from the Editor...
Issue number 2 has arrived and it's filled with even more awesome pieces from our skilled team of writers. Noel takes a look at bullying in video games and if those hurtful trolls really are gamers. He also gives us the scoop on an awesome Battlefield Hardline event he was able to attend. Jordan takes a look at publishers and what kind of power they have, gives us the lowdown on overclocking for dummies and reviews Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. It's OK, I think that is a crazy long game title as well. Daniel tells us about his adventures in Dungeons & Dragons while Brett shares his stories in the giant open universe MMO game known as EVE Online. Brooke let's Aussie devs know how they can survive the budget cuts, looks at the power of Anita Sarkeesian and gives us all some advice on how we as gamers can do little things here and there to help save the planet (not from aliens, the real life planet). Yours truly also takes a look at The Sims 4, proving that the Sims franchise is still capable of eating away all your time. I have no regrets. Also a big congatulations to last months winners of the Razer headsets! We hope to bring you many more giveaways in future issues. We look forward to growing the magazine and your feedback is always very much appreciated so please head to our Facebook page and leave us your thoughts!
Ryan 'LemonHunter' Sattell
Editor in Chief
meet some of the TEAM...
Jordan Antonelli
Brooke Geller
Brett 'Red' Sellar
Noel Wheatley
Daniel 'Duck' Bailey
With a weakness for all things Fantasy and Sci-Fi, Jordan turned out to be quite the dreamer, awaiting a chance to trade his pen for a lightsaber. Avid gamer and musician.
Brooke is a secret reptilian humanoid who is hopelessly addicted to coffee, video games and exclamation marks.
As a gamer since the days of DOS, Brett loves all things geek. Console, PC or Tabletop, he has probably wasted many hours playing it.
Gamer, Nerd, Console collector, Amateur Gaming Historian, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
Daniel has been a PC gamer from a very young age, enjoying RTS and FPS over most other types of games. He also has a fond passion for table top gaming.
>>Have your say on our facebook page @ www.facebook.com/antigravnet and you could feature in the magazine << 2 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
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Contents >> PRESCREEN 6
GAMES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE COMING MONTHS
ARTICLES 8
10
12
15
Anti-Gravity Gaming Network | Issue 2 | October 2014
ARTICLES 16
EVE Online
18
Overclocking: The Basics
21
Women in Games
FEATURES
Bullying in Video Games
Publishers and the pursuit of power
Duck's D&D
18 OVERCLOCKING
A beginners guide to overclocking and getting more from your gaming rig.
22
The Sims 4
25
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninjas Storm Revolution
28
Plants Versus Gamers
8
BULLY OR GAMER
If you put people down and are just trolling, are you a gamer or just a bully?
Stick it to the Man 30
Battlefield Hardline
BE OUR FRIEND 25 NARUTO /ANTIGRAVNET
Review of the game in the running for the longest game title ever.
@ANTIGRAVNET
16 EVE ONLINE /AGGNTV
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Brett tells a tale of his adventures in EVE and why it is the MMO powerhouse.
22 THE SIMS 4 REVIEW A LOOK AT THE LATEST GAME FROM MAXIS
RAZER KRAKEN NEON WINNERS LISA N - BLUE BRADLEY J - GREEN SCOTT N - PINK
21 WOMEN IN GAMES THE POWER OF ANITA SARKEESIAN
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PRESCREEN>> GAMES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE COMING MONTHS
01
02
01 // LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM The Caped Crusader joins forces with the super heroes of the DC Comics universe and blasts off to outer space to stop the evil Brainiac from destroying Earth.
02 // JUST DANCE 2015 The perfect way to let loose with friends and family by dancing to hit songs like 'Happy' and 'Problem'.
03
04 03 // BAYONETTA 2 Battle angels and demons as the sassy heroine, Bayonetta in Bayonetta 2.
04 // CIVILIZATION: BEYOND EARTH
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06
The latest instalment of the Civilization series puts you in the future with the collapse of modern society. Better help mankind! 05 // THE EVIL WITHIN Face unimaginable terror, fight for survival and poop your pants a little bit in The Evil Within.
06 // EVOLVE Four hunters, one monster, one epic game in a unique 4v1 gamemode.
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07
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13
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MOST WANTED 07 // BORDERLANDS: THE PRE-SEQUEL Shoot, loot and launch yourself onto Pandora's moon in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. 08 // SUPER SMASH BROS Beat the crap out of your friends as your favourite Nintendo characters!
09 // THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2 The Walking Dead: Season Two continues the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse. 10 // NHL 15 NHL 15 brings hockey to life the sights, sounds and feel of real NHL action like never before.
11 // LORDS OF THE FALLEN Fight against the formidable Lords and Generals and the demonic army of a Fallen God.
12 // THE CREW Take part in a relentless ride to infiltrate a gang grown around detroit's illegal street racing scene.
13 // DISNEY INFINITY 2.0 HULK FIGURE HULK SMASH! Disney Infinity 2.0 brings your favourite Marvel Super Heroes to the awesome Disney Infinity universe. 14 // ASSASSIN'S CREED: UNITY Take to the French Revolution in the latest instalment of the Assassin's Creed franchise.
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Bullying in Video Games Obeying Wheaton's Law Author: Noel Wheatley
In recent times I’ve seen a lot of people, including some of my friends, make the statement that they are no longer, or no longer wish to be associated with the moniker of being a gamer based on the actions of some people who have been classed as gamers’ but are in reality something entirely different. To me a gamer is anyone that enjoys gaming, from the super serious ultra high end PC or console gamer to the casual mobile gamer, it doesn’t matter how you play, what you play or what games you’re a fan of, to me the spirit behind gaming in my eyes has always, at its very core, been about fun. I’ve been a proud gamer all my life, in my younger years I was bullied (both verbally and physically) for my love of video games by those that didn’t understand my passion. As I grew older, I realised that I was not alone in my passion for video games and started to form
life long friendships because on a mutual passion for this art form. Throughout all this there was always conflict, be it based on platform, game or even just frustration at losing to a better player. I myself have had many discussions with people about different platforms (consoles vs PC or even console vs console), the pros and cons of certain games/peripherals and anything else related with the wonderful medium. But no matter what, I have kept it respectful and would always shake hands or have a bit of a laugh at the end and would often make new friends from the experience. I remember being at a community event years ago where one of the attendee’s who had enjoyed a few drinks had started to have a go at someone wearing a Call of Duty shirt. Now, I’m hardly the biggest advocate for CoD but this person was getting really stuck into this kid so I decided to intervene and
"Sorry but you're not a gamer, mate, you're just a bully" 8 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Above: Follow Wil Wheaton's law, don't be a d**k.
