Inhaltsverzeichnis für No. 202 in GamesTM

“BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS OF OUR PREVIOUS GAME, HITMAN 2 INTRODUCES EXCITING NEW FEATURES, NEW MODES AND FRANCHISE FIRSTS TO MAKE FOR A LARGER AND RICHER GAME.”HAKAN ABRAK, CEO, IO INTERACTIVE RESILIENCE. That’s the word that first springs to mind when we think about the qualities one must posses to truly embody the role of Agent 47. In theory he’s the world’s greatest assassin, moving from one idyllic location to the next with a trail of carefully concealed bodies behind him – although with us planted behind the controller the best-laid plans can so often become a haphazard nightmare of murderous intentions and fumbled execution. Listen, it takes real resilience to get the perfect hit back on track after you’re found swapping clothes with an unconscious guard in a storage…

The trajectory of the rebooted series has, thus far, been a crash course coming-of-age story that was supposed to detail Lara’s ascent from ambitious adventurer to the embrace of her destiny as the Tomb Raider. We aren’t quite there yet mind, with Shadow Of The Tomb Raider seeing Lara marauding through sprawling jungle spaces in an effort to stop a forthcoming Mayan apocalypse. Eidos Montréal – taking over the reigns from Crystal Dynamics – seems to be building a darker, more violent and more solemn game experience here, though only time will tell if it can provide a suitable pay-off to what the trilogy has been slowly building towards.…

“TO EMBRACE YOUR SELF-DOUBT IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU EMBRACE YOUR JOY OR YOUR HOPE, THIS IS WHAT BEING HUMAN IS ALL ABOUT; THIS IS WHAT OUR GAME IS ALL ABOUT”CORNELIA GEPPERT, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, JO-MEI AT E3 2016 ELECTRONIC ARTS UNVEILED ITS EA ORIGINALS INITIATIVE, A PROGRAMME DESIGNED TO CELEBRATE THE PASSION AND TALENT OF THE AMAZING CREATORS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN OUR INDUSTRY. The publisher unveiled its third EA Originals title at this year’s EA Play, a beautiful and powerful exploration game called Sea Of Solitude. “When humans get too lonely they turn into monsters. This is at the core of everything that you will see and feel while you are playing Sea Of Solitude,” says creative director Cornelia Geppert, who notes that she began writing the…

IF WE’RE BEING ENTIRELY FRANK, ANOTHER JUST CAUSE ISN’T A PROSPECT THAT WAS EVER GOING TO EXCITE US VERY MUCH. Avalanche has two other projects on the go that are more enticing to us in Rage 2 and Generation Zero. Our overriding feeling about this sequel is why? Perhaps one reason for the chasm between us and this game is that we feel it’s not really aiming itself at us. We enjoyed Just Cause 3 enough, but we didn’t embrace it the way that YouTubers and Twitch streamers did, creating insane videos and challenges that took advantage of the physics driven way the environment was pieced together. Avalanche looks to be leaning hard into appealing to that way of experiencing Just Cause 4, so while there’s a nominal setup of…

Ubisoft’s VR venture with Elijah Wood’s film company had us intrigued last year and now it has our full attention. What had at first been merely the promise of a merging of film and games in the virtual space has now been pinned down as something close to What Remains Of Edith Finch crossed with P.T. As you put the headset on you’ll be invited to jump between the minds of family members to piece together the story. But inside the memories is something else, lurking and following you. Gameplay wise it’s about exploration and puzzle solving, sometimes finding the right family member to access so that you can progress through the shared memory that is powering this world.…

Every new demo we see seems to only confirm that the versatility and tools of Dreams are mind-blowingly superb. One element that stood out to us most recently is the way content can be collated in the game. There’s something close to a Pinterest board system for gathering content together so you can collect and share all the best trees or baddies or rock shapes you’ve found for others to tap into. So, even if you’re not a great object or character maker yourself, you can play a part in making Dreams an interesting platform to make and experience games in, which we like a lot. It looks like something quite unique and we’re looking forward to dipping our toes in.…

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT, THEN YOU’VE GOT TO DO IT YOURSELF. That’s the ethos at the heart of Session, Crea-ture Studios’ debut project inspired by the golden era of skateboarding culture that emerged in the early Nineties. If EA isn’t going to give us the Skate reboot we’ve been screaming ourselves hoarse over for years then we will happily turn our attention elsewhere. Session charts a sharp line away from the arcade-style of skateboarding games of the past, reimagining the dual-stick control scheme to bring more authenticity to the feel and flow of the game. Much like the Skate games, Session’s controls give you full autonomy over your actions on the deck, with each stick controlling a foot to give you intuitive control over your tricks. After a…

If you were to look up a comprehensive list of LGBT characters in videogames you would find it to be quite long, especially with a lot of more recent releases trying to bring greater representation to its roster of story characters and NPCs, but just as important as representation is the role such characters get to play and that’s been evolving too. POISON FINAL FIGHT, 1989 An early example of a transgender character appearing in a videogame, although her gender identity was largely to avoid the sense that players were beating up a woman. So, not exactly the most progressive of origin stories. It’s a little fuzzy now just how canonical Poison’s gender identity is today, but she retains a certain iconic status as a result of this muddled backstory.…

