PlayStation Magazine - August 2014 UK

ISSUE 099 AUGUST 2014
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003
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Hello.
T HI S MON T H S G A MI NG E X P L OR E RS
GAME OF THE MONTH
Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End
FAVOURITE NEW REVEAL
Grim Fandango
ISSUE 99 / AUGUST 2014
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EDITORIAL
Editor Matthew Pellett @Pelloki
Managing art editor Milford Coppock @milfcoppock
Art editor Phil Haycraft
Production editor Dom Reseigh-Lincoln @furianreseigh
News editor David Meikleham
Games editor Phil Iwaniuk @PhilIwaniuk
CONTRIBUTORS
Writers Louise Blain, Nathan Brown, Matthew Elliott, Joel
Gregory, Mike Harris, Leon Hurley, David Houghton, Andy Kelly,
Daniella Lucas, Ben Maxwell, Louis Pattison, Justin Towell,
Ben Wilson, Iain Wilson
Art editor Rob Speed
Designer Andy Ounsted
ADVERTISING
Advertising sales director Nick Weatherall
Advertising sales manager Andrew Church
Account sales manager Jo Fraser
MARKETING
Trade marketing manager Colin Hornby
Senior product manager Adam Jones
Group marketing manager Sam Wight
Senior marketing executive Tilly Mitchell
Marketing executive Antonella Matia
CIRCULATION
International account manager Rebecca Hill
Head of trade marketing James Whitaker
PRINT & PRODUCTION
Production manager Mark Constance
Production co-ordinator Vivienne Turner
LICENSING
International licensing manager Regina Erak
FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED
Editorial director Jim Douglas
Creative director Robin Abbott
Managing director Nial Ferguson
Deputy managing director Clair Porteous
Head of games Lee Nutter
Group senior editor Dan Dawkins @DanDawkins
Group art director Graham Dalzell
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Phil Iwaniuk
GAMES EDITOR
Took his PS4 across the
world for a two-week
holiday in Australia, then
camped on BF4 for some
Great Barrier Griefing.
GAME OF THE MONTH
No Mans Sky
Rainbow Six: Siege
Phil Haycraft
ART EDITOR
Official Phil Magazines final
issue bows out on a high
thanks to the hottest Hot
50 weve ever created. No,
seriously wear gloves.
GAME OF THE MONTH
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
David Meikleham
NEWS EDITOR
Despite loving MGS more
than his own (fictional)
children, Meiks picked Far
Cry 4 as his game of E3
2014. Elephants > Snakes.
GAME OF THE MONTH
Far Cry 4
Bloodborne
Dom Reseigh-
Lincoln
PRODUCTION EDITOR
OPMs LittleBig family man
is obsessed with Mortal
Kombat X. We had to ban
his Hot 50 Toasty puns.
GAME OF THE MONTH
Valiant Hearts: TGW
Mortal Kombat X
L
ittleBigPlanet 3, Dark Souls spiritual
follow-up Bloodborne, Grim Fandango,
Rainbow Six: Siege, Battlefield Hardline,
Rise Of The Tomb Raider, WWE 2K15, FIFA
15, PES 2015, Criterions so-new-its-
nameless racing project, Mortal Kombat X
These are just some of the brand new
games weve squeezed into this issue, many
of which weve played before anyone else.
Welcome to our annual Hot 50 issue in
whats the busiest OPM in recent memory. If
this is your first ever Hot 50, let me explain
how this all works: its the month where we
count down the very best games on the
horizon. But heres a twist: never before
have we featured and tested quite so many
brand new reveals. And thats not even
counting our first hands-on encounters with
the likes of Far Cry 4, Batman: Arkham
Knight and Assassins Creed Unity, and the
small matter of the glorious in-engine debut
of Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End. The future of
PlayStation has never looked brighter, so sit
back and enjoy our gaze forward to some
guaranteed future classics.
Matthew Pellett
EDITOR
matthew.pellett@futurenet.com
@Pelloki
m
August 2014
The big 10
006 E3 REPORT
Looking back at the biggest games show on
Earth as PS4 steals the whole shebang again.
pREVIEW
030 MIDDLE-EARTH:
SHADOW OF MORDOR
By Gandalfs supreme hobo beard! A LOTR game
that isnt rubbish? Be cautiously excited.
preview
036 METRO REDUX
Two doomsday shooters get wrapped up into
one extra shiny 1080p package for PS4.
featurE
044 THE HOT 50
Counting down the toastiest half century in
gaming, as we delve into the very best, most
exciting titles headed to a PlayStation near you.
review
087 MURDERED:
SOUL SUSPECT
Can the solve your own homicide sim deduce
the mystery of how not to make a pap game?
review
092 WATCH DOGS
Is 2014s most anticipated game so far really
worth the wait? Read our official verdict.
retrostation
106 TEKKEN 3
Peering back into PlayStations past to
re-examine Namcos classic PS1 fighter.
005
THE Games index
052 ABZU
051 ALIEN: ISOLATION
016 AMPLITUDE
068 ASSASSINS CREED UNITY
072 BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT
064 BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE
067 BLOODBORNE
059 CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED
WARFARE
054 THE CREW
076 DESTINY
061 THE DIVISION
053 DRIVECLUB
084 EA SPORTS UFC
047 THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE
046 EVOLVE
073 FAR CRY 4
056 FIFA 15
010 GRAND THEFT AUTO V
088 GRID AUTOSPORT
059 GRIM FANDANGO
095 GUACAMELEE! SUPER TURBO
CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION!!!
012 THE LAST GUARDIAN
032 LEGO BATMAN 3: BG
033 LOADING HUMAN
038 LOADOUT
060 LITTLEBIGPLANET 3
054 MASS EFFECT 4
073 METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE
PHANTOM PAIN
036 METRO REDUX
031 MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW
OF MORDOR
037 MINECRAFT
055 MIRRORS EDGE 2
094 MOTOGP 14
087 MURDERED: SOUL SUSPECT
074 NO MANS SKY
059 THE ORDER: 1886
014 PGA TOUR
034 PLANTS VS ZOMBIES:
GARDEN WARFARE
058 RAINBOW SIX: SIEGE
066 RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER
019 SINGSTAR: ULTIMATE PARTY
086 SNIPER ELITE 3
105 SOUTH PARK: TSOT
054 STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT
099 ULTRA STREET FIGHTER 4
078 UNCHARTED 4: A THIEFS END
090 VALIANT HEARTS: TGW
092 WATCH DOGS
059 THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT
054 WWE 2K15
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THE
BIG 10
All the hottest news
FEATURES
To-the-point,
detailed analysis
NETWORK
Max out your PS4,
online and off
PREVIEWS
Latest info, screens
and playtests
REVIEWS
In-depth verdicts on
every big new game
RETRO
STATION
Classics revisited
006 044 097 029 083 106
S E C T I ON S AT A GL A NC E
038
092
031
032
016
035
099
056
076
086
078
off
twi
fac
006

SONY WAS THERE TO MATCH MICROSOFT
BLOW FOR BLOW IN A SPECTACULAR E3
PRESS CONFERENCE CRESCENDO.
007
The Big 10
STORIES EVERYONES TALKING ABOUT
01
The greatest
show on
Earth? Not
half. Quite
how such
a heavily
corporate
gathering
stuffed to the upsettingly moist gills
with overpacked, sleep-deprived
journos can make us so happy is
a mystery on par with deciphering
what Ken Kutaragi was thinking
when he greenlit PlayStation 3s
banana pad. In squarely focusing
on games, rather than slides to
appease shareholders or getting
distracted by peripheral of the
month fads, Sony delivered an
Electronic Entertainment Expo
performance that showcased just
why PS4s future is so bright. Now,
can we please get some soothing
cream for our singed corneas?
Going into its first LA mega-expo
since PS4 enjoyed its record-
breaking release party last Nov, the
pressure was definitely on. Thats
what happens when you establish a
considerable market lead over your
biggest competitor: youre asked to
build on that momentum and keep
the gap growing. Make no mistake,
Microsoft and Nintendo both had
strong showings this year the
former all but ignoring its derided
Kinect sensor in favour of games,
games and more games. Thankfully,
Sony was not only there to match
their reveals blow-for-blow, but in a
spectacular press conference
crescendo, it floored all comers with
a devastating flurry of killer titles.
HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?
Ending its presentation with the
triple threat of that GTA V PS4
announcement, a thrilling in-engine
demo of Arkham Knight (mercy
me, what a Batmobile!) and our
first proper look at Uncharted
4: A Thiefs End, was beautifully
judged. But were not here just to
focus on the games we do that in
some style with our Hot 50 feature
starting on p44. No, instead its
important to focus on just why
this was one of the most pleasingly
put together E3s from the core
gamers perspective in years.
PS4 grabs
greatness as it
steals E3 again
All the PlayStation highs, lows and
stumbling execs from the LA convention
12 WANDER-ED OFF
Team Ico no-shows at E3 2014.
16 AMPED UP
PS2 classic Amplitude gets Kickstarted.
18 TORTURE TOP-UP
Dark Souls II gets a new DLC trilogy.
You tell em, PlayStation.
Though theres nothing to
dampen PS4 excitement
quite like LA humidity.
008
The Big 10
As anyone whos stayed up
until 3:37am in a blurry-eyed
haze of sadness waiting for The
Last Guardian (find out the latest
on Team Icos enigmatic griffin
adventure on p12) while some
suit prattles on about PSP market
synergy can attest, having your
time wasted at E3 sucks. Thats
why it was so refreshing to see
most of the big publishers treat the
time of the hundreds in attendance
and millions watching at home with
the utmost respect.
SIEGE THE DAY
Ubisoft enjoyed a particularly
strong event, with special focus and
effort put into showing real-time
demos of their upcoming megaton
hitters. The biggest complaint you
could have at this years E3 was
an over-reliance on CG trailers
were looking at you, Ms Croft. But
the French publisher bucked the
trend, confidently releasing lengthy
gameplay sequences from Far Cry
4 (sweet lord the Himalayas look
amazing), Assassins Creed Unity
(those crowds!) and newly rebooted
Rainbow Six: Siege (now thats how
you do deformable drywalls) all of
which weve played this issue.
EA couldve learned a lot from
this strategy. Despite announcing
triple-A properties such as Mirrors
Edge 2 and Star Wars Battlefront
at last years show, the publisher
was surprisingly guarded on what it
was willing to share with the public.
Vague behind-the-scenes reels at
DICE and Bioware were the order of
the day. Even though both studios
are clearly effusive about their
projects, neither Faith nor those TIE
Fighters seem to have progressed
as much as you might have hoped
in the last 12 months.
Still, at least EA kept the focus
on games you actually care about.
Ooh, whats that coming over
the hill? Why, its a hideous fish
alien thingie: welcome back Mass
Effect. Early concept footage of
a Krogen standing in the midst
of a scarred battleground were
indeed exciting, if overly brief. Yet
even more spine-tingling was the
reveal that the Edmonton branch
of Bioware is working on a new IP,
and one studio describes as being
built from, clean sheet design
the most fundamental principles
you can have. It also hinted at
telling, contemporary stories, in a
universe, as big and imaginative
as what weve done before. Colour
us 50 shades of obscenely excited.
What E3 missteps there were
revolved around developers (usually
unwittingly) courting controversy.
Though Assassins Creed Unity
dealt out one of the shows most
impressive hands, the main reason
gamers were talking about Arno at
the end of the week was to decry
Ubisoft Montreal for not including
playable female characters in the
four-player co-op. In the height
of the furore, game director Alex
Amancio said: I understand the
issue, I understand the cause, and
it is a noble one, but I dont think its
relevant in the case of Unity. As we
said, misstep.
DESTINY AWAITS
But lets not end on frowny-faced
territory, because above all, this was
an E3 to celebrate and revel in great
upcoming games. Not only do Sonys
first party efforts continue to
impress (how adorable is LBP3?),
but theres also a real effort to
strengthen relationships with third
parties just look at PS4s exclusive
Destiny Alpha. Were absolutely
delighted, said PlayStations UK
managing director Fergal Gara,
when we ask him about E3. We
really feel like weve got our mojo
back as a business. To which we can
only proffer yeah, baby, yeah!
THE EDMONTON BRANCH
OF BIOWARE IS WORKING
ON A NEW IP. COLOUR US
OBSCENELY EXCITED.
Editor Matt is still wearing his Sony
wristband. Its starting to pong a bit.
All the colours of the rainbow except
most of them. Still, white PS4, though.
Go to officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk
to read our E3 coverage as it happened.
WHITE KNIGHT
Want. Want. Want. Revealed at Sonys
conference, the new Glacier White
PS4 comes bundled with Destiny and
hits stores 9 September alongside the
games release date. Pricing details are
yet to be revealed but *drool*
Evolve is looking good (as
youll find out on p46). We
may or may not have tried
to nick the 30ft monster.
009
Both AC Unity and LittleBigPlanet 3 showed off some impressive footage, even if certain XDev developers struggled to play their own game on stage
A life-size Batmobile? Oh
hell yeah. How could you
not be moved by this and
Arkhams ace demo?
The Powers TV reveal
seemed to last a lifetime
but Uncharted made
the wait well worth it.
010

02
How about that? All
those incantations
we intoned, all
those evenings we
spent cross-legged
in circles, humming
the right cosmic frequency and at
last GTA V gets a confirmed PS4
release. Were not saying all the
voodoo we
practiced caused
this to happen
only that well
never know if it did
or not. We digress.
The PS4 version
of Rockstars
record-breaking open-world
heist-fest (and top spot occupant in
OPMs hallowed PS3 Hall Of Fame)
stretches out the draw distances
farther across the hills and highrises
of Los Santos than ever before.
Textures are now upscaled across
the board, traffic density reaches
levels thatd send Boris Johnson into
anaphylactic shock and the
resolutions cranked up, too. Is it
1080p? Youll have to wait and see to
get angry/elated about that one, but
the high-res trailer Rockstar
released into the wilds certainly
indicates that itll be in that ballpark.
How long do you
have to wait?
Months rather
than years,
thankfully its
penned in for an
autumn release
date. Before the
last leaves fall from the highest oaks,
prepare to shatter the kneecaps of
Los Santos denizens by the dozen
and that includes chasing that one
civilian for so long that everyone else
in the room gets a bit creeped out
and exits. But with better graphics!
This might come as faintly
bittersweet news if youve devoted
significant hours and funds into GTA
Online on PS3, but fear not
Rockstar has you covered. All the
downloadable content from last-gen
is right there at your fingertips from
day one on PS4, and you can import
your character and progress from
last-gen versions of the game. Yep,
even Xbox 360 to PS4. Hey, it takes
character to admit you were wrong,
and were not gonna give you a hard
time for switching sides. Welcome.
There are improvements and
additions beyond making dem grafix
more impressive, mind. New wildlife
varieties find their way into the
open-world, along with new weather
effects and an updated damage
model. Sniping a cassowary in a
thunderstorm from the passenger
window of a crumpled 18-wheeler?
Dare to dream, people. There are
GTA V sets its
sights on PS4
Rockstar confirms a new-gen version is heading your way
SO HOW LONG
DO WE HAVE TO
WAIT? FOR ONCE,
NOT LONG.
Sniping hapless
citizens, officer? No,
I was just testing the
new draw distances.
exec talk
GTA V takes full
advantage of the
power of PS4, and
features a host
of enhancements
and new details for
players to discover.
Plus, the current
community of PS3
players and Xbox 360
players will have the
ability to transfer
their progress and
characters to the
PlayStation 4.
Andrew House
President and CEO, Sony
Computer Entertainment
011
The Big 10
further, unspecified, new details to
discover, according to Rockstar
the discovery of which will put the
spice back into GTA Vs urban sprawl
no matter how thoroughly you played
it the first time around.
We dont like to sound the fanboy
trumpet too often here at OPM, but
it has to be said that GTA Vs
new-gen announcement coming
from the Sony conference at E3
2014 was a big deal. Were not
deluded enough to believe Rockstar
will hop into bed with Sony for
platform exclusives, but it was
nonetheless a gesture that
demonstrated Houser and co are
aware where the momentum lies
this generation. It was one of the
shows happiest developments.
Now all we need is PS4 Red Dead
Will GTA V on PS4 be 1080p and 60fps?
Tweet your predictions to @OPM_UK.
For more details on PlayStation TV,
head over to blog.eu.playstation.com.
PlayStation TV set to arrive in the UK this autumn
The future of telly
is in your hands
PLUS POINT
Despite not being able to utilise all
the touch inputs of the PS Vita,
the fact that PS TV plays most of
its games means you can take
advantage of those free PS Plus
titles even if you dont own one.
PlayStation TV will set
you back 84.99 and
comes bundled with a
DualShock 3 in the UK.
03
At ease, kids.
You can remove
those green
contacts now. The
artist, or small
white box in this
case, formerly known as PlayStation
Vita TV in Japan is finally making its
way to our shores after a quick paint
job. Falling squarely into
microconsole
territory with a
84.99 UK price
tag, PlayStation
TV runs the same
software and
chipset as the
Vita, so plugging
in via HDMI will
enable you to play
compatible games with either a
DualShock 3 or a DualShock 4.
Measuring a palm-sized 6.5cm by
10cm, the box also acts as a Remote
Play device so no more picking up
the comparatively Godzilla-sized PS4
and moving it through to another
room for some alone time.
PlayStation TV is closely tied to
PlayStation Now, and the tiny set-top
box is set to take advantage of
Sonys game-streaming service
when the PS4 beta launches 31 July
in the US. It will give you the ability
to play hundreds of PS3 titles made
available through PlayStation Now
and will play most Vita titles, plus
PS1 and PSP Classics, explains
SCEA CEO Shawn Layden. Thats
nearly 1,000 games that PlayStation
TV owners will have access to at
launch. A US
bundle has already
been announced
at $139, packing
in a DualShock 3,
8GB memory
card, HDMI lead
and code for
The Lego Movie
Videogame, so
expect a similar bundle here at
hopefully around the same price
point. Even as a Remote Play and
streaming device, this is a unique bit
of kit. But with the ready-made PS
Store library, this could be the
gaming box to rule them all. Just
no one mention the PSX, alright?
THE SET-TOP
BOX RUNS THE
SAME SOFTWARE
AND CHIPSET AS
YOUR PS VITA.

SONY CONTINUES TO
CATEGORICALLY DENY THAT
TEAM ICOS DELAYED TITLE
HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
013
The Big 10
04
Somewhere,
deep within
the cheeriest
regions of a
glorious
parallel
universe,
youre
currently sat playing Team Icos
enchanting monster platform/
puzzler. Parallel You tells us its
amazing, by the way. Annnnd back to
soul-crushing reality. Yes, The Last
Guardian has missed yet another E3,
and despite reassurances from top
PlayStation brass, were starting to
wonder whether Trico and his little
chum will ever see the light of day.
Its been over six years since the
initial, oh-so-enigmatic screen of
that chain leaked from the bowels of
Sony HQ, and yet TLG feels further
away than ever. The only tiny spec of
light amidst all the cat-eagle-dog
darkness is the fact Sony
categorically denies its been
cancelled, despite recent erroneous
reports from some media outlets.
Speaking to Eurogamer at E3,
Shuhei Yoshida seemed to suggest
Where is The
Last Guardian?
Tricos future further in doubt after missing E3
Vent your TLG woe with us at facebook.
com/officialplaystationmagazine.
Cmon, just look at how sad his eyes are.
Please let us give him a good home, Sony.
This shot is almost identical to the
first chain image released in 2008.
ABOUT A BOY
The relationship between boy and
beast was initially inspired by
Wander and Agro from Shadow Of
The Colossus. Though lord only
knows what state The Last
Guardian is in right now.
no further information would be
revealed on TLG until Sony was
ready to show something really
concrete again. Lots of people
tweeted me they were heartbroken
by that news, said SCEs Worldwide
Studios president on the games
no-show. People are going through
this rollercoaster of emotions, and
its our fault for not releasing the
game yet. We owe a lot to those
people, but we really dont want to
release piecemeal information until
we can say this is The Last Guardian
so we ask you to wait.

LONG BALL
Thats all very well and good. The
problem is, weve been waiting for
five years. Ever since that first
trailer leaked, Sonys griffin beastie
has owned our hearts. But the only
comfort we can offer is the game is
surely now a PS4 title (rather than
PS3). Lets just hope the game
resurfaces at TGS an oh, Parallel
You has just platinumed it.
014

05
If you were to
throw one
criticism at golf,
and therefore
golf videogames,
itd be that
its all a bit bloody tranquil. In a
medium that generally treats
us to one exploding head per
ten paces, the Pringle-clad
procession of drives, chips and
putts in your average golf game
can quickly subside into tedium if
youre not a devotee. Enter PGA
Tour, the result of genetic splicing
between the Tiger Woods series,
the Frostbite 3 engine and, in the
case of this particular fantasy
course, Battlefield 4s Paracel
Storm map. In addition to the
straight-laced official courses,
PGA Tour aims to drive boredom
well down the fairway with
dramatic, shortcut-laden fictional
play areas such as this. Its an
easier sell than the usual, the ball
moves even more realistically this
year, thats for damn sure. This
ones out spring 2015 on PS4.
Hey, you sunk
my battleship!
PGA Tour drops Tiger for Titanic
Is a birdie in the hand worth two
in the bush? Tweet us @OPM_UK.
the big shot
eagle-eyed analysis
Agoraphobics beware:
draw distances are looking
pretty sick, as youd
expect from Frostbite 3.
You see a harrowing naval
disaster, PGA Tour sees a
trick shot. Bounce the ball
off the hull for a birdie.
015
number game
we do the maths
$7m
Sum Journey dev That Game Company
has recently raised in venture capital.
40
Number of PS4 trophies you can nab
by hacking Chicago in Watch Dogs.
220m
Number of times the Share button has
been pressed. Were all so giving.
45,010
PS4s sold in Europe during a single
week in late May. Sony must be thrilled.
95%
Amount of PS4 owners who have
connected to PSN. Huzzah for the nets!
707
Billed lbs of wrasslin faction The
Shield in WWE 2K14. Why, Seth? Why?
3120hp
The max upgradable health total in
Dark Souls II. Come at me, Drangleic!
Combined hours that have been spent
playing PS4 since the consoles launch.
Lifes a beach, and then
you die. Or at least spend
five furious shots clearing
the damn sand trap.
Despite the massive play
area, theres no loading
the game streams
environments on the fly.
The clubhouse is just
through there. Just past
the barbed wire and
oppressive guard towers.

016
06
As long shots
go, the final days
of Amplitudes
Kickstarter
campaign are up
there with Istanbul
at half-time, Rocky flooring Apollo
Creed or Shenmue 3 getting a
release before PlayStation 16 hits
shelves. With just
three days to go,
Harmonixs quest
to resurrect its
beloved PS2
rhythm-actioner
on PS4 had raised
only half of the
$750,000 target
required to make the HD reboot a
reality. In short, things were grim.
Eiffel 65 grim.
Not that youd ever know speaking
to Ryan Lesser. Creative lead of the
project to resurrect the Harmonix
great, Lesser remained confident
right until the end that the teams
dream of bringing the trippy racer/
music sim screaming back into
existence would come to pass. Ive
seen some crazy funding curves on
Kickstarter before, Lesser tells us
during an exclusive chat. So I
thought anything was possible.
Turns out, hes
right especially
when you have
the power of 140
characters or
fewer fuelling your
nostalgic,
pitch-perfect
campaign.
We had one of our weekly
all-company meetings around that
time and I gave a pep talk to the
company, Lesser explains. I asked
everyone to work hard at spreading
the word on social media and other
outlets. People did an amazing job
and it paid off in the end. The
word-spreading clearly worked a
treat, as Amplitude went on to net
$844,127 from 14,112 generous
backers with 22 hours remaining on
its 18-day pledge. Well done, you
deep-pocketed saviours.
AMPED UP
Its a good job, too, because its clear
Ryan and his team have never quite
got over their great PS2 love even
though they made Amplitude some
11 years ago. Personally, I havent
been this excited to make a
videogame since maybe Rock Band. I
love our games, but this one really
has its hooks in me. And who can
blame him? Focusing on the now
iconic Beat Blaster ship, which
negotiated note-driven paths strewn
with objects, it captured the hearts
and ears of many PS2 players.
AMPLITUDE
WENT ON TO NET
$844,127 FROM
14,112 BACKERS
IN TOTAL.
Amplitude gets
kicked into life
dev talk
To us, Amplitude is
an improvement on
Frequency. However,
the Freq tunnel was
better in that the
player can go from the
last lane to the first
with a single press of
the D-pad. In the new
Amplitude, I am adding
that functionality to
the track. It will have
the same speed and
feel as typical lane
switching. It will be the
best of both worlds.
Ryan Lesser
Creative lead,
Harmonix
Harmonix makes sweet music with crowdfunded success story
If the new Amplitude on
PS4 is as kind to our
irises as this concept art,
well be utterly chuffed.
017

One of the key areas where the
sequel to Frequency stood out was
in its thoroughly eclectic choice of
licensed music. Spanning Bowie to
Blink-182, the retro gems fondly
remembered soundtrack is actually
one area where the PS4 update
looks to sharply contrast with whats
come before. Lesser describes the
originals tracklist as, a giant
mish-mash, so its perhaps not
surprising the HD remake is going
another way with its tunes.
It was our goal to make this as
affordable as possible, he continues.
So we killed two birds with one
stone and nixed licensed music.
Dont fret, though, because Lesser
says this actually gives the team
more creative authorship. We now
have the ability to craft the entire
experience to be thematically tight
from the art over to the audio. Were
currently designing the narrative so
we can treat the game as a sort of
sci-fi concept album.
Part of that album will now be
made up from some of the industrys
brightest composing talents, as a
number of game musicians became
attached to the project the closer it
came to conquering its Kickstarter
total. C418 (Minecraft), Danny
Baranowski (Super Meat Boy),
Kasson Crooker (Amplitude),
Anamanaguchi (Scott Pilgrim),
Freezepop (Amplitude) and Jim
Guthrie (Sword & Sworcery) all
signed up, so now we are flush with
awesome music creators.
LIGHT FANTASTIC
As for what PS4 brings to the
ear-arousing shindig, well, well let
Lesser elaborate. The graphical
polish will be a real focus. We want
to push the trippiness a bunch and
make the game swim around the
player. It sounds like he may even
have plans for the lightbar: I hope to
use the cool new features of the
DualShock 4 to enhance the musical
and arcade feel of the game. Pad
light shows or not, its thrilling to
know Amplitudes comeback tour is
finally signed-off and PS4-bound.
Find out why Ted Price donated to the
Kickstarter at insomniacgames.com.
The Beat Blaster designs show a ship
that looks like a prowling metallic beast.
This white and red tinged art has
a touch of Mirrors Edge about it.
info patches
update your brain
NAUGHTY DOGS NEW TRICK
Uncharted 4 has been keeping you waiting
recently, but thats not all PS4s premier dev
has on its plate. In a recent interview, Neil
Druckmann (whos now been drafted onto
Nates latest game) admitted the studio has
a new Uncharted-sized project on the go, but
that, its got a long runway in front of it.
FETCH QUEST
Surprise! InFamous: Second Son is getting
a nippy slice of DLC named First Light, which
hits PSN in August. Available as a standalone
product (meaning you dont need to own
the full game to play), the DLC focuses
on speedster Fetch and her ace sprinting
powers as she takes on the DUP.
PSP GO WAIT, PSP GONE
After a decade of portable profits, more
redesigns than we can count and over 80m
units sold, Sonys first handheld darling is
being discontinued in Japan, with reports the
US and UK will soon follow. PSP was released
in late 2004 and spawned all-time greats such
as LocoRoco and MGS Peace Walker.
PAY THE PRICE
Insomniac CEO Ted Price
donated $7.5k and will now
have a song called Crazy
Ride, produced to celebrate
his studios 20th anniversary,
feature in the new Amplitude.
18
the rumour machine
our sources understand
Sony has registered two
new PlayStation models
with the Indonesian
Communications Ministry,
with speculation a revised
PS4 and PS3 Super Slim
could be in the works.
Rainbow Six: Siege
is likely to have a
beta according
to the games
producer.
Read more
on p58.
Early reports
suggest WWE
2K15 could
have NXT
stars
on the
roster.
SCEEs Jim Ryan
says FC4s co-op
with a mate who
doesnt own the
game feature
could appear in
more PS4 games.
Theres a chance
Skylanders Trap Team
could feature a Crash
toy. Please be true.
18 18 188888
07
Hurt me more.
More, I say! Unless
youre the sort
of cheaty dastard
who can beat
the wonderfully
punishing dungeon scrapper in
under 21 minutes (damn you, mega
wall glitches that let you bypass
95% of the game), chances are
youre still playing From Softwares
fantasy sequel.
For those who
have conquered
Drangleic, though,
your nihilistic
noggin will be
delighted to learn
Dark Souls II is
getting three new
DLC adventures.
Now leave the rest of us in peace
as we attempt our 137th go at
beating the Ancient Drago oh, hes
eaten us again.
The downloadable Lost Crowns
trilogy centres around your
Undeads pursuit of three regal
pieces of skull bling that used to
belong to Drangleics King Vendrick.
Crown Of The Sunken King kicks off
the deathly proceedings, launching
23 July on PS3. The DLC is
contained within an entirely
new area, one where, stepped
pyramids span a vast underground
cavern, according to the press
release. The trailer also suggests
those sodding poison statues are
back and this time they can move.

