from the Editor...
Issue number 3. It's unbelievable that we have already done 3 issues! I thank you all for your support on helping us reach this goal and I look forward to many more issues in the future as we continue to develop and grow! This month we have lots of awesome content for your eyes to take in. Brooke speaks to Eve Beauregard, the founder of Medic to see what awesome things she has been up to, as well as looking at the sleazy side of conventions. She also checks out a few of the awesome indie games on show at PAX Aus 2014 and speaks about Kickstarters and if they are really worth it for developers. Brett lists off his top 5 favourite zombie games in the wake of Halloween while also getting hands on with two big titles, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Civilization: Beyond Earth. Speaking of Earth (awesome segue), Jordan heads to Middle-earth in Shadow of Mordor as well as the terrifying Alien Isolation. Jordan also reviews some top end hardware with his MSI GTX 970 review and looks at a few of the AMD FX CPUs. Daniel is doing what Daniel does best by taking myself and Brett on a Table Top adventure with awesome awesome boardgames while also finding time to review Natural Doctrine. I also take a look at Lords of the Fallen. We also have some other cool pieces in this article such as a look at what the latest Nerd Block had to offer, as well as some amazing cosplayers from PAX Aus.
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 >>
Anti-Gravity Gaming Network | Issue 3 | November 2014
6
PRESCREEN
24 REVIEWS
6
GAMES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE COMING MONTHS
26
Alien Isolation
8
ARTICLES
30
8
Women in Games
Borderlands the Pre-Sequel
10
Top 5 Zombie Games
32
MSI GTX 970
12
Kickstarters
14
Table Top Corner
18
SleazeCon
20
Nerd Block
22
Indie Games of PAX
50
Cosplay Corner
FEATURES
10 ZOMBIE GAMES 34
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
38
Civilization: Beyond Earth
40
Lords of the Fallen
44
AMD FX
48
Natural Doctrine
Brett looks at his top 5 favourite zombie games.
22 INDIE GAMES OF PAX
A look at a few of the awesome Indie games on show at PAX Aus 2014.
BE OUR FRIEND 30 BORDERLANDS /ANTIGRAVNET
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel review, is it really worth a full game or is it just a DLC?
@ANTIGRAVNET
50 COSPLAY CORNER /AGGNTV
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A look at some of the super talented League of Legends cosplayers from PAX Aus 2014.
26 ALIEN ISOLATION PREPARE A CLEAN PAIR OF PANTS, IT'S ABOUT TO GET SCARY
8 WOMEN IN GAMES
40 LORDS OF THE FALLEN
EVE BEAUREGARD AND MEDIC!
TIME TO KICK DEMON BUTT
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PRESCREEN>> GAMES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE COMING MONTHS
01
02
01 // LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM Take part in a relentless ride to infiltrate a gang grown around Detroit's illegal street racing scene.
02 // DRAGON AGE INQUISITION The Dragon Age franchise has been going strong for some time and the latest installment, Inquisition has a lot of hype.
03
04 03 // FAR CRY 4 He isn't as crazy as he looks. He is crazier. Far Cry 4 puts you in the hills of Kyrat, fighting against a man who see's himself a king. 04 // SUPER SMASH BROS WII U Beat the crap out of your friends as your favourite Nintendo characters!... and Wii Fit person.
05
06
05 // GRAND THEFT AUTO V Not a new game, but heading to the new generation of consoles, Grand Theft Auto V will hopefully run how it was supposed to run on hardware that can support it. 06 // EVOLVE Four hunters, one monster, one epic game in a unique 4v1 gamemode.
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Women in Games Eve Beauregard and Medic Author: Brooke Geller
Medic is an international group of 95 people united by their passion for games and desire to make a difference in the world. Founded by cosplayer and super geek extraordinaire Eve Beauregard, they campaign for individual charities in their own uniquely geeky way. I spoke to Eve in the Diversity lounge at PAX to hear more about her
story and Medic’s currently featured charity, Special Effect. “I made Medic because I wanted to make the geeky community more socially conscious, and it felt like there wasn’t a really strong presence for that,” she said. “I knew all these people who wanted to do this kind of work, but they didn’t know how. It just wasn’t organised and
"it wasn't happening, so I thought why not just make it happen?" 8 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Far Left: Special Effect doing what they do best. Left: Eve meets with the Special Effect team.
it wasn’t happening, so I thought why not just make it happen?” Despite being so passionate about games, many gamers tend to take for granted the fact that not everyone is physically capable of using a controller. That’s exactly why Medic are fundraising for Special Effect, a charity that adapts consoles and controllers for disabled gamers, as well as assists developers with free consultants to make their game more accessible. “They’re amazing people,” says Eve. “As an able-bodied person, you get to just step up and start playing a video game and escape in to that world, but for disabled people it’s so much harder. Video games take on that role of escapism and freedom of the digital world, so to be able to access that, it’s invaluable.” Most of the members of Medic are women, which Eve explains was an organic process. Left: Eve prepping for PAX Aus.
“It started out as a women’s group focusing on women’s charities,
and then we realised there was so much interest from the community to broaden it and now we’re open to everybody. Medic is around 90% female. It’s just happened that way, just passionate socially-conscious women that want to get involved in charity work and dedicate their time and work. It’s amazing.” As someone with a strong social media following and heavy involvement in the game community, Eve believes that she’s in the perfect environment to initiate real social change. “It’s the best community to make change. Lots of problem solvers and critical thinkers.” Medic is an impressive example of not only the unlimited potential of video games, but of the social consciousness of gamers- and Eve is a testament to that. “As you grow as a person, you realise that the hobbies you’re involved in can be so much more.”
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Top 5 Zombie Games Listing off the top 5 zombies games Author: Brett Sellar
Zombies, along with Aliens and Nazi’s, have been a staple for video gamer heroes to massacre for years. So to celebrate Halloween, I’ll be listing off my Top 5 Zombie Games of all Time. Because let's face it, who doesn’t love Zombies!
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em… and then have vengeance by raising a horde of zombies and hurling gut grenades and detached limbs. Set in the retro-futuristic 1950’s city of Punchbowl, Stubbs the Zombie is steeped in 50’s culture right down to the amazing soundtrack of remixed 50’s tracks like “Lollipop” and “Mr. Sandman”. With Pattonesq speeches to rally your zombie troops, to a disco dance off with the Chief of Police, Stubbs the Zombie is worth a play if you can get your hands on it.
Left 4 Dead If you were to replace the Zombies with any other firstperson shooter staple, Left 4 Dead would still be on the most solid squad based shooters on the market. Even after playing the same map multiple times, it still had the power to be nerve racking and tense. Hearing the telltale sounds of a Tank approaching or a Witch sobbing in the shadows still gets my heart racing to this date. In the original Left 4 Dead alone I put about 90hrs of play, and I couldn’t begin to say how many into Left 4 Dead 2.
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Telltale Games: The Walking Dead I have said before how fond I am of The Walking Dead, not only is it one of the best licenced games of all time, it’s got to be one of the best paced and delivered games of all time. I have never felt so attached to a character than you do with Clementine; it’s actually funny how much you start to care about her opinion. You can pick up the complete Season 1 pack for about $5 on Steam and Season 2 for not much more, and it is defiantly worth your time. #ForClementine.
Resident Evil 2 While it may not be as pretty or as well made of Resident Evil 4, I am including RE2 over RE4 for 2 reasons. Reason 1, the Las Plagas technically aren’t zombies and reason 2, RE2 was the first game I played of the series and still holds a special place in my memory. I can still remember the pants-ruining experience when you first encounter a Licker, or fighting with the T-1 on the second play-through after he punches his way through a wall. Oh and how could I mention RE2 without talking about the Tofu minigame. Well played Capcom, well played.
Dead Rising No zombie list could be complete without Dead Rising; it was the zombie game that everyone was waiting for. Locking players in a mall with thousands of zombies to kill with a seemingly endless source of weapons, what could be better? While I did like Dead Rising 2 I can’t help but feel they ruined it slightly by making it easier. Trying to rescue survivors in Dead Rising was an absolute slog, mainly because they were pants-on-head retarded, but you had to plan your route and give them weapons just for a slim chance of survival. And it was good to see the release of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record because Chuck Greene just couldn’t fill the almighty shoes of Frank West.