“WE’VE DESIGNED ANTHEM IN A WAY THAT WE CAN ADD MORE STORY FOR YEARS TO COME. AND IT COULD BE ANYTHING: A NEW MOMENT WITH A CHARACTER YOU’VE COME TO LOVE, AN EVENT DEEP INTO THE LORE OR AN ENTIRELY NEW STORYLINE AND PLOT”CATHLEEN ROOTSAERT, LEAD WRITER BIOWARE REALLY IS VERY GOOD AT WORLD BUILDING. Now that we’ve heard a little more about the planet on which Anthem is set (apart from its actual name, which isn’t being revealed just yet) and the context in which you will be exploring it, we’re even more deeply taken with the concept than before. And we were pretty taken with it to begin with as you may recall from a year ago. While seeing BioWare release a game that isn’t a single-player-focused RPG…

Pixelopus’ painting platformer remains one of the most visually impressive and arresting things coming to PS4, which is saying something, and it’s been interesting to see more of how the mechanics are going to work. The default appears to be using the motion control of the Dualshock 4 for controlling your brush; hopefully that’s optional.. We’re a little concerned that the bullies that chase your character Ash around may become annoying, but hopefully some balance will be found.…

“CHOP THOSE TOMATOES FASTER!” “Get me more burgers!” “Why aren’t the plates washed!?” If Overcooked was anything, it was the most beautiful and addictive stress-inducer we’ve ever played. Overcooked 2 is bringing us more co-op cooking this August, this time with more elaborate level design, online multiplayer and the option to throw food at each other. Other than the welcome addition of online multiplayer, the biggest change is kitchens that change dramatically as levels play out. For example, one test of you as a chef begins in a kitchen set on a giant platform suspended from a hot air balloon. When you’re close to the ground you’re thrown from the balloon and into a sushi kitchen, changing both the required recipes and layout of the kitchen. To help with the…

PAPERS, PLEASE As a border-control officer you are the first line of defence against subversive forces or even terrorists entering the country, but you could also abuse your power to your own ends. Papers, Please swims in the murky waters of bureaucratic power very nicely. BEYOND GOOD & EVIL A game about anthropomorphised animals and alien invasion? Certainly, but Beyond Good & Evil is also about freedom of speech and expression as Jade attempts to get evidence of corruption and brutality out to the rest of the world. ORWELL Similar to Papers, Please, but set in a more modern world and with modern technology, you head up a surveillance site looking for possible security threats on behalf of an authoritarian regime. To what degree will you be willing to execute…

Night City is just as much a character in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 as any of the people on screen, and CD Projekt Red is promising a massive open world for us to explore. How big are we talking? According to the team the city is split into six different districts, not unlike the different regions of The Witcher 3, that players can travel through freely and without loading screens so there’s no break in the action. City Center is the largest region, dominated with corporate aesthetics and luxury. Next is Westbrook, home to the elite corporate overlords and billed as the most exclusive part of town. The other four districts are not as affluent, particularly Santa Domingo’s heavy industrial areas lined with giant factories and power plants. Pacifica…

“WE WANTED TO SHOW A MODERN DARK AGES – A BRUTAL, PRIMAL, MERCILESS WORLD”TYMON SMEKTALA, LEAD DESIGNER WITH OVER TWO YEARS OF WORK, 200+ PEOPLE WORKING ON IT AND ONE WELL-KNOWN GAMING WRITER BEHIND THE NARRATIVE, DYING LIGHT 2 IS AIMING FOR GROWTH OVER THE ORIGINAL. The core concepts remain the same – a first-person parkour-‘em-up where the exploration of a city in the daytime is exciting and the avoidance of horrific undead beasts at nighttime is terrifying. But this time around there’s more of everything – a city many times bigger than the whole of the original game and its add-ons put together, with a more ‘tactical’ approach to parkour and an increased moveset to suit our nimble player character, improved AI both for humans…

One of a trio of new Gears games coming soon, Gears Tactics takes the series out of its shooter roots and into a brand-new, turn-based strategy format. Set 12 years before the original Gears of War, Tactics throws us right into the Locust Wars and lets us play out large-scale battles against the Horde. Brief gameplay snippets showed a grisly sniper headshot, turrets spraying Locust with bullets and a missile strike destroying a bridge and everyone on it. No firm release date was given so we don’t know when we’ll be getting Gears Tactics, but this feels like a good fit.…

WHEN IT RELEASED IN 1998, RESIDENT EVIL 2 WAS HERALDED AS ONE OF THE FINEST SURVIVAL-HORROR GAMES OF ALL TIME. With this upcoming remake, well, we think it will just about have sealed the deal. Capcom is doing a truly incredible job with this, taking the original game and reinventing it for new audiences with the same state-of-the-art tools and engine that helped establish Resident Evil VII as a modern classic. The bones of the old pixelated Racoon City can be found in the new design, but you’ve never seen it presented like this before. Not only is it visually stunning – truly one of the best-looking games coming in 2019 – but it also feels surprisingly fresh, with Capcom shifting the perspective from fixed camera…