NEW CONTENDER
Next up is Crown Of The Old Iron
King, out 27 August, where moody
ruins look set
to dominate. The
three-part episodic
DLC finishes up
with Crown Of
The Ivory King on
24 September.
Best pack your
sturdiest, halberd-
resistant parka,
too, as things appear to get dang
chilly with a fresh snow-covered
mountain range. Dark Souls has a
strong track record with DLC the
originals Artorias Of The Abyss
was both excellent and generously
sized. Expect more death and
delight. Okay, just death. Now, can
anyone help us with that dragon?
Drangleic gets new DLC trilogy
Dark Souls IIs
ice place to die
THE TRILOGY
CENTRES AROUND
YOUR UNDEADS
QUEST TO FIND
SKULL BLING.
All three DLC episodes
are included in Dark
Souls IIs season pass, on
sale on PSN for 19.99.
Share your most painful Dark Souls
memories with us by tweeting @OPM_UK.
019

PlayStation
voices
the month in
mouthing off
I wouldnt have
killed Liquid.
Hideo Kojima
admits he should
have kept
Snakes
cloned
bro alive
due to Mr
Mullets
ensuing
fame.
Congrats to
my writer pal
Gary Whitta on
the Star Wars
movie gig can
we geek out
together now?
EAs Amy
Hennig is
clearly
one with
the
Force.
Actually, hes
the new Troy
Baker and
shouldnt be
compared to
anyone else.
Nolan North
sets the record
straight on his
voiceover chum.
her now?
Amy
g is
y
th
ave kept
nakes
oned
ro alive
ue to Mr
ullets
nsuing
me.
SingStar: Ultimate Party releases
before Xmas. More info at singstar.com.
08
What kind of
birthday gift
do you give the
karaoke game that
has everything?
No, not a Bonnie
Tyler wig. Too retro. The correct
answer is functionality that enables
you to synch smartphones with the
game. Because who wouldnt look
infinitely cooler wailing Total Eclipse
Of The Heart into their Sony Xperia?
Yeah, dont answer that one.
This tech wizardry forms part
of SingStar: Ultimate Party, a new
game headed to PS3 and yes!
PS4. To tie in with its release, Sony
is to unleash an iOS and Android
app which links with your machine
using a four-digit code meaning
you can put those mics away for
good should you wish. While the disc
release is the series first since
SingStar: Back To The 80s in 2011,
its tracklisting is still under wraps.
Tracks will cost 1.15 and will be
Cross-Buy where possible.
Controversially, the scoring
system has also shifted the top
points limit switching from 10,000
to a ludicrous three million. Were
sceptical about this change, but
given the happiness the series has
given us countless times over the
past decade, well give it the benefit
of the doubt for now.
It is its birthday, after all.
To use the app, youll need to be on the
same Wi-Fi connection as your PS4/PS3.
SingStar phones it in
for tenth birthday
Call me maybe? Ultimate Party supports mobiles
DONG SONG
PS4 enhancements include the
ability to create light shows
mid-song by waving the pad
around. Better hope Chris Martin
isnt precious about being
defaced by hand-drawn wangs.
The PS4 version also
supports most mics
from the PS3 era.
020
Is 60fps really that important on PS4?
Tweet us your thoughts to @OPM_UK.
Regardless of the number of frames,
Driveclub still looks incredible on PS4.
09
If we had a pound
for every time we
heard a demand
that 1080p and
60fps should be the
new standard since
PS4 launched, wed easily have
enough for a four-pack of Cornettos
and a copy of Horse & Hound (OPMs
recipe for the perfect weekend).
Well guess what, elitist, frame-
counting thirty-o-phobes? Driveclub
game director Paul Rustchynsky has
a new slant on the rapidly escalating
debate. In short:
30 frames on PS4
doesnt feel like
30 frames on
PS3. Bluetooth on
PlayStation 3 didnt
have the same
latency as it does on PS4, so there
are areas which have improved
massively between the generations,
he confidently informs us. One of
the things we worked on really early
on with Sony was PS4s DualShock
4. We tried to make sure latency was
one of the key things they addressed
to make sure that whatever [frame
rate] we went with, latency was as
minimal as possible.
In Driveclubs case, theres more
than controller latency at work to
smooth the experience. He goes on:
We developed our
engine to have
I think its 400 Hz
something similar
to that in terms
of updates for our
physics engine.
Weve made sure
we interpret that incredibly quickly.
Rustchynskys words are backed
up during our own hands-on with
Driveclub, which doesnt fluctuate
when the screen fills with cars or
particle effects, and gives us
confidence to fling our weight
around into corners. On the flipside,
60fps would feel even silkier with
lower latency
Driveclub might be 30fps,
but it has a few tricks up
its sleeve to make it feel
more like its hitting 60.
IN SHORT: 30
FRAMES ON PS4
DOESNT FEEL LIKE
30FPS ON PS3.
Why 30fps isnt
a big deal on PS4
instant
opinion
strong vs
wrong
ZONING IN
Killzone Shadow Falls
four-player co-op DLC
pack Intercept really
impressed at E3. Its out
now, and will also be
getting a standalone
release later in the year.
SHOW OFF
Kudos to the biggest
games show on Earth
for dialing down the
press conference
gaffes. There were few
Mr Caffeine or Tretton-
meets-Chewbacca
moments this year.
CLICKER BAIT
Get ready for an
instant PS4 classic
The Last Of Us
Remastered hits
shops 1 August.
Mmmm, delicious
1080p Clickers.
CANT HACK IT
Despite the delay, Watch
Dogs doesnt quite live
up to its initial new-gen
promise. Get our full
verdict on p92. Sorry,
Mr Pearce.
SIMPLY DEAD
Despite strong
pre-E3 rumours,
weve still heard
nothing about a
PS4 Red Dead.
Cmon, Rockstar: were
beyond desperate
for a new cowboy fix.
POWERS OFF
Were all for Sony
developing bespoke TV
shows to broadcast on
PSN, but did it really
have to bore the ears
off us with a ten-minute
Powers presentation at
E3? OPM very sleepy.
Driveclub dev challenges you to spot the difference
021
The Big 10
10
MATTHEW PELLETT
EDITOR
PHIL IWANIUK
GAMES EDITOR
DAVE MEIKLEHAM
NEWS EDITOR
DOM RESEIGH-LINCOLN
PRODUCTION EDITOR
What game stole the show for
PlayStation at this years E3?
RAINBOW SIX: SIEGE
BREACHED E3S
WALLS LOUDER
THAN ANY OTHER
GAME AT THE SHOW.
Ubisoft has perfected the
E3 formula. Two years
ago it finished off its
conference with the
Watch Dogs reveal. Last
year, it was The Division.
And for E3 2014, Rainbow
Six: Siege breached many
a Most Wanted list and
cleared the other games
out of the way. To steal
the show at E3 you need
to either make a shock
announcement, or
capitalise on hype going
into the event with a
knock-out demo. Siege
did both: people knew
a surprise was coming
from Ubi, but not what
it was, and the game
previously known as
Patriots never left the
lips of the journos on
the ground as a result.
WHILE THE TRIPLE-A
GAMES ITERATE ON
IDEAS YOU LIKE,
NO MANS SKY IS
BAKING A UNIVERSE.
Go and watch the trailer
again. You see those
clouds? Thats not a
skybox texture; thats real
liquid vapour, procedurally
generated by the planets
atmosphere. For me, that
mad scientist approach
to game design is so
much more exciting than
Unitys graphics engine or
Far Cry 4s fresh and
exciting reskin. Its a
complete journey into the
unknown, created by a
four-man team working
from a studio that was
underwater last
Christmas. Its a universe
sim with an art style a
Williamsburg hipsters
Instagram would go
mad for. This isnt even a
debate nothing conjured
more wonder at E3.
FAR CRY 4. BECAUSE
ELEPHANTS AND
THEIR DYNAMITE-
LINED TUSKS.
For Dumbo did rise above
the gathering masses
and proclaim: "THE
ELEPHANTS SHALL
INHERIT THE EARTH!"
That was magnificent.
Honestly, how could
you top a Himalayan bull
elephant literally blowing
up a jeep with the power
of its face horns? Yes, Im
a smidge too obsessed
with the big-eared climax
of Far Cry 4 did you see
what Babar did with his
trunk to that dude? But
there's no denying the
real-time footage Ubisoft
revealed was spectacular.
Mini choppers! Drop-in/
drop-out co-op! Eagles
that snatch up goats!
Emergent, gorgeous, and
with an incredible new
environment, this is the
shooter to beat on PS4.
PIRACY IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE
ASSASSINS CREED
UNITYS REVOLUTION!
Rocksteadys farewell to
the Dark Knight nearly
stole my heart this year,
but it was the sight of
Unitys sprawling 18th
century Paris that had
me almost whooping with
excitement. (Which
wouldnt have turned out
well seeing as I was
holding a four-week-old
child at the time.) The
lifeless crowds of earlier
entries in the series have
been banished in the
wake of thousands of
active AIs, each with a
unique character that
adapts to your actions.
And four-player co-op
missions make so much
more sense than the PvP
multiplayer, opening up
awe-inspiring scope for
meticulous planning and,
err, execution.
just one more question
the team debate this months burning issue
HE GOT GAME
With so many games competing
to steal Sonys E3 conference,
this is one of the hardest debates
weve ever had to write. Hit p44
to bathe in all the killer PS4
games from LAs big show.
@ultrabrilliant
Aiden Pearce is
supposed to be 38. Too
old to be cutting about
in a baseball cap.
@creedfangirl187
Im going to make an indie
game thats like Dear
Esther, but with New Jack
as the narrator.
@BenjiWilson
Watch Dogs is here. Baby
definitely wants to watch
this rather than an ep
of Peppa Pig, right?
@schillingc
I turned on my PS4 and it
instantly ejected the disc
for Knack. It knows.
@raywillmott
Im making a note here: E3
was a huge success. Its
really hard to overstate
my satisfaction.
@David_H_Esq
Just had some fearsome
USF IV rounds. Why do
other multiplayer games
even bother?
@charltonbrooker
Pretty sure the European
election results are a
deleted cutscene from the
new Wolfenstein game..
@tamoorh
I like it when Souls games
go AAHHH AH AAAHHHHH
AHHH, AHHH AHHH
AHHHHH AH AHHHHH.
@MckKirk
Bought Lego Marvel on
PS4 for my boy, because
Im a Superdad.
@Shiny_Demon
Thought the hamster
was laughing. Hes just
crunching lettuce. Im
pretty disappointed.
t
r
o
l
l

o
f

t
h
e

m
o
n
t
h
CAN I GET A RT?
Tweet gold (and one troll) from
this months @OPM_UK timeline
#98 Homefront The
Revolution, a new COD
and Wolfenstein TNO
REPLIES
022
F facebook.com/OfficialPlayStationMagazine T @OPM_UK W officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk E opm@futurenet.com
Play game
It really bugs me that
people see 1080p, 60fps
as such a big issue at
the moment. There was
never this kind of heated
debate about the basic
graphics of consoles gone
by. Theyre remembered
for having great games.
It seems this generation
of consoles is only being
judged by how realistic
they can look. Its the
content within a game
that makes it enjoyable
and replayable, not the
way that spectacular
explosion looks on-screen,
or how many particles are
floating by. That kind of
realism is just an added
bonus for me. Gameplay
should never, ever be
sidelined by the need for
realistic-looking worlds.
Jamie Webb via email
We agree Jamie solid,
innovative gameplay
and an immersive story
should always come
before a shiny this or a
detailed that, but a game
running at a smooth
60fps still gets us all
weak at the knees.
Get lifted
Like most of us, I bought
Watch Dogs on the
day of release and Ive
already finished the story.
Something made me
wonder, though what
is it with modern games
and endings based in
lighthouses? Its happened
with Watch Dogs, Bioshock
Infinite and Dishonored.
All three have been wildly
successful. Publishers:
lighthouses = money!
Charlie Moose Barrell
via Facebook
Good spot. Which gives
us an idea: a 99p indie-
RPG set on Portland
Bill and soundtracked
by the Lighthouse
Familys Lifted. Pre-
order now by mailing
worstconceptsince
fuse@nochance.com.
Suck it up
I am super-pumped over
Watch Dogs on PS4. The
graphics are superb
and gameplay brilliant,
with unique, fun online
features too. And to
all the people that are
complaining that the
driving isnt like GTA V
well I hate to break it you,
but this isnt a Rockstar
game. If you want GTA V
go play it. If every game
was a GTA entry, gaming
would get boring real
quick. So suck it up and
enjoy the awesomeness
of this wondrous new IP.
Nick Muller via Facebook
Thats the thing with
GTA V it set the bar
for a thriving, dynamic
open-world, but were
pleased to see that
Ubisoft Montreal has the
gumption to try and be
a little bit different.
GAMEPLAY SHOULD NEVER,
EVER BE SIDELINED BY THE
NEED FOR REALISTIC-LOOKING
WORLDS OR EFFECTS.
Star letter Keep the faith
Im one of those people who have been on the fence
about getting Watch Dogs. Ive been eagerly awaiting
your review, as youre my go-to guy for reviews. I was
a little disappointed to hear that it was delayed, but
after reading your reason why I was very impressed.
There is a lot of rushing nowadays when it comes to
reviewing triple-A games, and to see a huge reviewer
(you know you are) take a firm stance on giving an in-
depth and honest review really restored some faith.
Alex Ashcroft via Facebook
Oh stop it, youll make us blush. As editor Matt said
in his post back in May, wed rather wait and give a
game as big and broad as Watch Dogs the kind of
time it deserves. Check out our verdict on p92 and
have a years OPM subscription for your troubles.
EXIT
POLL
Our Facebook
fans answer a
final question
NEXT
MONTH
Give us an earful
with your thoughts
on this years Hot
50, the coming
of PlayStation TV
and the return of
Nathan Drake.
20% Cant wait
to unleash
elephant hell
in Far Cry 4.
11% Are ready
to hit Los Santos
all over again in
GTA V on PS4.
14% Are losing
their minds at
that Batman: AK
gameplay demo.
13% Have glassy
eyes for the
return of Sackboy
and co in LBP 3.
17% Look to new
horizons at the
thought of No
Mans Skys new
sci-fi universe.
25%
Swoon at the
sight of a brand
new trailer for
Uncharted 4.
Whats was your
favourite moment
from Sonys
E3 show?
The Division
Despite being one of four big names
in your top five to drop to 2015,
the upcoming Tom Clancy RPG is
gripping to the number one spot
ahead of Nathan Drake. And with
the Snowdrop engine making
those E3 gameplay videos
look good enough to eat, we
fully understand why.
FORMAT PS4
ETA 2015
Uncharted 4:
A Thiefs End
Departures? Setbacks?
Pfft. Not to be outdone
by a triple-A stacked
Sony E3 show, ND
closed proceedings
with a PS4-captured
trailer thats got you
(and the world) very
excited for what could
be Nates final journey.
FORMAT PS4
ETA 2015
Destiny
It may have dropped two places in your top five,
but Destiny is still riding high in your charts
thanks in part to E3s surprise Alpha and the
upcoming Beta access exclusive to PlayStation
owners. Not long to wait, now
FORMAT PS4/PS3
ETA 9 SEP
The Order: 1886
A push back into 2015
hasnt been enough to
dampen your hankerin
for Ready At Dawns
neo-Victorian shooter. So
with its moustache freshly
waxed, The Order: 1886
blasts its way back into
your top five list for the
first time in six issues.
FORMAT PS4
ETA 20 FEB
Batman:
Arkham Knight
Your final entry in this
months Most Wanted
is another casualty of
the delay hammer, but
with a Sony show demo
showcasing a rain-
soaked Gotham and a
transforming Batmobile,
Rocksteadys final swing
at the Bat-verse looks to
be its most ambitious yet.
FORMAT PS4
ETA 2015
best comments from officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk
023
READERS MOST WANTED
Which games are bleeping loudest on your radar?
VOTE
NOW!
Tell us the five games
you cant wait to play at
opm@futurenet.com.
I absolutely love this game. It feels just
like an old school first person shooter. Go
stealth or go all-out Rambo style. Love it.
Davedoubledecks has much love for Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Delaying games is
this seasons micro-
transaction.
Dont keep Jn_pvfc91 waiting. r.
024
OPINION
David Watkins
Are character customisation screens bad for our health?
EVERY TIME I LOG INTO A
GAME WITH A SURREAL
FANTASY AVATAR, IM LOGGING
OFF FROM MY REAL SELF
IN THE PROCESS.
A
m I the only one
filled with dread
when presented with a
character customisation
screen? In The Elder
Scrolls Online, Zenimax
Online promises us sliders for every
bump and curve of the human(oid)
body. (It might even be possible to
create an attractive orc). But having
such an avatar is a double-edged
sword. It might feel good to nip and
tuck our online avatars into more
appealing versions of ourselves, but
is it always good for our gaming
experience and our mental health?
I get the feeling I am always trying
to embellish my characters with the
qualities I dont have in life. I give my
character the huge biceps and toned
stomach I cant get at the gym and
then top it off with a full head of hair.
My shadow self (the fictional persona
the world wants me to be) is at odds
with my authentic self (the one I was
born to be). Its all very Jungian, but so
is the nature of the digital
dream world.
Sure its all fantasy a
chance to cast off the
shackles of realitys physical
imperfection but it cant be
doing much for my self-
esteem; always wanting to
play a character with
more sex appeal,
charm and strength
than I can really
bring to the table in
reality. Its indirect
self-oppression, so
subtle that I didnt
notice how ingrained it
had become, until one day
I force myself to create a character a
bit more like me. Receding hairline,
slight paunch, etc. Now Im not just
playing a game Im in the game.

ALTERED EGO
Having an avatar I can more closely
identify with affects my choices in
the virtual world. If I play a character
totally against self-identification,
does that give me free range to
act out a twisted
morality? If I really
played as myself in
GTA V, I would be
waiting at stop
signs rather than
mowing down
innocent people.
Reality is often
boring, and games
need to be fun. In
striving for authenticity,
I can all too often refine the character
adoption process into a fun-less
venture. So when it comes to player
customisation, going totally surreal is
often easier than recreating life.
In Saints Row IVs Steelport I was
having a whale of a time running
around as a gangster with a pink wig
and a miniskirt. It didnt bother me
that Id copped out on the tailored
experience with a few pre-set defaults.
Besides, surreal character creation
screens in games such as the Saints
Row series give us little chance to
create a lifelike player-character. I can
slide to any point on a triangular body
shape scale (thin, fat and muscular in
each corner) and yet none of the
positions resemble bodies that I
recognise. I had no choice but to go
un-real which, though it made the
gaming experience more fun,
somewhat disconnected me from it.
Every time I log into a surreal
fantasy avatar, I am logging off from
myself. Immersion is difficult when
youre too aware of the experience
of actually playing the game. When
I cant recognise myself on-screen, I
become the player, wearing a costume
for a performance of someone elses
play. So these days I try to have a
balance between the two. Surreal,
wacky super heroes and believable
avatars both have places in my gaming
consciousness. The sheer range of
games with character options provide
a wealth of opportunity to enjoy digital
worlds as both the person Id love to
be and the person I truly am. If I play
characters who are virtually like me,
then my virtual reality playgrounds
feel more real, more dangerous, and
more consequential.
WRITER BIO
David Watkins is a games writer who, since
The Lawnmower Man, has wanted to recreate
himself in digital realities. For over two
decades he has waited for a virtual reality
Elder Scrolls game. Strangely, as he himself
ages, all his avatars remain around 25.
025
Phil Iwaniuk Matthew Elliott
W
ith old Grandpa
PS3 now sitting in
a swing chair on
the back porch of
its retirement home, its a
fitting time to take a look
at how the previous console
generation furthered the
medium we know and love.
Its easier as you go further
back. When you think of PS1,
you think of demo discs,
trance soundtracks and fog.
But its icons Lara Croft,
Cloud Strife, Solid Snake et
al all did something to
revolutionise the genre
landscapes of the time. Lara
turned platformers into
something more sophisticated
and immersive, Mr Strife cut
the rubbish out of JRPGs, and
Snake (Snaaaaaake!) set the
rules for the stealth genre.
Now, lets look at PS3s icons.
Nathan Drake, John Marston,
Commander Shepard, Sackboy
and the like. They earned
their place by doing what Lara
& co did: breaking new ground
within their own camps.
And yet its hard to single
out a game design idea that
sums up the last generation.
Intuitive level design that
guides you from point-to-
point using light sources? The
introduction of RPG elements
into other genres? Mapping
shoot/accelerate to the
triggers? That bizarre period
when every protagonist
seemed to be carrying a bow?
PRETTY POLY
Ill bet no ones shouting,
better graphics, at me right
now. Because you know as
well as I what little impact
great-looking games such as
Resi 6 and Crysis 2 had on
the landscape. We enjoyed
the gradual fidelity increase,
but it was a sideshow to the
headline act fronted by new
design ideas.
So hang on when you
announce, I didnt pay 350
for this, when a PS4 indie
arrives in your Instant Game
Collection, is visual heft really
all you care about? Would
you be happier if a shooter
from the 2007 blueprint was
released in Unreal Engine 4?
The system-sweaters will
come, as slowly and scarcely
as they ever did, but if you
ignore the likes of Resogun
and Towerfall Ascension in
the meantime youre sending
out a message that only
graphics matter. And I know
you dont really believe that
its just too easy to take
good design for granted. Dont
let PS4 be remembered for
1080p, but for new horizons.
H
ard isnt Ornstein
and Smough. Hard is
deciding who lives
and dies between
characters youve spent the
last ten hours learning to
love. It isnt a DragonForce
solo in Guitar Hero III, or
COD 4s Mile High Club
on Veteran, or anything
that takes practice. Hard
is getting one shot at a
decision and living with the
disastrous consequences.
This is precisely why David
Cage suggested you should
play Heavy Rain only once.
Anything you can get right by
trying over and over again will
eventually become easy. This
doesnt mean I think Dark
Souls is a doddle just that
modern games are clever
enough to challenge both
discernment and dexterity.
MUMMY MORRIGAN
Often, the thing that games
can take away from you is
time. In Dragon Age: Origins,
I invested over 50 hours in
my romance with Morrigan.
She was feisty and unfettered,
I was a bearded berserker-
tramp with a terminal love of
justice. I thought I could turn
her despite her evil ways so
I was understandably miffed
at her unmotherly suggestion
that we impregnate our
unborn child with the soul
of an archdemon. My choice:
betray everything my
character stood for or watch
my tenderly-erected love-yurt
collapse and go limp. Basically,
the purpose of everything Id
done rested on one incredible,
crushing decision.
Telltales games are perhaps
the best at bowel-troubling
choices: it isnt just the past
thats taken away from you,
but the future. Unlike the
binary red/blue, good/bad
coin flipping of Mass Effect,
the ultimate outcome is
cleverly veiled, leaving you
to stumble forward, blindly
unaware of the damage youve
done. Toad will remember
that, it whispers in your ear.
Remember what? Too late.
As games get more
complex, so too will the
decisions they ask us to make.
When The Witcher 3 arrives
next year you can expect even
the most benevolent choice
to have potentially negative
repercussions; reminiscent
of that persistently troubling
game we know as real life.
And, as anyone whos played
real life will know, practice
does not make perfect.
Your girlfriend will
remember that. Too late.
PS3S LEGACY ISNT
POLYGONS, FRAME RATES AND
LIGHTMAPS, ITS SMARTER
GAME DESIGN.
HARD IS GETTING JUST
ONE SHOT AT A DECISION AND
THEN LIVING WITH THE
CONSEQUENCES.
WRITER BIO
Games ed Phil Iwaniuk sheds a tear each time an HD remake is announced, and
invites you to play FIFA 08 in the cold light of 2014 if you dont think game
design has progressed beyond visuals all that much since PS3s inception.
WRITER BIO
Contributing writer Matthew Elliott is an expert at poor decisions. He let Kaiden
die in Mass Effect because Ashley reminded him of a pretty ex-girlfriend, and
squandered a law degree to move into the lucrative field of games journalism.
Okay, and bows. But how do you want the PS4
era to go down in the history books?
Decisions, decisions why theres nothing
tougher than making stern choices
OPINION
026
CROWDS
Crowds
Try not to get lost in the rabble with
PlayStations most bustling bystanders
1
ASSASSINS CREED
Gamings seminal people-
pushing sim was born in late
2007, as a moody Crusades-
era hitman shuffled through
crowds of holy men and
super needy beggars. Yes,
youd seen groups of virtual
pedestrians before, but here
they were a living, tactical
netting to hide yourself in.
Praise Altars agitated,
pointy elbows, gentle reader.
2
FIFA 14
Now this is more like it, EA
Canada. After a decade
suffering through stiff
cardboard crowds on PS2
and PS3, the studio finally
treated you to some honest-
to-goodness 3D people in
the stands for the footie
juggernauts new-gen debut.
Thats it miffed United fans,
gesticulate wildly with those
polygonal arms. Thatll wipe
away the memory of Moyesy.
3
HITMAN:
ABSOLUTION
As a hired life-snuffer, 47
loves the anonymity provided
by large groups. Previously,
the savage slaphead
blended in with rows of
suspiciously positioned
triplets hello, Blood
Moneys cloned Mardi
Gras patrons. But
thanks to the Glacier 2
engine, Absolution has
convincing gatherings, with
dozens of individuals found
on a Chicago train platform.
4
RESIDENT EVIL 4
Crowd control, thats the
real name of Capcoms
genre-redefining entry.
While the number of
Ganados doesnt match the
other entries here, the skill
required to deal with a huge
mob of brainwashed,
pitchfork-wielding Spaniards
and a dude with a burlap
sack and chainsaw earns
Resi 4 its rightful place.
5
KANE & LYNCH
The dead men in waiting are
clearly fans of Michael Mann.
How else can you explain
their games Tokyo nightclub
level being a damn near
carbon copy of Collaterals
cracking central set-piece,
where Tiny Tom rucks in a
trendy Korea Town hotspot?
6
DEAD RISING 2
What happens in Fortune
City really should stay there.
Cmon, do you want folk
knowing you spent your
entire time wading through
hundreds of zombs, impaling
the occasional undead citizen
with a swordfish while
running about in a mankini
that would make even Borat
blush? Still, those decaying
crowds are quite the feat.
7
HEAVY RAIN
JAAASSOO oh, youve
been cruelly splatted by
an automobile. Cheers,
incredibly unhelpful crowd.
Youve really done Ethan
Mars shopping centre
search for his lost son a
massive favour with your
endless ambling. Why
couldnt the wee tyke have
wandered away in some
deserted woods instead?
8
WATCH DOGS
Its not the pickpockets
youve got to fret about in
Ubisofts Windy City its
that ruddy rapscallion in the
trench coat whos secretly
hacking your phone and
replacing all the photos on
your dating site profile with
embarrassing baby pictures.
The swine. Watch Dogs
crowds are things to be
abused and played with.
Naughty Aiden.
9
DEF JAM:
FIGHT FOR NY
Weve heard about spectator
sports, but this is pushing it.
Literally. Not only do the
assembled fight fans get
overly rowdy during the
rapper smackdowns, they
only go and get physically
involved, too. Throw your
enemy towards the crowd
and one of them will grab
him for an assisted beating.
HONOUR A B L E ME N T I ONS
Did we miss your favourite crowd? Got a brilliant In The Mood For idea? Show and tell at twitter.com/opm_uk.
State Of Emergency
Rockstars infamous rioting sim
gave us the best angry-human-
to-square-metre ratio until our
local Primark store opened up.
Rocky
Hey, Adrian! Why am I fighting
on the crowded streets of Philly
instead of a boxing ring? Oh,
because Rocky V, you say? Ace.
Any Dynasty Warriors
Hack down as many fields of
cabbage as you possibly can.
And by fields of cabbage, we
mean fields of people.
1
2
3
SPOILER
ALERT
LOOK AWAY!
027
4
5
6
7
8
9
D I G I TA L
E D I T I O N
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O N
I P A D &
I P H O N E
029
CONT ENT S
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR 30 | LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM 32
LOADING HUMAN 33 | PLANTS VS ZOMBIES: GARDEN WARFARE 34 | METRO REDUX 36
MINECRAFT 37 | LOADOUT 38 | ROUND-UP 40
34 PLANTS VS
ZOMBIES: GW
Soil baron PopCap turns its
strategy series into PlayStations
newest shooter? Leaf it out!
030
PREVIEW
WE HAD OUR ORC
KILL HIS BOSS MID-
SPEECH, SETTING
OFF A MASSACRE.
With a handy split Wraith personality, our boy Talions a multi-talented murderer, with instant access to a sword, dagger and bow at any given time. Nasty.
Above Even the biggest of brutes can be brought
under your sway. Once weak enough, your Wraith
side works its spooky ways for much violent fun.
SOM does have a main
storyline, but were more
interested in the violent
soap operas you can create.
031
PREVIEW
Somehow, stealth games got big.
The spawn of ultra-tough, glacially
slow creep-em-ups such as Thief
and Hitman injected a little more
action, a burst of daylight, and
suddenly a genre built around
silent killers featured hooded historical superstars
and in-vogue crimefighters. When Warner Bros
comes along and slaps the Tolkien license on a
game that consciously riffs on both Assassins
Creed and the Arkham series, you know the
stealth genres come out into the open for good.
And yet during our first hands-on with Shadow
Of Mordor, those arent the comparisons were
interested in. While the core of the game has
Wraith-possessed main man Talion
scampering up Mordors rocky faces like
Ezio and seamlessly dispatching entire
squads of orcs in Batman-y fashion, its
what surrounds it the stuff that informs
where youre climbing or who youre
decapitating that intrigues us. Fittingly,
this stealth game has smuggled an extra
genre in with it: the old-school RPG.
That comes mainly out of the Nemesis
System a gussied-up options screen
that displays the occupying Uruk-hai
armys command structure, including
slave driving squad captains, all the way
up to stronghold-ensconced warchiefs.
Every one of these grey-skinned bastards
has a name, a title and, most importantly,
a list of personality traits. They could be afraid
of the nocturnal ghouls that roam the wild, they
might prefer to use poisoned weapons, or in our
favourite bit of understatement they might, hate
being damaged by explosions. Each is a sort of
colourful stat come across Uruk-hai in the wild
(accompanied by tiny cutscenes in which they reveal
a little more of their personality) and learning what
theyre vulnerable to can be the difference between
victory and meeting the sharp end of an orc blade.
In our hands-on, getting to know the army is a
critical part of the mission, too. Our body-sharing
Wraith enables us to dominate and control any
weakened enemy. Our objective is to
either possess the five local warchiefs
a tough task given their slavering
battalions and battle-hardened
bodyguards or replace them with
our own chosen group of thralls, which
is, frankly, a lot more fun. We possess
a local captain early on and, using the
Nemesis System, point out a warchief
bodyguard he should kill. This leads
to a duel (we help out a bit), then an
initiation (no help needed here, as
we find out our man has a particular
fondness for killing the furless tiger-
bear Caragor hes tasked with battling)
and, finally, we have him betray his
new boss mid-speech, setting off a
giant skirmish that we interrupt by
having a recently possessed troll burst
in to help proceedings.
POWER RANGER
This is an action-stealth game thats
far more interested in the story
you create than the destruction you
unleash. Choose to keep your targets
alive and theyll get scars, both
physical (lost limbs are replaced by
metal claws) and emotional (some
might develop a fear of seeing you,
or become enraged at your presence).
And, were assured, the Nemesis
system is flexible enough for even
your earliest target to become a true
arch-nemesis, given that orcs who kill
you are promoted and made stronger.
Shadow Of Mordor might draw on
the stealth genre to get you around its
world, but far more interesting is how
its drawing on the likes of Dungeons
& Dragons or Total War to make the
world youre creeping your way around
feel like more than just an obstacle
course, but a unique land filled with
ugly, familiar faces and user-created
storylines personal to you alone.
MIDDLE-EARTH:
SHADOW OF MORDOR
A careless orc costs lives
FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA 7 OCT / PUB WARNER BROS DEV MONOLITH
F A C T R I C K
Shadow Of Mordor is set in
the 60-year period between
The Hobbit and the events of
The Lord Of The Rings.
1. GO- BETWEEN
Possessing one vicious
Caragor to ride is cool, but
we preferred assembling an
entire pack of them.
2. BEAR MI NI MUM
Gollum will appear in the
game at some point were
hoping for the years
weirdest fight scene.
3. DI E PRECI OUS
PREVIEW
WARNER WW BROS/ DEV MONOLITH
PREVIEW
LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a minifig
There have been so many Lego games
that they almost defy comparison
by this point. Theres even a strong
argument to be made for labelling them
as a genre rather than a series which only makes
it stranger to say that Travellers Tales newly-
announced third entry in their DC splinter series
owes a serious debt not to Lego Batmans 1 and 2,
but none-more-hardcore shooter, Resogun.
In our short time with an early build of the game,
were initially shown the Lego action weve come to
know and palm off on younger siblings Batman
and Robin puzzle-tag-teaming their way across
an architecturally-suspect Batcave in order to find
enough blocks to build a rocket. After blast off,
though, things take a turn for the weird.
WATCH BLOCKS
Following a lengthy cutscene showing a consortium
of villains taking over the Watchtower the Justice
Leagues spaceborne base the Caped Crusader
detaches the Batwing from his recently-made ship
and initiates a multi-wave shoot-em-up section set
along a perfect, orbit-like circle around the station,
complete with a My-First-Bullet-Hell aesthetic.
Were told the shooter section
is by no means a flash in the pan
(orbiting alien planets is mentioned),
but thats not the only way Beyond
Gotham takes its play, well, beyond. For
instance, where previous Lego games
have settled for find switch, open
door puzzles, the newest instalment
turns the process into part-hacking,
part-platforming, asking you to step
into Tron-like VR worlds to solve
mazes and find codes.
Batmans multi-purpose suits have
been made instantly accessible, with
fellow heroes (and villains the
story involves a galaxy-wide fight
against Brainiac) being given the same
privilege, and open-world Gothams
been ditched in favour of a number of
as-yet-unrevealed hub areas. Things
really have changed in Bruces third
outing, and so dismissing Beyond
Gotham as an also-ran entry in the
incrementally-improving mass of Lego
titles (admit it, youre tempted) would
be plain, ahem, batty.
FORMAT PS4/PS3/PS VITA / ETA AUTUMN / PUB WARNER BROS / DEV TRAVELLERS TALES
Above Its always a wink
and a smile with Cyborg.
Unfortunately, the wink
triggers his eye-lasers.
Flirt at your peril, readers.
THE BATWING
DETACHES AND
INITIATES A SHOOT-
EM-UP SECTION,
RESOGUN-STYLE.
The story will send you
across the galaxy, visiting
Lantern Worlds to collect
the legendary Power Rings.
033
PREVIEW
TO OPEN A BOX, WE
PICK UP THE KEY AND
PUSH IT INTO THE LOCK.
TO REALLY DO THIS
RATHER THAN PUSH A
BUTTON IS INCREDIBLE.
Above Part of the game is set in a scientific research base at the North Pole. Above The game was funded on Kickstarter, raising well over its $30,000 goal.
Theres a surreal moment in Loading
Human where we look in a mirror
and see our own reflection. Games
have been doing this for years, but the
difference here is that were in VR, and our avatar
is copying our hand movements. It really sells the
idea that were inhabiting another body, and it
takes a while for our brains to get used to it.
The game sees you travelling through a persons
memories, and is designed specifically with Project
Morpheus and PlayStation Move in mind. Move
controls your arms, and when you look down you
see your own body. Its basically a human simulator.
The version we played was very rough an early
demo released before a recent shift to Unreal Engine
4 but we can already see the potential.
It has a lot in common with old school point-
and-click adventure games, with detailed, interactive
environments and characters to talk to. You can pick
up and examine objects or drop them and smash
them if youre clumsy. And theres a remarkable
physicality to it: to open a locked box, we pick up
the key and push it into the lock. To actually do this,
rather than just press a button, is strangely powerful.
Untold Games describes the story of your journey
through the memories of another man as, Eternal
Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind meets Monkey
Island although we dont think therell be any
undead pirates in it. But the best VR games are
always the ones designed especially for the hardware,
so this should be one of Morpheus killer apps.
LOADING HUMAN
The next generation of adventure games?
FORMAT PS4/MORPHEUS / ETA TBC 2015
PUB UNTOLD GAMES / DEV UNTOLD GAMES
The dev has compared
the story to classic TV
series Quantum Leap.
Every object is interactive.
You can pick up a record,
remove its sleeve, place it
on the turntable and play it.
034