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Kickstarters
Are they getting a little out of hand? Author: Brooke Geller
Some games make such a strong impression on you that you just know you’ll never forget them. Sometimes it’s because they blow you away with how perfectly crafted they are. Other times, it’s because they’re just plain terrible. And it was one of those just-plain-terrible games that I know I’ll never forget for the rest of my days. But the funny thing about this game was that it wasn’t even a game yet- it was a Kickstarter. A hilariously terrible Kickstarter. As much as I’d love to absolutely drag this game through the dirt, I’m not going to reveal what it was called. But I will describe it. It was a sci-fi/fantasy MMORPG, cajoling potential backers with promises of gameplay involving ‘immersion’ and ‘choices’. The artwork was at the generic end of the spectrum, and the narrative could be literally any dimea-dozen RPG. The female characters were highly sexualised to the point of having their sexual prowess listed as a goddamn ability. Terrible design aside, the project itself stood out as ambitious for the team’s first ever game. And I’m not just talking about the free Occulus sets they were promising to the first few backers. I’m talking about their $900,000 goal. The project was inevitably cancelled, and is now immortalised as the laughing stock of Reddit.
"it doesn't build hype as much as it amplifies the hype it already has"
Sadly (or should I say, hilariously), this is a story we’ve all seen before. Some poor, deluded young developer has completely lost touch with not only how terrible their game is, but how achievable their Kickstarter actually is. I spoke to Timothy Bermanseder, lead artist for Cardboard Keep, the studio behind Warden. Warden is an action-adventure game featured in the indie showcase at PAX this year. Timothy explained why Cardboard Keep decided to steer clear of Kickstarters for their game. “We observed all the other crowd funding that was going on with games at the time, and we deemed it unlikely that with the small amount of press that we currently had, we’d be able to successfully crowd fund a game,” he said. “The amount of work that we’d have
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Above: Get ready to say goodbye to your money forever.
Below: Free Occulus Rift for the first 75 suckers- I mean, valued investors!
to put in to the Kickstarter would take away from the work being put in to the game itself, which really would kind of come back around and bite us.” Often, Kickstarters are used as a platform to build hype for an upcoming game. However, Timothy believes that developers should be realistic with how they use crowd funding platforms at the start of the development cycle. “It doesn’t build hype as much as it amplifies the hype it already has,” he said. “But it also has the negative
Above: Even the most bad ass Balrog rip off ain't getting your game funded.
effect of if you f**k it up, it’s going to crush all of that hype, and then you’ll have bad press forever.” It isn’t just bad press that developers have to worry about, either. Apparently Kickstarter themselves got a little sick of the plethora of terrible projects. Earlier this year, they announced changes to their policies to cover backers who realised that they’ve just funded another idiot’s pipe dream. The new changes included helping creators mediate with frustrated investors, explaining the true nature of refunds (and what to do with the money that won’t be refunded), and clarification that estimated completion dates are still non-committal, fluffy numbers that don’t really mean anything when it comes to delivering a final product.
Above: Is the future still bright for Kickstarters?
if you’re really willing to accept the loss of your precious twenty bucks on yet another side-scrolling nightmare that’s potentially never going to get made. As for that ten thousand dollar pledge to get your name in the credits, forget about it. As for developers, Timothy believes that you need to be realistic with the state of crowd funding today and just how reliable the power of the people can be. “Originally, you would hear about all these successful games who made heaps and heaps of money off it. But those days are kind of over now. People have wizened up to Kickstarter.”
Yes, crowd funding is a wild and hard-to-tame mistress, rife with potential hazards and dangers at every pledge. As a backer, using common sense is key. Ask yourself
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"one of the cool things about [last night on earth] is that you have one or two guys controlling the zombies while the other guys play one or more heroes"
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Table Top
Istanbul, Zombie Dice and Last Night on Earth Author: Daniel Bailey
This month the AGGN crew sat down to three board games over one day of fun. I decided to show the guys a game of each length that I have come to enjoy to get their opinions on them. For a short game I went with Zombie Dice with the expansion called Double Feature. The medium length game I decided was the relatively new game called Istanbul and for the very lengthy game I went for one of the base versions of Last Night on Earth. Neither Brett nor Ryan had played any of these games and I was more familiar with some games rather than others so I was very keen to get there perspective on it. I decided to start us off on Istanbul as it was still early morning and I find that medium length games seem to be a good way to get into the swing of things. In Istanbul you find yourself the merchant in this bizarre little town with lackeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to help you do certain tasks to peddle more merchandise to the people who need it most. The game is set out into a grid of 16 tiles that can be arranged in a different number of ways. The interesting thing about this is that some methods of achieving the most goods more become easier or more difficult depending on the locations of certain tiles on the map. The game gives you three different set up options as well as allowing you to randomly set up the tiles with a few guidelines you must follow for the game to actually work. The aim of the game is to be the first of the merchants to collect five rubies. Rubies are collected through a variety of methods whether by upgrading the amount of goods your wheelbarrow can carry to the maximum amount, to giving the kings palace the right goods that they reward you with a ruby in return. Because every action in the game requires the pickup and putdown of lackeys to achieve any task, I find that this game has strong worker placement elements to it. Being able to plan several moves ahead so that you are always using your turns wisely and not falling short of lackeys is the main reason this game can be quite challenging. The great thing about this game is that there are a surprising amount of different strategies you can implement into the game and be just as successful as other versions. As I had the distinct advantage of playing this game a couple times before, I was familiar enough with the rules to explain it to the guys without too much delay. I decided it would be fun to pick a strategy that had nothing to do with the other ones I have previously tried. The game went rather smoothly with the guys picking up the rules very quickly as we went along. The guys both got very excited of the particular rule that when you try to use a tile that is preoccupied by
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Above: The game of Istanbul just about to kick off.
another merchant (not just a lackey), you must pay that merchant 2 Lira (currency) before you can carry out the action on that particular tile. They were very happy to pay this as it gave the chance to casually slide the two little copper coins into each other’s hand and shout “No it’s okay, I pay 2 lira, 2 Lira” in which one might respond “Is okay, you pay 2 Lira, you trade.” It was amusing to watch just how much fun they had shouting things like this the entire game, really getting into the character of a busy merchant man. I ended up winning mainly by visiting the same tile almost constantly so that when the other guy’s would land on the tile they would pretend to be the owner of the tea shop completely baffled that someone other than me would enter the store. By the end of the game everyone clicked onto things that could be used to improve their strategy for the next game, realising mistakes and wasted moves. Ryan stated “I was hesitant about this game to begin with, yet there is so much more strategy to it once you get going. Once the first game finished up, I just wanted to play again!” Next on the gaming agenda for the day was a few nice short games of zombie dice to break up the day. I was fairly surprised that neither of the guys had played this one as
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I thought it was one of the more popular quick little dice games that you can play between breaks. This game is so fast that you can play multiple games within 10 minutes if you are lucky enough to get some good running streaks. The aim of zombie dice is to collect 13 brains by rolling six sided dice. In the original Zombie Dice there were three type of dice, green which was the greatest chance of getting a brain, yellow which gave you moderate chances of both getting shot or getting a brain and red which is zombie hunter extraordinaire who would sooner shoot out his own brains than give it to you. Each die contains three different pictures in a different amount in which you either eat the brain, get shot or they simply ran away from you. You roll three dice at a time and can save the amount of brains you have rolled any time before you die. Three shots and you are dead, none of your brains count and you are the weakest zombie. The game is mainly luck with a little risk assessment thrown in there for good measure. Everyone enjoyed it and it gave quite a nice break between the two large thinking games. After the first game of zombie dice we threw in the expansion which replaces three of the dice with three special characters. One was the hot female lead star which was very good at running away, the big hunky star
Right: Zombie Dice expansion pack, Double Feature.
there to save the day with an option to either shoot you twice in the one roll or give you two delicious brains to munch on. The last character was glorious Santa Clause with his great presents and power ups. Santa would give you two brains, give you an extra shot to be able to take before you die or an energy drink which turned every green dice automatically into a brain for you. Both guys were amazed by how much the game can change with the addition of just three new dice. Brett put it best by saying “The addition of the extra dice adds much more suspense to a very basic game. At any point the Double Shotgun can put an end to you.” The last game for the day was Last Night On Earth. This game is the meaning of replay ability for games, with over 10 different expansions for this game, giving you extra cards, characters and game modes, this game can be played every week for a year and still not run into the same combination of game mode and characters. The one downside this might have is that after purchasing a few expansions for the game and putting them in the box with the original, it was slightly difficult to pull out just the original pieces needed to try one of the first game modes. It
Right: Saving the manor from the zombie horde isn't as easy as it sounds.