UNDEADLABS Having partnered with Microsoft back in 2011 as the only publisher that didn’t want to interfere with its vision for a zombie survival experience, bringing Undead Labs officially into the fold makes a lot of sense. The studio was founded on making zombie games, but it will be interesting to see if its history with live game experiences could prove influential. COMPULSIONGAMES We Happy Few has been a long time in development, having been an early release for Xbox’s Game Preview platform, but even before that the team has shown its willingness to make curious, creative and artistically unique videogames. The backing of Microsoft could allow for some much larger and even more ambitious projects in the future. PLAYGROUNDGAMES The team behind Forza Horizon since its inception, Playground has…

Vampyr has an interesting way of navigating game difficulty. As Jonathan Reid is a brand new vampire, his need to feed is a constant annoyance – though big decisions will need to be made to satisfy the blood lust. Small amounts of XP will be earned through killing enemies in combat or completing the main missions or side quests, but if you really want to dig into the sprawling evolution skill trees and unlock the best powers, you’ll need to start sacrificing the named NPCs. It’s an interesting method of mitigating difficulty in a story-driven game, although it can often feel a little unfair – particularly as the streets begin to fill ever more so with enemies; unnamed NPCs that the game doesn’t reward you for killing.…

One glaring omission is the lack of aerial and water-dwelling dinosaurs, particularly when the movies have made such a point of featuring those prominently. These other types of species would lend some much-needed variety to planning park layouts and varying dino enclosures, which currently extends only so far as balancing the right amount of grassland and foliage to keep your critters comfortable. Every park ends up feeling like it’s following much the same structure – a couple of solo pens for your big-ticket dinos, some mid-sized areas to house a small selection of herbivores and carnivores (housed separately of course, unless you’re some kind of monster), and a large open enclosure for your stompy longnecks to stretch their massive legs in. It’s also a little frustrating that you can’t check…

Perhaps the most tactical game mode is Lockdown, and (along with Switch) is fairly innovative for a game like this. While the Overdrive and Countdown modes actively encourage indiscriminate mayhem, Lockdown focuses the action onto a single spot on the track, requiring (slightly) more careful driving, and tends to lead to fewer takedowns, as wild swerves and careless wrecks will lose you the zone being fought over. It may feel tamer to play, but the extra control needed to win this mode will serve you well in other modes, even if this may feel less entertaining in the moment. This is a mode best played once you’re familiar with the tracks, as that will give you a definite edge here.…

CHANCES ARE IF YOU saw a technically astonishing game in your local arcade during the Eighties and Nineties, it was probably by Sega. While it would later go on to battle Nintendo and Atari in the home market, Sega’s first introduction to gamers was as an arcade manufacturer. It first started making electrical mechanical games like Motopolo, Periscope and Missile as early as the late Sixties, before moving into videogames like so many of its peers. While Sega was happy to copy whatever was popular at the time (as many other developers did), it wasn’t afraid to innovate either, releasing games like Heavyweight Champ, considered by many to be one of the first one-on-one fighting games, or pushing ahead technically with releases like Turbo. Sega really began to hit its…

Released: 1993 Format: PC, Commodore Amiga Publisher: Digital Integration Key Staff: Kevin Bezant (lead programmer), Robin Heydon (front end and mission builder programmer), David Marshall (project manager), Rod Swift (technical director, multi-player and testing), Matt Smith (art), Nick Mascall (3D modelling) IN 1982, THREE YEARS AFTER THE PANAVIA TORNADO JET ENTERED OPERATIONAL SERVICE, DIGITAL INTEGRATION WAS FORMED BY DAVID MARSHALL AND ROD SWIFT. With both men working at the RAF as engineers, it was inevitable that the new company would specialise in simulations, especially flight simulations. After Marshall produced Fighter Pilot for the ZX Spectrum and Swift did the same for Night Gunner, this inevitability came to pass, and the side-business took off for the two men. As the Eighties progressed, more flight simulations came and went, and DI’s reputation…

WHAT WAS THE first videogame you played? It would have been around 1975; my dad and I went over to a neighbour’s house and they had a Colecovision Telstar, which was basically Pong. I remember me and my dad marvelling at the fact that you were able to move this knob and see something on the television moving at your control! You didn’t even think it was possible. Even before TV remote controls there were videogames! So the next day my dad went out and bought one, and I still have it to this day. Obviously music wasn’t a great factor in these early machines – what was your first experience of music in videogames? In the late Seventies I would take my dad’s big, giant cassette recorder down the…

■ The boss battles were pretty punishing in Metroid Prime. That’s largely down to the team at Retro deciding that it didn’t want to put too much pressure on players while they were out in the world, instead challenge in combat would only materialise versus the giant boss characters. ■ Despite arriving seven years after Super Metroid, Prime is actually a prequel. It takes place a number of years before the events on SR388 and is actually set shortly after the original Metroid and its GBA remake Zero Mission.…