Below: Screenshot from the recent swatting incident of The Creatures (Kootra) in the US.
try to calm things down and as such made myself a target. It was then when I made the realisation, he wasn’t a gamer, at least not in sense of the word that I believe it to be. Once his verbal attacks and physical actions had gotten to point where he had gotten very heated (possibly aggravated further by my lack of reaction to his taunts and gesturing) and the people who
Left: Bully, not just a video game any more.
reviewers, the cases of swatting in the US and the now seemingly constant stream or abuse and taunts that come with playing online, these are not the acts of someone who is passionate about games. This is the act of a petulant bully and in some cases has lead to some very tragic outcomes. It doesn’t matter if your 14 or 40, this kind of behaviour really shouldn’t be expected or accepted as the norm from anyone and if things keep going this way then it won't be too long until all the mainstream medias demonising of videos games and gaming culture finally comes true. Trying to justify these behaviours with an off the cuff comment like “I didn’t mean it” or “it was just a bit of fun” is just pathetic and insulting. There is nothing wrong with being passionate about the things you love, but at the same time allowing that passion to be a driver or justification to attack someone who doesn’t agree with you is just wrong. If you are one of these people that attacks or belittles someone for their difference of opinion, point of view or any other reason, maybe it's time to take a step back and look at why you’re playing. Are you playing because you enjoy the game or are you playing just to be a bully? were with him had told him to clam down because he had taken it to far, the following statement occurred:
And this brings me to my point, yes gamers are passionate about their community, games and gaming, but these people that are actively attacking, threatening violence or actually causing physical harm to people for their different point of view, belief, gender, background, sexuality are not gamers, they are bullies. It doesn’t matter how you try to justify it, if you do it you’re a bully that just happens plays games.
the impossible, not about being harassed, belittled or bullied. Yes everyone is entitled to their opinion, (which as the saying goes “opinions are just like assholes - everyone’s got one”) but just because you and I don’t agree on something doesn’t mean I should attack you or vice versa, just agree to disagree, be civil to one another and remember that if you’re playing the same game as this person then you at least have that in common with them, no reasonable person would go out and spend their hard earned money on something they hate just so they can complain about it and harass people.
As I mentioned earlier, games to me have always been about having fun, community, escapism and experiencing
With the recent attacks and threats of violence towards
Him: “C’mon, mate, we’re all just gamers, I’m just having a bit of fun” Me: “sorry but you’re not a gamer, mate, you’re just a bully”
Not so long ago being a gamer meant being outcast from the popular circles and all we had was one another, but with games coming into their own and growing into a multibillion dollar industry. It's done so because of peoples love for games, not because people like being treated like crap, so I urge everyone that plays games to, very simply (in the words or Wil Wheaton) don’t be a dick. (If you’re being harassed or bullied online there are many tools available to you to report the actions of that player, please make sure that you do so and more importantly stay safe)
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Publishers and the Pursuit of Power Does the consumer really matter? Author: Jordan Antonelli
The video game industry is like a great machine with many moving pieces. Like many industries, it is far more complicated on the inside that it can sometimes appear, and the further into the machine we delve, the more we can see the cogs turning each other. We have the consumers, like you and me. There's also the media, and the journos that report on it. Next we have the developers, the people that make the products, as well as distributors, people that find a way to get the game into our hands. Lastly we have the publishers. Being a publisher can mean a number of things. The basic role of a publisher is to take the content made by a developer, and get it in the hands of people that will get it into stores. A publisher helps the developers get the game made, and then helps move that game through the machine, until it can reach the consumer. Today, a publisher can also act as a distributor, meaning they can figure out who to sell it to and for how much. Rather than being approached by a development studio, today they can go find the projects they want to support funding as well as contracting them from scratch. The aim of a unified system such as this is to bring in as much profit as possible, but this takes a higher investment. The more parts of the machine that the publisher can control, the more room there is for profit. But what does that mean for the games themselves?
"an $80 game shouldn't need a day 1 patch, it should be finished."
Firstly, a publisher funding a development studio and contracting them a project means that they hold all the cards, and can essentially take what we now call “creative control” over the development. This sounds a little shady, but can often be a good thing. Developers are limited in the ability to only learn from the projects they themselves have made. A publisher interacts with so many projects that they can identify successful concepts across the board and suggest their implementation into other projects. This kind of unified system, in a perfect world, would help the “machine” create awesome games, and benefit everybody involved. With less entities operating in the machine, content could be cheaper to encourage growth, easy to access, and be well made while being overseen by a group so that nothing could go wrong. As I said, in a perfect world. This is the sort of power that we've already given publishers, and yet this industrious “machine” i've been speaking of doesn't work nearly as well as we'd hoped. Why? The answer is profit. Let's be honest, the answer is always profit... This is what makes me uncomfortable. A developer gets paid to develop projects, their continued employment relying on their ability to
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Above: In-game purchases. Something that is slowly becoming the norm.
complete successful, appreciated and well received content. The better they perform, the more likely they are to hold onto the job. The modern publisher however, undertakes all avenues with the goal of turning over a higher profit margin with less costs. Unfortunately for us, our capitalist mentality in this industry is doing as much to harm it as it is to nurture it. Let's look at EA. Now we like to give EA a hard time, and there has to be some legitimate reason why they're considered the worst company in the world. EA have built themselves a video game empire, and kudos to them for being able to do that. In a long uphill battle, EA have not only dug their heels in as a digital distributor, they've also gotten a stranglehold over a number of game developers, lending much needed resources in exchange for that damn creative control... but which developers are we talking about? Bioware, there's one. Dice, they're another. With just two names, we've already established how some of the largest gaming franchises are under EA's thumb. Think Battlefield,
Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. EA have the luxury of not needing you to like them. They don't even need their content to be well received, they just need to make a profit, and that is where the problems lie. After Disney's acquisition of the Star Wars intellectual property, the Star Wars gaming IP was handed over to EA, and in the short term, the community rejoiced, for we would finally get our next Battlefront instalment, as well as many others. In the long term, things don't look as nice. EA handed Battlefront over to Dice, developers of Battlefield 4. Now we all know that Dice can make a good action game, there's no denying that. But in hindsight, the release of Battlefield 4 was a shambles, and that wasn't Dice's fault in the slightest. As the story goes, Battlefield 4 needed more work, but hey, we all already knew that. What you might not have realised is that EA forced Dice to push out the game even after voicing their concerns. As I've
postulated, the role of today's publisher is greater than it has ever been, and they make a lot of money by being that important, so why then is the way we create, release, buy and play our games getting more restricted and difficult. Were publisher's not supposed to lead us to the land of milk and honey? Maybe that's an unfair expectation, let's just stick to games. Today more than ever before, do we have AAA games be released unfinished, plagued with bugs and netcode issues. Indie games I can understand, alpha builds I can understand, but our AAA market? Really? An $80 game shouldn't need a Day 1 patch, it should be finished. Why are we making purchase after purchase of arbitrary DLC, weren't our games already expensive enough? What about DRM, and “always on” systems like Simcity? Some of these problems have nothing to do with the publisher, it's true, but they seem to be running the show today don't they? Why would a developer put a game on the market if they knew it wasn't finished? That doesn't sound right... Why force the consumer to pay more for less? The answer ladies and gentlemen, is devilishly simple. It is simply because we are willing to pay. For every paygate we encounter, we hand over our credit cards as the key. We let faceless companies bully us into telling us what we ourselves want, rather than stopping to ask. We buy CoD because it's a yearly release and we don't want to be left out, not because it's been made any better, and we continue to buy games after being mislead on how they'll look after we take them home. I guess this article talks a lot about how terrible it is to be under the thumb of a jaded publishing empire, but in reality, are we not the real problem? As the consumer we should demand value, efficiency, and respect. As the consumer, we should demand perfection should we not? At least that way the worst thing the industry could do is try. Perhaps try and fail, but try all the same. Let's go back to our roots and remember what innovation was all about. It wasn't about cool new graphics or online play, it was about making the system, the “machine” better for everybody. Maybe it is only in this way that we can truly fix the things that are wrong with this industry.