Far Right: That medkit stockpile saved the hero more than once.
also doesn’t help that I decided to shuffle the heroes deck without noticing that they had been sorted out into expansion and non expansion cards for me. One of the cool things about this game is that you have one or two guys controlling the zombies while the other guys play one or more heroes depending on the number of heroes playing. The game is very much teamed base in some game modes, where other game modes can be very out for your own survival. This particular time we played one of the classic game modes called “Defend the Manor.” The game name is pretty self explanatory in which the heroes or townsfolk must protect their beloved mansion from being overrun by the undead warriors of hell. For the heroes to win they must survive the night (17 very long turns) and not have 9 or more zombies in the mansion at any given time. The zombies either had to completely wipe out the heroes or get 9 of his zombies into the mansion and party in the house all night long. The game started off well enough for both teams, searching the surrounding places for items of use and staying as far away from the zombies to start off with. Soon enough though the zombies started to flank on us with Brett(as team zombie) seeming more focus on attacking us than getting into the actual mansion. This game can take an obscene amount of time especially when you have a pile of things to think about for your first time playing, one turn can easily take up 30 minutes while others may only take 5 to 10 minutes. Basically you have the zombies which can only move one space at a time, unless specified by a card played from the zombie deck, while the humans can move 1d6 movement unless specified by a card. This can usually make it fairly difficult for the zombies to really trap the heroes anywhere, especially because most buildings have multiple exits. However if you do happen to get cornered by zombies the only way to kill them is with a special weapon or rolling a double when attacking. In usual games the rules are you must roll higher than the zombie as well as get a double to kill them, but we played a home rule which made it a little more fair as doubles are still pretty hard to come by. Ryan’s and my plan was to basically stock up on really cool weapons before locking ourselves in and around the mansion killing off zombies for days.... it would of been pretty cool if we could of kept a weapon for more than one turn. Certain weapons in the game will be destroyed if you roll a specific number either on
Left: Zombies storming the Gymnasium.
the roll of use or as a separate roll after use. I couldn’t for the life of me be able to keep any sort of ranged weapon as I seemingly kept running out of ammo. Ryan on the other hand was right to the police station which seemed to have an entire wall of loaded and cocked shotguns as any time you are in the police station instead of searching for a random
square before realising she needed something to light the gasoline before anything would happen. Through this entire time Brett was having so much fun torturing us with his zombie warriors that he would run straight through the mansion to attack us instead of finishing the game. My characters seemed to
"screw it, i'm dead anyway. i douse myself in gasoline" item you may just grab a shot gun instead. Ryan’s character next to the police station spent most of his time running between the police station and mansion, killing a group of zombies in one go before running out of ammo with the shot gun and having to go back and get another one. Ryan's other character, the prom queen, didn’t have much luck. She managed to get a chainsaw, shovel and a couple other items and went off to the mansion to hold down the fort. But somehow in one turn getting attacked by 2 zombies, she managed to first break her chainsaw , then her shovel and then in a memorable quote by Ryan “screw it, I’m dead anyway. I douse myself in gasoline.” In which his character then pulled out a petrol can and flowed petrol on her entire
spend a lot of time between finding med kits and empty guns to using a bad ass sledge hammer which lasted me most of the game. Brett managed to get rid of my sledge hammer before absolutely terrifying me by using a zombie card which allowed him to use one of our characters previous weapon against us. Lucky for me he couldn’t roll worth a damn so I got away. Ryan and myself managed to scrape by a victory purely by using ourselves as a dinner bell just outside of the mansion (zombies must move towards you if close enough). Brett took note that in future games he should follow the objective instead of thirsting for blood.
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SleazeCon
The not-so-nice side of conventions Author: Brooke Geller
This year, I attended my first ever PAX. It was, in a word, exhilarating. I was so overwhelmed and inspired, and I felt completely at home. I know most attendees of expos and conventions would say the same. Surrounded by thousands of like-minded people, brought together by your love of the same culture and community and having more fun than a kid in a candy store. But for many women, there’s a darker side to cons. Earlier this year, prominent cosplayer Yaya Han spoke out about an incident in which she was groped in New York City, highlighting the very real threat of sexual harassment both in society in general and within conventions. Her story inspired many more women to speak out, each with
their own account of unsolicited comments or contact from men. I’m no stranger to sexist behaviour. After all, I am a woman, and I haven’t been living under a rock my whole life. I’ve had disgusting things yelled at me from car windows, been groped by strangers in public, and since puberty have had to learn how to deal with the inevitable onslaught of sexual harassment from men I don’t even know. While these incidences occurred in a variety of everyday settings for me, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to attend a convention and be expecting what has almost become the inevitable. Whilst milling about the PAX exhibition hall in somewhat of a daze, I was lucky enough to run in to a friend of mine, Jess, in full cosplay. She’s been cosplaying for about
"we want to actually talk about what we're cosplaying." 18 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Above: Conventions can be overwhelming and stressful for us awkward types.
Below: Yes, cosplayers want attention- but not the kind you'd think.
six years, and was able to share a cosplayer’s perspective on this issue. “I think it’s very hard for girls who want to cosplay characters from games and anime and pop culture that wear revealing outfits,” she says. “I think you’ll find a lot of girls who are into this area of cosplay because it helps us express how much we love it. You might find we’re the
Left: Yaya Han used her cosplayer status to speak out against harrassment.
babes and cosplayers when dealing with harassment of women at conventions. “I think booth babes are really part of the culture,” she says. “Personally as a woman I don’t mind walking past and seeing a booth babe, because usually they’re very chatty and fun to talk to, and they know how to handle it. That’s the difference between girls that cosplay and booth babes. That’s what their job is, and they know exactly how to handle the situation.” So what’s the solution? How do we really address this behaviour? The answer is simple: learning respect.
most conservative people, and that’s why you get these reactions of girls just not knowing how to handle it.” The funny thing is, these women are dressing as characters from games that we all know and love. If we can appreciate and devote ourselves to a fictional world inside a game, then why are we demonising the most dedicated display of appreciation for that game? Why do we look down on women who cosplay scantily-clad characters? “A lot of female characters are in revealing costumes, so it’s kind of hard to cosplay your favourite character without being revealing,” says Jess. “So I find that there’s a lot of hypocrisy in ‘oh, well they shouldn’t dress that way if they don’t want attention’, but at the same time that’s the way
that character’s been designed. If you want to cosplay properly, and you want to do it to the canon or game then you have to do it.” I’m quite socially awkward, so gaining the confidence to deal with instances of unwanted and frankly frightening behaviour was definitely not easy. But what about conventions? It’s no secret that us geeks are oftentimes balls of uncomfortable social awkward personified. “In society, that’s kind of what you get in clubs,” says Jess. “But if you’ve never experienced that, then going to a con and getting that treatment is f**king awful. It’s really confronting. It’s odd, because at the same time I want to be told I look good, but it’s a double edged sword." Some people have said that the presence of booth babes are perpetuating a culture where sexualising women is acceptable and almost encouraged. Jess says that people need to recognise the difference between booth
“I think the best way to fix it is to try and really remind them that girls are people too, which sounds ridiculous but I think that cons for a long time have been a very maledominated area,” says Jess. “Even though a lot of games have girls in revealing outfits, if we dress as them we love them. It takes a lot of confidence to do that. Just try and read the situation and figure out, do we want to be told we’re sexy, or do we want to be told our cosplay looks awesome?” Of course, if you’re ever unsure of the best way to approach a girl in a costume, then just drop the failed attempts at flirtation and let your inner geek shine. “Talk about the game. Yesterday I had someone come up to me and talk to me about the game I was cosplaying my character from, and it was awesome because that’s what I want. Guys need to realise that sometimes we don’t want people to tell us we look good, we want to actually talk about what we’re cosplaying.”
