Gamesmaster的March 2018目录

After an absolutely stunning 2017, Nintendo has unveiled some of its plans to take us into summer 2018. Fresh from once again saving Princess Peach from Bowser’s clutches in the globe-trotting Super Mario Odyssey, our favourite Italian plumber is giving his new anthropomorphic hat-friend Cappy a break in favour of his racquet and tennis garb. The last time Mario and co gave it a few sets was the disappointingly void-of-content Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on Wii U. Promising beefier gameplay and the return of story mode, last seen in Mario Tennis: Power Tour from 2005, Mario Tennis Aces seems dead set on righting the wrongs of its predecessor. “MARIO TENNIS ACES SEEMS DEAD SET ON RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF ITS PREDECESSOR” Hit singles In footage showcased by Nintendo, Mario, Luigi,…

Educational games are something of a black sheep. How many standout examples are there? There certainly isn’t one we would put on a list of the top 100 games, that’s for sure. Discovery Tour might just change that. This is Ubisoft’s attempt to make the most of the detailed world of its most recent Assassin’s Creed title. The series has always leaned strongly into its historical setting, utilising real locations and famous figures, but it’s always been blended with the series’ own conspiracy fiction. Discovery Tour takes out all the murder, story, and Templars. Ubisoft is pitching it as a true educational tool, something you could use in a classroom. A recreation of Ancient Egypt with a massive AAA budget? That’s a tremendous proposition. And it really works. Discovery Tour…

What a difference 25 years make. We’ve gone from an era of a super-popular Nintendo machine with cartridge-based games to… a super-popular Nintendo machine with cartridge-based games that’s also portable. We’ve also seen thousands of games released, with hundreds of true greats among them. As we’re feeling so nostalgic, we’ve decided to pick the best 25 games of GamesMaster’s lifetime – one for each year. And trust us, this was very difficult. 1993 Doom Developer Id Software Publisher Id Software Format PC Not the original first-person shooter, just the one that ripped up the rulebook and single-handedly pushed gaming in a bold, exciting new direction. Without Doom, modern gaming wouldn’t exist. 1994 Sensible World Of Soccer Developer Sensible Software Publisher Renegade Format Amiga A football game imbued with such passion,…

Format PC Developer Creative Assembly Publisher Sega ETA Autumn To quote a well-known song: “War, huh! Yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing apart from forming the basis for real-time strategy games that serve both educational and entertainment purposes.” At least, we thinkthat’s how it went. Excuse us, we are 25 magazine years old (that’s 147 in human years). Leaving the fantasy of Warhammer behind, Creative Assembly once more turns to the long, long history of humans being horrible to one another for inspiration. For the first time, the series visits ancient China. The year 190CE (that’s AD to you and us), to be precise, just as China was about to split into the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. Dynasty Warriors fans will know this period well. Fun…

“IF COLONISTS DIE, DON’T EXPECT THE OTHERS TO SKIP HAPPILY AROUND THE CORPSE” Format PC Developer Klang ETA 2019 Web http://bit.ly/gmseedgame We’ve been keeping humans alive for a long time now in games. Survival games’ requirements tend to be basic. Light the fire. Kill the monster. But how do we actually rebuild society? Here’s where Seed comes in. This persistent MMO lets you build a world for your ‘Seedlings’ that’s the complete opposite of that ‘sitting by the fire waiting for something to eat you’ feeling you get in Don’t Starve. “Roughly ten years ago, we started planning an idea for an emergent MMO that could produce complex scenarios that feel real,” explains Klang’s Jonathan Baker. “We wanted to create a virtual community that wouldn’t feel desolate, but instead replicate…

“WE PAID EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE WAY WE LAYERED THE WORLD… THERE ALWAYS NEEDS TO BE SOMETHING VISIBLE IN THE DISTANCE” 2017 was a seismic year for videogame landscapes. From Breath Of The Wild’s dreamy reimagining of Hyrule, to the painstakingly detailed deserts, dried riverbeds, and rich riparian oases of Assassin’s Creed Origins, it feels like the industry’s scaled a mountain to reach a peak of open world technical prowess. Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn is part of this, sweeping us away to a primordial future where monolithic machinery weaves through vibrant nature, and new, low-tech cities tower paradoxically over the ruins of our modern civilization. We speak with staff at Guerrilla Games about how they brought this picturesque world to life. Coming to Horizon from the linear Killzone series,…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Bluepoint Games ETA Out now Players 1 Originally released in 2006 to critical acclaim, Shadow Of The Colossus is as highly regarded now as it was on release. This remake from Sony and Bluepoint Games aims to update what is arguably one of the greatest games of all time. No small task. A colossal one, you might say. Shadow Of The Colossus tells the story, set in an ancient world, of Wander. He’s travelled to the Forbidden Lands, a secluded kingdom devoid of any human presence, untouched by the outside world, where the remnants of a forgotten civilisation scatter the landscape. He’s come here because of an old legend, which claims that here the dead can be resurrected. His aim is to bring a young…