A WELL-PLACED
HEADSHOT CAN
SEND AN UNDEAD
SKULL FLYING OFF.
PLANTS VS ZOMBIES:
GARDEN WARFARE
Are you ready for Full Petal Jacket?
Lets be honest. This really
shouldnt work. Weve all played
Plants Vs Zombies on every device
imaginable and possibly already
bought the T-shirt, yet somehow
here we are with a third-person,
online-only shooter that not only manages to
feel fresh (as a daisy) but is also ridiculously
addictive. Previously over on the dark side, Garden
Warfare has been on other consoles since February
which, if nothing else, probably means theyve
ironed out any bugs for us.
Utilising the Frostbite 3 engine, Garden
Warfare offers up three chlorophyll-packed
multiplayer modes: Garden Ops, Gardens
And Graveyards and Team Vanquish.
Garden Ops is a ten-wave, four-player
co-op affair where you fend off hordes of
zombs from Daves garden as one of the
four plant classes, while Gardens And
Graveyards enables you to get in on the
undead action with a 12 vs 12 objective-
based setup. Team Vanquish is a more
traditional and utterly chaotic deathmatch
mode where the first to 50 kills is the
winner. Combat is surprisingly satisfying,
with headshots sending undead skulls
rolling and Peashooters shrivelling under artillery
fire from the heavily-armed All-Star zombies. Plus,
levelling up to gain new abilities is also a speedy
affair so you wont be grinding for XP to gain the
Chompers Goop attack to slow
enemies down, or the Zombie Foot
Soldiers Rocket Jump.
STALK N LOAD
Just like real life Panini addiction, its
the sticker packs that are the key to
success. Bought with coins that you
earn with each kill and now with
actual money if youre into that sort of
thing these give you extra character
variations with upgraded weaponry,
more plants for protection during
Garden Ops and customisation options
for your classes. PlayStation exclusive
costume goodies include Ratchet &
Clank, Sly Cooper and Fat Princess
gear if you pre-order the game.
Whether previous new-gen format-
exclusive modes in the shape of split-
screen gameplay and a Boss mode
stagger over to PS4 remains to be
seen. Like Battlefield 4s Commander
mode, this can be played on a second
screen so expect an app for your
nearest tablet device for some local
multiplayer fun as Dr Zomboss or
Crazy Dave. Full of wit and humour,
Garden Warfare manages to balance
strong gameplay with a serving of
quirky upgrades, so if the price point
is right then sow far sow good.
FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA 22 AUG / PUB EA / DEV POPCAP
F A C T R I C K
The saucepan-wearing
Crazy Dave is actually based
on a former employee of
developer PopCap.
1. POT ADDI CT
Bosses can be found in the
Garden Ops mode where an
evil slot machine chooses
what nasties you face.
2. Z OMBOSS BATTL E
It looks like Dave has made
up the difficulty levels: Easy,
Medium, Hard and,
CRRRRRAAAZY!
3. DEATH PETAL
Balanced combat with each
plant or zombie type means
jumping between the two
sides is easy and rewarding.
Above As in the top down
classic it takes extra
firepower to rid a zombie of
its bucket or cone defence
before you can destroy it.
035
PREVIEW
The plants are coming
Zombies are a walk in the park for these four classes
Is anyone else more
concerned about where
his right boot is? What if
he stands on glass?
Left Colourful maps include
the Zomboss Estate, Port
Scallywag and Sharkbite
Shores. Theyre peppered
with PopCap references.
Above The Ice Cactus
upgrade sends out chilling
ice needles to stop enemies
in their tracks. Saying,
Freeze! is entirely optional.
1
Not just keeping morale
up with its ever-smiling
face, the Sunflower also
helpfully tops up health
as a medic. With a
Heal Beam ability,
as well as its
standard Sun
Pulse which
sounds a lot like a
machine gun to us
the Sunflower is an
integral minion.
2
Sitting squarely in the sniper
class, the Cactus has a long
range Spike Shot attack as
its primary weapon of
choice. After a few
bouts in the field it
levels up and unlocks
a Potato Mine
ability for some
SPUDOW! action
and eventually
a Garlic Drone for
lethal air attacks.
3
The standard assault
class, the Peashooter is
the first into battle with his
petit pois-launching abilities. An
explosive Chili
Bean Bomb is on
hand to decimate
unwitting brain
munchers and
a Hyper ability
gets you out of
danger when its
time to reload.
4
With a satisfying melee
attack, the Chomper is a
biting machine with high
health and the ability to
gnaw through the
defences of the
undead. Sneak up on
a zombie from behind
and the Chomper will
eat him whole yum,
dead flesh but you
need to wait a few
seconds to digest.
036
PREVIEW
THE FIRST GAME
HAS BEEN TOTALLY
REBUILT FOR THIS
NEW COLLECTION.
METRO REDUX
Post-apocalyptic duo get the PS4 treatment
Stalking the Russian subways in Metro:
Last Light was one of the highlights of
last years gaming crop, with its dark
marriage of survival horror and good ol
first-person shootery-ness. So were more than
a little excited to learn that Deep Silver and 4A
Games are not only bringing Last Light to PS4,
but its haunted predecessor Metro 2033 as well.
In fact, the new collection, dubbed Metro Redux,
will be the first time Metro 2033 has appeared on
a PlayStation console and to mark the occasion,
series developer 4A Games has given it one hell of
an overhaul. The whole thing has been reconstructed
using the latest version of the ex-Ukrainian studios
bespoke 4A Engine, with completely remastered
visuals such as advanced lighting; dynamic weather
when you make your way to the irradiated topside;
more detailed character models and improved smoke,
fire and particle effects. Since both Metro games are
brimming with thick and creepy atmospheres, these
improvements will be have you quivering in no time.
REDUX TALES
The changes to 2033 are more than just a case of
tarting up its looks the dev has even rebuilt the
fundamental mechanics of the game to bring it
closer to its superior sequel Last Light. Mutants
and enemy soldiers now have improved AI, while
temperamental stealth sections have been rebalanced
to up the tension and offer the best possible shift
in the action. And some of the new additions that
made their debut in the 2013 sequel, such as silent
takedowns, will blast their way into 2033, too.
Last Light hasnt escaped the new-
gen face lift treatment, either, with
some subtle nips and tucks to its core
mechanics further fine-tuning what
was already an impressive shooter.
Faster access to your inventory and
your watch arent exactly sexy features
youll find listed on Reduxs box in
giant letters, but in the heat of battle
youll appreciate the refinements
nonetheless. Mmmmm, watches.
Then there are the new Play Style
modes that span both titles: playing
on Survival will up the horror with
limited resources and slower reload
times, while playing on Spartan will
give you access to powerful skills and
more ammunition for all-out gunplay.
Hugely improved visuals and silky
smooth framerates await all new-
gen Metro travellers, along with all
of the DLC across both games. Just
remember to count those bullets.
FORMAT PS4 / ETA SUMMER / PUB DEEP SILVER / DEV 4A GAMES
ENEMY FRONT
Prepare to join the war
on poor eyecare. Trading
bullet-spraying mayhem
for tactical optometry,
this medic tent simulator
tasks you with performing
eye tests and helping your
soldier of choice pick the
best specs for warfare.
FORMAT PS3 ETA 10 JUN
SACRED 3
The cut-throat world of
cosplay meets the tactics
of an RTS game as you
build a posse of like-minded
costume crafters and take
to the floor of the worlds
biggest conventions. Bonus
points for actual use of fire.
FORMAT PS3 ETA 1 AUG
FAR CRY 4
Sleek Savile Row fashion
meets the power of Zen
in this PS Move-centric
QTE-fest. Track down the
best tailors money can buy
then attempt to separate
yourself from such trivial
material possessions.
FORMAT PS4/PS3 ETA 21 NOV
on
the
box
judged only by
their covers
Above 4A Games recently revealed that the
Redux collection will run at 60fps on PS4.
You will also be able to
download the Redux
versions of each game
separately via PSN.
037
PREVIEW
MINECRAFT
This is ssssSSSSsssserious business
Worry not, sandbox survivalists and
creative mode-minded world builders.
Mojangs celebrated canvas is not only
coming to PS4, but when it does, all
of our hard work in the PS3 version wont be
undone. In fact, we can drag our block-based
creativity flailing into the new generation via
world transfers. These are a one way deal, mind.
Its no biggie enlargening a diddy world, but
shrinking down the huge PS4 ones to fit into a
PS3 sandbox is a technical no-no. Did we mention
the massively improved draw distances and vastly
bigger world sizes manageable on PS4?
Even more palatable is the news that owners of the
PS3 version will be able to upgrade to the PS4 one
via a smaller transfer fee, rather than forking out
the full price. Publisher Mojang is waving $20 as a
basic cost for the full version of the game and $5 as
an upgrade fee, so expect prices in the UK of around
12 and 3 respectively.
Those of a handheld persuasion will be sweaty-
palmed with anticipated joy at these next two
words: Cross-Buy. Thats right, the PS Vita variant
of Minecraft wont cost a penny for those who have
already forked out for the PS3 version, and it will
boast all of the same features. Youll even be able to
transfer saves between machines, letting you build
on the bus before surviving from your sofa.
DID WE MENTION THE
BIGGER WORLD SIZES
AND IMPROVED DRAW
DISTANCES ON PS4?
King of vox
Why the PS4 version will be the console craft of choice
1
Sharing everything
will be so much easier,
from landscape shots
of your cliffside castle base
to video-fied eight-player
iron man hardcore parties.
2
The edges of the blocky
map will be farther
away than ever
ensuring that each world
boasts enough room to let
that imagination breathe.
3
No waiting around for
your PS4 version to
catch up via updates.
Itll come laced with all the
latest features introduced in
the PS3 incarnation.
FORMAT PS4/PS VITA / ETA AUGUST
PUB MOJANG / DEV 4J STUDIOS
Above but due to licensing issues, not all DLC will be transferable between PS3 and PS4.
All DLC is transferable
between the PS3 and
PS Vita versions of the
Swedish sensation
038
PREVIEW
Good. Clean. Fun. Hmmm, at
least two of those words delivered
at the end of Loadouts trailer
are giant, dirty fibs. While were
hoping this free-to-play shooter
set in the wilds of intergalactic
trailer parks ticks off its f-word pledge, theres
nothing remotely pure or good-natured about the
gleefully gory online blaster.
Ren & Stimpy meets Team Fortress 2 uh, who
then go on to meet Big Mutha Truckers (everyone
remembers that PS2 curios gang of hillbillies, right?).
Thats how wed roughly sum up Edge Of Realitys
third-person slaughter circus. Imagine deathmatches
informed by Looney Tunes violence and youre
pretty much there. Of course, in this R-rated tale,
Bugs ends up with a gaping wound in his gut after
being shot by Elmer Fudd and his rocket launcher.
GUN CLUB
The games two big USPs centre around
comically overboard Soldier Of Fortune
brutality and a weapon system with,
billions, of different loadout permutations,
according to the developer. Having
graduated from Count von Counts Adding
Up 101 after years of Sesame Street binging,
were dubious about that numerical claim.
Still, Loadout has reviewed pretty favourably
on PC, with specific praise given to the
breadth and depth of gun customisation.
Better yet, the game comes to PS4 as a
console exclusive, giving Edge Of Reality
time to tailor the experience to the
strengths of Sonys new-gen hardware.
Weapon crafting is exhaustive, allowing extensive
tinkering of your firearms stock, trigger, scope
and barrel. Such is the openness of the system,
youre entirely free to bolt a scope onto that semi-
automatic grenade launcher, which also spews
missiles painted with beastly shark chompers. The
actual gun types themselves are less imaginative,
spanning rifles, launchers, pulse and beam weapons.
Although it feels a bit mean picking on the game
when it lets you built an electric shotgun with
optional laser-guidance.
In a market clogged with overly serious shooters,
its undeniably refreshing to see a title openly
embrace the silly as wholeheartedly as
Loadout. Skin gets seared like burnt
toast, holes are punched through
chests to reveal still-beating organs,
while entire limbs go bye-bye from the
cartilage to which theyre attached.
Character designs are as evocative
as the grisly fates that befall them,
ranging from thong-wearing big-
boned lasses to muscle-bound afro
owners who garb their crotch with the
star-spangled banner. The only catch
being, that F2P mantle requires you
to buy skin packs with the PC version
to really open up character creation
a business decision that will likely
carry over to PS4. Lets hope any such
transactions arent cynically priced.
HAMMERED HOME
Among the various deathmatches, its
strange to note the current standout
mode seems to be a spin on capture
the flag. A vanilla afterthought in most
shooters these days, Loadout makes its
interpretation stand out by means
of a man-sized mallet. Instead of a
useless pole with a piece of billowing
cloth attached to it, Jackhammer mode
charges you with ferrying the massive
melee weapon to your base. Unlike any
other CTF, the fact you can swat away
opponents with one swing of your
bone-crumpling hammer means youre
far from a walking bullseye.
It all means theres actually reason
to turn our cynicism levels down a
notch. The mantle of F2P will always
hang heavy, but in this case, the
majority of weapons and actions are
accessible for nowt. If you want to pry
open your purse strings to speed up
the games unlock system, thats up to
you. But in the meantime, it looks like
PS4 is getting a genuinely worthwhile,
daftly deft shooter to stand out among
the throngs of miserablist military
death fests. Just promise you wont
teabag us with the thong, lady.
LOADOUT
Lock and oh, youve exploded my spleen
FORMAT PS4 ETA TBC / PUB EDGE OF REALITY / DEV EDGE OF REALITY
F A C T R I C K
Its a F2P multiplayer
shooter starring colourful
(read: inbred) characters
and barbaric comedy gore.
1. F REE TO F L AY
Each gun-toter is
surprisingly agile with a
strong suite of double jumps
and dodges. Missed me!
2. L EG UP
Certain classes give you the
option to disguise yourself
as a member of the
opposition team. Sneaky.
3. HI DE AND SNEAK
FORMAT AA PS4 / ET
039
PREVIEW
IMAGINE DEATH-
MATCHES INFORMED
BY LOONEY TUNES-
STYLE VIOLENCE.
Whether by jackhammer, plasma fire or grenade, death will become you with hilariously brutal results. Were talking Game Of Thrones levels, with added lulz.
Above We dont know why youre grinning, pal.
Just look at your insanely thin thighs. Those things
are just begging to be detached from your person.
Equip some fire ammo
and you can flame-grill
yourself some tasty man
steak. Mmmm.
040
PREVIEW
This months offering
of gaming tidbits
is so eclectic its
bordering on the
Blumenthal. Weve
got a newly tattooed
sport sim, returning
trick or treaters and
even a cartoon web
slinger. Go on kiddo,
get stuck in
PREVIEW
ROUND-UP
SAMURAI
WARRIORS 4
FORMAT PS4/PS3/PS VITA
ETA 24 OCT / PUB TECMO KOEI
DEV OMEGA FORCE
Since it was first announced
back in 2010, fans have
been clamouring for
information on this eastern
hack-n-slash. So sayeth
the Tecmo Koei bods
anyway, and why would they
lie? In an info drop thatll
surely edge it ahead of Half-
Life 3 in the anticipation
stakes, its been revealed
that 55 new and updated
characters are on the
way, alongside new battle
modes, the ability to switch
characters in real-time,
and tweaks to morale and
officer development. One
for those who like their
Dynasty Warriors served
complicated, arriving on all
Sony platforms real soon.
EARTHNIGHT
FORMAT PS4/PS VITA
ETA 2015 / PUB SONY
DEV CLEAVERSOFT
One of many indie entries in
this months round-up,
EarthNight stands apart
from the crowd by taking
the tired endless runner
concept and bringing it back
to life with a set of gawjus
hand-painted levels and a
chiptune soundtrack from
electro maestro Chipocrite.
The heroes of the piece,
Stanley and Sydney, must
skydive to Earth from space
to defeat dragons who have
taken over the planet. Lead
designer Rich Siegel says it
can be completed in 30
mins, but itll take hundreds
of runs to gather the skills
needed to beat all the
dragons. Lets hope this
indie hopeful doesnt run
itself into the ground.
TETRIS
ULTIMATE
FORMAT PS4/PS VITA
ETA AUTUMN / PUB UBISOFT
DEV BLUE PLANET SOFTWARE
Whats this? A near
30-year-old block-dropping
puzzler making its debut
on Sonys new-gen gaming
behemoth? We can hear
those systems shifting
already. Alright, alright, it
may be an elder statesman
of gaming, but with the
original Tetris creator
Alexey Pajitnov on-board,
six different game modes
(Marathon, Endless, Ultra,
Sprint, Battle and Power-Up
Battle) and the ability to fit
blocks into gaps with up to
four others locally or online,
Tetris Unlimited could well
be the most stocked version
of a game that wore many a
thumb out back in the day
on the humble Game Boy.
FENIX RAGE
FORMAT PS4 / ETA AUTUMN
PUB GREEN LAVA STUDIOS
DEV GREEN LAVA STUDIOS
Looking like a feisty cross
between a krogan from
Mass Effect and Sonic The
Hedgehog, the hero from
Green Lava Studios debut
PlayStation title has taken
more than a little inspiration
from the speedy animations
of that blue-tinged mascot
of yesteryear. This 2D
puzzler-cum-platformer has
an air of the Super Meat
Boy about it, with the
three-man dev team from
Costa Rica (who work in a
rainforest no less) calling it,
stylish, and, aggravatingly
addictive. Apparently all
these increasingly difficult
levels are about finding a
cookie wheres that fuzzy
Sesame Street monster
when you need him?
DIABLO III: REAPER
OF SOULS ULTIMATE
EVIL EDITION
FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA 19 AUG
PUB BLIZZARD / DEV BLIZZARD
Finding the usual cronies of Blizzards
action-RPG a bit of a drag? Well,
youre in luck, intrepid dungeon
crawler. A new deal with Sony will bring the
fungal-faced Infected of The Last Of Us into
the world of Diablo III and its Reaper Of Souls
expansion. So expect Runners, Clickers,
Stalkers and Bloaters to ruin many a loot
run when the game arrives next month.
041
PREVIEW
MADDEN NFL 15
FORMAT PS4/PS3
ETA WINTER / PUB EA
DEV EA TIBURON
Like a jacked-up cave troll,
Madden is back, bursting
onto your PS4 and PS3 with
a mad look in its eyes and a
taste for gridiron glory. EA
Tiburon has tweaked the
tackle physics for offensive
play, creating a risk and
reward system for those
who know how to read a
fruitful opening, but its on
D that the new Mads is
making the biggest changes.
Defensive dynamos now
have a huge arsenal of
improved shoves, tackles
and blocks, as well as
dynamic camera angles to
help shut down any player
dumb enough to waltz into
the path of the Legion Of
Boom. Oh, and theres
licensed tattoos, too.
COSTUME
QUEST 2
FORMAT PS4/PS3
ETA OCT / PUB DOUBLE FINE
DEV DOUBLE FINE
Whats this? Double Fines
releasing a sequel? An
actual sequel? We know,
were as surprised as you
are (and just as annoyed
that it isnt Psychonauts 2),
but news of another
black-humoured RPG from
Tim Schafer and co is still
a sizeable reason to be
cheerful. The turn-based,
candy-collecting battle
system that worked so well
in the first game returns,
along with a new (and
bigger) setting (New
Orleans, no less) that will
offer more exploration,
collectibles and new
characters. This action-RPG
could well give South Park:
TSOT a run for its candy.
MURASAKI
BABY
FORMAT PS VITA / ETA SEP
PUB SONY / DEV OVOSONICO
Directed by Massimo
Guarini, who previously
worked on Killer7, No More
Heroes and Shadows Of
The Damned, Murasaki Baby
is a surreal side-scrolling
puzzler with a Edward
Gorey-esque art style and
twisted feel that would have
Tim Burton hot under the
collar. Murasaki Baby is all
about helping a little girl
called Baby (natch) through
a series of creepy levels,
using the touchscreen and
read touchpad to interact
with the environment,
swapping backgrounds to
solve puzzles and guiding
the upside-down-headed
star by tugging at her
balloon. Sounds nice?
HOHOKUM
FORMAT PS4/PS3/PS VITA
ETA 12 AUG / PUB SONY
DEV HONEYSLUG/SONY
SANTA MONICA
Things have been a little
quiet on the Hohokum
news front as of late,
but that doesnt mean
the indie studio Honeyslug
hasnt been busy refining
the surreal adventure game
that looks as charming as
it does bonkers. Thankfully,
Sony announced a release
date last month, with the
game getting a 12 August
arrival in the US and a
release the following day in
Europe. Its also Cross-Buy,
meaning you have a choice
of three whole systems to
enjoy the colourful whimsy
Hohokum has to offer. If our
hands-on at E3 is anything
to go by (and it is!) youre in
for an unforgettable treat.
NIGHT IN
THE WOODS
FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2014
PUB INFINITE FALL / DEV INFINITE FALL
DISNEY INFINITY:
2.0 EDITION
FORMAT PS4/PS3 / ETA 23 SEP
PUB DISNEY INTERACTIVE
DEV AVALANCE SOFTWARE
Having successfully funded its
Kickstarter at the end of last year
(hey, wed call a $209,375 total
from a $50,000 goal the literal
definition of successful), developer Infinite
Fall has announced the whimsical and rather
intriguing adventure game Night In The
Woods is heading to the good ship PS4.
The tale takes place in the crumbling town of
Possum Springs, where college drop out Mae
returns to try and find her place in the world.
Despite looking like a coffee-fueled Wes
Anderson day dream (which is no bad thing
in our humble opinion), Night In The Woods
combines side-scrolling platforming and
puzzles with a story of love, loss and letting
go. Oh yeah, and theyre all talking animals
PROJECT CARS
FORMAT PS4/MORPHEUS / ETA NOVEMBER
PUB SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS / DEV SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS
Momentum gathers for Slightly Mads
hyper-realistic driving sim, which
offered playable code at the E3 show
floor and put out a tantalising new trailer
full of fast cars and slow motion. The unique
development approach, which is largely
community-driven, means this is aiming
to suit the racing hardcore primarily the
ones prepared to brave the early builds and
give detailed feedback in order to shape the
game they want to play. But we walked away
disappointed from our demo pod because
its currently no match for the PC version.
Greetings, true
believers! While it was
all well and cute to play
as Buzz and Sulley in
last years Disney Infinity, we all
knew the House Of Mouse had a
Marvel-shaped trump card sitting
pretty under its sleeve with the
2.0 version. Alongside the usual
Avengers lineup (yes that includes
a cute looking Hulk out first on
PlayStation), Disneys revealed
that ol Web Head himself is
swinging his way onto last
and new-gen consoles
with a Brian Michael
Bendis-penned story
based in Spideys
Ultimate universe.
New super friends
include Nova, Nick Fury,
Iron Fist and everyones
favourite symbiote
Venom. Lets hope
its better than
The Amazing
Spider-Man 2
042
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044
THE H THE H
THE HOT 50
045
THE HOT 50
OT 50 OT 50
Counting down the best and brightest on
PlayStations horizon who will emerge
victorious among 2014 and beyonds hottest
prospects? Dont get your hopes up, Ravens Cry
046
THE HOT 50 HOT 50
5
T
urtle Rock has big
ambitions for Evolve.
In co-founder and
design director Chris
Ashtons words its
aiming for, infinite
replayability. Something its
going to achieve via a raft of
characters, monsters, modes and
environments. And it all kicks
off with some brand new
monster hunters. So, joining
Markov, Griffin, Val and Hank
in the role of Assault, Trapper,
Medic and Support are Hyde,
Maggie, Lazarus and Bucket.
These are clever variations
on each role, serving the same
purpose with slightly different
tools. One of the biggest changes
is the medic role. Val is built out
to heal hurt players with a Team
Fortress 2-style healing gun. New
doc Lazarus on the other hand can
revive dead players during a hunt.
Both are definitely team healers,
but with a completely unique feel
depending on what you consider
most important some levels
have wildlife that can eat players
and Lazarus needs a body to work
his magic on.
The other variations are just as
tactical. Markov and Hank swap
between mines and gas grenades
for example, making one great for
ambushes, and the other better at
flushing the monsters out of their
hidey holes. Hank also has the
most powerful weapon in the
game, swapping out Markovs
lightning gun for a flamethrower.
So far there are two ranks for
each class, but a thirds on the way
and Turtle Rock is promising to
use player feedback to create more
once the games released. And the
same goes for modes and maps.
Which brings us neatly on to
the monster(s). After only having
the tank-like brute Goliath to
consider, Turtle Rock has been
cagey about showing any more.
That was until E3 where it debuted
a Cthulhu-like beasty with long
tentacles sprouting from its face,
some nasty electrical attacks and
one mean-looking expression. Its
the Kraken, and it also floats high
above maps and attacks hunters
with long-range sniper-like shots,
making it a whole different kettle
of, er, alien to Big Bad Goliath.
Its going to be a long hunt
Evolve
Format PS4 ETA 21 Oct Pub 2K Games Dev Turtle Rock
DEV TALK
We want a big cast of
characters. We want a
variety of game modes,
environment types and
ways to play the game,
so theres a lot to dig
into when you first pick
up the game.
Chris Ashton,
co-founder and design
director, Turtle Rock
047
THE HOT 50
We can smell your cynicism from here. Homefront was agonisingly alright, so
why give number two the time of day? Worse yet, why give it a spot in the Hot
50? Because, once-bitten, twice-shy types, Homefront The Revolution shares
only its name with Kaos Studios 2011 title. The jaded gamer in us all wonders
why Crytek didnt just call it something new entirely, but thats by the by. What
youre actually being propositioned with here is an open-world shooter of the Far
Cry 3 vein which is making a genuine attempt to play around with traditional FPS
weaponry. Youre a guerrilla fighter, so you dont have access to fancy-shmancy
armouries full of automatic weapons and explosives like your enemy. Instead,
you MacGyver deadly weapons from RC cars and craft home-made molotovs.
KPA-infested America isnt wholly uncharted territory Half-Life 2 and various
CODs have explored the occupied US already but the unique toolset at your
disposal will give The Revolution a fighting chance when it arrives next year.
Lara Croft And The Temple Of Osiris is the surprise sequel to the isometric,
co-op PSN hit Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light. This time around Laras
buddying up with rival explorer Carter Bell and two gods in the form of Horus and
Isis. The mix of twin-stick shooting and co-op puzzles remains intact, with
various ball-rolling and grappling hook tasks leveraging each characters unique
skills. Isis bubble shield lets Lara follow safely behind, while the star of the show
can again create tightropes with which her godly buddies can cross chasms.
In doubling the player count from two to four, Crystal Dynamics has invested in
dynamically changing levels. Environments shrink and grow depending on the
numbers of players involved, with more enemies, wider traps and tough puzzles
pushed into the game every time another player drops in and those elements
are removed when somebody drops out. Our hands-on session feels almost
indistinguishable from Guardian Of Lights gameplay, which is no bad thing at all.
There are a couple of reasons you dont see the next
Elder Scrolls higher up this list, chief among them
being the lukewarm review scores its received on
PC, where it released back in April. Despite that
minor raincloud looming overhead, TESO offers a
few killer features we cant ignore. Set 1,000 years
before the events of Skyrim, it gives you basically all
of Tamriel to explore though currently on PC much
of the game worlds locked away for future content
(harrumph). Modders have been trying to connect
the various regions within Tamriel for years, and
here it is for you, your friends and hundreds of
thousands of strangers to explore simultaneously.
The games been in development for over seven
years at this point, and aims to cater not just to
crusty old MMO veterans but those attracted by the
IP who want to play it like a solo adventure. Were
not totally sold on the idea that it can do both, but
with the game slipping now until perhaps as late as
2015, Zenimax has even longer to get it right.
Format PS4 ETA Winter
Pub Bethesda Dev Zenimax Online Studios
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Square Enix Dev Crystal Dynamics Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Deep Silver/Crytek Dev Crytek UK
Format PS4 ETA TBC
Pub Bethesda Dev Id Software
Format PS4/PS3 ETA Winter
Pub Konami Dev PES Productions
This is the year! Every 12 months, you can bank
on those four words being used for two very
different things in the world of football: the claims
of upcoming glory from Liverpool fans such as
editor Matt, and the idea that PES will finally catch
up with FIFAs sprinting progress and give EAs
institution an even battle on the pitch. So whats our
verdict after a world-first playtest at this years E3?
Simple: This is the year! New-gen PES plays a
spectacular game of football. While were still
unconvinced that the dotted trajectory guidelines
when taking freekicks and corners is any use
whatsoever, the first PS4 PES lives up to the
beautiful game tag thanks to the Fox Engines
visual grunt. Theres no sign of the old stop-start
motions, either, as last years improved animations
and collisions are smoother than ever, and the
speeds of both ball and players feel truly
representative of footy and no longer a rough
approximation to reality. The confusing menus of old
have been subbed out for an early bath as well,
making this one of E3s very best surprises.
Famous for its done when its done philosophy
towards the next instalment of FPS royalty, Ids kept
us entirely in the dark about Doom (the 4 went
walkies, apparently) until now. Or, more specifically,
17 July, when the QuakeCon doors open and fans
descend on Dallas, Texas from around the world.
There, the latest Doom will get its first proper
reveal after years of allegedly troubled
development. Until then, well have to make do with
the teaser trailer thats doing the rounds. Strip-
mine it all you like, youll find nothing more than
close-ups of slug-like flesh, cyborg metal and an
eventual glimpse of the Cyberdemon, one of the
series most iconic and powerful enemies. He
dampened your T-shirt in Doom 1 Shareware, and
hes back with a more traditional aesthetic than
seen in Doom 3 to make a mockery of your Right
Guard regime once again. The good news until
QuakeCon is that if you took our advice and bought
MachineGames Wolfenstein: The New Order, youll
get access to the Doom closed beta when it begins
on a thus-far undisclosed later date.
4
9
4
8
4
7
4
6
4
5
Lara Croft And The
Temple Of Osiris
Homefront The
Revolution
The Elder Scrolls
Online
PES 2015 Doom
THE HOT 50
Taking on the manner of a chided schoolchild
whose homework dramatically improves after
an after-school detention, Biowares keen to
put every misstep made in Dragon Age II firmly
behind it. Everything thus far mentioned about
Inquisition makes us salivate a bit the chance
to be the genus of an almighty movement akin
to the Rebellion in Star Wars, to explore the
biggest world ever built in the fantasy series,
to catch up with old acquaintances by the
campfire and give them the glad eye and,
of course, being able to maim a dragons
appendages and watch it limp about helplessly
while you and your party throw down.
The localised damage model in these
boss encounters is a drop in the ocean of
Inquisitions new features, which also include
a zoomed-out tactical view for the first time
on consoles, more romances than ever in a
Bioware game, total control over your partys
inventory and the ability to gather resources
for your Inquisition in a similar fashion to
the war asset system from Mass Effect 3.
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 10 Oct
Pub EA Dev Bioware
Oh, Suda51, what are you up to now? No seriously.
The E3 trailer for his new gaming endeavour was
one damnably eye-catching brutality spree make no
mistake, but what about actual details? Well, the
man himself is keeping the dirty deets close to his
chest for now, but he has revealed that itll be a
completely online experience with a free-to-play
model. While the idea of monetisation might turn
most stomachs inside-out, Suda promises the
dreaded m word wont sully the game with a
pay-to-win setup, with microtransactions likely
to be used for purchasing cosmetic items. In a
recent interview with Polygon, Suda did open up
about a unique feature that plays right into parent
company GungoHos experience with online titles
such as Ragnarok Online: player data. When you
finally meet a grisly end in one of Let It Dies
gore-loving confrontations, your performance and
lethal behaviour are pooled into a growing digital
soup that feeds into the enemies you face along the
way so the better you do, the harder and more
deadly your foes will become. Whatever the final
game might be, this is still a PS4 exclusive from the
man behind Killer Is Dead and Killer7, and it looks like
another true-to-form, ultra-violent cheese dream.
No, its not exactly the Borderlands project youre
hoping for in other words, a full-blooded sequel on
PS4 but what 2K Australias title lacks in subtitle
savvy and new-gen promise, it makes up for in
butt-stomps, playable Claptraps and the frozen
smithereens of your enemies dancing gently away
from the moons surface and out into space. To
clarify: combat is a bit different in The Pre-Sequel.
Since its set on a moon, both gravity and oxygen
play key roles in your minute-by-minute existence
the former allowing huge leaps and ground-stomp
attacks, and the latter a third bar below health and
armour to manage mid-fight. You can even spend a
bit of oxygen on showy abilities too, such as setting
enemies alight in what would otherwise be a cold
vacuum. Geabox got increasingly playful with player
classes in Borderlands 2 and its DLC, so expect 2K
Down Under to continue the offbeat builds with The
Pre-Sequel. Wilhelm with his massive cyborg fist
is the most traditional of the four, while Athenas
damage absorption and Claptraps diminished size
will give a new flavour for old hands.
It has a name and the surface-level appearance of
an own-brand Dark Souls, but dont write this one
off. Executive producer Tomasz Gop has breakout
RPG success The Witcher 2 under his belt, and
though production values clearly arent up there
with the CD Projekt Red title or From Softwares
venerable series, Lords Of The Fallen has a clear
purpose and a strong lure: its Dark Souls for
people with a low frustration threshold. Combat is
deep and complex, heavily dependent on managing
your stamina bar and using buffs and potions to
survive, and to beat more formidable bosses you
need to access any reserves of patience you didnt
expend in DS II to memorise attack patterns. Unlike
the game it admires so much though, youre not just
plonked in the wilderness with no direction in LOTF,
or forced to retread old ground time and time again
upon failure. In addition to its obvious depth, this is a
surprisingly fetching fantasy world with high-quality
animations and atmospheric lighting. Theres an
outside chance this one might sneak-attack its way
to greatness before 2014s out.
Format PS3 ETA 17 Oct
Pub 2K Games Dev 2K Australia/Gearbox Software
Format PS4 ETA Autumn
Pub CI Games Dev CI Games/Deck13 Interactive
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub TBC Dev Grasshopper
Manufacture/GungHo Online Entertainment
4
4
Dragon Age:
Inquisition
4
3 4
2
4
1
Let It Die Lords Of
The Fallen
Borderlands:
The Pre-Sequel
049
THE HOT 50
Here be spoilers, so dont say you werent warned.
Okay? As has become customary, season four of
Thrones served up punch-the-air euphoria (laters,
Joffrey) mixed with smash-the-floorboards
heartbreak (oh, Oberyn. Nooooo, Ygritte). So its
naturally left us salivating like a bunch of famished
direwolves for Telltales tantalising tie-in RPG.
Game Of Thrones will premiere later this year,
after Tales From The Borderlands kicks off, says
Telltales Job Stauffer. More news soon. That
leaves little room for fact and plenty for speculation.
So who will you play as? A new mix of characters,
presumably, much like Telltales Walking Dead series.
That means interacting with peeps from the show,
without affecting its lore. (Bang goes our plan of
living happily ever after with a certain ginger
wildling.) Settings-wise, Westeros is rife with game-
suitable backdrops, so expect Telltale to cram in all
your faves particularly with George RR Martins
assistant Ty Corey Franck on board as an advisor.
Heres one thing we didnt expect when we first
sit down to test-drive Techlands mash-up of its
own Dead Island and EAs Mirrors Edge: Warner
stablemate Batman has been a big influence. More
specifically, Bats Grapnel tool. We know that Dying
Light focuses heavily on free-running, but we soon
discover the delights of the grapple hook, which lets
us zip across chasms or up towers in a flash. After
two borderline broken Dead Island games we had
great reservations about Dying Light, and yet
half-a-year before launch this is more polished by
comparison. As youd expect, hacking limbs off
zombs with an electric axe is great fun, and doubly
so when we realise they cant grab us without any
forearms. We discover Dying Lights potential for AI
mirth is broad (shooting explosive barrels near
hostile bandits attracts hordes of the undead to
distract and digest them), and that the skill-tree-
based parkour system, in which well be unlocking
perks such as wall-running and dodges the more we
move, turns the vertical locales into joyous playpens.
Game Of
Thrones
Format TBC ETA Winter Pub Telltale Dev Telltale
Format PS4 ETA Feb 2015
Pub Warner Bros Dev Techland
F
ollowing the success of 2011s
Mortal Kombat reboot, a
sequel was perhaps inevitable.
But how to move things
forward, having finally swept
clean 20 years of spiralling,
convoluted storylines? If youre
NetherRealm Studios, the answer is
simple: you start complicating things
again. Mortal Kombat X touts a vast
story mode (no doubt to follow the
model set by the previous games
excellent, character-switching narrative
campaign). Picking up where the MK
reboot left off, it will eventually move
25 years into the future, taking in
aged classic heroes and a few of
their new offspring along the way.
As for whos returning and whos
new, Scorpion and Sub-Zero are already
confirmed obviously who
continue their skull-crushing,
limb-shattering rivalry.
Newbies-wise, Johnny
Cage and Sonia
Blades
daughter, Cassie Cage, is set to bring a
souped-up combination of her parents
movesets. Most interestingly though,
theres a thundering great lummox called
Torr, who fights with a little girl called
Ferra atop his shoulders, frequently
throwing her at opponents so that
she can stab them right in the face.
In terms of actual fighting, MKX is
absorbing a few gooey strands
of DNA from superhero stablemate
Injustice: Gods Among Us, by way of
location-specific stunts and hazards
scattered throughout its condensed
arenas. Favourites so far include
Scorpion swinging around a tree branch
to kick Sub-Zero in the head, before
pulling up a root and clocking him
soundly in the skull with it all in
disgusting, bone-splintering slow-
motion. On a related note, the gleefully
savage X-ray attacks are back, and if
anything have been cranked up further in
their brutality. Lets just say that Cassies
uppercut to the unmentionables will
make all grown men weep actual tears.
Decapitation fun for everyone (over 18)
Mortal Kombat X
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 2015 Pub Warner Bros Dev NetherRealm Studios
Above Surely escaping an undead horde by diving
AC-style into a cloth canopy will never get old?
4 0
oth
3
Feb
8
050
THE HOT 50
Kingdom
Hearts III
Dead Island never lived up to the hype of its affecting CG teaser trailer, largely
because of its ropey execution, partly because of its tone. Follow-up Riptide was
even worse, but weve got a sneaking suspicion that true sequel Dead Island 2
wont suffer the same issues. More important than the action being transplanted
from tropical island to LA beaches and San Francisco suburbia (the entirety of
California is now a quarantine zone, hence its Island status) is the development
switch-up, with dependable Spec Ops: The Line dev Yager taking the reins. The
early behind-closed-door footage we see at E3 is promising. Motorised blade
weapons result in the sort of mass carnage only previously enjoyed in Dead
Rising 2, and sledgehammer uppercuts launching zombies up and over rooftops
if caught flush are guffawsome sights showcasing that Yager is playing for
laughs. We like the ability to craft weapons such as flame-imbued pump-action
mechanical crossbows anywhere in the world and not just at benches, and love
the idea of Spec Ops radioman being preserved in spirit for another great
Yager soundtrack voiced by Jack Black himself unless our ears deceive us.
Gunplay looks poor so far, but this is a melee-first game and Yager knows
how to do shooting, so were not too concerned at this early stage.
The smartly-dressed slaphead may have missed this years big event in Los
Angeles, but hes still bubbling away at a frothing temp on our hype hob. You can
thank the above piece of official concept art from 47s debut new-gen foray for
keeping the red-tied assassin firmly on our radar. Released by IO via the studios
official blog, the early piece of concept art offers a tantalising peek into what
could be an altogether grander adventure for the baldy badass. For those
disappointed by the lack of proper sandboxes in the brilliant Hitman: Absolution
(youre wrong, by the way play the Hope level again and tell us its not proper
Hitman), prepare for an open-ended treat. Set in Central Europe, the sketch in
question houses a building thats bigger than any singular environment from the
last game. Yup, you read that right just imagine how big the rest of the contract
killing sim is. And thats just the interior of that museum/gallery you will even
be able to explore the surrounding streets as you plan your next killer payoff.
Size does matter and its primed with an impeccably tailored suit and a
murderously-tuned piano wire. IO also promises a return to 47s globe-trotting
Agency days, so expect the PS4-bound Hitman to be the biggest, best-looking,
and most brutal whack-em-up yet.
Heard the one about Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the
rest of the Disney gang going into a bar? It ends
with RPG fans getting tired of Final Fantasys string
of 7/10 disappointments and pinning their hopes of
Squares House Of Mouse adventure series instead.
Keyblade-wielding teen Sora returns as the games
hero, teaming up with those better-known cartoon
faves in the search for the Seven Guardians Of Light
and the Key To Return Hearts. Further details are
light, but all signs point to a simpler levelling system
than in previous instalments in order to widen the
games previously niche appeal. The notoriously
secretive dev team skipped E3 and wont be drawn
into even suggesting a release date, let alone
dropping further gameplay details. Nonetheless,
producer Shinji Hashimoto insists, you will be
surprised. Were praying that means a cameo
appearance from Disneys grumpiest Scotsman,
AKA Scrooge McDuck but even if that wish goes
unfulfilled, the chances are that this will prove to be
yet another quacker of an RPG.
Dead Island 2
Untitled
Criterion Game
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Square Enix Dev Square Enix
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Square Enix Dev IO Interactive Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Deep Silver Dev Yager
Format TBC ETA TBC Pub EA Dev Criterion
Format PS4 ETA Autumn Pub Sony Dev SOE
Youre right, that is a crap Scrabble hand. But heres
the good news: no, wait, there isnt any. Another
zombie apocalypse is already getting its teeth
into the general populace and youre tasked with
surviving while initially armed with only a flashlight.
Oh, but heres the twist: its an MMO, meaning you
can team up with mates in order to fend off the
undead hordes. Sadly, their verbiage-based board
game skills arent going to be much use when it
comes to fighting off those pesky zombs. And here,
surviving means surviving. Hacking the virtual
undead (who, by the way, look 4am-in-Croydon
scary) to Dorito-shaped pieces is hella fun, but
creaky-boned bunfights are only part of the deal.
You also need to eat and drink in order to stay alive
introducing an element of strategy and doubt to
the whole team-based deal. A deer has been
ensnared by a trap set by your pal Phil, but hes not
around to tuck in, and youre so very hungry do
you betray his trust and eat, or stay true and risk
starvation? Those choices and consequences,
minute by minute, hour by hour, make this very
much one to watch. Also: sorry, Phil. *burp*
Talk about early access: Criterion hasnt even given
its new project a name before birthing it on the E3
2014 show floor. As such, we can only talk about the
project in broad brushstrokes. We know its not a
straight up car game like, ooh, everything else the
studios ever done since Black in 06, and its being
made by a core team of just 15. In this world of
hot-desking, impromptu play sessions and
beanbag-sitting, this leaner Criterions busy
creating an experience that involves ATVs, boats,
helicopters, wingsuits, planes and parachutes.
Goodness only knows how its all going to work, but
apparently the whole ventures inspired by the
wealth of first-person camera footage on YouTube
capturing extreme sports feats. As such its a
resolutely first-person
experience, which aims to
turn passive chest-cam
watching into an intense,
fist-bumping, blood-
pumping racer.
3
3
5
3
3
Hitman 6
7
H1Z1
6
3
4
3
T
he trouble with a
game that casts you
as an underpowered
protagonist facing off
against an invulnerable
hunter is that, well, it
can be really, really hard. And our
recent hands-on with Isolation
which takes place around
two-thirds of the way in
evidences this point well.
Weve had to power up a pair of
generators in order to activate the
evacuation procedure on the
Sevastopol station, and are now
heading for the exit. However, the
evac measures are accompanied by
sirens and flashing lights clearly
those thoughtless space engineers
didnt have the foresight to realise
that this racket would end up
putting a huge xenomorph into
a state of hungry high alert.
As such, every approach we
take ends in a gruesome death.
Crawling very slowly and hiding
in lockers? Spiky tail through the
stomach. Moving from cover to
cover, ducking behind crates and
upturned gurneys? Chomped by
those powerful multi-jaws.
Sprinting through and hoping to
use the other humans around as
bait? Dragged helplessly into the
(eternal) darkness.
Whats that? Ah yes, other
humans. Because Isolation is not
simply a tale of one womans wits
against those of a hideous beast
there are a handful of other
desperate survivors on the ship
as well. Not only that, malevolent
With no on-screen HUD,
its up to you to use
tools such as the Motion
Tracker to progress.
Xenomorph gets a new lease of horrific life
Alien: Isolation
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 7 Oct Pub Sega Dev Creative Assembly
synthetics are also prowling about,
as we learn when one pops out of a
chamber and throttles us to death.
Unlike the alien, these can be dealt
with using the games limited
arsenal or, in another fresh
revelation, its crafting system.
Much like The Last Of Us, you
can make various devices think
Molotovs, EMP mines and
noisemakers using miscellanea
scattered around the ship, although
this is done on-the-fly via a radial
menu rather than at benches.
Creative Assembly admits that
there is balancing to be done, and
if the aliens AI can be pitched as
well as the games atmosphere and
aesthetic, this could finally be the
game the franchise deserves. No,
really this time
3
DEV TALK
We feel we can bend
the franchise without
breaking it. We want to
produce content that
couldve been made on
the original set. Our
remit is Could this have
been made on-set?.
Jude Bond, lead artist,
Creative Assembly
THE HOT 50
052
THE HOT 50
Okay, well hold our hands up at this point and admit
that most of the heat this ones garnering comes
down to the simple, magnetic draw of seeing the
universe through Morpheus. In fact, weve already
had a brief taster of the VR space combat sim, and
can confirm its like a Swedish massage for the
eyes. Planets swell and fill your periphery. Youre
absorbed into asteroid fields, where you dance
around the galactic rubble as each piece whizzes
past your head. You look down at the cockpit,
checking your various dials, and notice the floor is
glass. Oh god, the floor is glass. Nice touch, CCP.
If were more enthused about the hardware than
the concept, its only because were not really
accustomed to space combat sims on PlayStation.
Its not traditionally a genre that particularly suits
pad controls, but the ability to look around by doing
just that takes the strain off the DualShock 4 and
makes for a more intuitive drive. Valkyrie plugs into
PC life-eater EVE Online too, apparently, which is a
thought too terrifying for us to properly process.
The complexity oh the complexity of it all
Format PS4/Morpheus ETA TBC
Pub CCP Games Dev CCP Games
Format PS4 ETA 2016
Pub 505 Games Dev Giant Squid
Putting aside all hype created by the fact that art
director Matt Nava and composer Austin Wintory
both worked on Journey, this graceful, demure
indie is cause for excitement (and a respectable
placing in this years Hot 50) all of its own accord.
Its a deep-sea exploration experience with a
deeply stylised take on the beauty of marine life
whales drift past you at glacial pace, drawn in
definite and exaggerated carved lines. Sharks
bloody hundreds of sharks silhouette the night
sea as you swim along it, only a headtorch and
prayers for company. Vegetation sways alluringly
as countless varieties of colourful fish hide
themselves from predators within it. You get the
drift: its beautiful, enigmatic and we havent
got a clue how itll play. Giant Squid hasnt
demonstrated any mechanics or systems as of
yet, but unless its an underwater reskin of Ninja
Gaiden Z were definitely in. And as a games mag,
were contractually obliged to invite you to, dive
in, mention that its the, new cod, and tell you not
to be, shellfish. We apologise, but rules are rules.
THE HOT 50
It might not be Red
Dead Redemption 2, but
well happily kill some
monsters cowboy-style.
Its easy to get wrapped up in the notion that the
Final Fantasy name doesnt mean what it used to
a notion backed up by the five announcement emails
for Final Fantasy games we found in our inbox
during E3 week but maybe, just maybe, Noctis
and his comically oversized weaponry can turn it
all around. Judging by the production values alone
of Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix is taking it very
seriously. Though it didnt make an appearance at
this years E3 the reveal footage from last year still
resonates an intricate, ornate visual aesthetic,
acrobatic traversal and equally balletic combat in
which young rich kid Noctis finds himself caught up
in war, mafia power struggles and the ubiquitous
something involving really powerful crystals FF
narrative beat. The battle system takes its lead from
Kingdom Hearts rather than the action-oriented
Lightning Returns, with each character queueing up
an action such as Attack, Warp, Magic, Item, etc.
Ah, the familiar warmth of old traditions. Those
hushed dreams you harbour of Final Fantasy VII with
new-gen looks might not be too far off the mark.
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Square Enix
Dev Square Enix
3
9
2
EVE: Valkyrie Abzu Final Fantasy XV
THE HOT 50
053
Format PS4 ETA Spring 2015
Pub Sony Dev Insomnia
There was a time when Insomniacs gun-happy
Lombax and USB-sized robo buddy were deservedly
treated like PlayStation royalty, but these days
youre more likely to see the pair trying to find a
spike-free doorway to sleep in on Ratchets adoptive
home planet of Veldin than wrestling away Nate
Drakes treasure-studded crown. Even so, fond
memories of their platforming heyday replete with
futuristic weaponry and discoing baddies means we
never completely lost faith in PlayStations favourite
odd couple. That loyalty should be rewarded early
next year with this PS4 reimagining of their
insta-classic debut adventure. Details are scarce,
but we do know its something of a tie-in to the
forthcoming R&C movie so an identical narrative to
that legendary first outing is unlikely. However, you
can definitely look forward to countless hours of
jumping, puzzling, shooting and LOLing, all in the
most gorgeous interpretation of the Solana galaxy
yet. Expect the Groovitron to make an appearance
too, even though it didnt appear in the series until
PS3s Tools Of Destruction.
Format PS4 ETA 10 Oct
Pub Sony Dev Evolution Studios
THE HOT 50
C
o-op shooter RPG
Hunt: Horrors Of The
Gilded Age hails from
former Darksiders
developer Crytek
Austin and was one
of E3s most pleasant surprises.
Rather than being a Left4Dead
rip-off as we feared, its more
like a co-op Resident Evil 4 with
a half-realistic, half-cartoony art
style that looks like it belongs to
Crytek UKs abandoned
Timesplitters 4. Hunt is also
free-to-play but dont let that
put you off.
The suggestion is that the
entire game will be free, with
optional payments for experience
boosts and clothing (exact details
arent firmed up yet). If so, what
theyre offering is pretty cool
levels are randomly generated,
with a strong focus on boss fights
and progression systems. The
demo we were shown was pretty
straightforward hunt a witch
in the scary and swampy Bayou,
which is filled with wooden huts
and Resi-esque villagers of various
sizes. While this one boss goal
is a constant, everything else
is randomised: the order and
positioning of enemies, the layout
of the environment and so on.
There are some events that will
only occur once in every 1,000
playthroughs, were teased, so
replay value could be massive.
Co-op play is optional but some
obstacles seem like theyd need a
bit of co-ordination. When you
respawn, you might wake up in
a coffin or hanging upside down,
and youre stuck there until
another player frees you. It looks
easy to play but pretty furious
and a lot more levels set globally
during this late 19th century
setting are being lined up for a
likely early-2015 launch on PS4,
too. Having created Darksiders,
the team prides itself on its
monster designs, so expect variety
to match the surroundings.
It really is about forming
groups of monster hunters and
hunting down and tracking these
bosses, says game director David
L Adams. Its a boss fighting
game. We planned on making a
whole bunch of cool bosses, a
whole bunch of cool mechanics.
Tracking ghouls with three pals in a randomly generated Wild West
Hunt: Horrors
Of The Gilded Age
Format PS4 ETA 25 Oct Pub Crytek Dev Crytek Austin
3
1
DEV TALK
Its not an RPG in the
Mass Effect sense,
where theres a story
and choices, its an RPG
in the progression and
build-up sense, sort of
like what youd see in a
game such as Diablo.
David L Adams, game
director, Crytek Austin
2
5
2
Pub Bethesda Dev Tango Gameworks
Its been a hell of a ride for the PS4-exclusive social
racer. It wowed us at the PS4 announcement, then
remained pretty mysterious all the way up to the
new consoles release, whereupon it slipped all the
way to October. And yet like a fantastically detailed
phoenix, Driveclub rises from the ashes of that woe
and secures itself slot in the Hot 50. The recently
re-emerged racer renewed our excitement when
we got hands-on and spoke to the team. Obviously,
we were very disappointed by the delay, game
director Paul Rustchynsky tells us. We wanted to
be there for the excitement of the PS4 launch, but
we had some things that we wanted to improve,
and weve done just that. Weve now
seamlessly integrated all our
social elements together,
improved the connectivity
between the game and the
app, and its also meant
weve been able to spend so
much more time on the cars
and the tracks.
If The Evil Within puts any feet wrong during our
most recent and thoroughly impressive hands-on
session, its those belonging to protagonist
Sebastian. To be precise, his feet fall too quickly for
our liking because the default movement speed is
jogging, not walking, and some of the games
potential scares are dashed as a result. So when
we meet legendary game creator Shinji Mikami at
E3, we have to ask why games dont let us explore
at a sedate pace any more. Turns out its because
The Evil Within worlds quite large: Its simply
[because] when you move from location A to
location B, it takes more time if you walk. So in a
bigger field, running is better than walking. [But]
I agree that walking is more suitable for
horror games, [so] in some kind
of situations you can only
walk, you cant run,
he explains. Well
bring you the full
interview in our
next issue.
Driveclub Rachet & Clank The Evil Within
054
THE HOT 50
This ones proof that the perceived quality of a games concept comes largely
down to whos pitching it. If Infinity Ward told you its next game was about
exploring an abandoned island and solving puzzles, youd ding the bell and get
off at the next stop or failing that, throw yourself from the nearest emergency
exit. But this is Jonathan Braid Blows next game, so youre strapped in good
and tight until the final destination. The good news is that the beautifully realised
final stop is almost here: though Blow himself has yet to give us a firm ETA, hes
dropping frequent hints that a release for The Witness may well be imminent.
Although after the team demolished and completely rebuilt the opening area in
the week running up to E3 2014, they might have taken a brief breather to
recover. The nature of The Witness gameplay, which thus far seems to consist
solely of maze-like puzzles (there are 627 so far), appears too simple to last a
whole game but were going out on a limb here and reckon this ones stacked
to the clouds with undisclosed secrets and surprises. Combined with a clean,
bright and breezy art style, the mystery of The Witness makes it a shoo-in for
one of this years hottest gaming delights.
For once lets start by not talking about the ending of Mass Effect 3, shall we?
Oh, wait even after this years E3 were still none the wiser regarding when
and where the fourth in the iconic franchise will be set. However, developer
Bioware has teased a, whole new region of space, with brand new locations,
a cast of fresh characters and, new people to fall in love with. Awww nice to
see love isnt dead. Ruling out returning companions rather than specific races,
recent concept art for Mass Effect 4 teases humans and Krogans for our new
Shep-less journey (*sob*) and Bioware is taking brave steps into the unknown
rather than staying within sight of the Omega Relay (or at least whats left of it).
We already know this new-gen offering will be worth the wait yup, thats a
far-off 2016 ETA glowering from atop this entry but Bioware isnt holding back
when it comes to making the most of the new power offered up on the
parallelepiped-shaped plate that is PlayStation 4. Imagine what we can do now
with new consoles and amazing software, teases the E3 trailer mercilessly like
someone holding a galactic jam donut just out of reach of our grubby mitts. We
think fans of the series are going to be surprised at just how far we are going.
Driveclub has the meticulously detailed flecks of
paint, and Project CARS has a fearsomely realistic
simulation model going for it so where does that
leave Ubisoft racer The Crew? Well, this curious
collaboration between former Test Drive Unlimited
devs (now going by Ivory Tower) and Driver: San
Franciscos Ubisoft Reflections is very much of the
size matters mindset. Its huge open-world map is
based on the geography of the United States, and
it takes a good 45 minutes to drive from one end
of the country to the other. Some people are calling
this a CarPG, and while those people are being
rounded up against a wall and shot, lets explain
what they mean. In RPGs you level up your character
in The Crew, you upgrade your wheels. By which
we mean car. Hardly an avant-garde concept, but
its handled with more emphasis in this game than
most, and you might find yourself buying fewer cars
to instead bolster up a select few, which specialise
in different event types. Were still a bit worried it
wont shake off the gener-o-vibes before release,
but theres potential here worth shouting about.
Format PS4 ETA 11 Nov
Pub Ubisoft Dev Ivory Tower/Ubisoft Reflections
Format PS4 ETA 2016 Pub EA Dev Bioware
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Thekla Inc Dev Thekla Inc
Format PS4 ETA 2015
Pub EA Dev DICE
Pub 2K Games Dev Visual Concepts/Yukes
Im afraid Ive got some Bad News: its still too early
to see WWE 2K15 in action. But after a private
one-on-one briefing in a secret meeting room at E3,
we now know what the wrestling series will look like
on PS4. NBA 2K14 dev Visual Concepts is leading the
charge this year, working with series coders Yukes.
Visually its a stunner: the teams using the NBA
2K14 body-scanning technology to capture the look
of the real WWE Superstars with levels of detail
so precise it isnt even compatible with the PS3
version, which itself is no visual slouch thanks to the
implementation of new lighting tools developed by
Visual Concepts. On PS4, facial details are a real
highlight, as evidenced by in-engine footage of John
Cena gurning at the camera with remarkable detail.
Were assured the flow of the game is markedly
better in part because WWE donated a ring to the
studio in which the team can mo-cap animations and
moves, while on the presentation side Cole and King
have recorded their new lines together as a pair
for the first time in the series history with 30-35
hours of new VO captured, per commentator.
Now that Disney owns everything the light touches
in a galaxy far, far away, the Star Wars franchise
is somehow even more of a behemoth than ever
before. So no pressure whatsoever on Swedish
developer DICE to bring it to the new generation
of consoles. Weve all grown up with it and now we
have the opportunity of a lifetime to make the Star
Wars game that as fans we have always dreamt of
playing, announces design director Niklas Fegraeus
in an EA teaser reel. To stay as true to the films as
possible, we went back to where it all began, visiting
the Lucas archives to capture the actual models
and props used in the movies. The new shooter
will utilise the Frostbite 3 engine and, showing off
tantalising renders of a snowy Hoth and the lush
forests of Endor, DICE is making sure we know it is
focusing on bringing the joy of the original trilogy to
life in eye-massaging levels of detail. All of this
on PS4? A Jedi might not crave adventure and
excitement, but we certainly do.
2
2
1
0
2
4
2
3
2
2
The Crew WWE 2K15 Star Wars
Battlefront
Mass Effect 4 The Witness
Y
ou know how it goes:
you wait years for a
sequel to one of the
most creative games
in EA history, and
another little piece
of your heart breaks with every
trade show that passes minus
a Bulletstorm 2 announcement.
Ack. Still, Mirrors Edge 2 is
proof that the mega-publishers
properties are rarely killed off
forever were finally getting a
follow-up to Faiths
groundbreaking, speed-running,
roof-leaping adventure, half a
decade after that ace original.
As youd expect from a game
thats been in the oven for six
years and counting, DICE is going
to great lengths to ensure this
origins story surpasses the first
outing in every imaginable way.
Parkour artists from across the
globe descended on its Stockholm
HQ in order to help expand upon
lead lady Faiths gravity-defying
moveset they can teach us a
lot, says producer Sara Jonsson
while every pixel of the
famously fringed femme has been
manicured and polished, right
down to her prized single glove.
Mirrors Edge is about
mastering the environment, and
Mirrors Edge is about Faith,
continues Jonsson. The silent
tone of the game implies that
everything we do needs to be
elegant, minimalistic, and has
to have a certain attitude.
To that end, the coolest
moment from last years reveal
trailer was our dexterous damsel
using a flying leg scissors to
down an enemy, before smashing
As soon as this CP-2
soldier runs into Faith,
that hi-tech facemask is
going smashy-smashy.
Faith rewarded at long, long last
Mirrors Edge 2
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub EA Dev DICE
his glass-made mask with a snappy
fist to the face. The implication is
that combat and free-running have
now been seamlessly integrated
a big improvement on the first
game, where the pairs marriage
was a constantly jarring one.
In addition to improved
fisticuffs, DICE is focused on
delivering multiple routes through
its stylised locales. Everything
is geared towards traversing and
navigating this environment,
comments tech ical director
Henrik Karlsson We want the
player to be able to experiment
and find differe t paths.
If sassy virtual ladies with odd
eye tattoos (something which will
also be explained in ME2) are your
thing, this wont disappoint.
Though it is our duty to politely
suggest that you get out more.
DEV TALK
Were redefining the
role of the runners to
allow for more varied
gameplay. Well expand
upon who Faith is in this
world, and why shes
doing what shes doing.
Mirrors Edge 2 is Faith
for a new generation.
Sara Jonsson,
producer, DICE
1 9
THE HOT 50
056
THE HOT 50
056
THE HOT 50
T
he beautiful game
(minus Jay Spearing,
naturally) can put you
through all the feels.
The unabashed
delirium of a late
comeback winner. Shrieks of
terror at seeing your keeper hare
40 yards off his line (What are
you doing Fabianski?!). Or the
rampant delight at seeing certain
players for arguments sake,
lets call our hypothetical star
Stephan Gercard fall flat on
his face after miscontrolling a
four-yard pass. Thats EA
Canadas primary brief this year:
it wants you to feel the game.
Like having Sheikh Mansours
piggy bank backing your transfer
market forays, FIFA 15 is building
FI FA 15
Footy gets fanatical as EA makes its most emotive kickabout
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 23 Sep Pub EA Dev EA Canada
8
057