IT’S TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY TO BEGIN CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS. It’s a message that sits at the heart of Naughty Dog’s ambitions as a studio and the intent behind the ongoing development of The Last Of Us: Part II. It’s that thought – the idea of constantly contesting expectation and execution – that is trickling down through the studio’s refinement and expansion of each and every one of the game’s systems and mechanics; a process that is helping to elevate every aspect of this sequel, from its artificial intelligence to its environment design, lighting and animation, its spectacular underlying technology to the construction of its harrowing narrative. If Naughty Dog is able to pull this off, The Last Of Us: Part II will mark a turning point for the industry –…

“WITH SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE MANY FROMSOFTWARE TEAM MEMBERS, INCLUDING MYSELF, ARE THRILLED TO BE EXPLORING THEMES OF SENGOKU JAPAN AND THE NINJA FOR THE FIRST TIME”HIDETAKA MIYAZAKI, PRESIDENT, FROMSOFTWARE GOOD THINGS HAPPEN WHEN GAME DIRECTOR HIDETAKA MIYAZAKI IS GIVEN FREE REIGN TO TAKE A RISK. The annals of videogame history have proven as much – Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne, three titles that have become a force onto themselves. Miyazaki isn’t interested in pumping out sequels and he loathes complacency – he’s always looking towards what comes next. And what comes next is an outrageous partnership, FromSoftware and Activision joining forces to push us into the world of late 1500s Japan. “Collaborating with Activision on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has been a very exciting experience for us,” said…

“FALLOUT 76 IS A PREQUEL TO ALL OF THE OTHER GAMES AND IT’S OUR BIGGEST ONE YET, FOUR TIMES THE SIZE OF FALLOUT 4.”TODD HOWARD, GAME DIRECTOR, BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS “ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO WE HIT UPON AN IDEA THAT WAS PERFECT FOR FALLOUT,” RECALLS BETHESDA DIRECTOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TODD HOWARD. “It was an idea that we just couldn’t shake; we knew we had to do it, and we had to do it in a big way.” Howard is referring to Fallout 76, a bold new initiative from Bethesda Game Studios that’s left us reeling. The idea, as he tells it, was to build a Fallout experience around three concepts: it had to be open world; it had to be pinned around survival; it had to be populated by…

Dontnod continues to experiment in the story-driven adventure space, this time with a psychological thriller. It’s got all of the hallmarks of a great David Lynch-inspired enterprise: small-town America with a dark secret, the unreal overlapping with the real to distort perception and a mysterious murder. Choice, consequence and a conflicted protagonist; Twin Mirror looks to be the quintessential Dontnod experience.…

This return to historically inspired tactical warfare is a welcome one. All the more so since the team is bringing even more depth and variety to the experience with some new features. The two key additions to our minds are its use of multiple generals in your leadership and duals. Multiple generals means you can assign leaders who offer specific buffs and tactical options to your different units. That should mean an interesting mix and match approach and some twists on the rock, paper, scissors of battle ahead. While duals give you wonderfully captured one-on-one fights between champions that can have a massive impact on the battle.…

Serious Sam wasn’t necessarily high on our list of most-wanted sequels… But we have to say that Croteam is pulling out all of the stops to not only make it a fan-pleasing blockbuster, but also deliver a level of spectacle to get even the most jaded FPS fan enticed. The big headline grabber is the potential for 100,000 enemies to be on screen at once. And that wasn’t a typo on our part. We meant 100,000 enemies, all gallivanting around. Those headless dudes with the bombs in their hands, the giant demons and everything in-between, all being mowed down with giant guns and potentially a lot of agrarian motorised equipment.…

What can Moon Studios possibly do next? Ori And The Blind Forest is, without question, one of the best 2D adventure games of the generation, driven by a beautiful story and pixel-perfect platforming – following that kind of success isn’t easy. That all said, Moon seems to have no problem in this respect; Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is an excellent follow-up that only improves and expands on everything achieved by the original. The team is looking to deliver the perfect Metroidvania experience and, given the quality of the original game we have no reason to doubt it will do it again.…

ID SOFTWARE • BETHESDA SOFTWORKS • TBC 2019 27 DOOM ETERNAL  id Software unleashed one of the best FPS games of the generation in 2016’s DOOM. A sequel was inevitable, we just didn’t expect to see it teased so soon. Following on directly from where its predecessor left off, DOOM Eternal will see you tearing apart the legions of hell that have invaded Earth. Expect id to move into full production once it wraps development of Rage 2. BETHESDA • BETHESDA SOFTWORKS • TBC 2019 28 STARFIELD This has been a long time coming. Starfield is Bethesda Game Studios’ first attempt at a new IP in 25 years; it’s a RPG set in space and it’s been in some form of production for over five years now… and that’s about…