Format PC Publisher Team Junkfish Developer Team Junkfish ETA Out now Players 1 These halls are stalked by a beast. A terrifying creature of bottomless appetite and unrivalled cruelty. An animal which consumes without remorse, whose lust for violence is so deep that in the absence of opponents it will happily turn on its own kind. A truly evil monster spawned from the depths of Hell. The most dangerous animal of all… okay, you get the picture. It’s homo sapiens. Thankfully we’re giant, spiky, flesh-eating insects, so hopefully things will be pretty even. It also helps that these particular humans have no peripheral vision and keep conveniently standing around with their backs turned. Team Junkfish’s second-ever offering, Attack Of The Earthlings, is quite a departure from its first release, procedurally…

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO Publisher EA Sports Developer EA Canada ETA Out now Players 1 This sports fighting title made us feel how, we imagine, our grandmothers feel while watching violent videogames or Tarantino movies. This certainly is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, if by ‘Ultimate’ you mean ‘Really Very Violent’. It’s a credit to the quality of animation-work and grisly sound effects (and testament to our wussiness) that we never stopped wincing through every uppercut, hook, and roundhouse kick to the face. The bloodied faces are grim enough, but the crunching noise of someone dodging into a punch still haunts us. Brutal it may be, but it’s also an accomplished fighter. Bouts split into two broad types of action – the standing game of kicks and punches, and the grappling…

Developer Criterion Publisher EA Released 2004 Format GameCube, Xbox, PS2 Get it Shunting rivals aside on eBay. As series go, few were as rabidly focused on the thrill of speed as Criterion’s Burnout titles. Within two games, it established a retina-troubling love of fast cars designed to respond to the lightest of thumb twitches. As good as they were, the third entry ramped everything up to become an EA-published mega-hit that provided the best arcade racing experience of the PS2 and Xbox era. The origins Not that Criterion’s relationship with EA had the best of starts. Speaking to our sister magazine Games™ back in 2010, Burnout 3 director Alex Ward revealed that the first game Criterion worked on for the behemoth publisher was a reboot of Skate Or Die. After…

Awesome Boss! Resident Evil 3 Format PC, Dreamcast, PS1 Developer Capcom Released 2000 Can you think of anyone more foreboding in the Resi series? Nemesis was a bio-organic weapon designed purelyto destroy you, and he spent the entire game turning up at the most inopportune moments to terrorise you. Some of us still see his horrible, teethy gurn in our nightmares. Which is what you want from a horror game boss, really. Classic Moment! Stranglehold Format PC, PS3, 360 Developer Midway Chicago Released 2007 The Casino level in John Woo’s painfully under-appreciated Max Payne rip-off (sorry, homage) was a fantastic melting pot of what made this so much fun to play. The location was ludicrously glitzy, with so much of the environment to slide, swing, and gambol across. Plus the…

Let’s face it. You miss Sackboy, don’t you? You miss his shiny little eyes, that giant zip, that infectious smile. Bring his pals from LittleBigPlanet 3 into the mix and suddenly you realise you’ve been pining for a lot of oh-so-squishable platforming characters for a long time. Thankfully, lots of people have been hard at work creating even more content for Sackboy, Oddsock, Swoop, and Toggle to hurtle through. The LBP3 building community is still going strong. Case in point, while level pack Return To Carnivalia might look like it’s covered in Sony-approved fingerprints, Trixel Creative is completely independent. “It’s always so nice to hear people say that our project looks official,” enthuses art designer Halston Stephenson from the global team of connected creators. “Return To Carnivalia came about after…

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS The 2018 GamesMaster crew, standing by to make another 25 years of the best gaming magazine around. By then we’ll probably be cyborgs in flying cars, so that’s something to look forward to. Robin Valentine Our editor’s been lost in the archives for half of this issue, digging up lost nuggets of GM history. In the process he’s also turned up a Nokia N-Gage, a John Woo-branded Xbox, and a couple of old staff members we’d forgotten about… Favourite gaming moment of the last 25 years: Thattwist in Bioshock Sam Greer In just her second issue, our plucky staff writer’s managed to argue her way to giving out GM’s first 100% score – and not just because we’re all scared of her battering…