057
Those alluring new-gen
crowds are back,
complete with club-
bespoke celebrations.
from a position of considerable
strength. Last years new-gen
debut was a fantastic start,
adding considerable sheen to
the presentation of an already
class-leading sports spectacle. So
its perhaps unsurprising that our
first hands-on with this seasons
latest entry on PS4 isnt exactly
a game-changer. At first glance,
youre once again dealing with
a superb simulation of football
erected on impeccable passing,
well-judged physics and killer
delivery in the final third. Look
a little closer, though, and you
actually find the latest FIFA
has had something of a radical
personality transplant.
CROWD PLEASER
Emotion and intensity: thats how
FIFA 15 hopes to distinguish itself
from its chart-conquering
predecessors. You want added
value, producer Sebastian Enrique
admits. And that added value
in football is not just about
the game; its also about the
atmosphere, the passion. On
the virtual turf, that latter quality
takes the form of teams and a
crowd that fully understand the
context and consequences of the
ball-hoofing exploits before them
like never before.
Ive cried in stadiums, admits
Enrique. Its not just about
watching Cristiano Ronaldo doing
a nice trick. Its about the people
who go to the stadium. And
thats where the games much
more convincing attempts at
creating emotion come into play.
Your team is now governed by a
mood system, a parameter which
starts out at a neutral state, but
can quickly tank to nervy,
depressed levels if your keeper
makes a mega gaffe. Equally, if you
score a screamer to equalise in a
crucial derby, your men become
extra motivated and play that
much harder.
In past games, playing a friendly
against Macclesfield Town carried
the same sense of big match day
nerves as an El Classico clash.
Thats to say, there was zero
differentiation between small
meaningless matches and
table-topping, league-deciding
encounters. With the tweaks
made to both the crowd and
teams emotional states, EA at
long last looks to accurately
recreate that gut-churning
sensation of a crunch match.
As a result, you see players
genuinely emote beyond just an
overly strung out right stick
celebration. Strikers look
genuinely outraged if their
wingers continually shank mishit
crosses into them. Likewise, if one
of their teammates thinks their
poaching pal is getting overly
rough treatment they rush over to
his side to stick up for him after a
bad tackle. Not only does this
create a real visual sense of
camaraderie, but it also affects
tactics on the pitch.
Say youre playing in a North
London derby for that much
coveted fourth place trophy and
you find yourself trailing with 15
minutes to go. Well, pull one back
in the final ten and your side
gains a hefty injection of belief
and confidence, with your AI
teammates providing more willing
support in the aftermath of a goal.
MIXER AND MATCH
Of course, you can also manually
manipulate their gameplan, too.
New In The Mixer and Park The
Bus tactics (activated at the
extreme ends of the D-pad tactics
spectrum) give you more nuance
for hurried bombing forward/last
ditch defending. Couple this with
players who are now affected by
the sense of occasion, and youre
left with a more convincing
portrayal of the incredible theatre
of modern football.
Having only played multiplayer
matches in FIFA 15 to this point,
it seems clear the full extent
of these more personable
presentation changes might be
fully felt in Career mode, which
EA Canada isnt talking about
yet. Still, there are plenty of new,
slightly less headline-grabbing
features the studio is happy to
open up about.
Deep breath Physically Based
Rendering (which creates a far
more realistic lighting setup);
improved character models
(players no longer look like theyre
wearing shoulder pads); Correct
Contacts (teams now regularly use
the momentum of the ball to steer
passes); crowd-specific animations
(City fans Poznan); and Living
Pitches. Eh? The last un is a
biggie, with grounds looking more
believable thanks to huge texture
improvements, which includes
players finally leaving stud marks
in the turf.
While the on-pitch action
currently feels reassuringly
familiar, FIFA 15 looks to be bold
by being the first football game
that might actually recreate the
maddeningly-addictive, life-
dominating emotion that goes
into supporting your club. Are
we going to make you cry? adds
Enrique. I hope not.
dev talk
The responsiveness is
the thing you feel right
away when picking up
the game. After that the
passing makes matches
feel more contextual.
And you now have more
passing opportunities on
the pitch than before.
Sebastian Enrique,
producer, EA Canada
058

T
he long-awaited
Rainbow Six: Patriots
is dead. Dont bother
sending flowers it
received a bullet to
the cranium a full 18
months ago. But when Ubisoft
executed its production, a new
game rose from its ashes like a
phoenix. Its called Rainbow Six:
Siege, and it had the honour of
following in Watch Dogs and
The Divisions footsteps by
becoming this years final
surprise reveal during Ubis
E3 press conference.
A multiplayer-first first-person
shooter, the team-based blaster
is all about Rainbow Six versus
domestic terrorists and the wall
dividing the two factions. In our
three-round, five-on-five hands-
on demo, this means the bad
guys have a hostage secured in a
three-storey suburban house, and
the heroes must breach the walls
of said abode, locate the kidnapped
girl and either eliminate all the bad
guys or escape with the hostage
within a set timeframe to win.
Half of the action takes place in
the 60 seconds before each round.
During this time, the terrorists
use their class-specific skills
to barricade their stronghold:
fortifying walls against explosive
breaching kits, covering doors and
windows with shutters to hinder
team Rainbows infiltration efforts,
and laying down barbed wire and
mines to slow and outright kill the
good guys. The games eponymous
legends, meanwhile, can drive tiny
drones into the house to try to
learn where the hostage is being
held captive, then position their
drones to act as a handy network
of cameras with which to keep
tabs on terrorist movements
during the round itself.
Skirmishes are brutal. A single
bullet can be deadly, and Siege
operates under one-life-only
elimination rules. In a great twist,
you can destroy almost any
unfortified surface be it wall,
floor or ceiling with breaching
packs, meaning teams can carve
unique paths through the world
and get the leap on enemies
hunkering down behind cover by
taking away the ceiling above their
heads or the floor beneath their
feet. Our multiplayer experience
doesnt match the jaw-dropping
reveal demo in terms of visual
clout, but it certainly put to bed
any concerns that the scripted
footage Ubisoft Montreal used to
unveil the game is in any way
unrepresentative of the actual
experience that Siege will offer at
launch. The matches we take part
in combine the very best of
Counter-Strike, SWAT and classic
Rainbow Six, and the simple
asynchronous setup already feels
like it has the potential to earn
classic status by offering fresh and
surprising experiences night after
night after night.
The newest Clancy game breaches E3 and almost steals the show
Rainbow Six: Siege
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Ubisoft Dev Ubisoft Montreal
DEV TALK
The project started 18
months ago, and during
that period we spent
most of that time
working exclusively
on the multiplayer. The
reasoning we have is
simple: make sure the
gameplay is strong,
coherent and everything
works together. And
if it does that for the
multiplayer, then well
be able to bring all of
that to the single-player
aspect as well. There will
be single-player aspects
and co-op aspects.
Jrme Lasserre,
team lead,
Ubisoft Montreal

1
1
1
3
5 1
4
6
Ever since Captain Price took his
combat grade tache home weve
been waiting to truly connect with
a COD game again. Black Ops II
had some inventive, if muddled,
ideas, while Ghosts was a fun,
throwaway rollercoaster that was
happy to rest on Infinity Wards
well-worn, bombastic tropes.
But now, thanks to the input
of Sledgehammer Games and a
legendary Hollywood scenery-
chewer, the planets biggest
shooter is ready to reconnect.
Kevin Spacey and supersoldier
suits: thats all you really need to
know. The former is bringing his
COD: Advanced Warfare
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 4 Nov Pub Activision Dev Sledgehammer Games
The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt
Grim Fandango
This may or may not be the best game of 2015, but
itll almost certainly be the one you spend the most
time in if you have a soft spot for role-playing (Phils
already stockpiling canned goods in anticipation).
The ever-bullish CD Projekt Red is promising
nothing less than the biggest open world in modern
RPG history, and as our latest peek at Geralts new
venture reveals, its anything but dead space for
the sake of back-of-box boasts. Geralt tracks a
Griffin through a woodland area called No Mans
Land, using his powers as a mutant to detect its
trail before eventually engaging in a more stylised
swordplay style than that of the Witcher 2,
with a subtle slow-mo effect reminiscent of
the knockouts in the Batman: Arkham series.
Demonstrating the vibrancy of the games
open-world, the White Wolf also bumps into
friends and foes along the trail, stopping
for chats and kills along the way. Its
maybe the most boastful game in this
list, but if The Witcher 3 comes good on
even half its claims were in for a GOTY
contender in 2015.
The delayed shooter had a mixed showing at this
years E3. On one hand, it continues to be one of the
most impressive-looking games weve ever seen
(though Uncharted 4s in-engine demo just pips it),
and during our hands-on time it feels as if were
playing a CG cutscene. But testing raises questions
about the gunplay. The cover systems solid and
snappy and the thermite rifle, with which we splash
our foes with jets of sticky inflammable spray (easy
grandma) using i then ignite them with a flare
shot by pressing u, is inspired. More familiar guns
are unsatisfying to fire, however, and deflate the
atmosphere so expertly crafted by the incredible
looks. Praise be to the werewolf-like Lichen
monster, then. Unveiled on Sonys E3 stage, we see
an extended, invite-only gameplay section in which
Galahad, with torch in hand, has to stay on the move
in an abandoned, pitch-black hospital to avoid having
his neck ripped out by the nine-foot-tall freak. There
are plenty of seamless transitions in and out of
cinematics, but this combat-free survival
horror-esque level shows The Order: 1886 is much
more than just a tarted up cover-shooter.
While the hollering fuss made about the return of
Grim Fandango might have been greeted with blank
stares and confused mumbles by audience
members under a *cough* certain age; to everyone
else watching Sonys E3 show, the news was akin to
witnessing Jesus return to announce that Santa
is real (And hes here tonight!) and that neither
Harold Ramis nor Rik Mayall is actually dead. Excuse
the morbid metaphor, but its entirely apt. Tim
Schafers Grim Fandango, you see, is a cadaver-
filled classic of the adventure genre. Divisive
upon release due to its shift away from
traditional 2D design, its hilarious, unique,
film-noir take on the Mexican Land Of The
Dead (its very Schafer-y) has since seen it
rightly lauded as one of the genres finest
achievements. After languishing, uncared for in
the LucasArts archives, nostalgia and demand
for it have grown like Bruce Banner stuck in a
hot summers day traffic jam. But
now, perhaps driven by modern
adventure games rapid resurgence
by way of The Walking Dead, were
not only getting it back, but were
getting it in a super-remastered,
sparkling HD edition. Rejoice.
The Order:
1886
Format PS4 ETA 20 Feb 2015
Pub Sony Dev Ready at Dawn/Sony Santa Monica
Format: PS4/PS Vita ETATBC
Pub Double Fine Dev Double Fine
Format PS4 ETA 24 Feb 2015
Pub Bandai Namco Dev CD Projekt Red
quietly simmering brand of emotional
integrity to Jonathan Irons, Advanced
Warfares shady PMC leader
antagonist, in a move Sledgehammer
hopes can raise COD to the storytelling
heights of Naughty Dogs output. As
for the Advanced Soldier suit, its
invisibility cloaking, boost jumping, car
lifting party tricks come courtesy of a
thoroughly researched setting with a
futurist slant. Set to deliver the series
traditional, unbreaking 60fps with a
renewed vim for narrative (plus severed
arms!), Advanced Warfare wants to win
the yearly Battlefield war by pairing
CODs world-conquering multiplayer
with a re-energised campaign.