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A breakdown of the previous block! WANTED! Jay & Silent Bob t-shirt Who doesn't love adding to their ever increasing pile of nerd shirts? When you look in your wardrobe to find a nice shirt to wear out and all you see are gamer/pop culture related shirts, you know you're one amazing person (truly, there is no sarcasm there!) For those older nerds out there, you should know who Jay & Silent Bob are, probably from Mallrats and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Well, why not get this awesome t-shirt with Jay & Silent Bob dressed as Batman & Robin! I for one know this shirt will be perfectly at home in my collection.
Deadpool POP! Bobblehead With my office desk slowly being taken over by small collectables and goodies, what harm could one more do? POP Vinyl figures have really sprung into popularity as of late, with lots of companies jumping on the bandwagon to license out their characters. Marvel being one of these. This Deadpool bobble-head POP Vinyl is definitely a good one for any collection, or to even start a new collection.
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Zelda Dangler Maybe it was just me, but I always thought these danglers were very much a 2000's fad when phones had that little loop area to chuck on a cute little panda, skull or some other thing you picked up at the local market. But, after opening the Nerd Block and finding this Zelda dangler, I was proven wrong! I do highly enjoy this little guy, though. I'm not really sure where I'm going to put him, perhaps on my car keys, but either way, it's quite a good quality item!
Jay & Silent Bob Stickers I've never quite been a fan of stickers. Don't get me wrong, I've got some awesome stickers already popped all across my desk and they look awesome there, but that's the thing, they look awesome THERE. You can't (really, without damaging them) move stickers somewhere else. Once they go down, you have signed them away for a life sentence
of being stuck on that one surface. These stickers look awesome and would be great for any Jay & Silent Bob fan, but getting stickers in these things is just a way to annoy me with my never ending stuggle of do I stick them somewhere, or do I keep them on the sticker sheet.
Arkham Asylum Patient Notes When I first saw this, I admit that the case itself already looked awesome. But when I opened it up, I got a little too excited over post-it notes. This may have something to do with me being a fan of a great pun. This Arkham Asylum Patient Post-It notes are just a genious little idea. I know there will definitely
be put to good use for myself. For anyone out there who is a student at high school or perhaps university, or maybe you are an office worker and enjoy labelling things with Post-It notes, you will be the coolest person around with this little book.
Marvel vs DC Badges Badge collecting. People go nuts for badges. Hell, the popular expo, PAX, has a whole community based on it called Pinny Arcade, where you wear a special lanyard at PAX to show others you are looking to trade pins and badges. Whether it is Marvel or DC that takes your fancy, these awesome badges will
go well in your collection, or perhaps even make you want to collect more nerdy badges. Spiderman, Wolverine, Batman and Superman. Who do you think would win in a fight?
Captain America Cards This has to be my favourite piece in this Nerd Block. If you have seen The Avengers, you would know all about these and they would look very familiar to you. Well, I'm sure they would look familiar because these are official replicas printed using the original artwork direct from the studio themselves. It comes with two complete decks of Captain America Vintage Trading Cards as carried in the movie by Agent
Coulson. One deck is clean, the other is blood stained. This deck also comes with a ceritificate of authenticity to show that they are official prop replicas. A must have for Marvel fans!
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Indie Games of PAX Aus Weirdly beautiful & beautifully weird indie game at PAX Aus 2014 Author: Brooke Geller
Oh, indie games. Why do we love them so? I’ll tell you why: because they’re bloody weird. Trust me, that’s a good thing. This year’s indie showcase at PAX was like one big beautiful display of weird. Here’s the latest (and weirdest) beautiful creations to get your hands on. Swordy When I first played Swordy, I thought someone had spiked my morning coffee. The graphics are like a playful pastel wonderland of spliced, often-shuttering light. Swordy is a local-multiplayer physics brawler where smashing your vector-faced enemy with a giant sword results in a shower of geometric shapes all over the battle arena. Like any good brawler, the combat is stressful but mesmerising, making repetitive button bashing a
thing of the past. Who needs acid when you’ve got games like this? Nippy Cats You know what’s weird? Cats. They’re like these adorable, fluffy little jerks who are way too flexible and I’m pretty sure no one knows why we even keep them around. But what’s even weirder is cats on catnip. Nippy Cats seeks to illustrate the very real threat of kitties on crack as you, a humble bag of catnip, frantically try to survive another day. Anyone who’s cracked open a tin of Whiskers in the vicinity of more than one cat knows the very real dangers of swarming felines. Don’t let the name fool you- this game is entirely devoid of nipples. Slightly disappointed. Particulars If you think a game about physics sounds boring, then you’ve never
"[ninja pizza girl] relives those shameful teenage bullying experiences" 22 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Above: Nippy Cats.
Below: Framed.
played Particulars. An intriguing, emotional narrative interwoven with beautifully gentle gameplay makes for an experience unlike any science lesson you’ve had before. This is a game that not only gets your brain working overtime with its intricate puzzles, but impacts you long after you’ve finished playing. You direct particles around volatile spaces whilst re-experiencing the memories of Alison, a young
Above: Particulars.
Below: Ninja Pizza Girl.
Far Below: Swordy.
physicist with some dark clouds hanging over her. If you’re looking for a game that’s both haunting and deeply satisfying, or just curious to see how the hell a game about physics could be so deep, check out Particulars later this month. Framed Framed has become a bit of a legend in the indie scene over the past year or so. Winning about a gazillion awards so far, this game hasn’t failed to continue to wow players with its addictive and unique style. Rather than control your character, you control your environment, switching around comic book panel-like squares to run through without getting caught or killed. Its exciting film noir vibe just drips with effortless
cool, making it the must-have indie game for your collection.
Ninja Pizza Girl This game is so much more than a side-scrolling speed run adrenaline fest. At its core, it’s a comment on self-esteem, bullying and roughing it in your youth. You’ll fall in love with teenager Gemma, a pizza delivery girl just trying to help out her family and find peace in the world with the power of pizza. This game relives those shameful teenage bullying experiences I’m sure we’ve all had, and strikes a strong note with anyone who’s grown up in less than perfect financial circumstances. Yes, Gemma is my new thrifted-threads, ass-kicking, powerful pizza queen.
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REVIEWS 26
Alien Isolation
PC
30
Borderlands The Pre-Sequel
Xbox 360
32 34
MSI GTX 970
Hardware
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
PC
38
Review 40
LORDS OF THE FALLEN 24 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Civilization: Beyond Earth
PC
40
Lords of the Fallen
44
AMD FX
48
Natural Doctrine
PC
Hardware PS4
30
34
38
48
44
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>> REVIEW
"ALIEN ISOLATION FEELS VERY MUCH LIKE THE SEQUEL TO ALIEN WE WISHED WE'D HAD"
ALIEN ISOLATION Author: Jordan Antonelli
For the last few years, horror titles have grabbed our attention, but most do so with what we call scripted events, something arranged to happen as a part of the narrative more than anything else. This is great for getting a shock from the players, but really limits re-playability, and means that every player's game plays out the same. This is something that Alien: Isolation tries to change. For most of the game, the Xenomorph hunting Ripley is largely unscripted. That is to say, that while it has certain sets of behaviours, it largely ignores in game events. This makes for an unpredictable ride of thrills, in which in one save the Xenomorph will turn right, and in the other, left. Or maybe, it'll retreat to slither around in
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the vents overhead. One second you'll be withdrawn in a minigame, the next there'll be an ebony tail bursting through your chest. The original pitch for the game was a â&#x20AC;&#x153;hide and seekâ&#x20AC;? styled multiplayer, and while you take on the role of a human and not the Xenomorph (as one did in the prototype) Creative Assembly have really captured the essence of that idea. Alien Isolation takes place 15 years after the events of the original cult classic. Players take control of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who makes her way to the space station Sevastopol in search of the recovered flight recorder from the Nostromo, in the hope of finally finding out what happened to her mother.