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Duck's D&D
Building experience with D&D Author: Daniel Bailey
Gamers young and old gather yourselves around the table and settle down for a tale. A tale of fantasies, epic battles, exciting quests and an abundance of rare and exciting treasure. Of course I am talking about all the wonderful experiences you could be having by grabbing a group of friends and sitting down for a night of Dungeons and Dragons. I myself have not have not been a lifelong player of this game, infact it has only been a few months since I sat down for the first time and created my first character and experienced the creative energy rush through me as I sat down for a game with my brother’s and nephew. First I should probably tell you my experience with similar games and I have to tell you they haven’t been extensive. I use to play a game called Heroes Quest with my best friend in primary school and although it was very exciting rushing through dungeons to destroy a giant gargoyle to retrieve stolen treasure or to rescue a comrade kidnapped in the dead of night, it just didn’t have the same feeling as telling the story yourself and having more free will over what your character does. I have even played some of the D&D tile games such as the
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Legend of Drizzit, which had a similar feeling to that of Heroes quest. It was the same feeling that got me into board games in the first place. I have to say that even the enjoyment I get out of playing tile versions of fantasy RPG games is such a small percentage of the enjoyment I get from fleshing out a story with my friends, deciding which direction to take the story, who to kill and who to keep alive. What questions to ask and the consequences of not asking the right questions before running headfirst into a pit fall (for instance, of course I’m not stupid enough to do that..... right?) There just seems to be more fun I can get out of a game when the game isn’t set in stone, you can either start with a prewritten story or you can make up a complete story by yourself. From there you are guided on an adventure by the dungeon master in which you and your team has all the influence in the world to either go along with their story or try to screw with them and try to push the boundaries of their story. My first experience with D&D was stumble-y to say the least, I don’t believe any of us had really played a proper game of D&D before (two of my brothers that were playing as well may have played but I can’t rightly remember) So it was very hit and miss and took quite a long time to set up our characters, apparently we had made the foolish mistake of picking up the Red Box for the 4th edition of D&D. There are quite a lot of errors in that box set and it would have been a terribly hard thing to advance our characters without the online tool Wizards of the East Coast provide for
through heals and smashing open goblin’s head like a piñata to appease my god. We learnt a lot through our first play through of the game, such as being told that only if we had poured some magical fire (that was clearly stated as a simple stone pillars with fire burning atop of them) onto the extremely painful boss that almost completely decimated me, the fight would have been a lot easier. Although that did lead to a extremely funny and detailed moment of our dwarven fighter who steamily had a soft spot for animals freeing a horse that had been tied to a water fountain in a underground dungeon.
"It really is a game that gets your imagination going" a monthly fee. Even with this set back we manage to have a blast picking characters and setting off on our way for our first adventure. I was slightly disheartened to be left with the job of the Cleric as that has always been a job I have dreaded to play on MMO’s and games of the same sort. I didn’t really read into the class as I had came to the game late and everyone was already fairly deep into making their characters, I rushed through giving my character the stats I
presumed was needed for a Cleric which I thought was Intelligence and Wisdom. About 5 minutes into the game I Immediately regretted my decision on the stats I had chosen, who knew clerics can be bad asses with a war hammer and needs to be strong to be useful with said war hammer.... I mean it’s not like it was written in the first paragraph of the class page or anything. Turns out I love the cleric, a mix between supporting the group
Above: Map for the starter campaign.
if you like this Table Top Infinity
Read it in: Issue 1
We played through the red box starter quest and decided that this was a game we could all really get into, so we found out that we were just in time for the next edition to come out and apparently it was going to be a lot more like edition that a lot of the community seem to prefer. We ordered our new starter box and were joined by another one of my brother who had a fair bit more experience with D&D, he had played older editions in high school and was happy to join us for some adventurers. This Meant that we had a team of 4 adventurer’s (Two of my brothers John and David, my nephew James and myself) and my brother Paul running as our dedicated Dungeon Master for the main quests. We decided that we were going to take turns to try out dungeon master for small side stories to see how we like running the game. This time round with having a whole quest under our belt, we learnt a lot about whom we wanted to play and how to build our own characters (like say putting strength on a cleric... anyone?) I had really enjoyed my time as a cleric and was keen to smite creatures where ever they may be. We went with the random dice method of picking our stats and backgrounds. I found this method both extremely fun and annoying at the same time, my cleric had rolled reasonable stats and I had put them in the correct spots. However he rolled a Lawful ideal, let me tell you when I play games I am not really the
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person who says “Hey maybe we should keep this person alive and take him to the proper authorities to deal with him in the way suited to our society standards”. No I am more to find out that the person has no useful information for me and find the coolest way to separate their head from their body. I have to say that this did drive me up the wall as my character spent a good 20 minutes arguing with the rest of the party (who just happened not to be lawful good) to keep a goblin chieftain alive to take back to town to answer for his crimes, only to be faced with annoyance by the town leader who had his throat slit right in front of me with no trial or questioning and then had the audacity to be annoyed with me saying that’s another body he had to deal with. Oh right the rest of the team; I should probably have mentioned who was playing who. We had my brother David playing a female Elf Ranger, who is about as greedy as Bilbo Baggins and his ring when it came to sharing around the loot he had quickly ran ahead to pillage, My nephew James playing a half Orc fighter who is the most polite guy around (which isn’t always a good thing as he is forced to pay for every meal the elf has had to date, which included an entire banquet for the town to
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celebrate our glorious victory over some bandit of goblins) and a Dwarven mage (played by my brother John) who couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn at the start of the adventure, to being able to completely obliterate a underling into finite pieces and flesh and bones with a certain force spell he now loves. Our dungeon master Paul, wisely decided this time to pre-read some of the quest so he was ready to answer all our questions and boy did that go well. Turns out the quest wanted us to follow a fairly obvious trail after the first fight we chose to ignore, instead we chose to carry on to town and rid the town of dirty bandits who had the town leader running scared. So he had not read any of the area we were up to, mind you he managed to keep things going smoothly and knock me to zero health without even entering a fight by an annoying entity who decided to help us after being talked to by the mage who managed to look in the right direction.
hide out and decided to go to town and rest for the night.... well almost all of us decided that, our very bright elf decided that she could take on the rest of the dungeon before returning for a trance. Well let’s just say that the next morning when we cleared the bandit’s hide out we had to rescue an imprisoned elf to the amusement of myself who had told her to come back to town. It turns out that we didn’t end up doing the original first quest until two sessions later and had a much easier time fighting our way through that area.