R
eady the hessian,
the needles and the
thread because its
time to craft Sackboy
some friends. Meet
dog OddSock, bird
Swoop, and the rather Yeti-ish
Toggle, who shrinks down into
a stamp-sized version of himself
with a press of o.
These new heroes mean LBP3
plays significantly differently to its
predecessors. OddSock wall-jumps
to areas others cant reach, Swoop
carries characters over cliffs or
grips and raises plinths for friends
to dash beneath, and Toggles
capable of squeezing through tiny
gaps, activating stiff switches and,
with careful use of both his body
types, catapulting across chasms
by weighing down and then
releasing spring blocks. Indeed,
one of the levels we test is
designed specifically for Toggle,
and not a single idea is repeated
during its five minutes of fun.
As for Sackboy himself, he now
climbs cargo netting and wields a
variety of new tools including the
Pumpinator (essentially an air-jet
gun strong enough to lift hinged
platforms) in order to stay
relevant. Not that we anticipate
him being dethroned from iconic
PlayStation 4 goes sack to basics
LittleBigPlanet 3
Format PS4/PS3 ETA Nov Pub Sony Dev Sumo Digital
DEV TALK
When we first thought
about new characters it
was a lot less ambitious
than the final designs.
But we didnt want to
do just slightly different
versions of Sackboy.
Pete Smith, executive
producer, Sony XDev
1 2
status by his new buddies,
even though their costumes are
stupidly cute: an early favourite is
Toggles superhero guise,
complete with tiny cape that
becomes massive on mini-Toggle
when he morphs.
Trackpad Create menu
functionality and PS4s Share
features go hand-in-hand with
the LBP-verse, but not everything
is new. The 8.7 million user-
created levels from the first two
games are all compatible and
available to download from day
one, and less than 24 hours after
the games E3 reveal Sony started
seeing levels appearing that have
been custom-built for the new
additions to the LBP family.
061
N
eat trick, Ubisoft
Massive. While were
all getting sick to
the back teeth of
the post-apocalypse,
being in the eye of
the storm while the world falls
down is still untrodden ground.
Maybe thats part of our
enduring enthusiasm for The
Division the chance to look at
world-ending events from a new
perspective. And in perhaps the
most familiar videogame setting
of all, the iconic New York City,
we see the impressive Snowdrop
engine transform America into an
almost unrecognisable warzone
before our very eyes. Creating
that stark contrast in the New
York of The Division was really
important, says game director
Ryan Barnard, because then you
can be like Oh, I wanna go see
Times Square and see whats
happened there. Thats really
interesting, I think.
You have that freedom. Theres
intentionally very little gating in
The Divisions game map, although
if you wander into an area that
youre not equipped to deal with,
death wont dilly-dally on its way
to you. Certain areas have such
high contamination levels that
things wont end well if you rush
headlong into them: If you dont
have the equipment, you can still
go in there, but the virus will kill
you, notes Barnard. Its the
catalyst of the whole game, so we
need it to be scary and deadly.
The incredible shattering
glass will look just as
incredible in the boxed
game, Ubi assures.
Introducing the mid-apocalypse survival genre
The Division
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Ubisoft Dev Ubisoft Massive/Ubisoft Red Storm/Ubisoft Reflections
But this is as much an RPG
as a shooter, so upgrading your
character and finding a way to
enter those previously deadly
areas is half the fun. Its what
open-worlds are for, essentially.
And in the wake of Watch Dogs
clear visual downgrade from E3
2012s reveal demo to the finished
article reviewed this issue, The
Divisions dev Massive is keen to
demonstrate total transparency on
this thorny topic. Will the finished
game look like the E3 2013 reveal
demo, we ask? Absolutely, yeah. If
you look at this years demo, we
think the graphical fidelitys
actually a little better [than last
years] and completely within what
we expect for the console. Right,
weve got it in writing now, Ubi.
DEV TALK
Were looking at The
Division as a franchise.
We want to build upon
this universe for years
and years, hopefully. We
have endgame activities
to keep people playing
in between additions.
Ryan Barnard,
game director,
Ubisoft Massive
1 1
062
THE HOT 50
T
hats $9.9m of coke,
ponders the Mystic
Meg-aspiring,
narcotics cop. What
are you, drug Rain
Man? snaps his
mystified partner in the midst
of a bust. Zut alors! Did you
just make us laugh, new
Battlefield? And by laugh, we
mean an honest-to-goodness
chortle with, rather than at,
your crime-fighting campaign.
Dont tell us after years
of desperately pawing for a
single-player voice of its own,
DICE has finally found a decent
narrative to hang its shooting off?
Actually, no: it hasnt. Oh sure,
the premise of a young Miami
detective hunting down his
corrupt partners is infinitely
more interesting than whatever
Battlefield 4s plot was about
something about Omar a-comin?
But the reason you should
be genuinely optimistic about
Hardlines offline component,
which uses cop shows such as
The Shield both as its inspiration
and ubiquitous moral compass,
is due to the presence of Visceral,
0
Battlefield
Hardline
Visceral cops a feel as the mega-shooter tackles police vs crims
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 24 Oct Pub EA Dev Visceral Games/DICE
not DICE. Thanks to the
involvement of the Dead Space
developer, you could be looking at
the first Battlefield single-player
worth getting legitimately jazzed
for since Bad Company 2.
HEAT RISING
Not that the Stockholm
studio has cowardly fled from the
conflict entirely. DICE is currently
concentrating on a heist-focused
multiplayer component
that seems heavily indebted
to Payday. Well cover
the vault-thieving
1
063
THE HOT 50
online escapades shortly, but in
the meantime, its hard to blame
the Swedes for handing off
single-player duties to the
team responsible for Dead Space.
Aside from having a heaping plate
consisting of Mirrors Edge 2 and
Star Wars Battlefront, the teams
offline efforts have always felt
phoned-in next to the glorious,
explodey antics of its 64-player
skirmishes. Conversely, Visceral
has a proven track record of
delivering compelling campaigns
(uh, lets just forget Dantes
Inferno), something its TV-
inspired police story will
hopefully continue.
Hands in the air like you just
dont care if you recall 2008s
Alone In The Dark? Grand,
because Battlefield Hardlines
story is structured in a similar
fashion. Following the coke-
tracking pursuits of detective Nick
Mendoza, levels are built
episodically like TV shows
expect to see a
Previously on
Battlefield recap
when you start
a new stage.
This tellybox presentation is
further strengthened by a cast
comprised of actors from hit US
shows such as Justified, The
Americans and House Of Cards.
Peek extra closely at the seven-
minute internal EA video that
was accidentally leaked before
E3 and youll even spot Travis
Willingham during a bust.
Or, as hes known in
more inFamous circles,
Reggie Rowe,
DEV TALK
Battlefield already
exists; it doesnt feel fair
to just make the same
game. And it felt like
cops and criminals,
relative to how popular
it is and how we all
played it as kids, just
doesnt show up often.
Ian Milham, creative
director, Visceral
064
THE HOT 50
Delsins brother. In a year when
Sledgehammer has nabbed Kevin
Spacey to add dramatic credence
to Advanced Warfare, its
interesting to see both megaton
FPS hitters chasing thematic TV
tropes for their single-player bits.
As Mendoza goes after,
chatterbox coke dealers, and,
deranged billionaires, he has
access to far more expansive,
sprawling campaign maps than
Battlefield has traditionally
trusted you with. While an
early glimpse at a claustrophobic
shootout in an LA car dealership
suggests more hemmed-in
firefights still exist, Visceral wants
you to replay these larger urban
environments multiple times,
and in multiple ways. As such,
its, rebuilt the AI from the
ground up, with an eye to
creating a broader tactical canvas
that encourages improvisation.
POLICE TECH
Enter a hot fuzz gadget show.
With stealth now a completely
viable option in certain areas,
Mendoza has access to a range
of tools allowing him to scout
his terrain and recon the bad guys
kind of like a drug-dipping
Batman. Chief among these
gizmos is your police scanner; a
nifty piece of kit that lets you
paint your enemies with a
Detective mode-like glow. Theres
also a suggestion Hardline may
try to ape Segas Condemned, as
the game contains crime scenes
you can examine for fingerprints
and other key evidence with
the scanner. Hell, the gadget can
even earn you extra moolah while
in the field you can use it to
check for outstanding warrants on
dealers, then use these payoffs to
purchase new kit for your loadout.
So far, so surprisingly rosey
on the Norman No Mates mode
front. But what of the real reason
you came to this scenery-
puncturing party? Well, clearly
DICE isnt afraid of shaking things
up in the wake of Battlefield 4s
disastrous online launch, because
the studio has gone in an entirely
different direction with Hardlines
multiplayer. And that direction
leads to one place: heists.
Yes, its time to fetch your
clown masks and duffel bags,
folks. Its obvious DICE has no
qualms about going down the
Payday-riffing route, with two of
the games online modes focusing
on cops and cash-grabbing robbers
battling over money and hostages.
The ultimate shame
for any Heat-esque
aspiring robber:
getting taken alive.
Above Were glad vehicles are still taking a
starring role in Hardlines multiplayer.
Heist sees a team of robbers going
for that big score as they try to
bust into a vault and make a clean
getaway, while their law-enforcing
opponents try to block off them
off. Meanwhile, Rescue has a
SWAT team attempting to save a
group of hostages in the aftermath
of a bank job gone wrong.
In a significant coup for PS4,
Sony nabbed the early Beta rights
to Hardline at this years E3, with
the game thrown into the PSN
wilds on the day of its conference.
Based on our hands-on with Heist
and Blood Money (Battlefields
spin on CTF where two teams
vie for Richie Rich-sized pile of
greens), we can at least say this
Battlefield actually works so far.
Hooking up to the Beta was
smooth, even if the map of
downtown LA feels cramped for
32 player matches. Despite the
overly hectic action and Payday
theme, this still feels DICE-y.
There are plenty of reasons to
hope Hardline will rebuild the
trust DICE shattered so
disastrously with BF4s woes.
Providing adequate pre-launch
prep work irons out EAs server
kinks, you could be left with a
very different Battlefield and
one where you actually want
to switch on single-player too.
065
THE HOT 50
Above DICE will give us President masks for the final
bank jobs, yeah? Not that we dont love the S&M look.
HARDLINE COULD
HELP REBUILD THE
TRUST SHATTERED
BY BF4S ISSUES.
Bikes handle with a
hugely nippy turning
circle. Eat that, fuzz!

Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Square Enix Dev Crystal Dynamics
Once more into Uncharted territory
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
S
he came, she saw,
she reinvented
herself after the
world got bored of
her conquering. And
on the heels of her
triumphant, narrative-driven
2013 return, new Lara is going
back to the future again in this
sequel in the sense that it
features actual, er, tomb raiding.
Gigantic, artefact-packed crypts
were conspicuous by their absence
last time round, but thats no
longer the case. Reveal footage
shows Ms Croft stealthing her way
into a giant cavernous space which
will no doubt be overspilling with
9
trinkets not to mention
evildoers wanting to chop off more
than her lustrous brown locks.
Camilla Luddington is back in
the mo-cap suit as the voice and
body of the Raider herself, with
Rhianna Pratchett once again on
writing duties thereby ensuring
Croft is painted as a haunted soul
and reluctant killer, as opposed to
the ass-whupping action heroine
of old. Indeed, shes troubled by
the events of her last adventure
to the point of regularly seeing
a shrink, presumably in order
to finally banish the ghosts of
all those island baddies fallen
by arrows to the neck.
Evidently the psychotherapy
ends up a massive failure, as the
same footage that introduces Dr
Happydays also shows her running
from a giant bear and vaulting
around in the cold. Our moneys
on an even bigger bodycount this
time around as Lara grapples with
inner turmoils, but were hoping
for a Lara vs nature outing similar
to the spirit of 1996s debut entry.
Its still hard to envision this
pipping Uncharted, but then what
game in the last decade has? Look
beyond the Drake comparisons and
this is shaping up to be another
golden Lara adventure, both
literally and figuratively.
067
THE HOT 50
Whats this? Actual
bonafide tombs to raid?
Oh Crofty, why have you
made us wait so long?
This former Beasts got Soul(s)
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Sony Dev From Software
QUALITY
ALWAYS TRUMPS
QUANTITY, BUT
THIS LOOKS SET
TO DO BOTH.
T
heres equating
imitation with flattery,
and then theres
standing outside
someones bedroom
window waving while
wearing their best dress and a
wig made from clippings you
got by bribing their hairdresser.
Such is the relationship between
Bloodborne (previously leaked
as Project Beast) and the
Demons/Dark Souls titles
although as both are by From
Software, theres no need to load
up the outrage cannon.
The games, though, share far
more than just a studio: gameplay
is hugely reminiscent, centring on
third-person close-quarters
combat, extreme difficulty, and a
satisfying whoosh sound as you
suck up the essence of your fallen
foes. Differences lies partly in the
aesthetic although the city of
Yharnam, a grim 19th century
gothic locale, shares more
commonalities with Souls games
8
than some would have you believe
and partly in a tweak to how
the fighting plays out. There are
shields (although none have been
shown yet), but the intention
here is to make the player more
active and offensive something
evidenced by the use of a shotgun.
Weve also seen an extendable
hatchet that can be changed based
on range of combat, and tall,
cloaked enemies wielding torches,
hammers and the like. What we
know of our protagonist is limited:
hes come to Yharnam searching
for a cure for the disease which
plights the world of Bloodborne,
and which has sent the citizens
into their state of aggression.
A notable (although perhaps not
surprising, considering its name)
difference to previous From games
is the buckets of red stuff sloshing
about. And if our man isnt already
infected by the time he gets to
Yharnam, then given the diseases
transmission (again, clues in
the name), he sure will be soon.
Bloodborne
Developed by Souls
creator Hidetaka Miyazaki,
this PS4 exclusive is the
true Dark Souls II.
068
THE HOT 50
068
THE HOT 50
W
ith Ubisoft no
longer shying
away from being
French, (not our
words but those
of The Crews
creative director Julian Gerighty)
it was always inevitable that its
history-hopscotching series
would someday land two-footed
in Paris during the events of the
French Revolution, and sacr bleu
does it look good enough to eat.
With up to 5,000 characters
on-screen at any one time to
recreate the thronging streets of
the bustling French capital, this
new-gen-only Creed is designed
on a scale like no other.
That scale is 1:1, to be exact.
For the first time in its history,
Assassins Creed attempts to
construct a city and all the
buildings within it with utter
precision, meaning the iconic
Notre-Dame is as awe-inspiringly
huge in the virtual world as it is
in real-life. Paris is even bigger
than all of Black Flags landmasses
pushed together, claims producer
Lesley Phord-Toy. And when we
pad around Notre-Dames interior
and gawp at the height of the
ceiling and the fact that when we
get up close to the stained glass
windows and peer out we can
actually see the individual leaves on
the trees outside swaying in the
breeze, we start to realise that
nothing yet released on PS4 even
begins to do our new(ish)
machines capabilities justice.
HEY ARNO
Our hands-on session begins with
new assassin Arno, who carries
a hidden blade/crossbow combo
called the Phantom Blade, perched
on the side of Notre-Dame,
which he descends in half a dozen
body-twisting leaps, wall-hops
We try to keep our head as we go hands-on with the new revolution
Format PS4 ETA 28 Oct Pub Ubisoft Dev Ubisoft Montreal
7
Assassins
Creed Unity
069
THE HOT 50
069
THE HOT 50
and bar-swings thanks to the
brand new parkour system.
The leaked information was
correct: Unity does feature
up and down buttons for
its parkour, and theyre
fantastically implemented.
It means all those
moments when you ended
up leaping and sticking to
the wrong bit of scenery
while free-running are at an
end, because by pressing the
up or down buttons (q for
up, e for down) were able to
carefully guide Arno through the
most detailed environments yet
without so much as a misplaced
hand or foot.
After touching down and
pushing through a busy crowd,
weve a chance to really admire
Paris up close. By ditching
last-gen machines for Unity,
Ubis able to piece together a
more vibrant world than ever, and
while its visual fidelity isnt a
match for that of The Order: 1886
or Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End
(partly down to the ridiculously
sized city with load-free interiors
and underground sections) the
lighting effects elevate the scene
to near-lifelike status.
When we move through
side-streets were hit with new
Animus features such as quest
logs and mission briefs. Crowd
gathering around a house?
A subtle visual clue to lead
us inside, where we discover a
Murder Mystery mission named
Ancestral Vengeance, in which
we must gather clues to solve
a killing. Its the third of 11 such
missions, were informed.
Back outside and theres time
for a quick scuffle with three
guards before moving on. Instant
counter-kills have been dropped
for parry and dodge moves, which
must be followed up with manual
attacks. And guards no longer
politely wait their turns before
lunging in, so were strongly
advised to reconsider any combat
situation involving more than
three enemies at once. The
Above No dubstep for this years CG trailer: its Lorde instead.

series combats been through
so many revisions through the
years that this new scrap honestly
doesnt feel far removed from the
old fighting systems, but without
a large group of foes to test our
skills against we cant put the
devs claims to the test first-hand.
One new feature we do sample
is the new stealth mechanic,
which Arno slips into as we press
o. He takes cover behind desks
as we silently slide across a busy
room using furniture to hide
us from hostile eyes: its basic
Splinter Cell tactics, but a move
that could greatly multiply
the series relatively untapped
potential for proper stealth
assassination missions.
WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY?
The biggest talking point during
this years E3 showing involves
the new four-player Brotherhood
missions, which can also be
tackled solo if the thought of a
friend wrecking your perfect
stealth assassination attempt by
Leeroy Jenkinsing around Paris is
too much to bear. Ubisoft didnt
find space for a single female
character in this replacement
to the competitive multiplayer
modes of old, apparently because
of the strain it would put the
games ten studios under to
create the required animations,
customisable costumes and gear,
voice capture and the other work
needed in order to create the
female form apparently clueless
of the well known fact that theyre
deadlier than the males. Its a big
backwards step for the publisher,
and a decision thats taken
significant gloss off Unitys
impressive reveal.
Another feature that hasnt
gone down well, albeit for pure
aesthetic reasons this time, is
called High-Ground Icons, and it
occurs when we first climb up to
the Parisian rooftops and take a
breather. The moment we stop
moving the screen fills with
symbols pointing out where
nearby missions and collectibles
can be triggered. Paris may be
packed with stuff, indeed, but
ARNO DESCENDS NOTRE-
DAME CATHEDRAL WITHOUT
SO MUCH AS A MISPLACED
HAND, FOOT OR HOOD.
THE HOT 50
Above As well as his Phantom Blade, Arno
carries a multi-barrel pistol and a cutlass.
whatever happened to absorbing
the sights and trading some of the
gamification for actual tourism
and enjoyment? Given the number
of complaints we heard about this
mode at neighbouring demo pods
and post-game discussions, dont
be surprised if this feature can be
toggled on or off when the final
version is released.
Unwelcome icons arent the
only things for the chop. Were
an assassin, after all, and in this
level set in 1793 were tasked with
executing a man named Captain
Xavier whos overseeing a
procession of executions by
guillotine during the citys Reign
Of Terror. We spy him using an
Eagle Vision skill of sorts, which
is now one of many upgradeable
skills. According to our developer
co-pilot, Ubisofts taken the
upgrade systems of the Jackdaw
in Assassins Creed IV and applied
those philosophies to Arno
himself this time around.
When we try to approach
Xavier in the street we discover
hes surrounded by armed guards
and theres no way through. So
the best way to take him down
involves climbing back up to the
rooftops, making our way over
to the nearest guillotine (taking
a cruel moments rest to watch a
civilian being fed into the device
and decapitated in front of us
to a chorus of cheers from the
gathered crowd sorry Pierre)
before using the wooden top as
a makeshift step to propel us
forward and our blade down into
Xaviers neck to bring the demo
to a familiarly murderous close.
Its a sharp punctuation point
to end a brilliantly paced taster
of PS4s first dedicated Assassins
Creed game, leaving us hungry
for another taste of the revolution.
Like executing guards
around corners?
Creeds got you,
ahem, covered.
If you open up any
shortcuts in co-op
your friends will
discover them, too.
DEV TALK
We expect players to
play about a third of
their total game time
in shared experience
modes. Moreover, we
have conceived these
missions to be played
and replayed in different
ways. Players will
explore their own
environments and
create their own
opportunities.
Alexander Amancio,
creative director,
Ubisoft Montreal
Co-op occurs during set
missions. If you want to
tackle these solo, youre
more than welcome to.
072
The returning Scarecrow
was gloriously revealed
as a villain at Sonys E3
conference last month.
Waynes wheels shake up the Dark Knight formula
Batman: Arkham Knight
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Warner Bros Dev Rocksteady
Y
ou havent truly
appreciated the
awesome power of
PS4 until you see
individual droplets
of rain falling onto
Batmans cape as he glides across
Gotham. Were in Ace Chemicals
during our first ever hands-on
with Arkham Knight and
were supposed to be stopping
Scarecrow from covering the
entire Eastern Seaboard with
his fear gas toxin, but hot damn
those water effects are gorgeous.
While we sample the upgraded
freeflow combat (which includes
context-sensitive Environmental
Takedowns such as smashing a
goons face into a fuse box, and
Fear Takedowns with which
were able to combo three instant
takedowns into one flowing
move by highlighting new victims
and hitting r during slow-mo
sequences) the focus of our demo
DEV TALK
[The Batmobile] needed
to be integral to the
experience rather than
just heres a bolted-on
driving section. So
integrating Batmans
navigation and offensive
capabilities is really the
key to that. You can use
it in ways where Batman
wouldnt be able to
progress if it was just
him on his own.
Dax Ginn, brand
marketing producer,
Rocksteady
is the Batmobile. Bats vehicle is a
versatile piece of kit: we use it to
stash rescued hostages in the back
to return to Gordon (captured
villains likewise), and weve
already fallen in love with freeflow
combats Batmobile Takedown,
which sees us uppercut a goon and
have the Batmobiles AI target the
airborne crim with a non-lethal
insta-KO concussion round.
The car also plays a part in
puzzles we control it remotely
to rip down walls with its grapple
hook to help us access new areas,
destroy steam vents to clear paths,
and even raise broken lifts by
grabbing counterweights and
dragging them out of shafts with
some tyre-squealing reversing
action. Sadly, the Batmobiles
also the subject of our single
quibble with the game so far.
At one point we encounter a
group of robotic sentry vehicles
and must transform into the
Batmobiles Battle Mode to tackle
them. Though Battle Mode itself
isnt disagreeable unlocked
axles mean were able to strafe
and move in 360 of direction
with utmost precision combat
primarily involves dodging
incoming bullets by dashing to
the side when targeting lasers turn
red, then returning fire with weak
or heavy cannon fire or, if weve
built up our combat meter fully,
some useful homing missiles.
Though far from awful, its crime
is in lacking the teeth-shattering
feel, impact and pace of Batmans
intense freeflow combat, making it
the games weakest link and thus
something we hope only appears
in moderation. That Batman:
Arkham Knights weakest link is
still a mode far more entertaining
and enthralling than the majority
of E3s games main features
speaks volumes for the quality
of Rocksteadys best mechanics.
6
073
THE HOT 50
Sandbox shooter gets the big chill
Metal Gear
Solid V: The
Phantom Pain
Far Cry 4
Everybodys Mother Base
will be different. And full
of sheep, presumably.
Much more on Ubis E3
showstopper next month.
Trust us: it deserves the
hype its attracted.
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Konami Dev Kojima Productions
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 21 Nov Pub Ubisoft Dev Ubisoft Montreal
M
other Base isnt
a new concept
for Metal Gear.
Weve heard
about Big Boss
HQ for years
now, but The Phantom Pain
gives us a world-first for the
series: a chance not only to
visit it (Peace Walkers
menus dont count), but to
custom build it to our liking.
When we tiptoe around The
Phantom Pains desert (which
is an astonishing 200 times
larger than Ground Zeroes
world, by the way), well be
able to spend cash to attach
Fulton balloons to almost
anything that isnt tied down:
sleeping guards, jeeps, anti-air
turrets, shipping containers
even sheep. Provided the
weathers clear and the
balloons arent blown off
course, these objects will then
find their way back to our
great base in the sea.
Here well get to spend
money expanding the
oil-rig-like structures, adding
buildings, barracks and armies
to custom-create the Diamond
Dogs home. Then, in a
spectacular twist, well get to
invade other peoples bases
and defend ours from
unwelcome online attacks.
Nobody touches our sheep
without our permission, natch.
Out in the desert its
stealthing business as usual.
Ground Zeroes gave us a
taster of Big Boss open-world
antics, but in the full game
well get many more tools and
toys to play with, including
the ability to call in airstrikes
or chopper support whenever
its needed provided youve
got the cash to burn. The best
gear of all remains the
humble cardboard box:
now well get to burst
out the top to spring
surprises on foes.
C
mon, how cool
does Kyrat look?
Partially based
on parts of Nepal
and Bhutan, Ubis
fictional Himalayan
region delivered arguably the
strongest real-time showing
of E3. Those seven minutes
of captivating footage
(captured on PS4) tick off
drop-in/drop-out co-op,
vehicles that now allow you
to shoot from the passenger
seat and those oh so alluring
rideable elephants.
From what we play on the
show floor, Far Cry 4s frosty
location change is a huge boon
for the traditionally tropical
shooter series. Kyrat has been
created with a wonderful eye
for detail; whether that be
distant mountain ranges
that rival Everests majesty or
Uncharted 2-style prayer flags
billowing in a breeze while
docile yaks munch on the
surrounding hills.
During our hands-on, we
experience three very distinct
playstyles. The demo kicks off
with us slowly stalking dudes
with a silenced crossbow,
before trampling even more
dudes with our pet elephant
(weve nicknamed him
Stampy). We round off by
hopping in a mini-chopper
called a Buzzer and mowing
down a fortress of evil-doers
with new hero Ajay Ghale,
who according to creative
director Alex Hutchison,
gets caught up in a civil war.
Excitingly, PS4 has also
nabbed an exclusive co-op
feature, which allows players
who dont actually own the
game to play with friends who
do simply by downloading a
(presumably hefty) PSN app.
With a mad despot king,
wingsuits and a huge frozen
fun land, Far Cry 4 is now the
sandbox
shooter to
beat in 14.
Snake goes back to Mother Basics
5
4
074
THE HOT 50
dangerous it grows and the
richer the rewards become.
INTO THE VOID
How does such a tiny team
create a game so incomprehensibly
vast? With relative ease, it seems.
While a world of developers are
showcasing their latest titles in
sweaty show floor booths and
private meeting rooms at E3s Los
Angeles Convention Center, were
sitting in a quiet hotel room 15
minutes away to enjoy a closer
W
hen Nathan
Drake shows up
to a party its a
given that hes
going to steal
the limelight,
so when an indie game almost
single-handedly wrestles the
spotlight away from Uncharted
4 during Sonys annual E3 media
briefing the world is going to
sit up and take notice. Weve
featured No Mans Sky in OPM
more than once before, but its
only now that the true scale of
the space exploration sim from
Hello Games has been revealed,
and for some people its hard to
grasp just how a team of four is
building what many believe to
be E3s most impressive title.
The universe is infinite. Every
player begins their No Mans Sky
journey on a different planet, of
which there are an infinite number,
with a small lifepod capable of
short-range travel. Your goals are
yours to define but, while you
could theoretically spend 40 hours
exploring your starting point
and uncovering new discoveries
for cash, for many they involve
quickly gathering currency to
buy better weapons or suits at
trading posts, and eventually
more impressive spacecraft at
the nearest space station that will
be capable of deeper space travel.
Upload coordinates of a discovery
online for friends to discover?
Get some cash. Destroy an enemy
fighter jet? Have some more cash.
Blow up a heavily armed freighter?
Time to buy a bigger wallet.
The closer you press towards
the universes core, the more
Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Hello Games Dev Hello Games
To infinity and beyond comprehension
No Mans Sky
DEV TALK
People almost cant
conceive of a game
where youre not
shooting something. So
you can shoot things in
the game, but theres
other ways to play and
theres other ways that
you could earn money.
Sean Murray, managing
director, Hello Games
Destroy either the fighters
or the freighters to earn
cold, hard spacebucks.
3
look at the No Mans Sky
experience with no distractions
or needless interruptions.
To build this world, all the
team needs to do is create one
type of any object, creature or
vehicle and let algorithms do
the rest. Take a tree, for example.
Creative director David Ream
highlights a regular tree in the
editing program in front of us,
then hits a variation button.
Almost instantly a box appears
containing dozens of types of
trees, all mathematical variants
of that genesis object. Some are
squat, some are skinny and tall,
some are curved with purple and
Sean admits to tweaking the
games timers so that events (such
as a squadron of fighter craft
speeding overhead and flanking
you into space) were more likely to
happen. As for the opening planet
with orange grass, towering, frilled
dinosaurs, fluorescent caves
and green skies? It wasnt
hand-created, either: Hello Games
purposefully spent time searching
its universe for a world impressive
enough to act as a window
into its game, and eventually
discovered Oria V much like
well be doing with thousands
of planets of our own when
we play the game for ourselves.
pink leaves, and so on. If David
wishes to highlight one of the
oddest looking creations and
calculate its variations, the
results will only be weirder still.
Using this principle the teams
able to make millions of dinosaurs,
pilotable spacecraft (all with
procedurally generated properties,
too), cave systems, rock formations
and, ultimately, planets with just
a handful of objects and some
repeated clicks of a button. And
from these principle tools, No
Mans Skys cosmos is built.
Procedurally, of course.
The E3 stage demo that wowed
the world wasnt scripted, though
EARN EXTRA CASH
BY SHARING NEW
DISCOVERIES WITH
YOUR FRIENDS.
Above Dev Hello Games is constantly surprised by new environments. Above To explore other worlds you need to buy a craft capable interstellar travel.
DEV TALK
Weve been doing
online for some time,
but this is ambitious.
Our first [Alpha] mission
is to stress our servers.
We need to make sure
that right from day one,
Destinys awesome.
Pete Parsons,
chief operating officer,
Bungie
THE HOT 50
C
heers, Captain
Diphtheria. Though
we cant actually
remember your
genuine PSN moniker,
the affectionate
nickname we bestowed upon you
is reward for sticking with our
Hunter for 43 minutes as we
struggled to bring down a Devil
Walker. Yes: forty-three minutes.
Destiny just doesnt do small.
Nor should it. As the most
ambitious shooter currently locked
in the crosshairs of PS4, Bungies
Halo-meets-Borderlands ET opus
oozes with an assured elegance
and epicness that puts nearly
any other new-gen
title to shame. And
this is us merely
sampling the PS4-
exclusive, early access Alpha.
Just imagine how incredible
Destiny will be when it launches
9 September youre picking
it up with that blindingly pretty
Glacier White PS4, right?
Every part of Bungies scarred
solar system is tethered together
with a confidence and solidity
born from helming the biggest
console shooter in the world for
ten years (thatd be the H word).
The Old Russia environments
we explore during the Alpha feel
sprawling, yet cleverly contained.
BROKEN SPARROW
Your Sparrow begs to be called out
at every available opportunity,
which it turns out is a chuffing lot,
considering you can even pilot the
personal hoverbike indoors. Want
to magic it out of the palm of your
hand at any time? Just summon
Ghost (your helpful robot guide),
tap r, and have at it, Guardians.
Hoverbikes always make
everything better.
Halos DNA is of course
scrawled across this new
galaxy. Guns just feel
right. From the Trax
Caluum II-A scout
rifle to the Trajan-C
Bungie is offering you
the Earth, Moon and
the stars in its grand
MMO. Quite literally.
sniper, firing each weapon has a
physical oomph which makes you
feel like your DualShock 4 is an
all powerful sci-fi death tool uh,
rather than a hunk of moulded
black plastic with a glowy bit on it.
Reload animations are also part of
an underlying bullet dance, where
each part of the strikingly athletic
combat model (can anything beat
a 15ft FPS double jump?) comes
together. Sorry, Killzone: youve
been outgunned effortlessly here.
The thing is, Destinys guns
arent even its USP. No, thats
handled by its persuasively
seamless, persistent online
community. In case you were in
any doubt, this is a game of overt
RPG trappings. If youd like to go
all PlayStation Home and hang
out with other players while you
indulge in an endlessly looping
quasi-Running Man jig atop a table
in the Towers briefing room, feel
free. Visually, the games glistening
hub city leans heavily on Mass
Effects Citadel. Practically, its a
Format PS4/PS3 ETA 9 Sep Pub Activision Dev Bungie
Bungies Guardians of the galaxy set
for almighty shooter success
Destiny
2