Once aboard the Sevastopol, players will find out that something is in fact, very wrong indeed. Hauling yourself throughout every inch of the ship, Amanda slowly makes her way through the chaos and anarchy, only to be confronted by the appearance of demonic looking space alien, the infamous Xenomorph. What began as a standard salvage mission, quickly escalates into a panicked dash back to your ship, only to culminate in a fight for survival. The protagonist has few offensive weapons, as this game largely focuses on evasion than confrontation, and while a flame-thrower might work a treat in one situation, most of my time was spent cowering behind desks or inside lockers.
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Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Developer: The Creative Assembly Publisher: Sega
Alien Isolation feels very much like the sequel to Alien we wished we'd had, which is to say that it is an excellent video-game accompaniment to the original film. Technology appears to be consistent within the original film, however it in no way feels like a cheap movie game. The DOS powered, pseudo-scientific technology in this universe will at sometimes remind players of Bioshock, something that was unexpected for me, but gladly appreciated. It takes a lot of work to get players to feel immersed in such a different environment, and in this I have only praise. One of the things that really grabbed me about Isolation was the sound design. With a pair of surround sound headphones, the game truly came into its own. Whether it be the distinctive steps of the Xenomorph, or the presence of another human, every sound reacts and bounces off surfaces as if it were real. Almost to the point where one can sense a lull, only to have an acidic toothy tongue crash into your face. Sound is such a very important part of the human senses, and too often do we find it being left out or even worse, half-assed. What impressed me was just how well the sound goes with the game and in this regard, Isolation gets nothing but top marks. Furthermore, the game itself looked very
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Right: Alien, Pyro Edition
All in all I was left feeling rather unsatisfied for a game I had up to that point, enjoyed so much.
"with a pair of surround sound headphones, the game truly came into its own" nice. In a world where even AAA titles are rife with graphical bugs and inadequacies, Isolation looked very nice, and effects like the fire from the flame-thrower looked gorgeous with light bouncing off the innards of both space station and Xenomorph alike. For all these positive notes, one would assume I would naturally give the game 10/10 and leave it at that, and while I enjoyed many elements of the title, there were a few that unfortunately, didn't flourish as intended. The biggest thing for me, was the overall narrative and story progression. The game itself is pretty lengthy, and in all honesty there were times where I was wishing it would just end. The last hour of game-play didn't climax like I thought it should, and I felt by the end of the game, Alien: Isolation had set some fairly high expectations that in reality it just couldn't meet.
Above: mmmm, that DOS though...
The Alien Franchise has up until this point been tarnished by a history of sub-par game titles, and when Colonial Marines hit the shelves, I naturally assumed it was all over for this IP. The initial advertisements for Isolation had me hooked immediately, and since playing the game I still feel largely the same way about it. There is no denying that it is a great title. Is it however, the definitive Alien game adaptation? Perhaps not, I think. Unfortunately Creative Assembly have written a few cheques they just couldn’t cash, and Alien: Isolation suffers because of it, or as the great Bilbo Baggins would say, “Butter scraped over too much bread.” There is no denying that Isolation is a big step up for content in the Alien IP, but perhaps we're still a few years off a perfect accompaniment. Until we get that perfect game, go out and buy Alien: Isolation, odds are you and your friends will probably really like it. Get out there and try spot that pesky Xenomorph, at the very least, before it spots you.
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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel More of the same great Borderlands experience Author: Brett Sellar
I’ll be the first to say it, I was expecting more from The Pre-Sequel. 2K Australia’s mark was very clearly left upon this release and unfortunately that really left a sour taste in my mouth. Most of the new NPCs have freaking awful stereotypic Australian accents and there is so much Australia crap in there is actually made me cringe. Having NPCs saying stuff like ‘Bonza’ or ‘Struth’ and minibosses called ‘Fair-Dinkum’ or a mission based on Waltzing Matilda where you have to find the Jolly Swagman down by a Billabong... and a gun called the Boganella, that says things like a ‘Bogan’ would….
Game Info: Format: Xbox 360 Other Formats: PC, PS3 Developer: 2K Australia Publisher: 2K Games
I’m done ranting about that for now. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes place before the events of Borderlands 2, but not too long after the original heroic Vault Hunters defeated The Destroyer and saved Pandora in Borderlands. Jumping into the shoes of another four Vault Hunters, but this time working for the In-Over-His-Head and not yet “Handsome” Jack. Set with the task of aiding Jack in finding a Vault that has been located on Pandora’s moon, Elpis. At its heart, this really should have been DLC for Borderlands 2, there isn’t enough new to warrant a whole new game. It is still running on the same engine, weapons look the same, weapon names are the same and it just feels like the same game I have been playing for hours. There weren’t enough new enemies either, you spend most of the game fighting the new flavour of Bandits called Scavs and the odd bit of local Fauna to murder. Everything that was
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Below: Lasers. Who doesn't love lasers? Like, seriously.
"i absolutely love the interaction with jack"
Above: Scooting around Elpis on a Stingray.
Above: Handsome Jack.
Below: The playable characters on The Pre-Sequel. Fun fact, if you select the Clap Trap they ask if you to confirm 4 times.
offered something that I just can’t seem to get enough of and that is more Borderlands! This managed to offer just the perfect amount of loot based adventure to satisfy me for the time. I am really hoping that they release some DLC for The Pre-Sequel, I know there were talks about releasing Handsome Jack as the next playable character, but I would LOVE to see some DLC about the fall of New-Haven. It’s the only aspect of the storyline that still needs explaining.
new, just felt tacked on and the game could have been the same without it. The low gravity you experience on the surface of Elpis was more annoying than anything else; I was finding myself getting stuck trying to jump through gaps that I should have fit through. And addition of the Oxygen Kits, or OZ Kits (more Aussie reference!), seemed pointless. Every enemy drops ample supplies of them and you can find oxygen generators scattered everywhere. Made even more pointless by including a playable character that doesn’t actually need oxygen. The only new thing that actually seemed worthwhile were the new Laser weapons, because they are amazing! However, on the flip-side of that, they are stupidly overpowered. I finished the game with nothing but 4 different kinds of elemental Lasers, one was actually a level 16 Shock Beam Laser I got from a mission half way through the game. They come in a few different types that can pretty much replace every other weapon. You have your Blasters to
replace Combat Rifles, Railguns to replace Sniper Rifles, Scatter Lasers to replace Shotguns and Beams to replace just about everything. I finished the first playthrough with Wilhelm, a name many would recognise from Borderlands 2, but it’s just him as a humble human… at first anyway. Through skills he slowly becomes more and more robotic and closer to the Wilhelm we all know and love. There was one thing that really didn’t sit right with me about The Pre-Sequel, they reverse Gordon Freeman-ed the playable characters. Giving the characters dialogue with NPCs just ruined a lot of the immersion for me. In the first two, you just kind of feel like everything is happening around you and you’re caught up in the mix and just going along with it. This makes me actually feel involved in the plot and I didn’t like it… oddly enough.
The story is easily the strongest aspect of this, because I absolutely loved the interaction with Jack and it made me actually understand his motives and actions in Borderlands 2. Seriously, I didn’t think I could forgive him for committing acts of a serious Spoiler based nature. But this has given Jack the needed depth to turn him into an amazing character. It was a good addition, but I really wish it wasn’t made by an Australian company for Americans. That simple aspect alone made me not want to play it. It’s a shame that I have no intentions to do a second playthrough of The Pre-Sequel because the second playthrough always seems more fun. Ah well… Back to Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep… At least until the next Borderlands drops!