This has been my experience of Dungeon and Dragons so far and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. If you have any questions about how to get started and where, please feel free to hit me up on our social media. I really do think that I could of been enjoying myself a lot more starting this game a lot earlier in life than I have, I have already got myself some pretty dice sets and made myself up a small dice box to hold everything. I urge everyone to find a way to have at least one session of dungeons and dragons whether it be at your local hobby shop with We found the area we were in to be fairly people you don’t know or getting together with difficult and had a really hard go of it (it didn’t your friends to try it out. It really is a game that help I had already used all my healing spells gets your imagination going and if you try it and for the day and was only on 1 hit point). Even find that it’s not for you, hey at least you gave it a though we still managed to clear our way go and can say that is something you have done. through a large portion of the bandit’s hide out before we found another entrance to the
Stick it to the Man How Aussie devs can survive the budget cuts Author: Brooke Geller
Do you remember back in May when then government announced they were completely axing the Australian Interactive Games Fund- worth $10 million? You may also remember it as the time everyone was super angry at Tony Abbott. Okay, that happens a lot. But there was a lot of outrage over the fact that the Liberal government had prematurely cut funding allocated two years ago to Australia’s game development industry. Well done, Joe Hockey. It’s not like the video games industry is the most profitable media industry on the planet, right? Oh, wait. The decision left many developers reeling, most of them with projects and entire studios suddenly up in the air following the removal of the funding. $10 million might seem like a relatively small amount when it comes to budget cuts, but that funding had been seen as a hugely successful boost to numerous titles, not to mention the living wages of hard-working developers and the industry as a whole. Just a little bit of that funding was enough to ensure the success of one indie project and thus a little boost to the economy; but now it’s non-existent. So, what now? Luckily, Screen Australia does still offer grants for games production and games enterprise. Developers aiming for funding their games must present a prototype or trailer meeting certain criteria alongside their application. The grant also allows for outside investor commitment prior to grant application, so your proactive beggingsuits-for-money efforts need not go to waste. It’s worth mentioning that seeking funds through the traditional route of investors shouldn’t be dismissed, eithersomeone out there might just see potential in your project. Time to turn up the charm.
Above: Joe Hockey, bitter over never being able to beat the final level of Golden Axe.
"$10 million might seem like a relatively small amount when it comes to budget cuts, but that funding had been seen as a hugely successfull boost to numerous titles" a full-blooded independent god damn developer, then crowd funding is always a super viable option. Whilst often the source of many a hilariously terrible game idea, platforms like Pozible and Kickstarter have spurned some amazing games and projects. Just make sure you can actually follow through with your promises- this is not free money. The nice people of the internet are giving you their cash in the hopes of getting something in return, so be a champ and throw them that digital download or t-shirt like you promised instead of
upgrading your gaming peripherals and never actually finishing your game. That $10 million is gone folks, and it ain’t coming back under the current government. However few they may be, alternative sources of funding are still out there. The industry isn’t dead yet. We can rebuild!
Below: Tony Abbott, still jaded over not getting that SNES for Christmas all those years ago.
If the idea of long, complicated forms or scary meetings with wealthy people scares the heck out of you, or you’re just determined to go your own way and be
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EVE Online
Why it is the MMO powerhouse. Author: Brett Sellar
So, it finally happened… I succumbed to the pressure and have given my soul over to a new MMO. Many a beast has tried to claim it since the evil that was World of Warcraft had finished feasting on the hollow remains of my being. When WoW became more of a job than a game, I had to stop. Yet here we are, in a rather ironic fashion, I have turned to EVE Online. Now, come with me on a journey through time and space… Well, space at least. This would not be the first time I had dabbled in EVE; I first tried back many moons ago. As an overweight pimply teen, I found EVE to be super dull and didn’t play for much longer than about a week. As I uninstalled it and returned to WoW, I thought my mind was made up and I would never try it again. However, I was convinced to give it another go by a colleague of mine. He sent me an extended trial, I think it was for three weeks, so I could give it a good hard go and see if my mind could be changed. After some brief Googling, I went with the Minmatar because I thought their ships looked the best. My insignificant Capsule, dwarfed by the Station behind me, I set off into the vast nothingness of space. At this stage I really had no idea just how insignificant I really was. But, the tutorial quickly passed and had given me the basic skills and equipment I needed to set off on my own.
"you are not bound by the traditional mmo stereotypes of classes, experience or levelling, it just lets you play how you want"
It didn’t take very long to realise why EVE is so popular. The possibilities are practically endless in terms of long term goals. Once the tutorial is done with, there is no real direction of where to go or what to do. The best advice I was given was to find a Corporation that has similar interests in what you want to do, and see if they can help. With that in mind, I set out and tried my hand at some of the major skills available. I started dabbling in the art of Scanning, sending out survey drones to scan the surrounding space to locate lost relics, shipwrecks other anomalies and recover the items they had. In this case, I discovered a Wormhole. I’m not game enough to use Wormholes as they generally lead to some section of NullSec space, where I would be destroyed in a matter of minutes if another player came across me. And when you lose a ship, it’s gone for good. After that I located an Angel Pirate Den, which I was almost one hit seconds within warping into the area thanks to a Heavy
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Above: The aftermath of the famous 'Battle of Asakai'.
Below: My insignificant Capsule, dwarfed by the station behind me.
Above: I discovered a Wormhole, but wasn't game enough to use it.
Missile Battery. From what I’ve heard around the space stations, Scanning in LowSec space can be very profitable if you’re willing to risk the high chance of exploding. I next set out to have a look at the Industrial skills, such as Mining, Salvaging and Production. Mining is fairly self-explanatory, explore space, find asteroids with minerals, shoot with mining laser, profit. The profit margin is ok early on, but is quickly surpassed by the other skills. As for Salvaging, as far as I can gather, it involves recovering the wreckages of ships you have destroyed in combat and stripping them for usable goods. Once again, I have been told it’s not great early on, but can lead to a huge payout further along the line. If all else fails and you don’t enjoy working to earn a living, then there is always becoming a Pirate. Risking everything and floating around NullSec space with
a fleet of fellow pirates, blowing up everything that moves. Like I said, the possibilities are almost infinite in EVE. There is very little the developers need actually do in regards to managing the game, most things are controlled by the players. Some Corporations control the economy in some far sectors of space, setting up massive mining and production lines to keep the money rolling in. There have also been a few instances of Corporations setting up in-game banks. While most have been scammers, the rare few went as far as hiring employees to handle transactions and settling loans and debt collection. In EVE you’re not bound by the traditional MMO stereotypes of Classes, Experience or Levelling, it just lets you play how you want. You’re not even limited to your own races ships. So long as your Security Standing is good enough, you can head off into enemy space and learn how to
pilot their ships. And just because a ship has a type doesn’t mean you have to use it like that. My Minmatar Attack Frigate makes an excellent Salvaging vessel! While some Corporations deem it necessary to go to war with each other, every now and then, something will happen. Sparked by a seemingly insignificant event, apocalyptic battles will occur involving thousands of players. Some costing thousands of real-world Dollars in ship cost and thousands of hours of build times. Google “The Battle of Asakai” to get a look at how massive these can get. I have been playing for about a month now, and have barely scratched the surface of what EVE has to offer. I have many hours ahead of me, exploring the vast dead space between stations and making my fortune. I finally understand the reasons why EVE became the MMO powerhouse that it is. It offers something that most other MMOs don’t. It offers freedom.
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Overclocking: The Basics Squeeze some extra juice from your PC. Author: Jordan Antonelli
I think we've all been in a situation where we've longed for a faster or more powerful PC. Even on console, I know I've sat around all grumpy at the fact that Skyrim takes five minutes to load. Regardless of whether you're a person who always wants to push the bounds of performance, or just someone who doesn't have the spare cash to upgrade, it's something that we all share in common. If you do own a PC, you may have some options here.
Right Top: Know your hardware, it's your friend. Right Bottom: Stock Intel CPU cooler.