central gathering point to guzzle
down bounty missions, blow XP
pimping out that Galahad-B auto
rifle or revelling in the dizzying
amount of custom armour offered
by the Towers cast of merchants.
SERVER AND PROTECT
Reassuringly, at the most base
of levels, Destiny just works.
In an age of spluttering servers
and constant crashes, thats not
something to be taken for granted.
Even though there must be a
tremendous amount of server-
tinkering operating invisibly
behind the scenes, Bungie always
makes encountering other players
in the games bubble areas feel
like a completely organic event,
not unlike Journeys party trick.
Clearly were fans, then. Sure,
balancing tweaks are needed
well redirect you back to that
43-minute fight. But when such
life-affirming combat and online
ambition meet, 2014s hottest
is destined for all the success.
Theres nothing like a
good wistful camera pan
for moments like these at
Destinys glorious Tower.
Every class of character
has a unique Special for
mega damage-dealing.
THE HOT 50
078
THE HOT 50
Uncha
A Thiefs End
1
THE HOT 50
079
THE HOT 50
After 49 opulent gems,
one imperial diamond
Format PS4 ETA 2015 Pub Sony Dev Naughty Dog
T
ime waits for no man.
Not you as you lament
the speed at which
the seven years since
Uncharted: Drakes
Fortune first wowed on
PS3 have passed; and certainly not
the series charismatic lead as he
struts cockily, pistol-in-hand,
towards the most anticipated
game on PlayStation 4. With
laughter lines around his eyes and
weariness painted across those
chiselled cheekbones, Sonys
wisecracking man-mascot has
rarely looked in worse nick and
yet in terms of sheer detail and
believability, the lovable treasure
hunter never looked better.
Ahead of his new-gen debut
next year, its the graphical
improvements possible with PS4
that have enabled Naughty Dog
to beat Nathan Drake around
the head with Father Times
unblockable stick of ageing. Hes
got a bit of grey feathering inside
of his hair now, the crows feet
around the eyes like I have, says
game director Bruce Straley. [We
can do] pain and grimacing,
elaborates creative director Neil
Druckmann. In the trailer, the
colour of [Drakes] skin changes
rted 4
080
THE HOT 50
as he raises his eyebrows and
the blood flows away [from a cut
on his forehead]. All those things
let a character become much more
grounded, much more believable.
Ah yes, the trailer. Despite
being entirely devoid of gameplay
specifics, Naughty Dogs latest
video wonder still has us
desperate to play this more than
anything else revealed before,
during, or after E3. Why? An
abundance of reasons. The
tantalising and warm tones of
Sully beckoning Nate to, get back
into the game, knowing itll all
end in the best kind of trouble.
The haunting cello groans
and woodwind screams in the
background harking back to
the orchestral scores that brought
an extra level of emotion to the
three previous PS3 outings. And
yes, the incredible, give-us-this-
RIGHTBLOODYNOW visuals.
DRAKE AMORE
Its not just Nathans facial
features that blow you away. The
intricate details of a fly loitering
near that aforementioned cut
defy belief; who other than Pixar
spends weeks of development
time wireframing and animating
a creature so tiny?! Then theres
the perfect water physics as Nate
regains consciousness after
what event, who knows? on the
bank of a raging river. And the
rustling leaves and bustling vines
into which he ventures alone and
with a single ammo clip before
the camera pans across to show
a graveyard littered with hanging
skeletons (cheery!) to bring
the teaser to a close.
Most amazing of all? None of
this cinematic brilliance is faked.
The entire thing is in-game.
Our Uncharted 4 trailer is an
in-engine, real game level running
on a real PS4, says Naughty Dog
graphics coder Corinne Yu. Our
trailer doesnt look good enough
to be pre-render CGI.
With those two minutes
of freshwater-bathed majesty,
PlayStations flagship studio
drowned any concerns the outside
world may have had regarding the
departure of Uncharted queen bee,
Amy Hennig. The series former
writer and director buzzed away
to Star Wars dev Visceral earlier
this year, leaving Straley and
Druckmann to lead development
on Uncharted 4. Despite initial
concerns, we should have known
this would work out swimmingly
for all parties given that this
particular tag-teams last project
was only bloody The Last Of Us.
Naturally, that outstanding
adventure informs many elements
of this one, with the terrific
twosome looking to take the
authentic world they built around
Joel and Ellie and expand it to
match Uncharteds traditionally
epic scale. In The Last Of Us,
we went to great lengths to try to
create reality, but we were limited
by the amount of overdraw the
PS3 could handle, says Straley.
Now the PS4 is allowing us to
push so much more density.
WICKED WHISPERS
If the pair talk a lot about visuals,
its because and we may have
mentioned this already the
game looks like a birthday party
for your eyeballs at which the only
other guest is Emily Rose. In a
suit befitting the occasion. But
its also to offset the fact that
the always-secretive studio
doesnt want to divulge its plans
for two other colossal pillars of
MOST AMAZING OF
ALL? THE WHOLE OF
THE E3 TRAILER WAS
CAPTURED IN-GAME.
DEV TALK
Its still going to have
that epic pacing. We still
want you on the edge of
your seat, but at the
same time we want to
make sure that you feel
emotionally invested.
Bruce Straley
game director,
Naughty Dog
081

That night-time setting
is eerily reminiscent of
the Amazonian locale
from Uncharted: DF.
When Nate walks into
the jungle, we were all
praying for it to turn
into a gameplay demo.
A glade filled with rather
famished looking pirates
suggests the lush setting
hides a deadly history.
Fingers crossed a
few crows feet and
grey hairs wont
slow Drakey down.
excellence on which Naughty Dogs
reputation has been built. Namely:
story and gameplay.
Druckmann promises exploration,
traversal, and combat (well, duh)
and Straley says, Were going
deeper and richer with all the
mechanics. Its still going to be a
rollercoaster ride. But thats your
lot. Thank the golden gods, then,
for Drake voice actor Nolan North,
who hasnt been quite so tight-
lipped regarding the games
narrative as well as the series
potential future. Although maybe
he should have, because his next
bombshell is guaranteed blow your
heart to smithereens.
Nothings confirmed, but I
believe Uncharted 4 is the last one
Naughty Dog wants to do, he tells
IGN. See? Ka-freakin-boom. If this
is the last one, I hope somebody
else doesnt pick up the mantle
because theyve done it so well for
so long. Its one of those things
where you just have to cross that
bridge when you get to it. Its
bittersweet, but at a certain point
you want to go out on top. Oh,
Nolan. Oh, noes.
MORTAL COMBAT
Assuming this is Nate dogs
glorious finale, then, the obvious
mental leap to make is that hes
going to be bumped off for good.
And given the OMG! factor
attached to surprise deaths in
contemporary TV shows such as
Game Of Thrones and True Blood
which wont be lost on savvy
old Naughty Dog the odds on
that occurring appear surprisingly
short. But were going to say its
almost too obvious, given the
loaded game name. A Thiefs End?
ND surely wants you to think its
referring to his Drakeiness.
Nah, were predicting that he
does make it through to the end
of the game but that one of
his mainstays isnt so lucky.
Sully came so close to death in
Uncharted 3 that his demise
seems far too predictable. Which
leaves Chloe or Elena. And if
Naughty Dog really wanted to
enrol at the George RR Martin
school of total, earth-shattering
shocks, theres really only
one candidate. Poor blondie.
Still, thats us speculating and
its not often youll read this in
OPM desperately hoping were
wrong. So lets finish the Hot 50
with some good news. Regardless
of who, if anyone, dies in Nathan
Drakes latest, almost-certainly-
greatest adventure, you can still
take one inevitability to the bank:
A Thiefs End will breathe new
life not just into PlayStation 4,
but videogaming as a whole.
SEE GAMES DIFFERENTLY
WWW.KOTAKU.CO.UK
ORIGINAL REPORTING GAME CULTURE HUMOUR
@Kotaku_UK Facebook.com/KotakuUK
083
CONT ENT S
EA SPORTS UFC 84 | SNIPER ELITE 3 86 | MURDERED: SOUL SUSPECT 87
GRID AUTOSPORT 88 | VALIANT HEARTS: THE GREAT WAR 90 | ACE COMBAT INFINITY 91
WATCH DOGS 92 | WORMS BATTLEGROUNDS 94 | GUACAMELEE! STCE 95
10 INCREDIBLE
The kind of phenomenal
experience rarely seen in
a console generation.
9 OUTSTANDING
Unreservedly brilliant this
should be in every collection.
8 VERY GOOD
A truly excellent game, marred
by just a few minor issues.
7 GOOD
A great concept unfulfilled or
the familiar done well, but still
well worth playing.
6 DECENT
Fun in parts, flawed in others,
but more right than wrong.
5 AVERAGE
What you expect and little
more, this is for devotees only.
4 BELOW AVERAGE
Any bright ideas are drowning
in a sea of bugs or mediocrity.
3 POOR
A seriously flawed game with
little merit on any level.
2 AWFUL
Disgraceful: the disc would be
more beneficial as a coaster.
1 HORRIFIC
Own this and youll be swiftly,
justifiably, exiled from society.
OPM SCORES
GOLD AWARD
Awarded to a game thats
brilliantly executed on every
level, combining significant
innovation, near-flawless
gameplay, great graphics
and lasting appeal.
EDITORS AWARD
Not at the very highest
echelon, but this is a game
that deserves recognition
and special praise based on
its ambition, innovation or
other notable achievement.
92 WATCH
DOGS
Apparently, new-gen doesnt
start until now. Aiden Pearce,
we want a word with you
GOLD
AWARD
EDITORS
AWARD
084
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
ETA OUT NOW
PUB EA
DEV EA CANADA
EA SPORTS UFC
EAs debut effort inside the Octagon is a solid first swing
T
his almost didnt happen. EA Sports
UFC could have been Randy Couture vs
Fedor Emelianenko a dream matchup
that slipped through our gloved hands
due to contract wrangles and confusion. The
fact that it exists is a good thing. Better still,
the muscular frame of EA Sports UFC owes
more to THQs retired Undisputed series than
it does to EAs previous MMA effort the
latter a game with all the balance of a drunk
on stilts, which favoured the comedic body
popping of stick-flicking ground transitions.
So lets start with punching. An MMA game
should primarily be about the sickening, wet
thwock of padded fist on flesh. Thankfully,
EA has improved on its previous effort. The
tentative, scrappy first stages of a fight can
feel weedy, but once youre accustomed to the
rhythm of dodging attacks, theres a jaw-twisting
riposte to it all. Despite the snazzy presentation,
it isnt completely satisfying especially since
theres a tendency for everything to feel a bit
wooden but theres a savage thrill to following
up a parry with a shin-shuddering roundhouse.
It also does an athletic job of recreating the
juddering, immediate knockouts of UFC, without
ever feeling too random. Much like UFC head-
honcho Dana White and his former nemesis
EA, flash frame KOs and methodical fighting
games shouldnt theoretically
be friends. But just like White
and EA, theyve found a way
to co-exist. Targeted body
damage enables focus on a
specific spot, clearly notifying
you when youre vulnerable:
just like real life, if your entire
head turns livid red after a
barrage of fists, its time to
back off sharpish. Swing at
your opponent wildly and your
punches will quickly lose their
sting, while a reckless offence
leaves you prone to those
crushing counters. Theres
always the coiled threat of
early knockouts especially
against meatier hitters from
the heavier weight divisions
but ending up flat on your
back like a semi-deflated sex
doll is usually understandable
If shattered face
bits arent your
thing, just pretend
theyre holding
hands and waving.
(if nevertheless still upsetting).
When you get knocked out in
EA Sports UFC, you certainly
know why it all went black.

TAPPED OUT
Submissions feel less intuitive.
Getting your opponent to tap
involves a reactive mini-game
of matching your opponents
attempts to escape while
watching for visual prompts
which advance the stage of
your hold. If you can imagine
it, its even less immediate than
our cumbersome description
suggests. Nevertheless, its a
sensible way of implementing a
crucial element of MMA thats
fascinatingly complex, but often
numbing to watch for all but
the most technically attuned.
Practice helps, but it still feels
@MGElliott UNION STRIKE
THERES ALWAYS THE COILED
THREAT OF EARLY KNOCKOUTS
AGAINST MEATIER HITTERS.
085
REVIEW
jarringly gamey in such a
wonderfully rendered world
of bulging veins and flattened
noses. Its also a fiddly thing
to achieve with your sweaty
thumbs on the DualShock 4s
delicate sticks. Because of this,
locking in some joint-snapping
jiu jitsu feels less pleasing
than it should, but at least
it isnt just an inane sequence
of button-bashing.
This misstep in presentation
certainly isnt disastrous. For
a game gushing with maimed
eyebrows and wrong-way-
bendy bones, EA Sports UFC
is an exceedingly handsome
fighter. Most impressive are
the little touches which become
apparent in the replays. Bodies
ripple in reaction to thunderous
punches (because reassuringly,
even MMA fighters have flab)
and expressions change from
lets get it on to please stop
bothering my soft bits, as
fights take a sharp turn down
Pain Alley. Thanks to a mix of
skin shaders and dark magic,
even the custom fighters are
realistic enough to impress.
That leads us to the solid
Career mode, which sees you
take your fighter through the
Ultimate Fighter TV show,
enabling you to tinker with
your attributes, compile fighty
gameplans and purchase new
moves for your repertoire. The
customisation and progression
add a compelling RPG feel,
even when the training sessions
become repetitive. Because
of this, the interim stuff often
feels like a pre-fight speed
bump rather than essential
preparation, but its the first
step in what will hopefully
evolve into a compelling, NBA-
style story mode in the future.
V E R DI C T
THE OPM BREAKDOWN
17% Delivering
sickening knees
in the clinch, and
feeling not the
least bit bad
about it.
17% Enjoying
the warm glow
of watching your
opponents head
turn a bright,
painful red.
8% Admiring Ian
McCalls incredible
moustache, an
emasculating sight
for any male.
19% Doing the
same heavy bag
workout in Career
mode on loop.
16% Watching
endless replays of
hilariously brutal
knockouts. Ouch.
WH AT Y OU DO I N E A S P OR T S UF C
23%
Playing a rather
nasty variant of
Twister in your
ground game.
Right Jon Jones
and Gustafsson
go at it again
this September.
Expect similar
crunching hits.
Below Postured
punches can
finish a fight
even if youre
not in full mount.
Above left Meet Sir Dudley The Gent Nelson; our ham-handed custom brawler.
EA Sports UFC impresses with
its massive roster of male and
female fighters, tactical striking
and gloriously detailed looks,
but it sadly lacks the knockout
power of the late THQs
Undisputed series. Matt Elliott
MULT I P L AY E R
Playing online offers
more options than off.
As well as quick match
options, you can
compete for belts
against other players.
You can also set up
online rivalries, which
will let you compare
stats and performances
with your friends.
The father of MMA is
disappointingly a
paid-for extra.
Pound-for-pound the
best fighter in the
world today.
The Womens Bantam-
weight division is in, as is
Rouseys sick armbar.
F R I E ND S & E NE MI E S

B
R
U
C
E
L
E
E

J
O
N

J
O
N
E
S

R
O
N
D
A

R
O
U
S
E
Y
VARIED VIOLENCE
Every fight is different. Matchups
can end in the first minute with
cheek-shattering knockouts, or
become tactical grindfests.
BAD TEACHER
Iffy tutorials repeatedly cover the
same stuff, and never explicitly tell
you how to posture up a key part
of the ground-and-pound game.
L OV I NG / H AT I NG
The established
Undisputed series is
one hard-as-nails
act to follow, but if it
keeps this up things
can only get better
for EA Sports UFC.
S E R I E S OGR A P H Y
E
A

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t
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|

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3

|

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6
086
REVIEW
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
ALSO ON PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB 505 GAMES
DEV REBELLION
SNIPER ELITE 3
Rebellion pops more Nazi nuts in gratuitous slow-mo
N
o one likes snipers anymore. Blame
Battlefields hill-campers, perhaps,
or Call Of Dutys quick-scopers, but
these days the art of scoring a headshot
from half a mile away is frowned upon. UK
developer Rebellion, however, disagrees, and
continues to fetishise the work of the lone
wolf sniper enacting long-range justice from
behind enemy lines.
And fetishise really is the word for it. Most kills
are met with a slow-mo cinematic that follows
the bullet from your rifle to its target, the impact
shown in Mortal Kombat-style X-ray vision.
Skulls explode, rib cages rupture, internal organs
spill out and testicles evaporate with a sickening
pop. Its a neat trick, but it gets real old real
fast, providing validation for those who claim
videogames desensitise players to violence. If
youve seen one nut shot, youve seen them all.
Thankfully, these gruesome cutaways can
be skipped with a button press, and if you can
look past the over-the-top violence theres a
surprisingly complex web of systems. Sniper
Elite 3 is a stealth game at heart, and youre
given plenty of ways to stay out of sight. Throw
rocks at nearby scenery, Far
Cry 3-style, to lure guards off
their scripted patrol routes
for a stealth takedown. Use
ambient noise rumbling
generators, planes roaring
overhead, claps of thunder to
disguise the crack of your rifle.
Even being spotted becomes an
advantage quickly relocate
after being made and pick off
the enemy as they converge on
your former position, leaving
tripwires and land mines in
your snipery wake.
JUST DESERTS
You guide US sniper Karl
Fairburne on a series of lengthy
undercover missions across
North Africa during World War
2, levelling up as you progress,
adding new weapons and rifle
parts to your loadout (which
can be customised between
missions). The setting means
this is a colourful game, if
not a handsome-looking one:
expect more blue skies and
green foliage than youd find
in the average shooter, though
this is hardly going to justify a
purchase on PS4.
Its a well conceived, smartly
designed game, but its been
terribly made. The framerate
hitches constantly in open
areas. Youre hemmed in by
invisible walls that prevent
you clambering up a two-
foot sand bank. The sound
mix is all over the place, with
enemies who are 200 yards
away sounding like theyre right
behind you. Shots sometimes
miss inexplicably and mission-
breaking bugs force you to
reload earlier saves: at one
point Im unable to search a
key corpse because a jeep full
of Nazis parks on top of it.
Its a shame, because there
are some fine ideas here, but
theyve been poorly executed
and the endless procession of
splintered skulls and exploding
testes simply isnt enough to
make up for it.
@nathan_brown BALL BREAKER
V E R DI C T
Groups of guards make
it hard to stay out of
sight. Shoot the nearby
petrol can for multi-kills.
Theres more to Sniper Elite 3
than meets the eye (or lungs,
or heart or private parts), but
some shoddy finishing touches
ruin a shooter thats genuinely
full of potential. Nathan Brown
SKULLS EXPLODE, RIB CAGES
RUPTURE, INTERNAL ORGANS
SPILL OUT AND TESTES POP.
087
REVIEW
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
ALSO ON PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB SQUARE ENIX
DEV AIRTIGHT GAMES
MURDERED:
SOUL SUSPECT
Inspectre Remorse investigates the Salem Glitch Trials
T
he top three mysteries in this
PS4 point-n-click about a ghost
investigating a serial killer, in order of
increasing importance, are as follows:
1) Why is it that Ronan OConnor (thats you),
on the night of his own murder, needs to
investigate other, recent murders from scratch
in order to track down his own killer given
that hes a cop? How many murders must take
place in the small town of Salem, or how many
holidays must Ronan be taking, for all these
killings (and there are lots) to be alien to him?
2) Why is nobody investigating the fact that
every other person in Salem has the same face
and the same clothes? Seriously, thats properly
freaky X-Files schizzle and it creeps me out
I have screenshots on my PS4 where three
identical blokes are walking past each other in
the street and nobody but me thinks its weird.
3) How has Airtight messed this one up so badly?
MURDERED MOST HORRID
Lets expand on that last one. As you might
have deduced from question two, Murdered
isnt exactly a shining example of flawless game
design. Its haunted by problems not limited to
character dialogue not loading in, active missions
not checking off once completed (for my entire
playthrough I was supposed to be escaping
an attic Id successfully left
inside the first hour) and
environments reverting to
default states with every reload.
I especially enjoyed having to
re-invert the camera each time
I booted up the disc.
Its not exactly a complex
game. There are some ill-
judged and twitchy action set-
pieces involving sneaking up on
demons and QTE-ing them to
a second grave and theres no
question that Murdered would
be a better game without them
but otherwise this is a slow-
paced adventure that shouldnt
be home to such basic slip-ups.
The crime-solving mechanics
arent much better. For the
most part you gather evidence
and then answer questions
about it. Its often logical, but
sometimes the questions are
worded in such a way that
the evidence choice becomes
very subjective, and so the
fundamentals of puzzle-solving
fall apart like the crispy flesh
of stake-burnt witches.
This being an adventure
game, much rests on its plot.
Happily its Murdereds highest
point. Though patchy in
places, the main investigation
and some disturbingly dark
side-stories are worth playing
on for, despite some bizarre
cases of assumed knowledge
in the script. (You deserved
this! I dickishly bark to some
innocent-looking ghost Ive
never met before because
Ronans somehow pre-cogged
the storys direction.)
But even then Murdered
looks to spoil my fun:
rendering mind-reading skills
pointless by copying-and-
pasting characters throughout
the game. This type of slapdash
coding should be criminal.
@Pelloki SALEMS SCROT
V E R DI C T
PS2s amusing Shadow
Of Memories does the
solving my own murder
premise much better.
An interesting concept with half-
decent story beats, dragged
to hell by shonky puzzles, odd
dialogue jumps and bugs that
are far more terrifying than the
subject matter. Matthew Pellett
088
I NF O
FORMAT PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB CODEMASTERS
DEV CODEMASTERS
GRID AUTOSPORT
Codemasters takes its flagship racer back to basics
G
ran Turismo might be the Real Driving
Simulator, but Codemasters Grid has
always taken pole position when it
comes to actual racing. Rather than
a somewhat distant car collector who enjoys
pitting his wits against giant, unthinking
Scalextric vehicles, Grid casts you as a plucky,
up-and-coming race driver looking to make his
mark on the scene. And while Grid Autosport,
the third game in the series, certainly doesnt
abandon that fiction, it does strip away
distractions such as team management and
building a fan base. The result is the most
focused racing game of its generation.
Its apparent that Codies isnt pulling any
punches even from the first race. In Autosport,
theres no sailing past the 16-strong pack within
the first couple of laps; every position gained
is fought for as you look for unguarded, open
tarmac. Try to use the other cars as creative
braking opportunities and you almost always
come off worse. And if there is any rubber
banding, it certainly doesnt feel like it
Autosport is refreshingly unpatronising.
MODEL BEHAVIOUR
Thats not to say it isnt accessible, though.
Grids characterful blend of sim and arcade
handling is still present, but Autosport swings
more towards the satisfyingly
weighty understeer end of the
spectrum than its twitchier
predecessor Grid 2. The upshot
is a driving model in which
cars feel more connected to
the track, and where theres
always something to think
about. What gear youre in,
how smoothly you steer, how
fast you open the throttle
and by how much all matter
considerably more than in
the majority of Autosports
contemporaries, and it wont
take many badly-handled
corners opponents shrinking
gallingly into the distance
on the following straight
before this becomes obvious.
But while youre refining
your driving technique, you
also have to deal with opponent
Theres a real sense
of being in a race
rather than just
winding your way
through traffic.
AI that is, for the most part,
exemplary. Drivers tussle
for position and aggressively
defend, and make plenty of
mistakes too the sight of a
tumbling car up ahead rarely
fails to spike your adrenaline
as you use the split-second
you have to plan evasive action.
Of course, if it doesnt work
out or even if you simply
overcook a corner you can
tap the Flashback button,
rewind a short portion of the
race and take another shot
at it. Flashbacks also help
mitigate any frustration when
the AI makes suicidal defensive
manoeuvres in situations
where a human driver would
gracefully concede a position.
This is only really a problem
in Open Wheel and Endurance
@IAmTheManta VICTORY LAP
FLASHBACKS HELP MITIGATE
ANY FRUSTRATION WHEN THE
AI MAKES A SUICIDAL MOVE.
089
REVIEW
events, however, which feature
high-powered, fragile vehicles,
and doesnt grate so much
in Touring and Street events.
Tuner meets, meanwhile, tend
to feature drifting and time
trial events where traffic is
spread out, meaning these
already rare instances simply
dont occur. Even taking these
slight blemishes into account,
Autosports AI stands head-
and-shoulders above its peers.
The five disciplines each have
their own strand in Autosports
new unfussy Career mode.
You earn XP for the relevant
discipline each time you take
part in an event, and once
youve earned a certain amount
across all five, you unlock Grid
Championship events that offer
new types of race and much
bigger rewards to compete for.
The XP you receive is based
on team and sponsor objectives.
Every season you play through
brings new offers from teams
hoping to woo you, with each
one demanding a minimum
finishing position. Succeed, and
you get the XP, but missing the
mark just means you get fewer
(and less difficult) offers when
you enter the next season. Its
a brilliant setup that shifts
the focus away from podium
finishes to the minute-to-
minute pleasure of racing.
Codemasters has distilled the
crucial elements and challenge
from hardcore racing sims into
a game that never veers into
the genres drier territory, and
remains accessible without
ever being condescending.
Autosports lean form hides a
mountain of content and offers
an unparalleled level of racing
fidelity that, refreshingly, never
forgets the passion of race day.
V E R DI C T
THE OPM BREAKDOWN
10% Pondering
how you got
away with
touching wheels
in an Open Wheel
event without
flipping your
car into the air.
7% Wondering
why you always
finish a race in
last place.
25% Not caring
that youre not
winning because
youre having
so much fun.
3% Not having
to wait for Codies
usually fussy
menus to load.
10% Shaking your
fist at the AIs
annoying habit of not
checking its mirrors.
WH AT Y OU DO I N GR I D AU T OSP OR T
45%
Marvelling at the
complex grip
model and mostly
believable AI.
Right Street
races continue
to offer solace
to lonely
Midnight Club
refugees.
Below It may
be locked to
30fps, but Grid
Autosport still
feels nippy.
Above left Theres a huge range of cars to match the variety of events.
This is a confident return
to Grids roots in the TOCA
franchise that places the
emphasis back on racing over
contrived storylines and
leaves its peers eating its dust
in the process. Ben Maxwell
T ROP H Y C A B I NE T
N O L
O
N
G
E
R

A
F
R
A
I
D

O
F

T
H
E

D
A
RK
SILVER
To nab this shiny
racing pot (and some
bragging rights),
reach level ten in the
Endurance discipline.
T HE F I RS T F I V E HOURS
1 You spend the opening hour acclimatising to Autosports stiff
competition. 2 You should have sampled every discipline Autosport has
to offer by this point. 3 Time for your first Grid Championship, spanning
ten events. 4 With second-tier events available, the game gets even
tougher from here on in. 5 This will be about the time you go looking for
a way to mute your manager, who says the same things over and over.
1 3 2 4 5
HOW T O P UL L OF F A DE F T DR I F T
Keep your car in second
gear as you approach
the drifting zone and
use a Scandinavian
flick (steer away, then
quickly back in) to get
sideways, then feather
the throttle to balance
your angle all the way
around. Now drink in the
well-earned applause.
S TAT PAC K
The disciplines
available. These
are: Open Wheel,
Endurance,
Tuner, Street
and Touring.
Different views
to choose from,
including the
return of the
much-missed
in-car option.
Months have
passed since the
last entry in the
Grid franchise,
Grid 2, swerved
onto PS3.
100 6 5 12
Number of
different tracks,
both real and
fictional, across
22 locales from
around the globe.
I
V
E

S
T
O
P
P
E
D

C
O
U
N
T
IN
G
GOLD
Reach a total online
level of 250 across all
five disciplines. Quite a
commitment required
for this gold trophy.
I
V
E
O
B
R
A
N
D