In the end, I can’t really complain, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
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MSI GTX 970
The Nvidia vs AMD battle continues Author: Jordan Antonelli
As a PC gamer, graphics cards are something that is constantly on my mind. A good card can truly make your gaming experience, while a poor one can devastate it. Finding a GPU/s to maximise your experience requires a little bit of homework. Do you choose AMD or NVIDIA, do you buy a reference board or wait for later designs? Do you run a single card, or should you run multiple in Crossfire/SLI. Such questions can drive a person crazy... luckily things can be simplified quite a bit. For the last little while, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been needing a new GPU. For too long did I over exert the capabilities of my system, and sometimes turning down to medium settings is just no fun. When I first put my rig together I threw in a SAPPHIRE HD 6870. It was fairly tame, but could over-clock fairly well and was overall, a very stable card. A little while later I had the choice
of forking out for a newer card, or popping a second 6870 into the rig, duelling them in AMD's Crossfire mode. This satisfied me once more, if only for a little while. Skip to this year and I've well and truly hit my limit. While the cards worked fine on paper, crossfire support for these cards was horrendous, and too often did I find Catalyst drivers fail me on games like Battlefield 4, ARMA III, etc. In the beginning of October, Shadow of Mordor released and once again, surprising no one, my crossfire rig wasn't supported. Playing a new game on such an old card was just terrible, so I finally
Above: If it looks like this, you have desassembled a perfect good GPU. Yes, the should all be together.
Below: Making overclocking easy, too easy...
"Having settings such as these from the get go make finding your preference clock rate really easy" 32 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
put my foot down. I needed a new card, and I needed one soon. The choice I landed on was the MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G, part of the new range of Nvidia's Maxwell Architecture, and the baby brother to the GTX 980. The card set me back around $520, which is in the upper middle price range for 970s. The card features MSI's Twin Frozr V, which comes stocked with smaller, stronger fans, that are guaranteed to generate less heat than previous generations. One of the reasons I went with MSI is because their coolers are traditionally very high quality, which is a must for running your
system at a heavy load, or in my case, when choosing to over-clock and pump a little more juice from your system. Right off the bat, MSI have three distinct clock settings for their 970, which are described by MSI as follows; OC Mode Maximum Performance through higher clock speeds and increased fan performance Gaming Mode (Default) The best balance between in-game performance and thermal
users, bust out into MSI Afterburner, an over-clocking tool to really get the most out of your card. Since buying the 970, I've had the chance to put it to the test against the R9 290, and I've been very happy with its performance. Here's how the two stacked up against each other.
The relationship between Nvidia and AMD is a fairly simple one. Nvidia are usually more expensive, but come with better support, as well as more efficient performance. AMD cards suffer a loud and hot operation to provide similar performance, albeit at usually a cheaper price point. The retail price of the 970 is one of the things that drew me to it. At prices around $500 this new range of cards came very close to AMD's R9 290, although since then we've seen AMD respond with a further price drop. With prices becoming ever more competitive, and performance increases on both sides, it'll certainly be interesting to see how these cards cope with 2015's game list. On AMD's side, Mantle looks a little too good to be true, giving some real performance boosts to supported cards,while Nvidia are finally seeing some cheaper designs whilst maintaining a high quality. For the time being, I'm certainly impressed with the MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G. While you could save yourself $80 on a cheaper 970, MSI's reputation for quality as well as their cooler designs have continued to impress me since receiving this addition to my gaming rig. Pick one up and try it for yourself.
Silent Mode The best environment for minimal fan noise Having settings such as these from the get go make finding your preference clock rate really easy, and really help one figure out how they're best to use the card, as well as how it will perform. When I'm recording or streaming with others, I don't want a torrent of noise from my tower leaking into the mic, which is where Silent mode can really come in handy, however if I'm not limited by such restrictions, there's no reason why I can't take the reins off and let the card run wild, in which case I would default to OC Mode. This sort of support makes sure that gamers are never on their own during the over-clocking process, which can be overwhelming for first timers. To cover any concerns, MSI cover over-clocking through warranty if you do it through their gaming utility, which is a rarity for GPU manufacturers. For those more experienced
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>> REVIEW
"the difficulty of the game was something i enjoyed"
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR Author: Jordan Antonelli
Middle Earth is one of those universes that, try as we might, we can't help but come back to again and again. It has been a long time since I've enjoyed a Middle Earth themed video game and over the last few years I've been losing hope that anything will ever beat Sierra Entertainment's 2003 rendition of The Hobbit. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment partnered with Monolith Productions to bring us Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which is certainly a contender for best Tolkien themed game to date. The result of their quest is a game that deserves some attention. It may not BE the definitive game title of this franchise, but it certainly appears to be one of the closest. As the story goes, players take control of Talion, a former ranger of the Black Gate who at the beginning of the game is present in a rather graphic death, alongside his wife
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and son. Through some kind of vile sorcery, Talion is bonded to the ghost of Elf Lord, Celebrimbor. The Elfsmith's presence allows Talion to access a series of Wraith abilities, which throughout the course of the narrative the two put to good use hunting down the instigators of their predicament, as well as shaking things up among the Orc (or Uruk) command structure in Mordor. Monolith Productions certainly had their work cut out for them, and in all honesty, they've done a hell of a good job. The landscape of Mordor feels tense; it feels dangerous even when Talion is on his own. Whether you choose to keenly follow the story and mission, or forging your own path in the wilderness (as I ended up doing), Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor should have something for everybody. Shadow of Mordor is a game that many will be torn over. It really is the
game that you'll either really love, or really hate. I'm not sure there is much room for indifference over this title. On one hand, it is quite possible that Shadow of Mordor is the best Lord of the Rings game to date; it has so many of the things we've asked for again and again. On the other hand, Shadow of Mordor may have earned its reputation as a great game, but it did so by being anything but original. The game is so blatantly sourced from games such as Assassinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Creed, the Batman Arkham franchise, and even potentially titles like The Witcher. So it makes it incredibly hard to give it any kind of direct praise, especially when it fails to outperform any of those franchises. If Shadow of Mordor was 10x better than let's say... Arkham City, then I wouldn't have a problem with it being so similar in game design. But unfortunately while it is indeed a very good game, it is in no way a game changer in the industry. At best, it should give future developers an idea of the best place to start.
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Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Developer: Monolith Productions Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Another gripe (which Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll admit is largely personal) is the lore and the landscape as set up inside the game. Shadow of Mordor may very well be the Lord of the Rings game we always wanted, but it goes about it in a particularly annoying way. I am what I like to call a Canon Elitist, meaning that I don't like it when people start messing with the canon of franchises. Rather than looking at the Middle Earth Universe and searching for a time, place and conflict that fit together with a protagonist with a decent potential story and list of potential abilities, the writers behind this game have decided to come up with their own, annotate scribble notes across Tolkien's works... I don't like this at all. Even before picking up the game this was one of my biggest concerns, and while my feelings towards this eased as I genuinely started to enjoy the game, it was never something that left my mind. I do understand the
need for â&#x20AC;&#x153;rewritingâ&#x20AC;? like this in game media, sometimes it is inevitable. However even if they were unable to source the greater Tolkien works for licensing reasons, they didn't have to trample over them. Leading off of this, regardless of my opinions around the Middle Earth Lore, by the end of the game I was left disappointed by the narrative. A story that begins as generic but both plausible and interesting slowly drops in quality as the game climaxes. Sub plots don't tie back to the overall plot, making us wonder why they were there to begin with. In the last few hours of story, it finally tries to make some strides. While this works for a while, eventually it falls flat on its face. The game goes above and beyond to remind players of both the Hobbit franchise and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. This begins with some cheeky pieces of dialogue lifted from the films, which got a
"taking on a graug for the first time was a terrifying experience" 36 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
chuckle the first few times. The story then introduces a loveable, deformed, emaciated... who am I kidding, we all know it's Gollum. My problem here is that Gollum's place in the game doesn't really have much of a point, I was left wondering if his place in the game was just advertising for the films. I won't sit and spoil the plot for anyone who hasn't yet had a chance to play, but what I will say is that this trend is continued, not with cameos, but with many other instances such as dialogue and even mirrored
abilities the story gifts to you. The upgrade tree however, expands on some immensely useful abilities, all of which help in that quest to own the outcome of every battle. The bonus system attributed to runes on your weapons was similarly useful. Since I was a fan of the bow, I always found myself needing extra ammo, or Elfshot as the game calls it. Buffing certain attacks to redeem Elfshot was a system that worked for me, but because it is so modular you can have your weapons feed you bonuses relevant to any way you decide to play the game.