Hardware developers release their products at preset â&#x20AC;&#x153;clock ratesâ&#x20AC;?, or speeds that they can guarantee the product in question will work at. This is usually little more than a recommended setting. In reality, you can actually push your products much further, and this is done by raising that base clock rate. Your only enemy here, is the impurities in the silicon of your computer hardware. These cause problems when we try to push our hardware past its stock settings. What we then have to do to overcome the limitations of those impurities is raise the voltage. This however brings with it an array of other problems to overcome. When overclocking your hardware, patience will be your virtue. Dragging up some sliders and changing
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a few values is the easy part when messing with hardware. Overclocking will have you doing a heap of stress-testing and benchmarking to ensure that your hardware can still perform optimally with the added heat caused by a higher voltage. People that don't go through this necessary, albeit tedious step, are always the first to complain when their CPUs burn out inside a month. Stresstesting involves running a simulation to measure the efficiency of the modded hardware, which for a GPU is usually some kind of rendering task, or for a CPU a series of complex calculations. As we've mentioned above, forcing your hardware to go above and beyond can help with performance, but it also results in quite a bit of extra heat. If you're working on a graphics card, be wary of overclocking reference boards, as their stock coolers will be far less efficient than later iterations. With you CPU, don't try to overclock with a stock fan either, but remember to remain cautious even after you've added a larger fan and heatsink. Don't even try to overclock without a clear plan on how to cool your system. If you're truly invested in getting the most from your machine, do yourself a favour and look into water cooling. Water Cooling solutions are much more expensive that even high end fans, and are designed to run incredibly efficiently, and will allow you to keep your hardware at temperatures much
lower when overclocking. To put this in perspective, with $40 CPU fan, and a few extra case fans, I was able to overclock my 3.3 GHz i5 to 4.6 GHz, resulting in a temp of 67 C while under stress. Some people will let their CPU run considerably hotter, but depending what product you're using, you can start to reduce the lifespan of your CPU. The flip side to this is underclocking, something which is perfectly valid in the case of running products at more manageable temperatures. In the case of laptops, underclocking future CPUs could allow us to remove the bulky fan and heatsink altogether, making for much slimmer products. Another use for overclocking (or underclocking) is syncing the clock rates of cards set up in SLI or Crossfire. One of the rigs in my house currently uses two Radeon 6870s, dualing in crossfire mode. When putting it together, I was unaware that the two products were clocked slightly differently. I had no idea why my games froze and stuttered, and why only one card would appear in my stress testing. I had no idea since I had never been told otherwise. After learning the appropriate course of action, the changes were made within 5 minutes, and I was good to go. This is just one positive application of changing the clock rate of hardware. Getting to know your hardware is always a good first step
"many people choose to overclock their systems because they believe that it'll magically make their system faster while that is only really half true."
Above: ASUS STRI GTX980-4G
before making any modifications to your system. Learn the differences between manufacturers, and build quality. Take graphics cards for example. The general consensus is that Nvidia cards run both cooler and quieter than AMD's which is a luxury you usually pay a premium price for. The next step is to realise the fan on a reference board will be less efficient than the ones used by brands like MSI or EVGA. With CPUs, the same analysis needs to be made, prior to changing any settings. Many people choose to overclock their systems because they believe that it'll magically make their systems â&#x20AC;&#x153;fasterâ&#x20AC;? while that is only really half true. If you're frustrated by the transfer speed of you videos and music, odds are you need a faster storage medium, not a faster CPU, so it is of course important to make a true analysis of what you want to achieve from you rig and whether or not that is possible. Most of you will find that meeting your gaming needs will only require you to overclock your graphics card. Raising the clock on your CPU will help with some other tasks like 3D rendering, but it only has limited potential to help you out with some of your game. Titles in the realm of GTA IV and MMOs such as WoW can make use of some extra CPU, but in general, a better performing CPU won't only improve your gaming, but the operation of dozens of other softwares. Personally, I've found overclocking my CPU has mostly helped show improvements in my Audio DAW suites, as they are very CPU intensive to begin with, and have caused me frustration to no end. There really is no pointing in modding your CPU in this way unless you actually need the performance boost, so consider carefully before making any changes. Overclocking a CPU is usually done in the motherboard settings. While all motherboards are different, many will have a way for you to view and subsequently modify a plethora of settings that can either give your system the boost it needs, or have it crashing constantly. So instead of walking you through the entire process, I would emplore you all to research
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methods used for your particular hardware. The gist of a CPU overclock is as follows; 1. Adjust your “CPU ratio”. This often presents itself as a double digit number. 34 refers to 3.4 GHz, which was the stock value on my CPU. Incrementally increase this value, while booting up your computer for testing. Do not freak out if you Blue Screen, this usually means you just weren't getting enough voltage to the CPU. 2. Increase your “Vcore.” This is the voltage we are supplying to the CPU cores. Its important in this step to raise the voltage in very small increments. The aim is to keep this value as low as possible while keeping your system stable. 3. Stress Test! Always remember to test your final settings. Your overclocking may work fine on a standard load, but how will it react under pressure? If you're running too hot, you'll wanna step down some of those values you've raised, lest you risk burning out your CPU. Overcocking a GPU is usually quite a bit easier, and you'll usually be able to
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do it with software inside the OS. For AMD users, this will be in your Catalyst control settings. Overclocking here has been watered down to some nicer looking slide bars and graphics, making it much easier for you to change these settings on the fly. The same core principles apply here. Make small incremental jumps, then test your settings. Stress-testing software for a GPU is usually visual, the advantage here, is that you can often see any errors visually, so the real test here is keeping a handle on the temperature. I want to reiterate that this is literally the simplest way in which we could explain the process. For many of you, the process will be much more complicated, and there are many other concepts that you should be aware of before undertaking any serious modifications. This will at the very least, have you prepared with a rudimentary understanding of the main, basic concepts. Another point to remember is that no single method will work for everyone. In fact, it's more common for the same method to produce different results on very similar machines. All it takes is one small difference to keep overclocking solutions
Above: Overclocking doesn't need to go to the extent of breaking out the liquid nitrogen to make your motherboard look like a winter wonderland.
working in the same way. With this in mind, doing your research is important, and as always, Google is your best friend. Learn the limitations of your Graphics card, your CPU, even your motherboard and fans.
Women in Games The power of Anita Sarkeesian Author: Brooke Geller
Feminists are scary. At least, that’s what I figure from all the fuss everyone makes over them. And by everyone, I mean the angry masses of the internet. Why else would someone publicly declaring their dedication to equality spurn such a massive negative reaction? If feminists are scary, then a lot of people must be absolutely terrified of media critic Anita Sarkeesian- she’s received so many death threats that she was recently forced to move house and have the threats investigated by the FBI. Such is the power of Anita Sarkeesian, spurning many a heated twitter war and clashing of opinions over her critical analysis of gender tropes within video games. Anita has had a powerful impact on the gaming community, and in turn has dealt with a pretty powerful response, both good and bad. Her well-known Tropes Vs Women Kickstarter campaign, which aimed to illustrate the sexist undertones and unfair representation of female characters in video games, was met with an insane tirade of abuse, threats and attacks on her reputation, online presence and project. Far from silencing her, the spotlight on her harassers resulted in over $150,000 donated towards her campaign. Since the success of her video series, her easily available online materials on the subject matter have been used in educational courses and programs. She has made appearances as guest speaker at a number of locations all over the world, been nominated in Microsoft’s Women in Gaming Awards, and has been the recipient of the Annual Game Developers Choice Awards’ Ambassador Award.