THERE’S BEEN SOME DISCUSSION ABOUT THE POLITICAL STANCE OF THE DIVISION 2. Less about what message it’s trying to convey, more just along the lines of ‘is it actually saying anything?’ As with the first game, The Division 2 is set in a post-apocalyptic America, wiped out after a virus (initially spread via the handling of cash) has eliminated much of the population. The sequel takes things to the nation’s capital. Washington DC. And it’s based on the literary world of one Tom Clancy, who was never a man to shy away from politicising his work, regardless of the message it carried. It shouldn’t be a point anyone has to argue, and it shouldn’t be something Ubisoft feels the need to play down or deny – political…

BioWare has found itself between the rock of a poor reception to Mass Effect Andromeda and the hard place of being an EA studio, as many gamers hold the publisher as public enemy number one in the field of squeezing us for money. But the team has talked very well about how it hopes to not only implement crucial feedback from Andromeda, but also avoid the pitfalls of making an online experience under the EA banner, most recently highlighted by the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II. For a start, while there are microtransactions, they are cosmetic only and for specific items, not blind loot boxes. And there will never be paid-for content that will strengthen or enhance players released down the line. Solid decisions all around as far as…

AVALANCHE STUDIOS • TBC 2019 61 GENERATION ZERO If you had told us that this was a prequel to Horizon Zero Dawn we might have believed you, but this is actually a brand new independent IP from Just Cause developer Avalanche set in a reimagined Eighties Sweden. Robots have arisen and you must survive and take them out in an open-world sandbox with up to three other players. Focused co-op shooter action essentially. COFFEE STAIN • TBC 2019 62 SATISFACTORY From the team that brought us Goat Simulator we have a very different kind of sandbox experience, this time sending us off to unexplored alien world with the mission of setting up an ever-expanding factory to produce… something. FICSIT Inc. isn’t being forthcoming. We sense ulterior motives, but the core game…

THE 2018 XBOX E3 MEDIA BRIEFING WAS COMING TO AN END. PHIL SPENCER TOOK THE STAGE FOR A FINAL TIME TO SEE EVERYONE OFF AND RECAP WHAT HAD JUST TRANSPIRED. Suddenly the screens around him flashed and distorted, the normal green hue of an Xbox showcase replaced with a deep and jarring red. Hacker? Prank? Neither. This was Cyberpunk 2077 making its presence felt. Now that we’ve bore witness to a behind-closed-doors demo of the game, we understand the need for a dramatic emergence. CD Projekt Red had delivered to us a glimpse at the future of video games. Cyberpunk 2077 places us into the role of V, a mercenary routinely called upon to take on the dirtiest jobs in the city. This bleak alternate America is fertile ground for…

“HAVING EVERYTHING MOVE, IF IT CAN MOVE MAKE IT MOVE, WAS A VERY AMBITIOUS GOAL FOR US FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. AND WE’RE ACHIEVING IT! YOU WALK AROUND THE GAME WORLD AND YOU’LL BE LIKE OH MY GOD, EVERYTHING AROUND ME IS MOVING!”JASON CONNELL, ART DIRECTOR, SUCKER PUNCH GHOST OF TSUSHIMA EXPLORES THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN BEAUTY AND BLOODSHED. This startling contrast is ever-present in the upcoming Sony exclusive. The beauty of its sprawling environments compelling you to stop at every opportunity, its breathtaking visual design as good a reason as any to take a second to pause for air. Although that serenity is easily shattered in this brutal portrayal of Feudal Japan, with your surroundings as likely to be stained with the blood of your enemies as it…

How has it taken so long to get Insomniac on a Spider-Man game? It’s clear that the studio has a fantastic grasp on the core aspects to the character; it just feels right. Whether he is swinging between skyscrapers across Insominiac’s rendition of Marvel’s New York – an open-world space that continues to impress in its scope, scale and attention to detail – or whether he is kicking the heck out of large groups of criminals. This is the first Spider-Man game to really nail the speed, agility and utility of the character, and every Spider-Man fan should be eagerly awaiting the arrival of this come September.…

“THE ENTIRE DEVELOPMENT TEAM IS POURING THEIR LOVE FOR THE FRANCHISE INTO KINGDOM HEARTS III AND IS STRIVING TO CREATE A GAME THAT ALL PLAYERS WILL ENJOY. WE ARE CURRENTLY AT THE LAST STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT, BUT WILL WORK TIRELESSLY UNTIL THE END TO DELIVER THE VERY BEST KINGDOM HEARTS GAME TO DATE”TETSUYA NOMURA, GAME DIRECTOR, SQUARE ENIX BUSINESS DIVISION 3 IT’S ALL TOO EASY TO BECOME DISTRACTED BY THE ADDITION OF PIXAR WORLDS AND CHARACTERS TO KINGDOM HEARTS III , BUT THERE’S A WHOLE LOT MORE TO THIS LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL THAN MERE FAN SERVICE ALONE. Sure, you’ll be able to cause havoc in the world of Toy Story with Buzz and Woody by your side, but what’s more interesting is that there’s more to the combat…

die without a fight. The game’s toy spaceships hook seamlessly onto the controller without adding weight, the parts allowing for full customisation through new proprietary technology. NFC this is not, folks. The pot was sweetened further with the announcement that Fox McCloud and his Arwing from Star Fox would feature exclusively on the Nintendo Switch version, making this the new Star Fox game we had always wanted. Even without Fox Starlink’s space combat showed promise, but now it’s a game that demands our attention. It seemed the toys-to-life phase had ended, but Starlink: Battle for Atlas will not let it…