A
W
A
R
E
N
E
S
S
BRONZE
Achieve every sponsor
objective in a single
race to add this
straightforward bronze
to your cabinet.
A
R
090
REVIEW
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
(DOWNLOAD ONLY)
ALSO ON PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB UBISOFT
DEV UBISOFT
MONTPELLIER
VALIANT HEARTS:
THE GREAT WAR
Poignant puzzler puts triple-As to shame
M
arking the centenary of WW1 with a
videogame might sound a little crass
considering the mediums track record
for using history as an excuse to kill
cartoonish fascists, but spend five mins in
the sombre yet charming world of this side-
scrolling adventure and youll never look at
interactive warfare the same way again.
Built with the sumptuous UbiArt Framework
used to create the platforming joy of Rayman
Legends, Ubisoft Montpellier has crafted a
visually captivating 2D take on war-torn Europe.
With a striking art style reminiscent of Mike
Mignolas Hellboy comic series, Valiant Hearts
follows the lives of four very different people
- Emile, an aging French farmer; Karl, a German-
born farmworker; Freddie, an African-American
member of the Foreign Legion and Anna, a
trainee vet from Belgium.
DOG OF WAR
The real standout cast member, however, is
Walt, the faithful canine that works the German
trenches as a medic. Serving as ongoing single-
player co-op partner (whom you can select via
o), Walt can hold items, reach inaccessible
areas and activate switches in puzzles that
need an extra helping paw. Hes brimming with
personality; growling at the sight of machine
gunners and lying coyly on
his back when you give him a
thoughtful pet amid the chaos.
Rather than having reams
of potentially cheesy dialogue,
important information is
instead conveyed via speech
bubbles that show an image
of what you need to progress,
such as the face of missing
child or a bottle of wine
you need to bribe a surly
sergeant with. Since the
game is essentially a series
of environmental puzzles, it
allows the emotive European
settings and the conundrums
themselves drive the story.
None of the tasks in Valiant
Hearts is particularly difficult
(with Ubisoft Montpellier
ensuring anyone of any age
can progress through each task
via a series of timed hints),
but theres enough variety
in their layout and scale to
avoid any sense of boredom
or repetition. These puzzle
staples are broken up by a set
of well-placed action set-pieces
that help lift your spirits after
the many emotional blows the
game throws at you. Annas
taxi-riding sections, where you
help her shift left and right as
obstacles streak past, is one
such memorable highlight.
And its this balance of
compelling storytelling and
brutally honest depiction of
historical events that makes
Valiant Hearts such a unique
experience. Everything from
the horror of chlorine gas
to the suicidal Chemin des
Dames offensive are all shown
in sobering clarity and the
fact that these scenes are used
without bastardising them for
the sake of a cheap shootout is
perhaps Ubisoft Montpelliers
greatest achievement of all.
HEART WRENCHER
V E R DI C T
Chance Thomas
haunting score adds
another layer of
reflective melancholy.
Compelling and respectful in
a way few games can match,
Valiant Hearts shows Ubisoft
doesnt need an open-world
to give you an unforgettable
journey. Dom Reseigh-Lincoln
@furianreseigh
091
REVIEW
I NF O
FORMAT PS3 (DOWNLOAD ONLY) ETA OUT NOW
PUB BANDAI NAMCO DEV PROJECT ACES
ACE COMBAT
INFINITY
A money-grabbing plane Jane
T
here are the beginnings of a lukewarm
Ace Combat game, here. Thanks to
Project Aces oafish implementation
of free-to-play, though, your experience of
it will be frustratingly staccato. Each sortie
you fly uses up a unit of fuel (youre given
three to start with), and this applies to
both single-player and multiplayer missions.
You can earn more by completing various
challenges (flying a certain number of
sorties in a six-hour period, for example),
but if youre already grounded then the only
other way to acquire more is to pay 79p or
wait four hours for your next handout.
In a game built around multiplayer, its
baffling that the developer would undermine
any gains made through Infinity being
freely available by making it so difficult to
play once you have it. At least theres the
option to buy a single-player pass outright,
which enables you to progress through the
five brief campaign missions (there are
more to follow) unharried. Its all the more
galling given that Infinitys intriguing take on
competitive co-op which sees two teams
of four attempting to score the most kills
against a common enemy is genuinely fun.
The same cant be said for the campaign
missions, which are adequate at best.
Project Aces has dropped Assault Horizons
divisive Dogfight mode,
1
as well as its pace-
changing alternative vehicles and whats
left feels repetitive and underwhelming.
This reductive design is intended as fan
service,
2
but instead strips away the layers
of complexity that have gradually
been built up over 17 entries in
the franchise, and then shoots
down whats left with aggressive
monetisation. Ben Maxwell
FOOTNOTES 1 This filmic feel split fans, but its impossible to deny
that AH was a more exciting game for it. 2 There are plenty of
references to earlier games, including planes, locations and more.
I NF O
PUB TELLTALE GAMES DEV TELLTALE GAMES
THE WOLF AMONG
US EPISODE 4: IN
SHEEPS CLOTHING
Magic mirror manoeuvres
I
t now seems tradition for Telltale series
to reach their peak at the mid-point, and
while it was obvious that the intensity
and drama with which the preceding entry
crescendoed couldnt be maintained, the
drop-off here is disappointing. In fact, this
short ep is as close as weve come to filler.
Its not overtly poor, just very little
happens, and the credits seem to roll after a
comparatively brief time. On the hunt for the
Crooked Man, Bigby has to track down the
missing piece of the magic mirror in order to
locate his hideout and, more out of curiosity,
uncover the fate of Ichabod Crane.
1
Like in the previous instalment, youre
given a choice of how to proceed: to
investigate the pawn shop, where Bloody
Mary has been selling potential leads, or the
butcher whos been delivering packages for
the nefarious pair. However the game does
little to persuade you that this decision is a
meaningful one, and you simply have to visit
one of the locales no matter the order.
Relationships with subsidiary characters
play a prominent role here, and there are
moral choices to be made although for a
change, all feel fairly painless.
2
What needs
to be made clear before the series ends is
the ultimate effect of these, lest theyre to
be seen as disposable padding.
Speaking of the finale, things are poised
nicely for a cracker. Because while this
episode may be a let-down, relatively
speaking, overall The Wolf Among Us has
been anything but. Arguably
the equal of the sensational
The Walking Dead, lets hope it
gets the send-off it undoubtedly
deserves. Joel Gregory
FOOTNOTES 1 Whether his thread gets tied up before the season
ends is debatable, but this could be an angle for a sequel. 2 Sadly,
your actions in past episodes seem to have little relevance here.
I NF O
FORMAT PS3 ETA OUT NOW
PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV ACCESS GAMES
DRAKENGARD 3
Shaking that crass
T
he
1
games opening line may be about
urination, but its a big ol number two
thats stinking up the combat of this
Japanese hack-and-slasher. Taking on the
role of demon Intoner Zero as she murders
her way through her excessive number
of siblings with her hapless dragon pal
Mikhail, its up to you to coat yourself in the
innards of your unfortunate foes as much
as possible in a bid to take their powers and
make your dry-cleaner have a breakdown
when they see the state of your favourite
death-dealing costume.
Mashing r will easily get you through
most of the game, but these showy slashes
never feel as though they ever really connect
with any of the identical-looking soldiers
you face. Not that there are many of them.
Unlike the crowd-clearing madness of the
Dynasty Warriors series which swamps
your screen with hundreds of bad guys
Drakengard only lets you loose at a fistful of
formulaic knights at a time, since the game
simply cant handle more than a few objects
at any one point before it starts to shudder
and slow down under the strain. All this
while you barrel down dull, grey corridors
with no room for any real exploration.
However, despite the shonky performance
issues and woeful combat, theres still
something that compels you forward. Boss
battles may not be particularly challenging,
but at least they change up the gameplay in
more inventive ways. And while Drakengard
3 is lewd, crude and incredibly rude,
2
it
knows it and revels in all of its overly crass
and juvenile dialogue. This isnt
pretending to be a big or clever
game by any stretch of the
imagination, but its stupid, dumb
fun all the same. Daniella Lucas
FOOTNOTES 1 Have we really spelled out TIT in giant letters? Trust
Dani to take this pages tone down a notch. 2 Seriously, theres even
talk of underage relations with your giant, avian reptile.
092
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
ALSO ON PS3
ETA OUT NOW
PUB UBISOFT
DEV UBISOFT
MONTREAL
WATCH DOGS
A neat twist on sandbox formulae, if you can hack it
M
ost people use their phones for
texting friends, spamming Facebook
feeds with stupid grinning selfies and
rage-Tweeting First Great Western
when all the trains in the world seem to have
driven into black holes, leaving commuters
stranded and furious on rainy platforms. Aiden
Pearce uses his phone to control an entire city
and download the personal data of each and
every citizen, then covers off the spiralling
data costs by skimming cash out of the bank
accounts of unfortunate passers-by.
When it all works, Watch Dogs is essentially
Grand Theft Auto IV (thats IV, not V) with a
one-button hacking tool. If youre bombing down
Chicagos streets in a supercar with the fuzz in
tow you can stab r to turn all the traffic lights
green and cause other vehicles to plough into
your pursuers, or overload subterranean steam
pipe pressure gauges and blow the streets wide
open, totalling nearby vehicles in the process.
Or, when youre infiltrating a heavily guarded
compound, rather than putting yourself in harms
way you can simply line-of-sight-jump your way
through security camera feeds until you reach the
server you need to tinker with.
Somebody nearby calling for backup? Deploy
the Jam Comms tool to disrupt their SOS.
Armoured guards about to rumble your location?
Remote-activate the digital
switch on their grenades and
then stifle your chuckles as
they succumb to a surprise
industrial accident. High
profile target hiding in a car
dealership along with almost
a dozen bodyguards? Cut the
power to a full city block,
sprint past everyone in the
confusion, murder your victim
and slip away undetected before
the backup generator kicks in.
Aidens phone is an
empowering piece of kit, far
more exciting than any weapon
he or his peers could ever
wield. It gives you meaningful
choices to approach jobs in
directions of your choosing,
and its environment-altering
apps are varied enough to cater
for radically different playstyles.
Hes a bland
leading man, but
Aidens phone
makes up for
that with aplomb.
Again, Ill wheel out that
line when it works. In these
moments, Watch Dogs hands
you the keys to its starring
city and lets you wring out
more entertainment from its
systems than the majority of its
competition. When it doesnt
work, however when the
smoke clears and the mirrors
shatter serious cracks in the
mechanics start emerging.
PEARCE WALKER
And there are cracks everywhere.
Not counting the now-fixed
server issues that hampered
week-one online play, Watch
Dogs is beset with issues.
Some of them are amusing
problems hack a junction
with just one car waiting at
the lights and watch it plough
@Pelloki PHONE SHARK
WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS
AND THE MIRRORS SHATTER,
SERIOUS CRACKS EMERGE.
093
REVIEW
into a nearby park as the driver
panics at the earlier-than-
expected green but there
are fundamental problems with
missions and progression that
arent so easily laughed off.
Key skill upgrades hidden
behind dozens of bloated side-
quests grate (Im tempted to
swear off alcohol for life thanks
to the awful drinking games),
but its the combination of the
underwhelming campaign, plot
and characters that disappoints
the most. Watch Dogs core
mission branch bounces
between mildly interesting and
plain boring, and never excels.
Standout moments are
almost all found in side-
missions or during emergent
moments, buried between
scores more forgettable
missions involving chess or
auto-pilot hacking tasks. Every
corner of the city has been
packed with content, whether
its digital trips that transport
you into mini-games based on
Carmageddon or DayZ-style
zombie-robo survival sims, or
crimes in progress you need
to prevent and youve got to
dig deep to find the good stuff.
Its the anti-inFamous:
Second Son. Whereas Sucker
Punchs sandbox was for
the most part a beautiful,
concentrated experience, Watch
Dogs relies on unfiltered girth
to entertain. Another victim
of cross-gen releases, theres
nothing particularly new-gen
about the game, but there are
plenty of good ideas and a lot
of activities to keep you busy.
The fundamentals for a truly
special game are in place but
as was the case with Assassins
Creed and Far Cry, it now falls
to the sequels to fully realise it.
V E R DI C T
THE OPM BREAKDOWN
15% Jumping
between
security camera
feeds on
auto-pilot mode.
18% Not caring
that youre weak
in combat when
you have such
great hacking
getaway skills.
6% Asking
yourself what you
can actually spend
your money on.
1% Using your
hacking skills to
stop the Chicago
L for cheeky police
escape routes.
10% Panicking
when another player
hacks into your
game unexpectedly.
WH AT Y OU DO I N WAT C H DOGS
50%
Stopping crimes
then stealing the
cash of innocents
who praise you.
C OMP E L - O- GR A P H
Dislike Aiden
already.
Whats new-
gen about
this?
Campaign limps
to a close.
Unlock better
kit for AI mirth.
Getting hacked
by other players.
TIME 0 30 hours
Right Vicious
AI means car
chases are fast,
frantic and filled
with memorable
hacking hijinks.
Below The crazy
digital trips are
so deep, each
has its own
upgrade tree.
Above left Well give Aiden this: hacking enemy grenades never gets old.
Comes up well short of its initial
genre-reinventing promise, yet
the malleable world and hacking
toolbox on offer soften the blow
of the weak missions by packing
the citys streets with emergent
goodness. Matthew Pellett
I S I T B E T T E R T H A N ?
Rockstars sandbox
trumps Watch Dogs at
every turn: even
visually, despite PS3s
lesser hardware grunt.
NO NO
Stronger missions
and the lure of
seamless open-water
combat forces Watch
Dogs to walk the plank.
YES
Superpower hilarity
cant match Watch
Dogs gadgets for
unscripted, emergent
sandbox amusement.
HOW T O TA K E C ON T ROL OF CHI C AGO
1 The city is split up into different districts, all of them monitored by
ctOS Control Centers. Youll need to hack into these to then highlight
nearby ctOS Control Towers often hidden on rooftops. 2 To reach the
masts youll need to complete small access-based puzzles akin to Far
Cry 3s Radio Tower climbs. Expect to hack hidden terminals to unlock
doors aplenty 3 Once in, activating the Towers unlocks new safe-
houses and highlights that districts missions and collectible locations.
1 2 3
You know what hacks me off? The fact GTA V is
still the only sandbox that gets vehicle handling
right. Aiden may manipulate the odd webcam,
but 70% of Watch Dogs still revolves around driving,
which is unrefined and floaty. Yes, the on-foot action is
compelling, but Pearce doesnt have the polish or
personality to dethrone the king. Dave Meikleham
SE C OND OP I NI ON P E A RC E D OF F
094
REVIEW
I NF O
FORMAT PS4 ALSO ON PS3/PS VITA ETA OUT NOW
PUB PQUBE DEV MILESTONE
MOTOGP 14
Gently gently aaaand restart
R
acing against other riders in MotoGP
14 almost feels like muddying the
crystal clear water of the immaculate,
distilled riding experience at its core. Clean,
crisp and clinical, manoeuvring your bike is a
joy and the jump in fidelity from PS3 to PS4
is immediately apparent in both look and feel.
Manual gears, tuck-in and even separate
brake buttons become second nature
and its hugely rewarding as it all comes
together. Few racers are as satisfying under
braking, either. You have to be ultra careful
not to lock a wheel if youre using Pro
Physics, but diving down the inside of Marc
Marquez at a hairpin never gets old.
On the other hand, while the bikes and
riders look incredible (especially in the
gorgeous, ultra-slow-motion replays), the
tracks can look very CG-simmy and that
sterility breaks the immersion.
1
Championship mode is meaty and
engrossing, with teams to unlock,
2
full race
weekends to experience and a bike upgrade
system that enables you to prioritise
development areas as you plot your career
from Moto3 to MotoGP. The single lap
needed to bank a development point is too
simple, but at least it adds some immersion.
The local split-screen option is exemplary,
performing like single-player and, if youre
feeling particularly rebellious, you can take
the official Safety Car (what? four wheels?)
out on the track for a Time Trial blast. Weird.
With history-bending classic scenarios such
as the 1993 duel between riders Schwantz
and Rainey, and a full recreation of last
years championship, the licence
is put to great use and the
PS4 finally has a strong racing
simulation debut to set the new-
gen pace. Justin Towell
FOOTNOTES 1 This is made worse by the fact the trackside
crowd is almost all 2D sprites. 2 Some teams are inexplicably
locked behind a you need to buy DLC to race for this team wall.
I NF O
FORMAT PS4 ALSO ON PS3/PS VITA ETA OUT NOW
PUB SONY DEV PIXELOPUS
ENTWINED
Analogue sticks in your teeth
W
ho needs to go through that whole
preview cycle rigmarole when
your game can appear on a global
stage at the Sony E3 show and land on the
PS Store within minutes? Entwined did just
that, intriging us with striking visuals and
gameplay that looks like Rez hooked up with
Flower on a suitably trippy evening to spawn
a new indie darling. Yet Pixelopus debut
sadly doesnt meet the heady heights of
these floaty-light pseudo-parents.
Entwined hands your left analogue stick
to a bright orange fish and your right to
a blue origami bird before sending you
hurtling down an exceptionally pretty version
of the Doctor Who intro.
1
Initially, this is a
beautifully soothing experience as you roll
the characters around to gently building
music and send them swooping through
matching coloured panels to fill two bars
at the top of the screen. If nothing else,
these gauges will very quickly let you know
which hand you write with as each jarring
failure complete with a horrible buzz of the
DualShock 4 - depletes the bar. The difficulty
cranks up quickly and expert analogue
steering is required to fill both bars to the
top and complete each stage, culminating
in a strikingly attractive area where the two
characters merge to become an elegant
dragon. Yet for all its That Game Company-
inspired clothing, Entwined feels oddly
hollow, repeating its one trick analogue
swivelling with frustrating insistence.
Add in convoluted flying controls in what
should be its most relaxing bits and an error
message consistently appearing
at vital moments
2
and Entwined
becomes a far more shallow
experience than its looks would
have you believe. Louise Blain
FOOTNOTES 1 These bright tunnels vary from mountains and
caves to digital worlds full of light bulbs. 2 The game will stutter
and pause should you miss a few too many of those coloured gates.
I NF O
FORMAT PS4 ETA OUT NOW
PUB TEAM17 DEV TEAM17
WORMS
BATTLEGROUNDS
Soil and trouble
L
ets saw the big can of worms open
right from the off and throw the
writhing invertebrates everywhere,
shall we? At 19.99 for a digital download,
Worms Battlegrounds is an expensive
instalment that doesnt warrant a purchase
if you own any of the previous titles on PS3.
And at 34.99 thats thirty-four pounds
and ninety-nine pence for the boxed copy,
1

its a concrete donkey to the wallets of
anyone unfortunate enough to buy the disc.
Its a big game, but a bloated one. Theres
a single-player puzzle-adventure mode
involving skirmishes in museum exhibits, all
narrated by a Lara Croft pastiche called Tara
Pinkle, but the slow-going is best summed up
by that classic Worms quip: boring! On the
flip side, the speedier time attack Worm Ops
missions are limited diversions.
As always, multiplayers where its at.
Theres a scary number of modes and
options for multi-person wormage, but
theres also a frightening amount of loading
time and irritating menus: the games an
expanded port of the PCs Worms Clan Wars,
and the ugly UI was clearly designed with a
mouse in mind. Yes, you can create clans and
enter them into online leaderboards, but its
a constant fight against the menus to do so,
and the urge to pull the pin on the DualShock
4s Holy Hand Grenade PS button and jump
into something else proves tough to resist.
Persist and its perfectly possible to
recreate the multiplayer joys of Worms
Armageddon
2
with the added bonus of worm
voices shouting out from the
DualShock 4 speaker. That those
thrills are buried beneath so
much frustration, however, is
utter madness. Matthew Pellett
FOOTNOTES 1 Weve always argued that digital titles should be
cheaper than boxed ones, but this is silly. 2 Still our fave Worms,
and on your shortlist for the 100 Greatest PS Games next issue.
STRAIGHT TO
THE BARGAIN BIN
@PhilIwaniuk
095
REVIEW
Just because a game gets
bunged in the recession-
friendly repository basket
doesnt automatically mean
its bobbins. Case in point:
Im actually rather fond of
RAGNAROK ODYSSEY ACE. A PS3 port of Vitas
online, Norse-obsessed scrapper, theres little
point in me trying to spin some highfalutin critical
appraisal to explain said fondness. Instead, Ill just
tell you the vertically-focused combat reminds me
of a chunky DmC and the warmly cheery music
brings back fond memories of playing Final Fantasy
IX. That, and it also lets me knock the scandalously
revealing loin cloth off a 60ft, bright red King Kong
pretender. Ah, such wonderfully simple pleasures.
DEFENSE TECHNICA is
another game thats so
nearly better than the
surroundings it finds itself
in. Seeing it in the bargain
bin is like seeing a lone
tin of Heinz abandoned on the Tesco Value shelf.
This is tower defence done properly, with notes
of Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation
to its art style. But despite perfectly functional
mechanics and likeable rag-tag visuals, its not
quite slick or substantial enough to distinguish
itself from the ranks of browser/mobile tower
defence titles. I dont want to come across all,
Unreal Engine 4 or GTFO, but I need a better
reason than this to plug my PS3 back in.
Wait, whats this? A turn-
based RPG/procreation
sim that allows me to date
seven different women and
then create an army of
battle-primed children from
the subsequent sweet monkey lovin? Alright, Im
reaching back for the plug. In CONCEPTION II you
play Gods Gift. Literally. Thats the dudes name.
After you embark on Classmating which involves
wooing lady folk and something to do with uh,
Star Wombs you take your hastily-raised kids
into surprisingly thoughtful battles. Viewed from
a Persona-esque perspective, you end up fighting
with your significant other and multiple sprogs in a
circular grid system. Icky, but intriguing.
Ugh. Has the anime
genre ever heard of a
cup size smaller than
a GG? If XBLAZE CODE: EMBRYOs creepy
objectification isnt enough, the ruddy thing
isnt even a game. This BlazBlue visual novel
merely requires you to press q 1,498 times
to progress through an indecipherably twee
plot about cults trying to off a kid. Id rather
have a Beano, if its all the same. Phil Iwaniuk
ABOMINATION
OF THE MONTH
Below Dimension-
hopping in co-op
is now locked to
each player for
easier switching.
B
y this stage, playing
Guacamelee is old
sombrero to me.
Having Frog Stomped
and Rooster Uppercutted my
way through it on PS3 and PS
Vita, I wasnt really planning
on taking another trip into
this masked brawler. And yet
here I am, laying down lucha
libre justice once again.
Heres the million peso
question, though is there
enough new content here to
coax you back if youve already
played it, or catch your eye if
you werent bearhugged by the
combo-fests original concept?
Well yes and no. Developer
Drinkbox has taken the same
awesome tex-mex platformer
we gave a nine in these very
pages and added a new boss,
extra areas and lots more as
well as rejigging the games
flow to maintain balance.
This version includes two
new levels the Canal Of
Flowers and the Volcano
along with a new boss, El Trio.
And while the extra big bad
is just tacked-on content, the
Canal section is a bonafide
gem, mainly because it gives
you a challenging area in which
to test your new moves. The
entire section is littered with
invincible enemies that leap
from the water below and
sap your health all while
youre suplexing skellys and
other assorted baddies. Luckily
your improved dodge move
(which always granted you a
millisecond of invincibility)
now damages foes, to help you
cope with the extra intensity of
the new enemy types.
MACHO LIBRE
Theres also a new El Inferno
mode similar to Kratos
Rage meter from God Of War
which gives masked hero
Juan the power to deal extra
damage. However, this new
addition only serves to dilute
the previously tight balance of
Guacamelee. Theres certainly
fun to be had chaining attacks
to keep the El Inferno meter
filled, but it ends up giving you
an edge that feels unnecessary
and out of place.
Thankfully, this new
mode isnt mandatory, and
beyond it the same cracking
Metroidvania-style beat-em-
up still resides now with a
longer story, reduced loading
times and some sexy new
lighting effects that make
the already purdy-looking 2D
animations pop off the screen
with the power of PS4.
Despite some unnecessarily
tweaked features, Guac is
still a spicy little brawler-
cum-platformer with prettier
looks and some fun new bits of
content. Dom Reseigh-Lincoln
I NF O
PUB DRINKBOX STUDIOS DEV DRINKBOX STUDIOS
GUACAMELEE! SUPER
TURBO CHAMP ED!!!
Mexican-flavoured romp turns up the heat
@furianreseigh LUCH-ADORE
V E R DI C T
096
B A C K
I S S U ES
To order an issue of Official PlayStation
Magazine, just call 0844 848 2852
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and save cash
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#98 July 2014
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Homefront The Revolution
The Complete Guide To Destiny
Wolfenstein: The New Order
#93 February 2014 #91 Christmas 2013 #92 January 2014
Alien: Isolation
Gran Turismo 6
Top 50 PlayStation Quotes
Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor
PlayStation 4 Launch Special
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Call Of Duty: Ghosts
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dark Souls II
Game Of The Year
2014 Preview
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
officialplaystationm
agazine.co.uk
ISSUE 091 CHRISTMAS 2013
SPECIAL
LAUNCH
ITS HERE!
Your day oneguidetothefutureof gaming
ISSUE 091 CHRISTMAS 2013 5.99
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GAMES
TESTED
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All your questions
answered
2
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MEET YOUR
NEWCONSOLE
KILLZONE:
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#94 March 2014
Evolve
inFamous: Second Son
Top Ten Worst PS3 Games
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
#95 April 2014 #96 May 2014 #97 June 2014
Batman: Arkham Knight
PS4s Secret Games
Dark Souls II
Thief
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Indie Games On PS4
inFamous: Second Son
Project Morpheus
Destiny
The Order: 1886
Breaking The Fourth Wall
The Ultimate OPM Pub Quiz Book
097
Ultra Street
Fighter 4
The time for talking is over: we fireball our way
down ethernet cables for the ultimate online test.
99
online tests
this month
online dlc how to trophies movies music
on your xmb
103 Under The Skin
Scarlett Johansson does Species in
Scotland with weird, disturbing and
confusing results.
how to
104 Stream your gaming online
music
103 This months hottest tunes
on the store
100 FIFA 14 Ultimate Team
World Cup
The real tourneys almost done, but
theres one more way to celebrate
this summers footy in gaming form.
platinum
club
105 South Park:
The Stick Of Truth
MULTIPLAYER MODES PUT
THROUGH THEIR PACES
BY OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS online tests
what were
playing now
DESTINY
Matthew Pellett
glimpses into the
future of online
gaming on PlayStation
We got early access to
Destinys surprise E3
Alpha, so Ive taken the
wise decision to replace
those hours Id normally
waste on sleep with
repeated treks into Old Russia. Though
Ive been hands-on before Im still
amazed at the scale of Bungies world
and its ability to create stunning
vistas, and even in this Alpha state
the surprise meetings with randomers
feels magical: much like Journeys
pairings. And, like in Journey, the
sadness when a helpful stranger
leaves my world forever cuts deep
PAYDAY 2
Things are getting
heisty for would-be
bank robber Dom
Reseigh-Lincoln
My crew of globally-placed
pseudo-criminals has
already robbed a couple
of local jewellers, filling
our duffel bags with crisp
Benjamins. But weve got
the taste for bigger fish; its time to
hit a bank. After scoping out the joint
for guard patrols and exit routes we
channel our inner-Heat and go for
it. And its all going so well before a
civilian breaks free and tips off the
fuzz. Cue bullets, tear gas and a street
littered with blood-stained dollar bills.
THE LAST OF US
Dave Meikleham tries
to stay in for the long,
flesh-searing haul in
NDs survival epic
Being the worlds 36th
worst loser (Ive counted),
I try to keep my online
powder dry. Sadly, Im also
obsessed with nabbing
trophies, which has led
to me slowly whittling away the truly
gargantuan number of online matches
you have to endure to unlock TLOUs
Hunter and Firefly pots. I say endure,
because despite its mechanical
excellence, the sheer number of curb
stomps and fiery deaths in these team
deathmatches make it quite the
uncomfortable experience especially
when you have to finish 168 games to
tick that trophy box.
098
review
T
here are a bunch of different
competitive modes to pick
from in Watch Dogs online
component, but the best
gametype by far is hide n
seek. Technically its called Online
Hacking, but its really just hide n seek.
It works thusly: you apply for an online
contract in the menus, wait for a couple
of minutes to be matched up against
another player and then rudely invade
their game to remotely install backdoor
access into their phone and make off
with data, all while remaining
undetected. Your victim is given a
search radius and can interrupt your
file thievery if he or she profiles your
face before you grab the data, and then
instigate a gun battle to wrap it up.
Of course, this means that you too
can find yourself invaded by others
without warning. Occasionally it can be
an unwelcome frustration as
happened with me once when Id driven
across the map to start
a mission, only to be
pulled into an online
game a few blocks away
but most of the time
the diversions are nice
breaks from the bland
single-player quests.
Cowering behind
cars on the edge of
the search radius and
praying your victim
doesnt spot you is
tense stuff, up there
with Sam Fishers and
Solid Snakes best
stealthing action far
more thrilling than the
games standard
missions because youre
outsmarting another
human being in the
process. There are
plenty of opportunities
for cunning tactics on
both sides of the job, too
if youre wise enough
to make full use of your
various skills, that is.
Other modes include
Online Decryption
(multiple players race
across the city by any
means necessary to
Watch Dogs
Cooking up an online storm in the Windy City
ITS TENSE STUFF, UP
THERE WITH SAM FISHERS
AND SOLID SNAKES BEST
STEALTHING ACTION.
I NF O
FORMAT PS4
PUB UBISOFT
DEV UBISOFT MONTREAL
REVIEW ISSUE #99, 7/10
099
You play as Aiden,
yet everyone else sees
you as a generic NPC.
Its odd, but works.
PURPLE HAZE
All online interaction messages
are labelled purple, so you can
tell in an instant whether a
mission pop-up involves other
players. Anti-social? Simply
turn off intrusions in the menu.
U
SF4 is pure fan service,
and Capcom has taken the
same approach to online
play, adding some long-requested
features to the mix.
Ranked matches, friendly
Endless Battles and Tournament
mode return, while a new Team
Battle is a 3v3, winner-stays-on
rumble. Online Training lets two
players duke it out with infinite
health, Super and Ultra meters.
In single-player Training you can
now turn on Fight Request, and
practice combos while the game
searches for Ranked opponents.
The netcodes as reliable as
ever, and while matchmaking
was a mess early on thanks to
a leaderboard reset, the natural
order of things has been restored.
What was always the best online
fighter around just got even better.
Ultra Street
Fighter 4
Capcom gives PS3s top
fighter a fitting send-off
Additional modes, extra features
and new gameplay systems
ensure this new iteration will
keep you busy until the inevitable
arrival of SF5. Nathan Brown
I NF O
V E R DI C T
FORMAT PS3
PUB CAPCOM
DEV CAPCOM
P
acking in Diamond Dynasty
(the baseball version of
FIFAs Ultimate Team), Online
Franchise and regular roster
updates, MLB 14: The Show
should be the virtual equivalent
of the all-conquering (til this
season anyway) Boston Red Sox.
Instead its more the middle-
of-the-road Minnesota Twins,
constantly serving up frustrations
despite so much obvious promise.
Theres only one issue, but its
a massive one: lag. In a sport
where twitch-reactions are vital
to the flow of play, the delays that
occasionally occur as a fastball
approaches the plate are nothing
short of gamebreaking. Those
live rosters mean you should still
stay connected at all times, but
otherwise this is a dramatic swing
and miss when played online.
MLB 14:
The Show
Lag issues result in an
untimely strikeout
A brilliant game, undone by
instances of lag at the most
inopportune times. Still highly
recommended as an offline bat-
swing experience. Ben Wilson
I NF O
V E R DI C T
FORMAT PS4
PUB SONY
DEV SONY SAN DIEGO
One of Watch Dogs biggest plusses.
Some of the hacking interruptions can
feel like borderline trolling, but theres
great fun to be had invading other
players worlds. Matthew Pellett
V E R DI C T
recover a file); Online Race (eight-player
car races, natch); ctOS Mobile
Challenges (race through checkpoints
while your opponent uses a tablet to
unleash waves of police on you); and
Online Tailing (stealthily follow your foe
without being clocked). The waits for
each are still upwards of two minutes,
but given that the matchmaking takes
place while you carry on mucking
around in the single-player world, the
waits dont impact your enjoyment.
It pays to play them all given that
there are separate skills and trophies
unlocked for completing them set
numbers of times (the online mode has
its own progression tree system), but
its no accident that Online Hacking is
the one mode I keep defaulting to. These
one-on-one fights are Watch Dogs in its
purest form, and the closest the game
comes to living up to what was
promised back at E3 2012.
EMPTY YOUR WALLETS
NOW WITH THE LATEST
DOWNLOADABLE DIVERSIONS on the store
MINECRAFT SKIN
PACK 2
Not to court our inner
Janice from Friends,
but Oh. My. God. Little
The Last Of Us Minecraft
characters! The super
unsexily named DLC
contains character
skins from Naughty
Dogs doomsday romp,
Ratchet & Clank and
Journeys hooded leads.
WATCH DOGS
CONSPIRACY
Attention: stop scanning
through that poor sods
text messages. Theres
a zombie invasion afoot.
Undead DLC isnt exactly
original, but seeing
Chicagos civilians
turned into cybernetic
coffin-dodgers does
give Pearces hack to
the future fun some
much-needed character.
THE AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN 2
BLACK SUIT
Break out your best
Tobey Maguire strut
for this Spidey DLC that
conjures up memories
of one of the worst
acting turns of the
century via a nifty black
suit. We reckon the
Andrew Garfield version
rocks those Venom-
aspiring threads way
more confidently.
dlc
1.59
3.99
1.29
100
E
A has taken years to shake off
the clichd money-grabbing
scoundrels tag but this tie-in
to footballs biggest tourney
may have undone much of the
hard work. A strange conclusion to
make about an ostensibly free piece
of downloadable content that expands
upon the finest football game going?
Not once you get stuck into improving
your merry band of soccer stars.
It works similarly to standard
Ultimate Team: turn a squad of
also-rans into your dream team by
collecting cards that look a lot like
Panini stickers. But unlike the club-
based version, the internationals on
offer here cant be traded or sold to
recoup in-game coins. That means the
only way to track down Messi, or
Neymar or, er, Gary Cahill
is to keep buying pack
after pack and hope each
materialises eventually.
But packs are pricey
you need to play six or
seven matches to afford
just one meaning
the sole way to build a
top-quality squad without
kissing goodbye to your
entire summer is by
dropping actual moolah.
For those inclined to
do so, fair enough. But
this plays like an exercise
in disciplining yourself
not to spend like Harry
Redknapp rather than a
rewarding game mode.
Its great to see all the
real World Cup teams
shine on new-gen but
not when the trade off is
having to throw lots of
real cash at them.
ps1/ps2 games
expansion
CRASH BANDICOOT
2: CORTEX
STRIKES BACKPS1
Your favourite marsupial
thingie is back as a
captive of his arch-
nemesis. Yay! An ace slice
of retro Naughty Dog.
CASTLEVANIA:
SYMPHONY OF
THE NIGHTPS1 2
Quite simply one of the
greatest 2D side-
scrollers ever created,
and perhaps one of the
top ten games on PS1.
FINAL FANTASY VIPS1
Before its sequel
conquered the world
or that annoying flower
shop girl bought the farm,
there was this captivating
SNES classic, belatedly
ported to PSOne.
SPYRO: YEAR OF
THE DRAGONPS1 2
Insomniacs last fire-
breathing outing is
perhaps its finest, as the
lizard is charged with
nabbing eggs scattered
across 37 various worlds.
VAGRANT STORYPS1
One of PS1s most
eclectic RPGs stars a
young chap known as a
Risebreaker who indulges
in puzzles, platforming
bits and can even view
the world in first-person.
FREE
3.99 7.99 7.99 3.99 4.79
THE ONLY WAY TO BUILD A
TOP-QUALITY SQUAD WITHOUT
LOSING YOUR SUMMER IS TO
SPEND ACTUAL MOOLAH.
FIFA 14 Ultimate
Team: World Cup
Beware the hidden costs of Maracan majesty
101
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and
more lead our milestone issue
OPMS 100TH SPECIAL
O N
S A L E
1 August
Subscribe on
page 42
NE X T
MON T H
on your XMB
102
The film was shot entirely
on location in Germany,
mainly in the town of Grlitz.
O
ne imagines Mr Anderson
goes to bed the night before
filming a new motion picture
with a fat checklist. Offbeat,
disarming comedy spewed
from the gob of at least one (preferably
both) Wilson brother(s). Tick.
Resplendent cinematography that
makes you want to lick the screen. Tick.
A cheeky Bill Murray cameo. Oh yes.
Not that The Grand Budapest Hotel
is by any means a by-the-numbers
production. On the contrary, this is a
far more imaginatively realised film than
the likes of The Darjeeling Limited.
Loosely based on the writings of Stefan
Zweig, it uses the Austrians novels as
a launchpad to spin a typically esoteric,
often farcical tale of obsessive hotel
etiquette and wartime prison busts.
As ever with the Rushmore director,
casting is superb. Centring around
Ralph Fiennes joyously
particular concierge and
his flustered pursuit of a
priceless painting, a host
of veteran thesps get
brief windows to shine.
Yet despite fun turns
from Willem Dafoe and
Harvey Keitel, its new
face Tony Revoloris loyal
bus boy who steals the
show. Unfailingly stoic,
he captures Andersons
brand of dryly delivered
buffoonery so well, youd
think hed been built in a
factory. Its just a pity
theres no real heart
to proceedings. Though
expertly maintained,
this hotel does feel a tad
hollow. Dave Meikleham
The Grand
Budapest Hotel
Wes Hungary Games hit Fiennes form
blu-rays
coming soon
THE DOUBLE
Jesse Eisenbergs second
entry this month finds
him, ironically enough,
side-by-side with his own
doppelganger, whos much
better with the ladies.
MUPPETS
MOST WANTED
Its Ricky Gervais and
Tina Feys turn to pull the
strings on Kermit & co, with
the gang embroiled in an
international jewel heist.
NOAH
A regular Noe saves
all of creation from being
(alright, the Lego parity ends
there) washed away. Yknow,
like that bit in The Bible, but
this time with CG hippos.
COMMUNITY
SEASON 5
The community college
reprobates enter their fifth
season under threat from
the, ass-crack bandit.
Lets just leave that there.
RIO 2
Cheery CG-
animated macaw melodrama
in the Amazon rainforest,
starring Jesse Eisenberg
and Jamie Foxx. Peter
Molydeux pitch, anyone?
THE ANGRIEST
MAN IN
BROOKLYN
Robin Williams plays the
grump in question, trying to
make amends before rage-
related illness snuffs him.
A HARD DAYS
NIGHT 50TH
ANNIVERSARY
Remember Beatlemania?
Youve probably got this on
preorder. That or you were
once swarmed by insects.
TWIN PEAKS:
THE ENTIRE
MYSTERY
Ninety minutes of unseen
footage rounds off two
seasons and a movie prequel
of the best TV show ever.
THE ZERO
THEOREM
More mind-altering
post-Python fantasy from
director Terry Gilliam in this
tale of a hacker trying to
decipher the meaning of life.
THE LEGO
MOVIE
A regular Joe saves all of
creation from being glued
together, with a little help
from Batman, Gandalf and a
super-endearing script.
21 JUL
21 JUL
21 JUL
21 JUL
22 JUL
28 JUL
29 JUL
4 AUG
4 AUG
4 AUG
103
W
riter/director Jonathan
Glazer (Sexy Beast) has
spent a decade bringing
Michael Fabers novel to
the screen. Its not a
particularly faithful adaptation, but the
result is a film of such unwavering
vision its difficult to imagine it was ever
made with any kind of audience in mind.
Its near-wordless for starters, with
a plot thats steadfast in its refusal to
spell anything out. Why is Johanssons
unnamed space invader picking up
horny Scotsmen in a white van? Why
did that guy just implode? Answers are
nowhere to be found, which can make
Under The Skin a frustratingly oblique
experience. But at the same time its
a beguiling and beautifully constructed
piece of filmmaking.
Johansson is quietly brilliant and
perfectly cast as the voluptuous
interstellar succubus luring Scottish
menfolk to their doom. As the
bodycount climbs, the sexual predator
slowly starts to realise what it means
to be human and her detached exterior
starts to crack. Its a testament to
Johanssons performance that by the
end its possible to care
about a character weve
seen commit such
horrific acts.
Scotland may seem
like a mundane setting
for a psychosexual
horror film, but Glazer
captures a haunting
beauty in everything
from shopping centres
to the misty highlands.
Coupled with Mica Levis
astonishing, utterly alien
soundtrack, the film has
a hypnotic effect.
Sexy, upsetting,
confusing, compelling
Under The Skin is an
astoundingly powerful
example of visual
storytelling, albeit one
that makes absolutely
no concessions to its
viewers. With any luck
it wont be another ten
years before Glazer is
back on screens once
again. Jordan Farley
Under The Skin
Scarlett fever sweeps through Scotland
music
An early version of the
films script also had a
male alien, with Brad
Pitt cast in the role.
CEREBRAL BALLZY
JADED AND FADED
FORMAT ALBUM ETA OUT NOW PRICE 5.99
When they emerged from the NY sewers a few years
back, many thought these punk brats were just a fad.
But theres nothing novelty about this LP 13 tracks
of studded leather punk-pop. cerebralballzy.com
KING 810 PROEM
FORMAT EP ETA OUT NOW PRICE 2.99
King 810 hail from Murdertown not its real name,
obviously, but the name given to Flint, Michigan, one of
the most dangerous cities in America. Its a breeding
ground that feeds directly into their music, a
gruesome and serrated take on metal. king810.com
DAMON ALBARN
MR TEMBO
FORMAT SINGLE ETA OUT NOW
PRICE 0.99
One of the highlights
of his debut solo album,
released back in April, Mr
Tembo is a perky gospel
number that finds Damon,
his band The Heavy
Seas, and Leytonstone
City Mission Choir
telling a heartfelt tale
about a baby elephant.
damonalbarnmusic.com
SEINABO SEY
HARD TIME
FORMAT SINGLE ETA OUT NOW
PRICE 0.79
Annie, Robyn, Fever Ray
Scandinavia has fine
form in turning out bright
young electropop divas, but
Stockholms Seinabo Sey isnt
riding anyones coat-tails.
Her second single Hard Time
combines raw, electrifying
gospel blues with atmospheric
electronics, courtesy of
producer Magnus Lidehll.
seinabosey.com
how to
104
1 2 3