Above: Media critic and starter of Tropes vs Women, Anita Sarkeesian.
if you like this Women in Games Why is the world of eSports such a sausage fest?
"anita has had a powerful impact on the gaming community, and in turn has dealt with a pretty powerful response" Below: Anita hard at work doing what we all love to do. Game.
Far Below: Anita Sarkeesian's show, Tropes vs Women.
Read it: On our website
with Anita to see her purpose. Hell, I’m a gamer and a feminist, and even I don’t agree with everything she says. But the important thing to recognise is that she’s grabbing the games industry and shaking it up, rattling the heads of those stuck in an archaic mindset and pushing this community in a direction of progressive thought and conscious evolution. And that, my fellow gamers, is powerful.
Criticisms against her run from misogynistic internet psychobabble, to allegations that she doesn’t play games at all, to questioning of her sudden status as Queen of Gaming Feminism. The thing is, you don’t really have to agree
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The Sims 4
Escape your life to make a virtual you and live out their lives. Author: Ryan Sattell
When playing the Sims 4, you will notice the following scenario will happen, just as it has with any other Sims game in the past. Friday, you finish work/ school for the week and get a little excited because you can finally play some Sims 4. You grab a small snack so you can play a little longer and maybe delay having to stop playing to have dinner. After designing your Sim family, building your house and deciding what career path to go down, you take a look at your phone to see 52 missed calls and text messages from your boss and friends asking why they haven't seen you for the last 5 days. Yet, you have no regrets. Sims 4 does a great job of chewing through your time. For example, I wanted to grab some screenshots for this here review, 7 hours later I finally remembered why I had opened the game. The joys of the Sims 4 all starts with creating a Sim. You thought you could make cool and unique Sims before? Well, you're in for a surprise! The ability to just grab a Sims face and mould to it how you want has actually allowed gamers to create Sims that resemble themselves better than any other Sim game. After crafting, moulding and shaping your Sim's physical features, it's off to pick some clothes. For every Sim you get to pick out everyday clothes, formalwear, a party outfit and PJs. Strangely though, you don't pick out bathers (I'll go over why a little later). There are lots of different clothes to pick and choose and we all know that there will be expansion packs with even more clothes. I swear EA could package up the Create-a-Sim part of this
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Game Info: Format: PC Developer: Maxis Publisher: EA Release Date: Out Now
"you can see that the creators have put a lot of work into making it as user friendly as possible, without limiting your design potential."
Above: There are so many different emotions that your Sim will go through every day of their lives.
Below: Giving the WooHoo talk to your teenage child is awkward for everyone involved.
game and sell it by itself and they will still sell a hell of a lot of copies. One thing that I feel definitely dragged me in more than other Sims games is the emotion factor of your Sims. Different events; such as a good meal, a bad day at work or walking in on your parent's naked old wrinkly body in the tub can affect your Sim for the rest of the day, which in turn can affect how they cook, how good they can paint or craft something or how they perform at work/school. There are so many different emotions and they all change what you can do. From being sad, focused, playful, confident or embarrassed, you constantly find yourself trying to balance their emotional state to achieve the best from every day. Different furniture can affect moods as well, so instead of your simple 'environment' stat on paintings and decorations, some can make Sims feel more focused, or more confident (decking out your study with focus driven decorations worked a charm for my
Sim to get those Apps developed). In a confident mood? 'Run with your chest out' on the treadmill or the next time you take a toilet break you will 'Pee like a champion'. There was much more furniture added, however there is one thing that highly annoys me every time I look at the game, which is also the reason your Sim doesn't need bathers. There are no pools. Not even a Jacuzzi. Hell, not even a pool table! What are you supposed to do at social events? Well, you could always buy one of the 20 billion bars (or it may have only been 9, which is still a lot) that are on offer and just drink. With running social events, such as Birthday parties (even one for a young child) one of the event goals that was presented to me was to have 3 drinks. Is having one of the only social activities being drinking really the best thing to be promoting? I'm going to lock in C, no it's not thanks, Eddie. It also annoys me because swimming pools and Jacuzzis have
Far Below: You can make your Sim look however you want, but don't forget legs day.
been in the game at launch since the first Sims, so why it was removed I'm not really sure. But they have just recently announced that pools will be coming back to the game as a free update, so that's something I guess. Now that I have that off my chest, there has been another feature added that I really love; multi-tasking. Even the guys can multi-task (way to ruin the realism, Sims). You may overlook it, but being able to run on the treadmill while also switching on the stereo to listen to some music AND have a chat to your workout buddy on the treadmill next to you is a great feature. This can go with cooking and talking, doing homework and listening to music... there are a lot of different multi-tasking combinations which really help to kill two (or more) birds with the proverbial stone. When it comes to growing your family, you can either adopt or have mummy Sim and daddy Sim jump on the good foot and do the bad thing. If daddy Sim can hit a homerun, mummy Sim might need to run to the toilet to be sick the next morning. From here, you can use a pregnancy test on the toilet to find out if you will be welcoming a new bundle of joy into the family. While you wait for mummy Sim to go through the different trimesters (happy and glowing at the start but in pain and just over it by the end) you can rush to the hospital to bring in a happy bouncing baby. As soon as that little cot appears with a new born baby in it, the
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Right: Drinking, it makes you happy! Far Right: Not sure if glitch or just crazy old man bathing in his clothes...
Left: Oh yeah, there are ghosts now. Far Left: When a nice little microscope just doesn't cut it.
game offers you something that I find quite stupid, yet I'm sure most parents wish they had in real life. If you wish, even straight away, you can pick up a new born child and make it grow into a kid that goes to school. So... yeah... that's a little stupid if you ask me. What happened to being forced to look after a child for a while? This feature pretty much completely removes this whole aspect of the game. Oh, and just to make it seem like the real world, as soon as that child grows up, you apparently give them their own mobile phone. When it comes to building a house in Sims 4, you can see that the creators have put a lot of work into making it as user friendly as possible, without limiting your design potential. You can build
whole rooms and easily drag out whole wall segments to increase/ decrease the size of a room, as well as pick up a full room with all the furniture and move it to the other side of the house. Another feature I noticed that made me happy, be it small, was when I moved my dining
Below: Walking in on your parents as they are in the bath... that's something no child should see.
pre-fabricated rooms with all the necessary furniture already in it. There are so many aspects of The Sims 4 that it would need its own novel just to include them all. They have really put a lot of hard work into evolving The Sims franchise
"in a confident mood? run with your chest out on the treadmill or the next time you take a toilet break you will pee like a champion." table it automatically picked up all of the dining chairs at the same time and moved them as one. It's little things like that which really stood out for me. You can have a nice tall wall house or a standard wall height as well as adjust the height of your foundations to make a house just how you want it. You can even make big extravagant fountains, very similar to how you used to build pools, but you know... you can't have pools (sorry I'm not letting that fact go). "But I don't want to sit here building a house and picking out furniture" (said no person ever), but hey, if by chance you want to get right into the actual live play part of the game, you can purchase full
to make it up-to-date with current times, such as the fact that your Sim can almost live off their mobile phone. Fans of the series will love The Sims 4 and even people who are new to the franchise will pick it up very quick as it is a fun and engaging game. Apart from a few hiccups that I outlined in this review, The Sims 4 is a solid game and EA/Maxis should be proud.