CHUCKLEFISH • TBC 2018 94 WARGROOVE For a long time we’ve been charmed by Wargroove’s style and presentation, along with the fact that it’s clearly inspired by Advance Wars, but seeing it in action is equally impressive. The tactical battle of capturing towns to increase income, capturing barracks for mid-battlefield reinforcements, as well as hero abilities to reshape the battle make for excellent conflicts. CAPYBARA GAMES • TBC 2018 95 BELOW How long have we been waiting for Below? Not as long as Capybara has been making it, and the quality that the team has managed to achieve with all of that development time is really showing. Below is dark and challenging, but the level of detail in the game world, lighting and systems is fantastic. Delving into the darkest…

Q. IS IT REALLY THAT BAD? It is just entirely average. If you’re intrigued by a new vampire game then give it a shot, but be prepared for frustrating combat and tiresome dialogue. Q. HOW LONG IS IT? You’ll likely be looking at a 30-hour game time, although that will shift heavily depending on how you decide to approach the story. Q. CAN YOU ABSTAIN FROM FEEDING? You can, and it’s one of the more interesting ways to play. Beware however, sometimes regions will destabilise in spite of your best efforts.…

HOW MANY DIFFERENT SPECIES ARE THERE? The base game has a total of 42 dinos to unlock, with an additional six added as free DLC. They’re all land-based species though, sadly. HOW MANY ISLANDS? Six in total – five play out as increasingly challenging campaign scenarios, with the sixth a free-play sandbox where you can mess around with everything you’ve unlocked so far. ARE THE MOVIE CAST IN IT? Jeff Goldblum is on board, and they really get their money’s worth out of him – he narrates more or less everything. The rest seem to be decent soundalikes as far as we could tell.…

DETAILS FORMAT: PC ORIGIN: UK PUBLISHER: Bithell Games DEVELOPER: In-house PRICE: £4.79 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1 MINIMUM SPEC: Windows 7, 2.5 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 2GB Graphic Card, 3 GB HDD ONLINE REVIEWED: N/A There are no gun fights in Quarantine Circular .No car chases, no quicktime prompts. Though there are a couple of puzzle-esque moments (and we even use the word “puzzle” in the very loosest sense of the word), don’t expect complex mechanics or collectibles, either. Quarantine Circular is a long conversation. Yes, it dovetails into broader issues – empathy, compassion, understanding, acceptance – but essentially, Quarantine Circular is a long discussion in which you must consider not just what you say, but how you say it. Quarantine – the latest in Mike Bithell’s…

“THE TEAM ALSO HEARD FEEDBACK LOUD AND CLEAR ON THE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT PLAYING AS THE MASTER CHIEF IN HALO 5. IN HALO INFINITE, THE GAME WILL FOCUS ON THE MASTER CHIEF AND CONTINUE HIS SAGA AFTER THE EVENTS OF HALO 5”CHRIS LEE, 343, STUDIO HEAD FPS THIS BRINGS BACK A LOT OF MEMORIES. Picking through a teaser trailer for a new Halo game, inferring what new features it may be suggesting will appear, speculating on what the story may entail, it all feels very 2006. And thankfully that’s exactly what 343 Industries was aiming for. We say thankfully, because if it hadn’t been aiming for a nostalgic feel to its Halo Infinite reveal then something would have been very wrong. This isn’t the series going backwards or 343…

With Metro Exodus leaving the claustrophobic tunnels of Moscow’s metro system behind, we wondered whether the series – famed for its tense shootouts with makeshift weaponry, haunting atmosphere and taunting enemies – could survive the leap to wide-open spaces. Thankfully, 4A Games is building something truly special here; Metro Exodus charts a year in the life of Artyom and a small band of Spartan Rangers, heading east in search of a new beginning. It looks stunning in action, the weapons handle wonderfully and none of the fear and loathing has been lost in the transition. Metro Exodus is ambitious, excellent and sure to be one hell of an experience.…

While there is no traditional single-player campaign in Fallout 76, it will indeed be possible to host a private server of sorts. While Bethesda is currently tweaking its server side support to crack down on harassment and griefing, this could be a viable alternative for those that just wish to play with their buddies or all on their own lonesome. With the game designed around multiplayer it might lose some of its spark – particularly as players will eventually be able to get to the stage in which they can launch tactical nuclear strikes against one another’s constructions – but it’s certainly nice to know that the option is there. In Fallout 76 all of your progression goes with you, whatever server you join; death doesn’t mean the end of…

WE’VE BEEN WAITING SUCH A VERY LONG TIME FOR THIS. It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been a decade since the release of Devil May Cry 4; Capcom knows that talk is cheap, that an apology wouldn’t be enough to satisfy our insatiable need for DMC’s particular brand of high-octane stylised action. So here we go. Capcom is kicking the party back into gear with a direct sequel to Devil May Cry 4 – it looks as ridiculous(ly amazing) as you might expect. Devil May Cry 5 is to feature three playable characters, each of which are to offer radically different stylish play styles, with Nero taking the lead during the reveal; the brash swordsmith has been gifted the iconic neon Devil May Cry shop sign by Dante, and…