Put down that months-old,
Dettol-soaked copy of GQ
and place it back on the waiting
room table the doctor will see
you now. Keep your eyes off the
prescription pad and hear this:
the Share button is your ticket
to internet fame. Youre probably
taking screenshots in your
sleep by now, and maybe youve
uploaded a COD killstreak video
onto Facebook, just to check
everything worked. But what
about that Broadcast Gameplay
button youve been maligning
in the Share menu all this time?
The one that enables you to turn
an evenings gaming into a live
broadcast via Twitch or Ustream.
Were concentrating on the
former for now, and your first
step is to head over to Twitch.tv
and sign up nothing too
personal, just the usual username,
password, DOB, email, etc. Sorry,
but CoolDude69 is already taken.
Now load up the game you
want to start broadcasting
and hit the Share button. With
your Twitch account already in
place, when you hit the Twitch
option in the next menu youll be
taken directly to the pre-stream
options. If you have a PlayStation
camera, you can tick a box to
enable or disable a picture-in-
picture of your ugly mug. If youve
got a face for radio however, you
can leave that one unticked and
tick the box marked Include
microphone audio in broadcast.
The third tickbox lets you choose
whether comments from your
viewers are displayed on-screen
during a stream but bear in
mind it reduces your games
screen space, making things
tricky if youre rocking a tiny telly.
The only thing left to do before
broadcasting is name your
channel: CoolDude69s Super
Happy Gun Times will do just fine.
Its natural to get a bit of red
light syndrome when you hit
Start Broadcasting, but dont
worry you wont make as much
of a hash of it as The One Show.
When youre in-game, the Twitch
layer will let you know youre still
on air with a handy icon, how
many people are watching right
now and, additionally, how many
comments youve garnered so far.
If you do have comments enabled,
theyll appear just below your
eyeline at the bottom of the
screen. You can even read them
and reply via the mic, if you want
an insight into the day in the life
of a webcam girl. If you want to
modify your broadcast, its as
easy as hitting the Share button
and ticking/unticking the boxes
mentioned earlier though youll
need to stop broadcasting to
save videos. Now the tricky part:
getting internet famous. Yeah,
good luck with that one, slugger.
Start a PS4 Twitch stream
Sick at Killzone? Show them all exactly how sick
doctor
playstation
Our console medic
fixes your tech woes
with actual science
the problem
News of your
legendary Helghast-
disembowelling
prowess isnt
travelling nearly far
and wide enough.
Its time to use the
modern equivalent
of shouting from the
rooftops Twitch
broadcasting. (No
PewDiePie shrieks.)
the verdict
The simplicity, speed and
reliability of in-game streaming
is an overlooked boon of new-
gen console gaming. Short of
voice activation, it couldnt be
easier to put your gaming out
over Twitch, so go do it.
STEp 3
GO ON THE
AIR. GET
FAMOUS
STEp 2
PREP YOUR
STREAM FOR
BROADCAST
STEp 1
REGISTER
FOR FREE AT
TWITCH.TV
next month
No matter how
deep they might
be hidden, our PS
GP shows you how
to uncover the
very best tricks on
classic consoles.
w
n
Platinum Club
Our champ gets down and dirty in South Park: The Stick Of Truth
NEXT ISSUE Our man seeks justice and
virtual silverware as he hacks his way
through the Watch Dogs trophy list.
THINGS START GETTING
TWISTED WHEN YOU HAVE
TO WATCH YOUR PARENTS BUMP
UGLIES FOR A FULL MINUTE.
105
Mr trophy
Iain Wilsons PSN ID is
Wilbossman, and his
trophy cabinet is
bigger than yours.
Platinum x 57
Silver x 1,230
Gold x 305
Bronze x 5,006
join the
club
Hey! Whats
the hardest
trophy youve
snagged? Tell
us at opm@
futurenet.com
Be careful not to miss
trophies along the way,
otherwise youll have to
replay the entire game.
E
arning the hallowed
platinum award in The
Stick Of Truth is fairly
easy and loads of fun,
but before skipping
blithely through, do
bear in mind from the start
that there is plenty of missable
silverware. Id recommend you
either check out the descriptions
in advance or make
a manual save after
completing each quest
to minimise repetition
if any get overlooked
along the way.
There are three
different types of
collectibles to track down
friends, equipment and
Chinpokomon all of which
include items only available during
certain quests. Miss any of these
and youll have to replay the
entire game to complete your
collection, so unless you plan on
doing an extra run, its definitely
worth keeping a guide to hand.
On your first playthrough, dont
sell anything or youll invalidate
For The Hoarder, and make
sure your buddy isnt knocked
out at the end of any fights to
work towards No Child Left
Behind keep a supply of
revive potions and use them
as soon as possible if your
partner gets downed.
As youd expect from the
series, many of the trophies are,
lets say, scatological in nature.
This is evidenced early on when
you complete the toilet mini-game
to poop, then pick up the resulting
nugget and throw it at an enemy
to unlock Made This For You.
You also need to poop in your
pants during a boss battle, plus
two further fights, for Irritable
Bowels and Pulling Mud
respectively. To achieve this,
simply eat food items in combat
until you max out your mana bar,
then wait a couple of rounds for
nature to run its course.
Things start getting twisted
at the end of day two, when you
have to watch your parents bump
uglies for a full minute to earn
Perverted. However, the sickness
stakes are raised to vomming
heights during the later Unplanned
Parenthood quest, when you must
[censored] on the corpse of an
[censored] [censored] zombie
[censored] to rightly earn the
badge for going Too Far. Maybe
look for that one online
Before entering the last battle
at the conclusion of day three,
you should visit Toms Rhinoplasty
to get the David Hasselhoff look,
put on your girl makeover
disguise and ensure youve been
bitten by one of the
animals in Canada to
contract Dire AIDS.
This will net you the
Face Hoff, Two Girls,
One Stick and
Outpatient hidden
trophies in one fell
swoop once the boss is beaten.
Unless you picked Jew as your
character class first time out,
youll need to choose that on a
new playthrough, then quickly
complete Priest Maxis side quest
to find Jesus twice in the church
and receive Are We Cool?
You should have racked up
most, if not all of the awards by
this point, so replay any sections
required to mop up loose ends
and the Platinum Trophy will be
yours dude, sweet!
106
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INFO
PUB NAMCO
DEV NAMCO
RELEASED 1998, PS1
GET IT NOW AMAZON,
5.70
NEED TO KNOW
PS1s best selling
fighter, shifting
over 8.5m copies.
Ranked 2nd on
Metacritics best
PlayStation games.
Introduced 15 new
characters to the
series roster.
1
2
3
Paul debuted the Something
About Mary look in the same
year that Cameron Diaz went
on that fatefully sticky date.
107
retrostation
Get perfected by Gon and you deserve misery. The most health-sapping punch in all of games. Eddy Gordo could best anyone with two buttons.
E
ddy. Friggin. Gordo. How
can one of PlayStations
finest, most influential
scrappers be home to
such a despicably cheaty
toerag? 12 years before
'q to Jason' was ever
a thing, legions of PS1 fight fans
were chugging at the goblet of 32-bit
Capoeira success through shameful
spamming of q and e. Doesnt
anyone have the merest smidgen of
respect for an expertly timed 12-hit
juggle combo anymore? Of course, that
was Tekken 3s greatest gift to PS1
just as Final Fantasy VII re-energised
the JPRG for western audiences a year
before in 1997, Namcos frisky fighter
took the beat-em-up out of the arcade
and ignited a passion for the genre not
seen since Street Fighter II.
This is a game that falls into a tiny
cabal of genuine masterpieces that
truly sum up what PlayStation stood
for in the late 90s. WipEout. Metal Gear
Solid. Resident Evil 2. Tekken 3. Its in a
group that popularised videogames like
never before, stretching the boundaries
of what the medium could mean in a
way Sony couldnt comprehend when
it launched PS1 with Battle Arena
Toshinden and Rapid Reload. Not bad for
a game that padded its roster with a
tiny manga velociraptor, eh?
Built on Namco System 12 the
same platform that powered the
mighty SoulCalibur and uh UmJammer
Lammy Tekken 3 was immediately
bigger, bolder and more brazen than its
predecessors. A sledgehammer rather
than a scalpel, Namco ported a dirty
great smrgsbord of a fighter from
the fanatical arcade floors of Akihabara
to your PS1s disc tray. Next to their
great contemporary Virtua Fighter, Jin
Kazama and co knew they lacked the
piano wire precision of Segas effort.
However, finesse is overrated when
youve got a mode that lets you play
beach volleyball with a leopard-headed
wrassler simply by pounding the
inflatable sphere with a suplex.
Not that Tekken 3 isnt a supremely
crafted combatant. Where previous
games had been firmly rooted on 2D
ground, this round of the King Of Iron
Fist Tournament expanded its fisticuff
horizons by focusing on the third axis.
Fret not: were not talking phoned-
in, dragon-steering motion controls
here. Rather, the game opens up the
boundaries of the fighting planes,
enabling players to circle each other
or swiftly dodge Paul Phoenixs ultra
cheap Deathfist with a double tap of
8 or 2. In evolutionary terms, this
was as significant for Tekken as Leon
instructing Resis cam to shift behind
his shoulder for entry number four.
A sense of progression was also
tied with a knowing sense of absurdity
theres no other PS1 fighter that
so wilfully makes fun of itself. A quick
look at the greatly expanded roster
shows Namcos propensity for levity,
be it a giant panda shoeing a walking
tree trunk in the wooden shins or
a professor, so sauced up he can
barely stand, battling a miffed ogre.
This magnificently silly sensibility is
furthered bolstered by Tekken Force, a
side-scrolling mini-game that rekindled
a love for a forgotten curio that had
been lost since Streets Of Rage. And as
much as we love Axels pixelated karate
kick, hes no match for Lei Wulong and
his full suite of Jackie Chan chops.
MEMORY PAIN
A good 16 years on and Tekken 3 still
has power to evoke memories like
few other titles. Our own news ed
Meiks might have walked over to his
PS1 and calmly popped it open before
proceeding to snap his disc in two
with all the glass-eyed lunacy of an axe
murderer following 19 straight losses
to Mr Phoenix damn that Deathfist!
Yet despite tiny dinosaurs, red mist
tales and bouts of volleyball actually,
because of them, this undoubtedly
remains the king of fighters.
Every month we celebrate the most important,
innovative or just plain great games from
PlayStations past. This time out we dust off our
button bashing superskills as we enter the daddy
of all King Of Iron Fist Tournaments
Go n h o me
Tekken 3
C
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A GOOD 16 YEARS
ON AND TEKKEN 3 STILL
EVOKES MEMORIES LIKE
FEW OTHER TITLES.
OPM #34 unveiled a shooter supposedly
on the Brink of greatness, while the team
almost came to blows over a certain Sack
THERES A
SATISFYING AND
ABSORBING FREEDOM
TO PLAY BY YOUR
OWN RULES. WHICH
IN MY CASE MEANS
LEAVING EVERYONE
GENTLY SNORING
IN AIR DUCTS.
1
Guess the four games,
and their scores, from
these review quotes
Name
that game
OPM TIME MACHINE
5 YEARS AGO
Above Each team member was tasked with creating
their own LittleBigPlanet level. Tim, Rach and Leon
spent hours on theirs, while Nath opted for a swiftly-
constructed tower of prize bubbles earning a fully
justified D grade from Media Molecule.
Far left Rock
Band first came to
handheld, but the
lack of a miniature
plastic axe did it
few favours.
Left Quantic
Dreams Heavy
Rain had us falling
in love with both
the game itself,
and leading lady
Madison. Wed still
heart a sequel
A N S W E R S
1 . D e u s E x : H R , i s s u e 6 1 , 8 / 1 0
2 . I n n o c e n t L i f e : A F H M , i s s u e # 6 , 8 / 1 0
3 . S u p e r S t r e e t F i g h t e r I I T u r b o H D
R e m i x , i s s u e # 2 7 , 9 / 1 0
4 . F I F A 1 1 , i s s u e # 5 0 , 1 0 / 1 0
ITS LIKE ROCK,
PAPER, SCISSORS,
BUT WITH A HUNDRED
DIFFERENT TYPES
OF SCISSOR.
3
YOU HAVE TO
PUT IN THE HOURS
IF YOU WANT YOUR
CUCUMBERS TO BE
ANYTHING TO SHOUT
ABOUT. SEASONS
AND THE WEATHER
BECOME AN
OBSESSION.
2
THE TRANSFER
SYSTEM IS A LITTLE
PLAIN, BUT DOES
THE JOB JUST FINE.
ITS MORE THAN
FUNCTIONAL. THE
GARETH BARRY OF
VIDEOGAME MODES,
IF YOU WILL.
4
Below left We predicted a huge future for Splash
Damage shooter Brink. Mystic Meg stopped calling.
Below right We did, however, call the Alien vs
Predator debacle correctly. If only theyd listened
108

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nack isnt quite the game
I imagined it would be.
Perhaps it was Mark
Cernys involvement, but I
had it pegged as an action-
platformer along the lines of Crash
Bandicoot. And while it does owe a
debt to that PlayStation classic, its
more reminiscent of a very different
PlayStation hero. Knack feels like a
PG-certificate God Of War, with similar
combat rhythms and a right-stick
dodge though its nowhere near
as satisfying as Kratos evasive lunge.
Indeed, comparing the two is
doing Sony Santa Monica a grave
disservice, because Knacks scraps
are nowhere near the same standard.
Every encounter plays out in the same
manner: dodge an incoming attack and
either hit r or jump first and then
hit it. You cant even fall back on the,
but its for kids, argument since the
combo of one-hit kills and bafflingly
harsh checkpoints makes it arduous for
adults, nevermind children. And it takes
so long for Knack to collect enough
crystals to trigger his powerful specials
that Im reluctant to even use them.
I already feel like the games dragging
a bit by the time I reach Chapter Six,
and Im horrified to discover I have
seven more to go. Ive even begun
skipping cutscenes, having long since
tired of the dull characters and inane
dialogue. I find a few collectibles, albeit
only because theyre all hidden behind
walls so obviously breakable they might
as well have been marked with neon
arrows. The game tells me I can replay
the story with a new form of Knack
a suggestion that seems optimistic,
given that Im already flagging and Im
less than halfway through my first run.
Turns out Im right to be cautious: like
the eponymous hero, Cernys adventure
is just a jumble of disparate parts
lacking any discernible character.
WHO?
Chris Schilling
adores brawlers,
platformers and
lashings of colour
but something about
Knack leaves him
cold. Was he right
to write it off, or did
it manage to crack
his cynical veneer?
Dont like it. Never tried it. Every
month we force one of our team
to play their most feared game
INFO
PUB SONY
DEV SCE JAPAN
STUDIO
RELEASED 2013, PS4
GET IT NOW AMAZON,
27.00
Knacks a curiously disempowering experience, forcing you to shed relic pieces to power machines
or fit into small spaces. Even in giant form, he feels strangely brittle a glass cannon of a hero.
DONT MAKE ME PLAY!
KNACK
AT FIRST, KNACK
FEELS LIKE A PG-
CERTIFICATE VERSION
OF GOD OF WAR.
WHAT?
Fulfilling the PS4s
quota of family-friendly
fare at launch, Mark
Cernys platform-
brawler did a neat
line in particle effects,
but suggested the
consoles system
architect might be
better at designing
hardware than games.
ry
am
me
109
retrostation
4
5
FLOWER
All the magic and wonder of
ThatGameCompanys ethereal PSN smash
is preserved and polished as it makes its way to
PlayStation 4. Unless youre anthophobic you now
have no excuse not to frolic amongst its petals.
6
7
TOWERFALL ASCENSION
You havent lived until youve enjoyed a four-
player free-for-all in this instant couchplay
classic. The solo campaign is fine by itself, but almost
nothing beats the arrow-grabbing, death-defying
last-second kills of local multiplayers mayhem.
FIFA 14
EA Canadas first punt at new-gen football
isnt just an outstanding recreation of the
beautiful game we know and love it also boasts a
genuine step forward for the series, demonstrating
an attention to detail that borders on surgical.
DONT STARVE
Gather up resources and the unravelling
threads of your own sanity in this merciless
survival sim from Klei Entertainment. Dont let the
cute animation fool you Dont Starve will make you
suffer. And youll love every moment of it.
3
FINAL FANTASY XIV:
A REALM REBORN
It took three goes to finally make the FF MMO
fans have always wanted, but A Realm Reborn is the
one that finally nails it. Vast, complex and a marked
step up in visuals, this is PS4s premier online world.
8
NBA 2K14
Visual Concepts grabs new-gen by the
basketballs and delivers a gorgeous, richly
detailed and fanatically accurate sports ecosystem.
FIFA and every other sports sim could learn plenty
from its MyCareer mode as well.
STRIDER
Hot off the heels of DuckTales: Remastered on
PS3, Capcom strikes retro gold once again with
this slice of frantic side-scrolling action. Cling to
any surface and cut any enemy in half through
levels teeming with power-ups and secret paths.
9
WOLFENSTEIN:
THE NEW ORDER
Forget castles and slaughtering swastika-
wearers, this is an entirely different breed of
shooter. Superbly paced, reflective and genuinely
moving, Wolfey is a beautifully mournful FPS.
10
RAYMAN LEGENDS
As if this beautifully animated platformer
wasnt attractive enough, now its on PS4 and
pulling our heartstrings all over again. Bursting with
humour, colour and plenty of gibberish, this is the
definitive version of a platforming heavyweight.
ASSASSINS CREED IV:
BLACK FLAG
Ubisoft Montreals historically flirtatious
murder sim trades the landlocked provinces of
previous entries for an open ocean, a galley full
of sea shanties and plenty of wrist-blade action.
11
INFAMOUS: SECOND SON
Sucker Punch brings the open-world antics of
the inFamous series to the home of grunge in
search of superhuman nirvana. Filled with enough
special powers to shake a beanie at, Second Son is a
welcome addition to the PlayStation-exclusive family.
12
METAL GEAR SOLID V:
GROUND ZEROES
It may be short, but Snakes latest outing is
packed to the gills with stealth, secrets and multiple
pathways. Wisely taking a few cues from the Splinter
Cell series, its a fine teaser for The Phantom Pain.
13
OUTLAST
Otherwise known as the first-person horror
your bowels love to hate. With nothing more
than a video camera and a steady drip of adrenaline,
will you choose to run and hide in the deadly asylum
or attempt to shriek your assailants to death?
15
2
NEW!
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PS4 HALL OF FAME

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RESOGUN
Capturing everything that made the shoot-em-ups of yesteryear so
utterly compelling and combining it with a sumptuous voxel-based visual
presentation, Resogun should come with a health warning: you will lose
weeks, months and years to its high-score topping addiction. Developer
Housemarque did more than just marry intense gameplay with a super-
competitive leaderboard it created the best PS4 experience to date.
TRANSISTOR
Supergiant Games takes all the momentum
from debut knockout Bastion on PC and uses
it to deliver a wonderland of sights and sounds
wearing an action-RPGs clothing. Or, to put it
another way: pretty songs and a talking sword.
14
NEW!
SPEC OPS: THE LINE
Dave Meikleham gleefully loses his
mind in the dunes of ruined Dubai
Forget sun, sea and sangria: I want sand,
shooting and subversion. Yagers take on Heart
Of Darkness is a terrifically left field spin on
the modern military shooter. Gradually twisting
its Nolan North-voiced lead from buzz-cut Drake
wannabe to broken down veteran, Spec Ops is
a brilliantly paced shooter. Oh and that white
phosphorus bit? Fuhgeddaboudit!
BIOSHOCK INFINITE
Henry Walker has infinite praise for
Irrational Games final gaming classic
When entering Columbia, little did I know
that the toss of a coin would introduce the
storys key theme: suppression certainly is a
prison. Bioshock Infinite remains my favourite
PlayStation 3 title. Its smart, and features a
battle interface that promises a fresh replay
value every time. Its a beautiful hymn that
continues to play over and over in my head.
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
Crytek UK associate producer Fasahat
Salim rides a horse with no game
Red Dead Redemption was the first open-world I
experienced that I just felt so properly immersed
in. It was the simple things that grabbed me, such
as riding a horse through an open desert. You
could literally just sit there and watch the game
unfold around you. Sometimes Id just put the
controller down, go make a cup of tea then come
back and soak in the American Frontier.
The games that we and you
hold in the highest regard
Te a m O P M
R e a d e r
D e v e l o p e r
ITS SMART, AND FEATURES
A BATTLE INTERFACE THAT GIVES
YOU FRESH REPLAY VALUE.
Rockstar San Diegos immersive vision of the dusty Old West is a
truly dynamic sandbox in the eyes of Crytek UKs Salim.
MENAGE-A-JEUX
Personal picks
TRIALS FUSION
Mirrors Edge meets Mass Effect, is locked
onto a 2D plane and invites bikers to come-and-
have-a-go. Trials punishing leaderboard-centric
assault courses take weeks to master, and its level
creation suite is second only to LittleBigPlanets.
19
LEGO THE HOBBIT
Covering all three of Peter Jacksons fantasy
film prequels, this brick-building return to
Tolkiens Middle-earth adds a brand new crafting
system to an already charming and collectable-filled
platforming experience.
21
THE SWAPPER
In a remote corner of space in which sentient
rocks constantly undermine your sanity, simply
make clones of yourself to overcome physically
impossible puzzles. Deeply unsettling, it blazes its
own trail with a perfectly poised level of challenge.
20
CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS
Infinity Ward returns to the franchise it defined
all those years ago and pulls off one of the most
rewarding shooters on PlayStation. A Zombies-
esque alien Extinction mode complements a robust
set of solo and multiplayer offerings.
16
KILLZONE SHADOW FALL
Guerrillas future war touches down on
PlayStation 4 and brings with it an atmospheric
single-player campaign and a fully customisable
multiplayer thats bursting with replayability.
War has never looked so good.
18
SPORTSFRIENDS
Without plenty of DualShock 4 pads, PS Move
controllers and more importantly actual
friends, this ones a non-starter. If you can gather
the required bodies and hardware, be prepared for
the silliest, most physical party game collection ever.
17
MLB 14: THE SHOW
The mighty MLBs new-gen debut subscribes to
the if it aint broke, dont fix it mentality, which
means it cant be faulted for inevitably stunning
presentation and depth but doesnt use PS4 as a
springboard into innovative territory.
22
NEW!
NEW!
NEW!
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retrostation
24 TOMB RAIDER:
DEFINITIVE EDITION
No PlayStation console would be complete
without Lara, and she makes her PS4 debut with
style. This eye-meltingly pretty upgrade from the
PS3 original comes packed with every bit of DLC, too.
BATTLEFIELD 4
Taking the colossal scale of its predecessor
and flinging the switch to 11, DICE improves
on its established multiplayer experience with huge
maps, dynamic weather and a fleet of new vehicles
and guns. But which jerk ordered the extra bugs?
25
STRIKE SUIT ZERO:
DIRECTORS CUT
A Directors Cut treatment gives this previously
PC-only space dogfighting sim a good polishing, and
serves up a high-octane space shooter thatll have
you on the edge of your new-gen cockpit seat.
23
4
6
METAL GEAR SOLID 4:
GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS
The most gleefully playful and imaginative
stealth game ever. Whether youre watching a
monkey slurp soda or revisiting the site of the PS1
original, no game honours its past so poignantly.
7
8
HEAVY RAIN
From controversial purveyor of interactive
cinema, David Cage, comes this psychological
thriller that plays like no other game on the system.
So many games promise real consequences to your
actions, but none deliver like this masterpiece.
13
THE WALKING DEAD:
SEASON ONE
With the first season of this episodic zombie
franchise now drawn to a close, it stands among
the best downloadable games ever with emotional
ties and tangible consequences for your actions.
12
ASSASSINS CREED II
Undoubtedly the finest entry in one of PS3s
foremost franchises, this is the realisation of
all the promises made in the original. An engaging
lead character, open-ended hits and diverting side-
missions are what this series should be about.
15
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
A near-perfect open-world fusion of engaging
storytelling, truly compelling characters and
a living environment ripe for experimentation.
No sandbox since has got us quite so invested,
and the bold ending still resonates to this day.
UNCHARTED 2:
AMONG THIEVES
The game that sparked a million mancrushes,
with a perfectly pitched script, crunchy combat
and set-pieces like no other. In three words:
unprecedented. Unequalled. Uncharted.
THE LAST OF US
PS3s premier developer proves a misbehaving
pooch can learn new tricks in this extraordinary
apocalyptic adventure. Blending intense horror,
ferocious shooting and a wonderful script, this
is one of the most emotive games in history.
2
CALL OF DUTY 4:
MODERN WARFARE
Simply the finest COD ever made. From that
nuke to Captain Prices mesmerising ghillie suit
stealth mission, few games can match Modern
Warfares thrilling scripted spectacle.
9
JOURNEY
This charming two-hour voyage crafts an
incredible, immersive narrative and a genuine
emotional connection using little more than near-
silent figures, marvellous sand physics and floating
pieces of cloth. A remarkable and unique experience.
5
BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY
The most compelling bit of Bats action money
can buy that doesnt involve Heath Ledgers
Joker. Thanks to an acutely detailed open-world
chunk of Gotham, Rocksteadys classic is simply
the best superhero game ever made.
10 3
DARK SOULS
Akin to nothing else youve ever played.
It may be as impenetrable as an Amish girls
undercrackers, but persevere and theres a
brutal and beautiful challenge within that you
will never, ever forget.
14 MASS EFFECT 2
While Biowares trilogy-ender sends Shepard
out in fine style, its the middle slice of the
delicious sci-fi sandwich that remains its best.
A brilliantly scripted action-RPG, the closing
suicide mission provides an incredible finale.
BIOSHOCK INFINITE
Perhaps the best narrative team of the entire
generation brings one of its finest series to
a staggering climax. The original game would be
well deserving of a place, but the mind-boggling
revelations here run a whole lot deeper.
BRAID
If you want to make the argument that games
are art, then Jonathan Blows Braid is the
place to start. An achingly beautiful hand-drawn
style combines with brilliant but brutal time-bending
puzzles to create something truly special.
11
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PS3 HALL OF FAME

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GRAND THEFT AUTO V
No game could live up to the pre-release hype that surrounded
Rockstars latest open-world effort, and yet somehow expectations
were surpassed by the phenomenal final product. The largest entry in
the series is also one of the most ambitious games ever, but its fusion
of thrilling missions, entertaining characters and scathing satire looks
effortless. There can be no better way to bring a generation to a close.
VIRTUES LAST
REWARD
This visual novel/puzzler just gets
better over its 40 hours. The dialogues
engaging, and however tough it gets,
youre never left rage-scouring for clues.
3
BLAZBLUE: CONTINUUM
SHIFT EXTEND
Theres almost too much content
here the wealth of game modes is
a total nerdgasm for fans, and the
characters are insanely diverse.
15
METAL GEAR SOLID
HD COLLECTION
Two of PlayStations finest
adventures scale down beautifully, with
enough cutscenes to fill a transatlantic
flight. Even less excuse not to play, then.
10
UNCHARTED:
GOLDEN ABYSS
Drake proves hes just as adept at
adventuring on the go. A prequel story
thats classic jungle action, and crammed
full of typical Uncharted charm.
11
TEARAWAY
More crafty platforming from Media
Molecule, this time using the Vitas
controls to surprise and delight you in
new ways for hours on end all within its
pretty-as-a-picture papercraft world.
RAYMAN ORIGINS
He of no limbs finds the perfect
home on Vitas handheld screen.
Beautiful visuals and flawless platforming
make Rayman a handheld delight of quirky
cartoon ridiculousness.
12
FIFA FOOTBALL
The sequels a shameful rip-off
that only updates kits and rosters,
so unless you find them both for the
same price, this entry is still the best
way to get a footy-on-the-move fix.
14
13
LITTLEBIGPLANET
Sackboys back, smaller but just
as loveable as ever. His platforming
antics work perfectly on Vita, and the
new control inputs complement the
level creator brilliantly. Also: dawwww.
5
TXK
Arcade legend Jeff Minter updates
a 20-year-old Atari Jaguar blaster
and creates one of the platforms best
games in the process. TXK is an essential
onslaught on the senses.
7
GRAVITY RUSH
Use a gravity-defying cat to break
the laws of physics and zoom across
the skies of a floating steampunk city.
With stylish comic-book looks and a sassy
heroine, this is a rush to remember.
4
LUMINES: ELECTRONIC
SYMPHONY
Part block puzzler, part mobile disco,
this is as certain to have you nodding
along to ace choonage as it is to keep you
returning for more reflex-testing action.
6
8
LUFTRAUSERS
Ridiculous flying of the highest
order from Dutch indie studio
Vlambeer. High scores come not just from
skill, but cunning combinations of plane
parts, making for double the satisfaction.
9
FINAL FANTASY X/X-2
HD REMASTER
Two examples of JRPG royalty,
lovingly restored to their former glory for
your portable pleasure. Their new touch
controls are gasp! a welcome addition.
FEZ
Gomez charms you instantly with
his perspective-shifting puzzles and
pin-sharp pixel-art, then blows your mind
with a world of secret languages, hidden
areas and beguiling background tunes.
2
113
PERSONA 4: GOLDEN
If ever a game could make you forget the existence of
anything outside the Vitas screen, its this thoughtful
and unique JRPG epic. Essentially it gives you another
stab at high school this time with intrigue, mystery
and superpowers instead of acne, nerves and an
unpredictable vocal register.
1
YOUR EVERY NEED FOR ON-THE-GO GOODNESS

PS VITA HALL OF FAME

H
A
L
L

O
F

F
A
M
E
PARTING SH TT
Theatre of screams
Ditching Cats for killing in Hitman: Blood Money
Celebrating PlayStations finest moments
Y
ou just can't take 47
anywhere. Here you are,
expecting a charming night
at the Paris Opera, and
suddenly theres a sharply dressed
slaphead sniping the tenor from
the rafters or shooting him
while disguised as a co-actor
or swapping out the key scenes
WWII prop pistol for a real one and
letting the corrupt singers fellow
onstage thesps unwittingly do the
dirty deed. So much for that civil
showing of Mamma Mia.
With Agent Baldy, the only
thing that can be guaranteed
is steaming hot, imaginatively
served death. And in Curtains
Down, the third mission in what
remains the definitive entry of
the wetwork franchise, IO gives
you the perfect delivery device
for ingenious, carefully calculated
homicide. Hitman: Blood Money
sees 47 charged with taking
out Alvaro DAlvade and Richard
Delahunt, who, even by this series
unapologetically sordid standards,
are a complete pair of rotters.
Responsible for overseeing
an underage prostitution ring,
death (or a couple of decidedly
unfortunate accidents if youre
going for a Silent Assassin rank)
cant meet these two fast enough.
What follows is a densely packed,
intricately detailed sandbox,
governed by its own internal rules
and just begging to be unpicked
like a game of Cluedo in reverse.
Regardless of whether you
fiddle with a chandelier to rub out
your targets or simply stroll up
and Silverballer them in the face,
the opera stage revels in giving
you a murderous multiple choice.
Absolutions more cinematic
leanings has its upside, sure, but
go back to that French theatre and
try telling us 47 has ever dished
out more satisfying slaughter.
FORMAT PS2 / PUB EIDOS / DEV IO INTERACTIVE / RELEASED 2006 / SCORE 9/10
No.15
Booting up
PlayStation
We look back
at the logo
that started
a dynasty to
celebrate
OPM #100.
Next
Month
SPOILER
ALERT
LOOK AWAY!
The
Darkness
Cuddling up
with Jackie
and his
girlfriend for a
romantically
murderous
birthday.
Last
Month
GO TO FC.COM/MAGAZINE
TO 585CkI8E NOW|
AVAILA8LE IN FkINT
AND DIGITAL FOkMAT5
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PlayStation Magazine - August 2014 UK

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ISSUE 099 AUGUST 2014

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