The future of games is… cardboard? Well, so Nintendo would have us believe. Its latest offbeat novelty, due out 27 April this year, brings the company’s toymaker past into the present. Labo is a beguiling blend of construction and play: a set of thick cardboard templates you push out and build into large, tactile controllers. Each houses the Switch’s tablet display, with the right Joy-Con’s IR camera reading reflective strips on the various moveable parts, allowing you to play a range of bite-sized games without touching a digital button. It’s typically Nintendo, really: while its competitors focus on 4K and VR, here’s something decidedly lo-fi, the kind of homebrew tech that wouldn’t look out of place in a Michel Gondry film. But it’s also thrillingly different and quietly dazzling in…

Most games seem to be about putting people inhospital. This newly-announced comedy sim is all about making them better so that they can get out . If you and your patients are lucky, that is. A sequel to the legendary Theme Hospital in all but name, Two Point Studios’ debut title is looking sick. ‘Sick’ in the way young people say it, of course. In fact, the developer (just 16 people strong) is staffed by people who worked on Fable, Black And White, Theme Park… and, surprise surprise, Theme Hospital. When the people on your payroll can boast time working at the likes of Bullfrog, Lionhead, and Mucky Foot on their CVs, optimism about your first game is justified. Insult to injury The latest footage gives a…

Many years ago, while most GM readers were still grubs, there was a game called Sim Ant where you had to manage a colony of the insects. It was basically The Sims with more legs. People have wanted a followup for years but is Empires Of The Undergrowth a worthy successor? We sent Leon into the nest to find out. 0 MINUTES My life as an ant colony begins as I always dreamed it would: killing woodworm and prising my jaws under the armoured shells of woodlice. What? I have very strange dreams. Things starts simply enough – just me, the queen, seven workers and a rotting log to call my own. It’s all about the core ant beliefs to begin with: make more ants and kill anything that isn’t…

The GamesMaster TV show ran for seven series, from 1992 to 1998, and is still fondly remembered as some of the best gaming-related content ever to grace our screens – especially by our most vocal Twitter followers. With the desire to reminisce in our hearts, we tracked down a key member of the GM television team to have a chat – one of the five men who created the show and, perhaps, GamesMaster’s most iconic co-presenter: Dave ‘Games Animal’ Perry. HOW DID GAMESMASTER COME ABOUT? Well, famously the show was inspired by Jane Hewland’s son Harry. Jane was the woman behind independent production company Hewland International, and a real force to be reckoned with. I believe she had watched her son’s fascination with early games consoles, and particularly a game…

“KAMUROCHO HAS NEVER FELT MORE ALIVE, THANKS TO THE ALL-NEW DRAGON ENGINE” Format PS4 Publisher Sega Developer Sega ETA 20 March The final chapter in Sega’s decade-long crime saga is almost here. While the brawling JRPG has grown bloated over time, with more playable characters and even more convoluted criminal conspiracies, our hands-on of Yakuza 6’s opening hours also shows Sega knows how to dial things back to a more personal level. After all, the series has been about the long redemption story of Kazuma Kiryu, an ex-yakuza who’s been trying to cut ties with his Tokyo criminal family, the Tojo clan, and become the respectable father figure to the children of Okinawa orphanage Morning Glory. Central to Kiryu’s life has been his adopted daughter Haruka, last seen in Yakuza…

Format Switch Publisher Nintendo Developer HAL Laboratory ETA 16 March As though swallowing his enemies and absorbing their powers isn’t horrifying enough, Kirby can now wrap them in a cocoon of webbing. Beneath that cute exterior lies a monster that must be stopped – though not before meeting all his new friends in his multi-coloured Switch debut. In the pink one’s latest adventure he’s all about the love – making friends is the name of the game. Kirby’s joined by a small troupe of allies he turns into collaborators called ‘helpers’ with the power of a heart. Each helper offers a skillset that can be manipulated depending on who else is in the group and what abilities Kirby has on hand. For example, combine water and a freezing blast to…