With its Payday 2 pedigree in the development team GTFO’s reveal late last year definitely caught our attention. What’s been good to see this summer is that it’s managing to hit its visual and gameplay targets from that initial trailer and deliver exactly the level of detail and atmosphere it originally promised within the Unity engine. One of the standout elements that wasn’t immediately apparent before is how the four-player co-op shooter, heist and survival gameplay moves between assault, stealth and defence in nice waves. You need to progress, you sometimes need to sneak and then you need to hold your ground. The pacing looks fantastic, the visuals are superbly claustrophobic and we’re totally on board.…

The former S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development team working on a battle royale game? Even with our growing fatigue at every shooter including a 1vs100 mode, we were still very much up for this take on the format. With radiation being the killer factor, the whole experience carries a slightly more realistic feel than the competition and the two paths to victory could be interesting too. You can either kill the competition as usual or be the first and only passenger on an extraction helicopter in the final zone. A nice twist on the format, even if it’s a small one. Mutated wildlife offers an additional PvE threat that will keep you on your toes too.…

Ubisoft, you can’t just do this to us. After a decade of pulling a ‘will they, won’t they?’ on us over the return of Beyond Good & Evil, Ubisoft Montpellier finally confirmed that a prequel is in the works at last year’s E3. So, what did it decide to do in 2018? It showed a little of the game, a sprawling and wildly ambitious action-adventure RPG that’s designed to be played in solo or with friends in co-op as you look to seamlessly explore the galaxy. It also confirmed that both Pey’j and Jade will make an appearance, though the latter now seems to be pinned as the villain… our hearts can’t take it.…

The original game brought with it the usual feelings associated with New York (specifically Manhattan) – overwhelming vertical size; claustrophobia; dark, dank streets; a real edge to things. It was a beautiful, wintery world, but we’re glad Massive has moved things to Washington DC for The Division 2. The US capital is much flatter a city, with far fewer highrise buildings dotted around – as well as some truly iconic homes of American democracy – so it immediately lends itself to a less condensed feeling. The world is 20 per cent larger than in the first game, true, but even without knowing that it immediately feels a lot bigger and more open than before. There’s also the change in season to consider – the original was in the winter: it…

AFTER BEING TEASED BACK IN APRIL, FANS WONDERED HOW NINTENDO’S APPROACH FOR THE SWITCH EDITION OF A SUPER SMASH BROS. GAME WOULD TURN OUT. The answer came in the reveal trailer, the words “Everyone Is Here” letting players know that nothing was off limits in this new era. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate plans to live up to that name and become the ultimate Smash experience. Every character from past Smash games is on the Ultimate roster. Mainstays like Mario and Link, previously removed characters like Ice Climbers and Solid Snake, even the Wii U’s craziest DLC inclusions Ryu from Street Fighter and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII will be available. Each character has seen some adjustments for this new game, the number of which Nintendo claims is in the…

As you read this you may well have the concluding chapter of The Banner Saga trilogy in your hands, as the game managed to beat its expected release date. As with previous chapters, it features some of the best tactical RPG combat you could ever wish to experience, stunning animations and a rich story. What will these ex-BioWare developers move onto next? We don’t yet know, but it’s going to be worth keeping an eye out for.…

IT WASN’T SURPRISING TO SEE THE LATEST GEARS GAME - stuffed with the usual big men with big necks, big guns, and big action – at Xbox’s E3 conference. What was unusual was the move to pull series protags the Phoenix family from the limelight to make way for Kait Diaz to lead this fifth instalment. Don’t panic; Marcus and co are still very much there, so it’s not a complete reworking of the iconic franchise. But Gears 5 will pick up where Gears of War 4 left off, continuing Kait’s story as she journeys across “the biggest, most beautiful Gears world ever created” to follow her heart and explore the source of her bad dreams, which appear to be a portend of horrors to come. We’re expecting this instalment…

JACKIE WELLES V’s partner in merc work, an imposing brute of a man who’s efficient in taking down as many enemies as needed. He’s a proud Latino who often mixes in some Spanish when he speaks, though mostly to insult enemies before he kills them. DEXTER DESHAWN Seated on the left of the picture, Dexter DeShawn is a big player in the seedier dealings of Night City. He’s so impressed with V’s work that he personally invites V into his limousine and offers V a job. According to Jackie, he’s a good friend to have. THE RIPPERDOC Scattered throughout Night City are what locals call “ripperdocs,” medical professionals who specialize in switching out modifications. We anticipate a lot of visits to our local ripperdoc as we progress further into the…