RATING
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8/10
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution Only thing longer than the name is the cut scenes Author: Jordan Antonelli
The fighting genre is one that I seem to have a love/hate relationship with. On some days I'll be up for a quick bout, and on others I simply won't be able to pick up the controller. My continued interest is often spurred on by my interest in Anime, so game adaptations of anime often grab my attention. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, is the latest game-rendition of the works of Kishimoto, and it is said game that I decided to sit down and give my attention to. Revolution is sequel to Full Burst, a title which I've just finished playing, making it a good time to jump into the latest instalment. Due to the continuing progression of the narrative in the manga, anime, and games, we'll do our best to avoid discussing the plot and spoiling and twists for anyone who isn't up to date. Fighting games have traditionally been heavily criticized for lacking narrative and character development, and in recent years, I've seen many desperately try to change this trend, and the Shippuden titles have always been particularly good at doing this. Revolution continues the Naruto tradition of supplying a long reel of anime content in cut scenes, which in this case is both recycled from the show, as well as added original inclusions. The series has long received criticism for being a glorified clip show, but in that weakness also lies its greatest strength. While the endless exposition can be both frustrating and time consuming, it's also something that sets it apart from other franchises, as well as giving overall context to the players. While initially I often find it quite jarring to grind through these styled games, time and time again, I start using this IP as more of an interactive addition to the show rather than its own game. Ironically it is when you stop treating Revolution as merely a game, does the story truly open up. I can
Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: Xbox 360, PS3 Developer: CyberConnect2 Publisher: NamcoBandai Release Date: Out Now
"the character list for Revolution is fairly substantial, sitting at over 100 characters"
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certainly empathise with people that skip through though hours of cut scenes, it can be tedious I agree. For myself, there was a point where I sat down one day and legitimately enjoyed the momentous amounts of exposition. It made the fights something to be desired, and appreciated. Revolution introduces a few new game mechanics and ideas into the fold, as well as some refinements of previously included ones. The inclusion of a fully fledged Tournament Mode is something I'd actually been interested in seeing within the franchise, and while its inclusion is not by any means perfect, I'm glad that the franchise has taken this step. Vaguely similar to Battle of Z's multi-person fights, Revolution pits players in a 4 man free4all, where the goal is to gain orb and attack bonuses from competitors by attacking and absorbing their own orbs. In principle this would have worked fine, except the fighting inside this mode feels greatly watered down, and is let down by a nightmare of a targeting system. Plenty of games
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have included tournament modes over the years, but in Revolution, I think players will appreciate the effort that has gone into making it a fully fledged entity within the game, even if it doesn't feel perfect. Unfortunately, Revolution falls short where its predecessors have. A game such as this always needs a strong foundation, and I'm not sure I can say it has one. The problem with this series is the same one that plagues the Dragonball franchise. Revolution suffers from a â&#x20AC;&#x153;death by a thousand cutsâ&#x20AC;? dilemma, in which there isn't any one major flaw that lets the game down, so much as a plethora of tiny, annoying ones. Balanced matches are a key problem I've found in the series, and something I'm disappointed hasn't been fixed yet. Much of this stems from the enemy AI, and seems to be for certain characters in particular. For example, a match I fought against the snake like Orochimaru was frustrating as hell while using a puppet wielding ninja. The former's speed-based attack and defense made it incredibly
difficult to land a hits, especially with Sasori's sluggish puppet attacks and poor directional control. A short time later, I went through the same annoyance while fighting Deidera and his sentient clay explosives. The use of AI behaviour in that fight was horrid, and on subsequent plays I confirmed that I wasn't going crazy. Giving players an indication of which playstyle they should be using with certain characters is one thing, but there's a point where you take that too far and end up stonewalling any progress you're trying to make. The problem I found was that some matches indicated that a certain style should be used against the opponent, a style that either
the player character didn't have, or couldn't implement, and this is something that really should have been fixed since the last title. The character list for Revolution is fairly substantial, sitting at over 100 characters. The problem here is the same as the 140 character roster of Dragonball Z: Raging Blast 2. While it's great to have a big character list, it will never impress if the game counts too many iterations of the same person, or if a dozen characters play the exact same way. I certainly understand that 100 truly unique characters would not only be a nightmare to learn to use, but a nightmare to design as well. There have to be limits, and in a situation I feel that
there is a compromise between consistent gameplay concepts and original design that needs to be used, and in some characters it seems to be implemented rather well, while others seem like victims of the old copy/paste approach. Despite some of these poor design choices, one of the things I
have all the exposition they'll ever need to know what's going on. Where this game doesn't match up is in progression. Revolution doesn't really make any leaps or bounds ahead of the previous title. It was a safe game to make, something that wouldn't ruffle any feathers. While it reshuffled a few features from previous titles, and brought in
"revolution doesn't really make any leaps of bounds ahead of the previous title." continue to love about the series is the cell shaded rendering and art style. This gives the in-game rendering a bit of a contrast to the anime clips, and during a fight, It genuinely looks great. It really proves that you don't need to make a graphically demanding game for it to still look great, and in this situation I think Revolution continues maintain that trend. Overall, I've really enjoyed Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. Despite its horribly long name, the game was a nice change for me in the calm before the storm that is September. Fans of the manga and anime will find themselves really enjoying this iteration of the Shippuden universe, while newcomers to the series will
the tournament mode, I don't feel as though it has really surpassed anything else. This is a flaw many fighting games seem to have in their vision, and we can only hope for something a little more exciting next time around. For the moment however, Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution is a heap of fun, and if you're an anime fan, you'll likely really enjoy it. So be sure to pick it up, maybe I'll join you for a bout or two.
RATING
6/10
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Plants Versus Gamers
Right: Chuck this on your bag and convince your friend that you're actually from the future.
Author: Brooke Geller
Below: Put your consoles to sleep for the night with the EcoSwitch
How to achieve high scores and help out Mother Nature at the same time Odds are, you’ve probably already saved the planet. Maybe even a few times. Hell, I bet you’ve even been responsible for saving the entire universe from certain total destruction. Unfortunately, keeping the world safe from alien invasion/ black holes/dragons inside a game isn’t quite the same as saving the actual, real planet. You know, the one we live on. The one with all the ozone issues and trees that aren’t rendered by overworked programmers- Matrix conspiracy theories aside, of course. But fear not, valiant hero! You can still act out your dreams of saving our beautiful mother earth IRL. And you definitely should be interested in saving it. Why? Well, maybe because it’s in major distress right now and there’s no emergency evacuation shuttle waiting to whisk us all off to the safety of a utopian space station, or another perfectly inhabitable lush planet parked just over the other side of the Milky Way. I know, lied to once again by sci-fi. This planet needs us. Seriously. We not only need to be neutralising our impact on it, but also put some good stuff back in so that it doesn’t blow us all up in the ultimate act karmic retribution ever inflicted on mankind. Thought
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Below: Gardens. Gardens EVERYWHERE.
