time, all featuring realistic physics gathered from “real car telemetry data”. The iOS/Apple TV variants even feature MFi controller support, allowing you to use a gaming controller to play.
The good news is that the developers claim the game is completed, and it’s just a matter of deciding on a launch date. The developers hope that’ll be some time in May, but nothing is confirmed just yet.
Hackers
Hackers, as you’ve probably guessed already, is a game about hacking – don’t worry, you won’t get into trouble with the NSA for this kind of hacking, though. The idea is that you build up your hacking network and then hack your friends and other online players. Though details about gameplay are scarce, the idea is that you have a network, and you have to build up your defences and resources in such a way that you make the core of your network impenetrable to hackers. The game is currently in beta testing, which you can sign up for at tinyurl.com/h85vaac, with a plan to release for Android in the coming months.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
The Elder Scrolls: Legends was first announced at E3 2015, and while there still isn’t a solid release date in sight, it looks promising. It’s a collectable card game, with gamers collecting cards with stats including agility and strength to be used in battles, although there isn’t much else to go on as Bethesda is being tight?lipped about the whole situation.
Bethesda has recently announced a beta test which should be starting soon, and those interested can sign up at tinyurl.com/hcynze8. The game is set to be available for both PC and Mobile and while we assume this means both iOS and Android, there is no platform confirmation so far. The release date is still unknown, but with E3 2016 fast approaching, we imagine it’ll get some kind of mention then.
Leap of Fate
Leap of Fate is an interesting game already available for PC, but is due to be released on mobile ‘soon’. The game is best known for being hardcore. It may have something to do with the fact that you have one life to survive a journey across a futuristic, slightly cyberpunk looking New York. There’s no health regeneration either, so you’ll probably die quickly and have to start all over again. You can play as one of four characters, all technomages (using science to create the illusion of magic), and there are over one hundred upgrades available over four categories: Mobility, Passive, Attack Skills and Equippable Glyphs. You can find out more about Leap of Fate on its official website at tinyurl.com/j8ghja4. There’s no word on the release date for the mobile companion just yet, but we’ll update this when we know more.
Samurai Rising
Square Enix recently posted a teaser for something called Project: Rising with promises that we’d hear more soon. Well, it turns out that the “more” it was referring to was yet another trailer, although this one included a few more details – the only issue is that it’s in Japanese. A Japanese?speaking writer over at Touch Arcade translated the trailer, and gave us the following insight: “…it’s another free to play social action RPG from the same artist responsible for Bravely Default. The game centralizes around four player co?op, with players taking the role of various Final Fantasy?ish classes.” The video specifically mentions the Dragoon, White Mage and Black Mage classes, so it’s safe to assume that other Final Fantasy?esque jobs will make an appearance in the full game. Samurai Rising looks to be a Japan exclusive game at launch, but we’re holding our breath that it’ll come to UK shores sooner rather than later.
Best iOS games of 2014
Best iOS games of 2014
Lou Hattersley reveals the best games of 2014 If you got a new iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for Christmas, then you’ll want to know what the best games on the App Store are. This guide to the best games for iPad and iPhone has all the entertainment you need.
Last year was a bumper year for iOS gaming. It saw iOS gaming move up a gear and iPad and iPhone owners have a range of high quality games to choose from. In recent years iOS gaming has been mostly puzzle and indie games designed for the touchscreen, or console classics using on screen buttons and controls. Some of these have been amazing games, but in the last year we’ve seen superb games with high production values and impressive graphics designed specifi cally for the iPad and iPhone. These games are even better than those costing 10 times as much on other consoles.
Republique
Price ?2.99
Republique has only just been released on the App Store, but is such a good game we had to sneak it. This is a great example of a world-leading game that has been designed from the ground up for iOS. This Metal-Gear Solid-esque stealth game sees you viewing a complex through the CCTV cameras, and guiding a mysterious girl as she escapes. You guide her through the levels, tapping to tell her where to hide while tapping to control and hack the security systems. It has world-class visuals and a control scheme custom built for the iPad and iPhone’s touchscreen interface.
XCom: Enemy Unknown
Price: ?6.99
This tactical war game sees you controlling a squad of soldiers hunting, capturing and fighting aliens. It’s an almost perfect recreation of the console classic, and its controls work just as well on the iPad as on the big screen. In-between battles you can research and develop new weapons, armour and upgrade your squad. Decisions are all permanent too, so if you lose a member of your team in battle they’re gone forever. It’s a visual feast and the perfect game for armchair generals. One of the best games to arrive in 2013.