Format Switch, PC Developer Cosmoscope ETASummer Webhttp://bit.ly/gmmorphieslaw It’s time for a science lesson. Let’s talk about mass. If you dig deep into the pit of your brain, you might remember that F = MA. Peer further and you might remember Newton’s second law of motion dictates that force is equal to the mass of an object multiplied by its acceleration. Morphies Law, on the other hand, dictates that mass is the difference between winning and losing. Welcome to a shooter with a difference. Oh, and you can forget Newton again. On its way to Switch and PC, Morphies Law turns the traditional shooter on its head. Kill someone in one of its mainly multiplayer modes and you’ll find that you grow in size – and there’s even a scientific reason…

“A PARTLY UNDISCOVERED CONTINENT FILLED WITH MONSTERS NEW AND OLD” Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ETA Out now Players 1-4 For some of us on Team GM, this is a series we’ve never managed to get into. The concept has always appealed, and the world filled with dinosaurs always seemed rad as hell, but the games themselves always felt held back by a combination of tech and design. Fans have declared them unsung gems for a long time, but it’s been all too easy to be put off by the limitations of handheld hardware and the sheer inpenetrability of the game’s systems. But with Monster Hunter: World, all those concerns are a thing of the past. This latest entry is Capcom’s bid to not only deliver…

Two monsters fighting is a prime opportunity for you to hang back and heal, waiting for your chance to polish off a weakened beast. Always try to keep your weapon sharp or you’ll do less damage. But be careful – sharpening takes a while, and leaves you vulnerable. Keep an eye on these notifications, as they will alert you to clues for hunting. It’ll save you a lot of aimless wandering. The HUD displays a handy rundown of some combos, should you need reminding how to pull them off.…

Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Square Enix Developer Tokyo RPG Factory ETA Out now Players 1 We all lose things; from keys to controllers, objects are always going missing. The inhabitants of Lost Sphear’s universe have more to fear than a few misplaced doodads, however. Their world suffers from a strange affliction whereby items, people, and even whole areas disappear, leaving only an eerie white mist in their wake. Protagonist Kanata and co are going to have to look a lot further than down the back of the sofa for this missing matter. The phenomenon, rather uninspiringly referred to as ‘lost’, serves both the narrative and gameplay of this traditional Japanese role-playing adventure. Kanata has the ability to restore what’s lost using the power of memories. While the story…

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Matt Makes Games Inc Developer Matt Makes Games Inc ETA Out now Players 1 British mountaineer George Mallory once commented he wanted to climb Mount Everest “because it’s there”. A similar motivation drives the plotline of this challenging 2D platformer from the creators of 2013 hit TowerFall, which is reminiscent of everything from Super Mario to Super Meat Boy. Don’t be fooled by its charming exterior – Celeste isn’t for the faint of heart. Its gameplay is built around a simplistic yet super-responsive control scheme, forcing you to jump, dash, and climb around unforgiving obstacles with a high degree of precision. The game encourages you to take pride in your death count, which often enters the hundreds per level, easing the pain with…

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Aspyr Developer PolyKnight Games ETA Out now Players 1 Some games capture the imagination. With fantastic visuals, unique gameplay, and a compelling story they completely engross you. Unfortunately, InnerSpace is not one of those games. Well, that’s not entirely true. The visuals are a delight. Set in an inverted world, InnerSpace places you inside a sphere of water with landmasses dotting the inner surface. You play as the Cartographer, a flying drone that can soar through the air and dive underwater. You’re given the task of scouring the world for relics belonging to a lost ancient civilisation. The world is utterly strange, but thanks to the soft blues and reds of the water and land, it has a very pleasing look that in…

1 Burnout (PS2 – 2001) The original might not have had Takedowns and Franz Ferdinand on the soundtrack, but it established Criterion’s chops at making you feel the ludicrous speed of your car. Weaving through traffic and gunning around tracks felt dangerous and, therefore, exhilarating, although it’s not aged quite as well as its descendants. Xbox and GameCube versions dropped a year later, proof that everyone liked racing recklessly. 2 Burnout 2: Point Of Impact (PS2 – 2002) A huge refinement over its predecessor, Burnout 2 was slicker and bigger in every way. While the graphical upgrade was most noticeable, there was also the inclusion of Pursuit mode. Here you needed to chase down a car and wreck it before it got away, making this entry a cult…