leaving your consoles on standby all night didn’t bother sweet ol’ Mama Nature? You thought wrong, sucker. And if that’s not enough of an incentive for you, just remember that this planet is the only one with video games. So if you’re committed to taking the pledge to become a green warrior without having to actually relinquish anything with a carbon emission from your life, then it’s time to consider the following handy little tools to help you on your quest. They’re super easy to acquire and put in to use in both your everyday life and gaming routine- so no more
strap it onto your backpack and walk around uni, collecting StreetPass invites on your Ds and ignoring all the weird looks other students are giving you because oh yeah, you are literally harnessing the power of the freakin’ sun right now. It’s also water resistant, tough as nails, super light and self-monitoring so you can leave all that confusing energy cell crap to the real nerds. EcoSwitch Standby Power Switch I am a wealthy person. Not because I have a lot of money (I don’t), but because I live in a badly renovated old house that is teeming with power points. Like,
of power whilst on standby mode? Seriously, buttloads. According to the Natural Resources Defence Council, the PS4 and Xbox One consume almost three times more energy than the previous generation. Luckily, this little invention lends a helping hand. It shuts off entire power boards with one easy-to-reach switch, which not only saves you money but also helps the planet. Hurray! Digital downloads Sure, having an extensive collection of hard copies of games looks pretty awesome next to your TV. But do we really need more plastic in the world? Just think of all the packaging that goes in to each game case- the useless little leaflets, the hard plastic case that breaks with the slightest touch, the grimy plastic sleeve that goes over it. Most of the time you’re not even lucky enough to get a bloody map with it. Just plastic, plastic and more plastic. That isn’t impressive- it’s downright wasteful. It’s 2014, people. Time to start thinking digital with your game purchases. Plus, it’s kind of an excuse to spend a little more money on those Steam sales. It’s okay, I’m doing it for the environment! Rechargeable batteries
"it's kind of an excuse to spend a little more money on those steam sales. it's okay, i'm doing it for the environment!" excuses! Your planet needs you! Power Monkey eXplorer One of the many solar power chargers currently flooding the market, I personally chose this one because it sounds like a mean stance one would assume during an air guitar shredding battle. Also, just look at all the pretty colours. All four of them. Just mesmerising. This little baby can be used to charge portable consoles. You can just
so many power points. There are power points on almost every single wall. It’s amazing. I never knew so many power points in one house was possible. Unfortunately, my house is also filled with a gazillion pieces of hard rubbish furniture, so if I actually want to reach a power point I need to awkwardly jam my limbs behind a splintering shelf or weird-smelling couch to unplug something. Which is bad news, because did you know that consoles take up literally buttloads
We live in an age where wires and cables are slowly disappearing. Batteries, however, are not. Those things are seriously nasty for the earth when they end up in landfill, not to mention expensive. Cross those disposable suckers off your shopping list and grab some rechargeable batteries for all your controllers. Used consoles Did you know that the plastic used to make your beloved consoles doesn’t decompose? Well, now you do. So don’t go throwing those things in the compost, yeah? But seriously, there’s no need to be spending your hard-earned dollars on over-produced, brand new consoles when you can employ the ethos of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Buying a used console is like saving a big hunk of toxic plastic from landfill. Except that bug hunk of toxic plastic is saving you a lot of money and will provide you with hours of joy and entertainment. Check out Gumtree, EB Games or even Cash Converters for a whole bunch of pre-loved bargain consoles.
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Battlefield Hardline
Community preview night at EA, Sydney Author: Noel Wheatley
Battlefield Hardline is a bit of a dirty word to some gamers. With the game being delayed and some people saying that it should just be additional content for Battlefield 4 it's had a bit of a bad run, but personally I was a massive fan of the beta and have no issue with the game being delayed to make sure they get it right for launch and once the beta had finished I was sold on this new title and was eagerly awaiting any new updates about the game. So you can imagine my excitement when I was recently invited to the EA head office along with a few other lucky community members to check out an as yet unseen level of Battlefield Hardline on some top end origin PCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Now I make no apologies for not being a great PC FPS player, but the way the game was set up for the night made it a great way to ease newer players into the game. The idea was 3 v 3 matches with no respawn, best out of 7 system and the teams swapping sides after 3 matches and a simple attacking and defending game mechanic. The level that we got to play has not been shown before (so no photos or recording was allowed) but I can tell you it was a designed around a rescue scenario, with the kidnappers hold up in a warehouse that was a front for a drug factory and while news helicopters are circling and negotiations failing, the cops make the decision to breach the building, take out the kidnappers and save the hostages by getting them back to the safe point (you only needed to save only one of the hostages to win the level as a cop or kill all the cops to win as kidnapper). Inside, the kidnappers had the hostages placed strategically in the centre of the underground area of the warehouse. With multiple entry
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"The game was genuinely enjoyable, visually stunning, fantastic sound effects and had a great soundtrack" Left: Even Prophet wants to play Battlefield Hardline!
manager extraordinaire Jiggsy in Battlefield (no tags in Hardline unfortunately) and taking down the one and only TheFloppyRagdoll (you can check out his awesome stuff on YouTube) with a single tazer shot and yes it might have been a bit of a cheap shot to get him, but hell I’ll take what I can get when it comes to PC gaming.
points available to choose from and with the ability to modify gear to best suit the individual player’s style it made for some great match ups. Now as I mentioned early in this write up, I am not the greatest PC gamer, while I do have absolute respect for all gamers and gaming, a controller is definitely my weapon of choice, and while I did have the option to set up a controller and map the buttons for the night I chose to try and play exclusively on keyboard and mouse and here’s why. Unlike other FPS games I’ve played on PC this level for Battlefield Hardline, while intense, fun and fast paced (3 minute countdown clock) it wasn’t as intimidating to play as
I had expected, the lack of respawn, layout of the level, multiple entry points and very balanced teams made for some incredible matches and a great environment for newer Battlefield gamers to grasp how to play the game without dying in the first 10 seconds like in other games. Battlefield Hardline looks stunning, with plenty of interactive environments and lasting in-game effects, if you blow a door off it hinges in round 2, it will still be damaged in the following rounds, if you blow up of one of the many gas or fuel bottles scattered throughout the game it won’t be there to be used in the following rounds and anything that has been destroyed or set on fire (like the “crops” growing in the warehouse) you would lose that cover in the following rounds. Apart from the game being really enjoyable to play I also got to experience 2 of my personal highlights for playing an FPS on PC, finally taking out community
There is some great eSports potential for this game (based on the level we played at least) with the need for strategic gameplay to make the most of which ever side you’re playing on. Also given the style of gameplay, it has a real Counter-Strike feel to it. Small dedicated teams would definitely do well in a competitive environment but at the same time it would also be great fun to just play casually with friends and other random players online. Something I would have loved to see with this level is with the hostages spawning in the same spot every time and given the fantastic design of this level, it would be a great addition in my mind to have the hostages and kidnappers spawn to a different spot for each round or have the ability to relocate the hostages each round to make players take full advantage of the environment they’re playing in and add an element of randomness/surprise to the game. Overall I had a fantastic night with the EA team and the other community members checking out this level of Battlefield Hardline, not just because of the atmosphere of the night and people yelling encouragement, coordinating with one another and always fun the tie breaker tazers and golf clubs only matches (yes that was a thing….and it was awesome). The game was genuinely enjoyable, visually stunning, fantastic sound effects and had a great soundtrack (when you could find the in game radios and turn them on). The EA team stayed very tight lipped on what else we might see from Hardline, but this sneak peak has left me even more excited for this games eventual release. I would like to thank EA Australia for the opportunity to experience this latest taste of what awaits Battlefield Hardline players.
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