The Room Two
Price: ?2.99
The Room is a fantastic 3D puzzle game where you can pick up, examine and manipulate objects in a room. All with a view to escaping. It’s a good looking game but it’s the tactile nature of the experience that makes it special. You really get the feel that you can pick up and use the items in the room. The Room Two is a truly immersive game that tests your mental and spatial abilities.
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Price: ?2.99
BioWare creates some of the most amazing roleplaying games in existence. Its Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic is one of the best that it’s ever made, and also one of the best Star Wars games. It’s set in the Star Wars universe, but you don’t play Luke or Han or any of the usual characters. The storyline is fantastic, you get a real sense that you choices have consequences, and the combat is surprisingly in-depth.
Deus Ex: The Fall
Price: 99p
Deus Ex is another console classic that has become a great iOS game in its own right. With huge environments this fi rst-person sci-fi shooter blends action with role-playing gameplay. While it features console controls translated to iOS it manages to do so with a level of quality beyond most other conversions (and even most games on any platform). More than anything this is an amazing game for the price. Well worth downloading.
Stealth Inc.
Price: ?2.99
Most of the our favourite games from 2013 are bombastic console classics with high quality visuals. But Stealth Inc is an indie classic developed for both the iPad, iphone and console machines at the same time. It’s a platform game, but has detailed stealth gameplay with you jumping around 80 levels. It’s sublimely easy to start out, but soon becomes devilishly challenging. It lacks the visual aplomb of other games here (apart from Papa Sangre, of course) but we love the cutesy visuals and fastpaced gameplay on display here.
Lou Hattersley reveals the best games of 2014 If you got a new iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for Christmas, then you’ll want to know what the best games on the App Store are. This guide to the best games for iPad and iPhone has all the entertainment you need.
Last year was a bumper year for iOS gaming. It saw iOS gaming move up a gear and iPad and iPhone owners have a range of high quality games to choose from. In recent years iOS gaming has been mostly puzzle and indie games designed for the touchscreen, or console classics using on screen buttons and controls. Some of these have been amazing games, but in the last year we’ve seen superb games with high production values and impressive graphics designed specifi cally for the iPad and iPhone. These games are even better than those costing 10 times as much on other consoles.
Republique
Price ?2.99
Republique has only just been released on the App Store, but is such a good game we had to sneak it. This is a great example of a world-leading game that has been designed from the ground up for iOS. This Metal-Gear Solid-esque stealth game sees you viewing a complex through the CCTV cameras, and guiding a mysterious girl as she escapes. You guide her through the levels, tapping to tell her where to hide while tapping to control and hack the security systems. It has world-class visuals and a control scheme custom built for the iPad and iPhone’s touchscreen interface.
XCom: Enemy Unknown
Price: ?6.99
This tactical war game sees you controlling a squad of soldiers hunting, capturing and fighting aliens. It’s an almost perfect recreation of the console classic, and its controls work just as well on the iPad as on the big screen. In-between battles you can research and develop new weapons, armour and upgrade your squad. Decisions are all permanent too, so if you lose a member of your team in battle they’re gone forever. It’s a visual feast and the perfect game for armchair generals. One of the best games to arrive in 2013.
The Room Two
Price: ?2.99
The Room is a fantastic 3D puzzle game where you can pick up, examine and manipulate objects in a room. All with a view to escaping. It’s a good looking game but it’s the tactile nature of the experience that makes it special. You really get the feel that you can pick up and use the items in the room. The Room Two is a truly immersive game that tests your mental and spatial abilities.
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Price: ?2.99
BioWare creates some of the most amazing roleplaying games in existence. Its Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic is one of the best that it’s ever made, and also one of the best Star Wars games. It’s set in the Star Wars universe, but you don’t play Luke or Han or any of the usual characters. The storyline is fantastic, you get a real sense that you choices have consequences, and the combat is surprisingly in-depth.
Deus Ex: The Fall
Price: 99p
Deus Ex is another console classic that has become a great iOS game in its own right. With huge environments this fi rst-person sci-fi shooter blends action with role-playing gameplay. While it features console controls translated to iOS it manages to do so with a level of quality beyond most other conversions (and even most games on any platform). More than anything this is an amazing game for the price. Well worth downloading.
Stealth Inc.
Price: ?2.99
Most of the our favourite games from 2013 are bombastic console classics with high quality visuals. But Stealth Inc is an indie classic developed for both the iPad, iphone and console machines at the same time. It’s a platform game, but has detailed stealth gameplay with you jumping around 80 levels. It’s sublimely easy to start out, but soon becomes devilishly challenging. It lacks the visual aplomb of other games here (apart from Papa Sangre, of course) but we love the cutesy visuals and fastpaced gameplay on display here.
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