Making history What’s been your favourite gaming moment of the last 25 years? That first time a zombie turned its head around and came after me in Resident Evil… legged it! True fear! Ciarán Coughlan, Facebook Seeing Mario leap out of that pipe in full 3D in Super Mario 64, thus beginning my love affair with Nintendo! Eoin O’ Callaghan, Facebook Playing through Journey for the first time blew me away. I had never really thought of videogames as an artform until then, and it completely changed my perspective on games. The ending gives me goosebumps every time! Rory, @Schnurrburt_ I’d have to say borrowing my brother’s original PlayStation and playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time. And consequently lying to him by saying I didn’t cry when Aerith…

It’s been over two decades since the Tomb Raider series stormed onto the gaming scene, featuring fierce puzzles and adrenaline-fuelled action in exotic locations from The Great Wall Of China to the lost city of Atlantis. The allure of the series has spanned far beyond the confines of the console. Its leading lady, Lara Croft, evolved into a cultural icon, recognisable even to those who have never touched a controller. She’s graced the cover of British music, culture, and fashion magazine The Face, appeared in video clips on stage at U2’s world tour, and became the poster girl for energy drink Lucozade, which was charmingly renamed ‘Larazade’ for the summer of 2001. It was a promotional play for the first Tomb Raider movie that not only increased Lara’s popularity but…

“SHIGERU MIYAMOTO IS CO-PRODUCER ON THE NEW, ANIMATED MARIO FILM” Our instinctive reaction to the announcement of a new videogame movie is, generally speaking, a deeply pained cry of “Why?!? When will you learn?” Or, sometimes, a guttural shriek from the depths of despair. These two movies, however, have the potential to be – dare we say it? – good. A Mario movie has been announced! Or, more accurately, another Mario movie has been announced. The first was… well… it was live action, set in New York, Bob Hoskins played Mario, and Dennis Hopper was somehow convinced to star in it. We still wake up in a cold sweat in the night thinking about it sometimes. The second attempt at a Mario film will be animated, and the project…

hen GamesMaster magazine launched back at the start of 1993, in the shadow of a quirky new TV show, the team didn’t even know if it would last the year. Now, 25 years later, it’s still the best gaming publication in the business – and every single member of that original crew has been vindicated for the maverick geniuses they were. Over 327 issues, we’ve always strived to bring you everything you needed to know about the hottest games around. Over that time, the definition of ‘hottest’, and in some cases ‘games’, has perhaps changed, but our passion for this fantastic, always surprising, totally weird industry has been immutable. In that spirit, we knew that our 25th anniversary issue couldn’t just be about us – it had to be about…

Format PC Pub Team 17 Dev Petroglyph Games ETA July In any crowded genre it helps to enter the fray with a special ingredient, something to really help you stand out. For Forged Battalion, available now in Steam Early Access, that something is the ability to custom-make your own units as you progress through the game. Except, it’s not a special ingredient at all. The game harkens back to titles such as Command & Conquer, with an emphasis on quickly gathering resources and building your base before amassing ludicrous numbers of units to stomp your foes. There is a pleasure in squashing an enemy stronghold with dozens upon dozens of units, especially when the sound effects are this satisfying, but it’s a short-lived joy because the bulk of the game…

“EVERYONE WHO TELLS A PIRATE STORY PUTS THEIR OWN SPIN ON IT” There’s a special magic to a great pirate game. The freedom of the open sea, the swagger of the swashbucklers, the roar of a barrage of cannon fire. It’s never been the most populous genre, but its handful of shining stars have certainly made their mark, and with new contenders Sea Of Thieves and Skull & Bones on the horizon, the buccaneering life feels more exciting than ever. But what is it that makes a great pirate game? Where to start? With Pirates! The classic title came out in 1987, and within the constraints of the time’s technology managed to deliver a convincing pirate roleplaying experience. “When we made the original Pirates in 1987 there was no other…

“KEEP YOUR PRECIOUS TOOTSIES SAFE FROM MELTING” Format PC Developer Klei Entertainment ETA Spring Web http://bit.ly/gmhotlava Were you ever truly a child if you never played ‘the floor is lava’ while bouncing around the house on a rainy day? What do you mean you’ve never heard of it? Perhaps you’ve just landed on Earth and randomly picked up a copy of GamesMaster – welcome; don’t judge the rest of humanity on these puns – so a quick overview is needed. Imagine that the floor is lava. Lava is ow. Aaand you’re done. New from Don’t Starve devs Klei Entertainment, Hot Lava does exactly what you’d expect and covers the floor of a slew of environments in flaming magma for you to avoid. From your childhood bedroom, to underground caverns and…