plot points. My tip for the sequel would be this: Monolith, please... Don't try to advertise the franchise to people that have ALREADY bought the game... I've listed quite a few problems I had with the game, but for all of that, I still enjoyed playing it quite a bit. The nemesis system is a heap of fun. What begins as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Go here kill person, go there kill personâ&#x20AC;? evolves into a whole lot more, I spent most of my game time seeking out ways to construct ambushes, stage battles, etc. The nemesis system truly takes off in the second half of the game, so I wouldn't recommend too much time being spent on it in the early stages. I'd love to see where future iterations of this franchise (or potentially other franchises like Batman) could take this game mechanic, as in my opinion, this mechanic carried the game play. When you start to get into the habit of staging your fights, players will notice just how well they act out. Learning how to control the situation and turn the tide of battle takes these fights up to a whole new level. Since the command structure of Sauron's army is more or less infinite, one will start to notice the similarities in both Warchiefs and Captains after 20ish hours of game play. In saying that, it really is a small gripe to have with a system which seems to work pretty well. Being able to launch a power play with your own Captains is just one of the other ways you can affect the board.
to the Nemesis system, characters that take part in battles with you are sure to advance up the ranks of Captains, but a lengthy fight can result in a half dozen present Uruks advancing or levelling up at once. In this way, Shadow of Mordor is one of the only games to punish the character for repeat deaths, rather than giving you some cop out reward to make things easier. Combat in Shadow of Mordor is very well refined, even if it lacks some originality. The upgrade system was something I was rather fond of. Purchasing extra abilities is not even vaguely necessary in the game; you can get by with just the
At the end of the day, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor will have something for everyone in it, but it might take some searching first. I felt that many elements of the game needed polishing, save the plot which needed a full rewrite. If however you can get over this, you should have a lot of fun with Shadow of Mordor. The combat in particular felt very intuitive, while the parkour did not. The Nemesis system truly carries this game and you'll no doubt be wishing for similar systems in future titles and franchises. The game is an excellent Lord of the Rings companion if only compared to the films. Fans of the greater Tolkien universe will surely be left disappointed with the Liberal use of annotating made to the universe for sheer convenience. Shadow of Mordor has a lot of things to enjoy, but only if you're capable of ignoring a plethora of others. If you enter the game wanting to slaughter Uruks in droves then ignore everything listed above, you'll be happy.
The difficulty of the game was something I enjoyed. Taking on a Graug for the first time was a terrifying experience, as was beginning an ambush only to discover the presence of five Uruk Captains instead of one. As a way of connecting
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Civilization: Beyond Earth Taking the Civilization franchise to the stars Author: Brett Sellar
Game Info: Format: PC Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Games
From the first time your Colony Ship lands on the hostile, extra-terrestrial world, you are presented with the vast unknown of what to expect. Your new city surrounded by toxic Miasma, alien Wolf Beetles and Siege Worms sitting just outside your gates waiting to attack your explorersâ&#x20AC;Ś and that is about as exciting as the game gets. I like to think Civilization: Beyond Earth is the result of where every standard Civilization game ends, the world turned into a barren post nuclear-war wasteland poisoned by radiation and stripped of all natural resource. So naturally, humans looked to the skies in an attempt to colonize and terraform other planets. If you are familiar with Civilization V then there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much to expect with Beyond Earth, it takes the same gameplay and hexagon based tile system and pretty much follows the same formula. I was really looking forward to Beyond Earth, having been a huge fan of the Civ series as a whole, and it being
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catapult, until it is overtaken by Chariots and eventually Cannons, Tanks and Howitzers. But you start with the most advanced technology you are going to get, where do you go when you already have Space Travel and soldiers with space suits and machineguns.
sold as a spiritual successor to 1999 Alpha Centauri. But unfortunately it just doesn’t offer anything new. It does take an interesting approach to how you are going to embrace the new planet and its ecosystem with the new Affinity system. Follow the Purity approach if you want this planet to become a New Earth and keep old traditions alive, become an eco-hippy and embrace the Harmony approach to respect the planet as it is and evolve the human race to co-exist with the native life, or adopt the Supremacy approach if you really don’t care but just want to destroy everything. Depending on your choice it
approach to the native life on the planet, 10 turns later they are trying to be friends and are wanting to trade for Strategic Resources like Petroleum or Titanium. Unless you are pro-actively trying to achieve one of the Victory Missions, it’s just a matter of time until one of the other colonies beat you to it. I actually went a whole game of about 400 turns without building a military unit, it’s that bad.
In the end, I had fun playing Beyond Earth this week, but I have no intention to play it again anytime soon. There was so much potential for something amazing here, but it just doesn’t bring anything new to the table. If you like the Civilization series, you will enjoy it, but will be going back to Civilization V pretty quickly.
Towards the late game, because you can set most units to automate their movements, you will spend your time aimlessly hitting the Next Turn button while watching the number count down until your next building is finished or something
"the biggest problem with beyond earth is that it lacks any sense of progession" will shape the way your colony evolves on this new planet and will change the look of your cities and units. There are a handful of Affinity unique units, but there are so few military units in the game, it doesn’t make much of a difference. But again, that doesn’t really matter, because you won’t need an army because the other colonies don’t bother attacking you. One turn, another leader is condemning you because they are against your
new has been researched. It makes it worse when you play on Marathon mode because everything takes four times as long to complete. But, I think the biggest problem with Beyond Earth is that it lacks any sense of progression. When you play the original Civilization, you feel like you are actually advancing in technology. The power you feel when you research Mathematics and you temporarily rule the world with the pinnacle of warfare with a
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>> REVIEW
"i definitely felt in awe of the art style"
LORDS OF THE FALLEN Author: Ryan Sattell
Fans of Action RPG games, prepare yourselves for Lords of the Fallen. When first booting up this game, I definitely felt in awe of the art style. That dark, creepy atmosphere, coupled with that feeling of "yeah, something has gone down" is definitely strong with this game. There are a few customisation options when starting your game, mixing together different magic and classes, which you are free to mix and match as you please. While there is some explanation on which each one does, there isn't much explanation of why you are choosing them or what ones you could potentially choose. It was relatively easy to find this out with a bit of sitting and thinking though.
moving your character around. I feel this game has done this initial, basic tutorial the best from any game that comes to memory. After learning to walk backwards and forwards, you engage in combat, going into slow motion before pausing as it prompts you for your next action. This seemed flawless and I was soon kicking demon butt. I had movement and some attacks down and then the tutorial section finished. Now, rarely would I complain about a short tutorial section, but it missed out so many very important abilities that I found myself having to open up the controls menu just to find out how to drink a health potion. It wasn't the most inviting start to the game to not know half of the buttons, which is a shame, because the tutorial section was done so well.
As the gameplay starts, and as most games do, there is a short tutorial on the basics of combat and
The combat is very good in Lords of the Fallen. Who am I kidding, I'm in love with the combat in this
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Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: PS4, Xbox One Developer: CI Games Publisher: CI Games
game. Needing to know when to block (and that you're blocking in the right direction), when to roll because your shield wouldn't stop a certain attack and when to do a light attack or a heavy attack, or even a mix of the two adds to the experience. It's not a crazy fast slash'em up game and I like that. Every action takes time and feels very realistic. You can't have a twitch reaction and just begin rolling out of the way of an attack, your character needs to begin the rolling motion first. You can't just instantly chug down a health potion and be ready to keep fighting, you need to fall back as he takes out the potion and drinks it before you gain that health. Little things like this makes time management in combat situations very important and also makes the game very hard. Coming up against the first boss I found myself dying multiple times (that may have had something to do with me not
knowing how to cast my spells) but it's good to have a challenge.
knowing that I could potentially lose all my precious XP (yeah, I'm looking at you, you giant spider...).