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO GO BIG WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS. It’s already been 11 years since the release of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the last game in the long-running strategy series to release on a home console. After numerous excellent handheld editions in that time we’ve long wondered how the studio would look to scale up Fire Emblem for a new generation. We wonder no longer. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is coming to Switch in 2019, and we can say with absolutely certainty that you’ve never seen a Fire Emblem game quite like this. We don’t just mean the darker tone or the more vibrant graphics either, the studio is giving us full-3D environments to explore, and it has taken steps to make the turn-based combat more dynamic…

We don’t quite know if our fingers (and tempers) are ready for another Trials. Developer RedLynx doesn’t care about our spiralling blood pressures though, announcing Trials Rising, and it’s looking like it might just be the best entry to the series yet. While you can expect the usual balancing act of speed and precision, this time across a variety of tracks inspired by famous real-world locations, Rising will also introduce a new co-operative mode called Tandem Bike, which lets players split control of a bike across two separate gamepads. It looks ridiculous and infuriating, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.…

REMEDY ENTERTAINMENT HAS BEEN DORMANT SINCE THE RELEASE OF 2016’S QUANTUM BREAK . Now that we know what it’s been working on, the supernatural third-person shooter called Control, we understand why the wait was absolutely worth it. Control stars Jesse Faden, a woman searching for clarity regarding secrets in her past. The world she knows has been corrupted by some otherworldly force called The Hiss, and her fight against it leads her down a strange rabbit hole. She finds a hidden branch of government called the Federal Bureau of Control, and things just get weirder from there. In an industry filled with multiplayer games Control focuses only on single player, with Remedy being more concerned with telling a good story through its gameplay than anything else. The…

WHILE RACING GAMES ARE GENERALLY RENOWNED FOR THEIR GLAMOROUS LOCATIONS, THIS TIME DEVELOPER PLAYGROUND GAMES HAS BROUGHT ITS FESTIVAL-FEEL FORZA HORIZON 4 HOME BY SETTING IT WITHIN THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE ISLAND OF OURS, GREAT BRITAIN. Promising franchise-first features such as a fully online environment and true open-world exploration, Forza Horizon 4 will draw together its community for worldwide events and challenges that change and update every week. Dynamic seasons invite you to experience a range of driving conditions across wet, muddy, snowy and icy conditions that improve, and worsen, depending upon the time of day and weather. So no, we’re not just going to experience bleak, fizzy drizzle and sun-scorched Brits wandering around in a daze, complaining about the heat. Expect over 450 cars –…

DETAILS FORMAT: iOS OTHER FORMATS: Android ORIGIN: France PUBLISHER: ARTEfr DEVELOPER: Darjeeling Productions PRICE: £2.99 RELEASE: Out now PLAYERS: 1 ONLINE REVIEWED: N/A Homo Machina hits all the criteria of an intriguing demo, artfully exhibiting the fusion of stunning art and simple puzzles. Regrettably, it fails to offer a well-rounded experience, leaving us feeling dissatisfied with the final product. Recreating the human body in the style of a 1920s factory, this modest collection of puzzles whisks us through everyday bodily functions. Darjeeling Productions has opted for a style that masterfully avoids all the pitfalls that could have made us feel a bit squeamish; replacing the complex structure of the human eye with camera components and the nervous system with a simplified electrical grid. Reflective of the multitude of…

How did Golden Axe get its name? The name of the game changed three times. Originally, it was called ‘Battle Axe’. The development team members liked it, but we gave it up for licence reasons. The next name was ‘Broad Axe’. This was an English word that we thought would match the original Japanese title. There were no licence issues, and so the development moved on. But right before the end of the development, the president of Sega US saw Gilius’s axe, which was a bit yellow-ish. He thought that colour was gold, and he said ‘Golden Axe’ is the title of the game. We didn’t like the name because it had no relations with the Japanese, but we were threatened that he would not sell the game if the…

METROID PRIME The final boss of the game, the battle against Metroid Prime puts everything that you have learned over the preceding hours to the test. It’s classically designed, featuring distinct phases and challenging patterns of assault. A testing last stand on an excellent adventure. THARDUS Coming face-to-face with a giant rock creature can be pretty intimidating, especially as it looks as if it has no clear points of attack. That’s why you have to utilise your Thermal Visor to look for weak points between the cracks of his outer armour; a fun boss that features cool system combinations. META RIDLEY Ridley is an absolute Metroid classic, and this climactic battle with the iconic enemy doesn’t disappoint. It’s hard as nails, cinematic and pretty breathtaking. So much of the game…

PLAYSTATION SHAPES MANGA POP T-SHIRT Lots of things we love about this official PlayStation shirt. The colour scheme is fantastic for starters, the way it uses the iconic PlayStation branding in a new way is cool, and just the general energy and vibe of the thing speaks to us. www.playstation-gear.com KOJIPRO BLACK This excellent tee is actually designed by the Kojima Productions team and even features the studio’s logo just below the collar on the back with the motto, “From sapiens to ludens.” It’s a simple design, exclaiming Kojima’s name on the front. www.insertcointclothing.com GENJI SPRAY T-SHIRT This exclusive ThinkGeek tee has more of a sporty feel and honours Overwatch’s Genji. The kanji read Bushin, from Genfi’s own chest plate, in case you were wondering. His classic colour scheme just…