PAOLUMU This big bat might seem cute at a glance, able to inflate itself into a big, floating ball of fur, but ultimately it’ll show it’s teeth and prove to be one of the nastiest foes in the entire game, constantly slamming into you and knocking you off your feet. GREAT JAGRAS This iguana-like giant is one of the game’s more disturbing foes, crawling around and devouring other monsters whole. Greedy and horrifying, you won’t feel much sympathy putting this one down. ANJANATH The poster child for the game, this T Rex-like beast is a sheer joy to fight, letting you live out those Jurassic Park fantasies. Just be careful: not only can it leap huge distances, it can spit fire too. PUKEI-PUKEI Maybe the weirdest beastie in the game,…

“YOU HAVE THE DUAL GOAL OF GETTING OUT AND REMEMBERING WHO THE HECK YOU ARE” Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Supermassive Games ETA Out now Players 1 If there’s one genre perfectly suited to VR, surely it’s horror? 3D sound and an uninterrupted 360-degree view of the game world is crammed full of poop-inducing potential. Plus a mischievous mate could sneak into the room to scream into your ear when you least expect it. A sort of prequel to Until Dawn, The Inpatient takes place 60 years before the teen screams. You play as the final patient to be admitted to Blackwood Sanatorium during what proves to be its last day of business. It’s all about having a front-row seat for the story of how and why it shut. Before…

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Bandai Namco Developer Arc System Works ETA Out now Players 1-6 As the most popular manga and anime in the world, Dragon Ball has had many games released over its 30-odd year existence, though with questionable results. What it’s really needed is the right technology and right developer to come along to unlock its Super Saiyan potential. This 3v3 fighting game is the one we’ve been waiting for, from one of the best fighting game developers in the business. Arc System Works achieved a groundbreaking technical alchemy for its own Guilty Gear series a few years ago. Replacing hand-drawn sprites with 3D cel-shaded models running at a responsive 60fps, yet manipulated to look like a classic lo-fi anime with a fraction of the frames,…

Format PC Publisher Fish Eagle Developer Picaresque Studio ETA Out now Players 1 Call us GamesMaster. Some weeks ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in our purse, and nothing particular to interest us on shore, we thought we would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. All this Moby Dick stuff is all very well, but this nautical strategy RPG is heading for shallower waters than Sunless Sea or Sid Meier’s Pirates (flip back to p48 for happy memories of that classic!). Functioning as a sort of epilogue to a certain great work of American literature, Nantucket sees Ishmael, sole survivor of Ahab’s fateful clash with the white whale, become a captain himself. His first ship’s even called…

Life’s hard when a horrific alien matriarch has put a parasite in your brain that forces you to obey her every whim… especially when you’re slaving away for a giant corporation far, far from your home planet and to top it all off, it’s your birthday! One of the standout sequences in the game is the journey of Carlos, a hapless, dead-end human worker who your Swarmer Matriarch turns into a hapless, dead-end drone. (Remember, even though you can upgrade your units, stealth and strategy are key to winning the game.) The level is designed to show you how you can use mind-controlled civilians as scouts, but it’s also a great lesson in dark comedy. As the now monstrous, bug-eyed Carlos takes a journey through his work place, his once…

Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Pub Unknown Worlds Entertainment Dev Unknown Worlds Entertainment ETA Out now Players 1 You know, the sea can be pretty but it can also be pretty damn terrifying. It’s a dark, seemingly endless space where we can’t breathe, full of far too many things that can kill us. Yet there is life down there unlike anything else on Earth, beautiful in unlikely ways. It’s this powerful juxtaposition that Subnautica manages to capture just brilliantly. You are cast as potentially the lone survivor of a spaceship crash, stranded on an alien world that is entirely covered in water. All you have is an escape pod with a fabricator, a device which can turn resources into tools and equipment. If you want to survive long enough to…

Death in gaming is a lot more pleasant than it is in real life. For one, you get back to come back from it, something that doesn’t (the theory of reincarnation not withstanding) happen in our analogue lives. Plus, there’s usually some form of encouragement to return to your adventure. Whether it’s a detestable villain taunting you or a friendly message to persevere, the digital afterlife is usually the perfect salve to the frustration of getting there in the first place. Naturally, some are better than others, hence this feature’s continued existence. As your guinea pigs in all things deceased, we’ve repeatedly sacrificed ourselves on the altar of gaming to discover which pixel heavens are worth taking a trip to. UFO: ENEMY UNKNOWN (PC – 1994) Not only did you…