Also, try not to die too much, mainly because you will lose your experience you have built up if you haven't spent it yet. Lords of the Fallen works with a really cool risk and reward system. The more you kill and the more XP you have on hand, the higher your rewards multiplier is, granting better chances of finding rare items and gaining more XP for fights. If you do happen to die, your ghost will remain at the point you died, but only for a limited time, with all of your XP, which is slowly ticking down. Get to your ghost in time and you can reclaim the XP, take too long and it's lost forever. This model definitely added a bit more hesitation when going in for a fight,
In the cinematics and the lore leading up to the release of Lords of the Fallen, it seemed to have an amazing story. I just couldn't wait to boot it up and find out more, but sadly I was a little let down. The in-game story was very linear and just felt like it was overlooked. It didn't keep me engaged and wanting more, I just felt it could have been executed a little better.
"i do suggest picking this game up, especially for that combat *bites lower lip*" 42 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
Sadly, I feel a few things in this game were almost after-thoughts. The style is beautiful, the gameplay is amazing (I seriously cannot say this enough), the story in the cinematics seemed so engaging, but then there were
you do get it on PC, I may suggest you grab a controller to plug in. Little things with the keyboard controls like light attack being left click while heavy attack is the E key just makes me feel like it would go better on a controller. Another big sadface part is that on launch there were a lot of issues with the game. Myself, as well as many others all around the internet were facing game crashes. This will be addressed by the developers, it might even be fixed by the time you read this, but when you are on a roll, the last thing you want is for your game to up and die on you. Thankfully there are lots of save points throughout the game, but still, it annoys me when companies rather adhere to release dates instead of taking extra time to squish these bugs. C'mon corporate big wigs, let them finish it off!
so many little details they could have done better on. One detail, being an avid PC gamer myself, is through the trailers and in-game shots leading up to the release of Lords of the Fallen, I thought this would be amazing for boosting up and rocking out on PC. Which it was, this thing looked beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that my PC was struggling and I had to turn down some of the settings. The controls, however, are obviously made for a console, or at least a controller. If
Now, I've mentioned quite a few negative points, but don't let that fool you, I do love this game. The style, the graphics and especially the combat are stand out features. If you are a fan of RPGs, or if you have always wanted to try the Dark Souls franchise but aren't wanting to go on a rampage in your neighbourhood due to how frustratingly difficult Dark Souls is, try out Lords of the Fallen. I'm not saying this game is easy, but it's not quite as hard. I do suggest picking this game up, especially for that combat *bites lower lip*.
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AMD FX
With great power comes great responsibility Author: Jordan Antonelli
We were ecstatic to get our hands on some of AMD's latest and greatest gear. In our care package we received their consumer flagship, the FX-9590, as well as the newest addition to the team, the FX-8370E. This baby brother to the FX8370 is a recent attempt by AMD to lower the TDP of their CPU range, and at 95 Watts, it doesn't do a half bad job. We were also lucky enough to have a 990 FX Killer sent along with the processors. In the last few years, I've become a bit more familiar with AMD's place in the CPU market. As a consumer, it can be hard to remember that hardware companies don't just cater to your demographic, they go a lot broader, AMD being no different. The further I delved into their products and history, the more I got the feeling that for all the criticism, AMD seem to know what they're doing, or rather the place they want to be in right now in regards to the parts that they make and how they want to sell them. While it would be hard to deny that Intel have a stranglehold on the CPU market, AMD are certainly making some strides, which can only be a good thing. The real question is whether this is a case of too little, too late. The interesting thing to keep in mind here is that the 8370E features the same turbo-clock as the 8370, at 4.3GHz, only its base clock has changed at 3.3 GHz rather than 4 GHz. One thing potential customers should keep in mind is that the processor can still be over clocked or under clocked to the heart's content, so the two unit's can essentially operate in the same way, which should come as no surprise due to their identical price tag of $249. The 9590 is priced a bit higher; you can pick it up for $389. AMD products have often received criticism for being less efficient in design and manufacturing quality to competing products, and as an owner of some AMD products, I would say that's a fair statement. When I received AMD's care package of review items, we were warned about cooling on the 9590. Thinking there was some compatibility issue, I was left a little confused. In reality, the 9590 has a hard time coping without a water cooling solution. Huh... After a bit of reading I discovered that the amount of air coolers supporting the AMD flagship can be counted on one hand. This posed some problems for me and my average cooler, luckily we were able to work out a solution. For the rest of you considering a purchase, fear not. The FX-9590 actually ships with an Asetek Liquid Cooler, taking care of that problem. Technically, one could do what I tried for the
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"looking at amd's cpu range, i do have hope for the future."
video producers etc. The programs and applications common in these fields are specifically designed to make use of such processors. The video game market however, is not even close to that point. If the software you are using cannot make use of an 8 core processor, then you are wasting your money and buying something you don't need. Alternatively, if you need to smash through some video rendering ASAP, then this is more on point.
first little while and just under-clock the unit like hell, however that would kind of defeat the purpose...While I was a little disappointed that no developments have been reached in regards to design elements like this, I was glad to hear consumers won't run into problems due to the water cooling. The FX-8370E has no such heat issues, and a $30-40 air cooler will work just fine for anyone who picks up the unit, which I would class as a must for any new CPU owner.
Regardless, a relatively basic AMD compatible cooler will have the cores idling at 15 degrees. At Anti-Grav, most of what we do comes back to gaming at some stage and that is where products like the 9590 are if anything, misappropriated. Multi-Core processors do very well when running multi-threaded applications, so AMD's mantra has become something along the lines of, the more cores the merrier. This is great for graphics artists, sound engineers,
In years gone by, it has been very rare for a game to genuinely benefit from an 8 core design, mostly because like the rest of the industry, developers tend to optimize for the lowest standard in the market. While AMD have been experimenting with multi-core processors for a while now, it will still be a few years before your games can make use of them in the way you want them to. Now this isn't to say that a processor in the FX range wouldn't be useful to a gamer. Being able to offload your system and a Twitch stream to one set of cores while you game on another is potentially a much more efficient way for serious gamers to run their set-ups. As a musician I spend a lot of time editing and recording with applications such as Pro Tools and Ableton, both of which are multi-core compatible. Furthermore, programs like these will take every core you can throw at them, although your performance will vary depending on your system. Some systems will work best when you configure, Program Resources=1/2(Total Cores) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1 while others seem to respond to 1 less than your total available processors (cores/virtual cores), keeping in mind somewhere for your system to go. Technically this kind of clever processing is applicable to any multicore system, but as we've discussed, it all depends on what you're running and how you'd like to run it. From what has been mentioned so far, you can start to get an idea of why AMD CPUs often fail to compare to their Intel equivalents, specifically within game benchmarks. Let's assume a game you wish to run is only capable of utilizing 4 cores. In that case, what would be important to your game is the quality and performing capability of those 4 cores. An 8 core system will not necessarily improve your performance here, and it is
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even more likely that the lower processing ability of those 8 cores (of which only 4 can be used effectively anyway) will result in poorer overall performance. To test this I set up my Intel i5-2500k, an old Sandybridge CPU and a favourite among gamers of the day. I threw in the benchmark stats for another AMD CPU, the 8150, as well as an extra Intel unit, the 6 core i7-5820K. In multi-core processes, the 8370E has the lead over the 2500k, passing the 3 yr old CPU easily. The 9590 performs incredibly well, surpassing the other AMD processors but still beaten easily by the 5820K, the i7 retailing at $70 higher. As expected, the 5820K whipped both the 8370E and the 9590 on single core tests.
Surprisingly, so did the 2500k, not bad for a 3 yr old unit... After this quick benchmark, I wanted to hit the gaming circuit for a few tests. In regard to CPU architecture, I was certainly eager to see if a 3 year old processor COULD beat out a new AMD model. I experimented with a few games to see if there were any noticeable differences between the 9590, the 8370E and my trusty old 2500k. The results were surprising. I admit I was hoping that the 2500k would cream the competition, but to AMD's credit, these processors stacked up pretty well. The 9590 performed as to be expected, which was very well. Usually a GPU will make the difference when it comes to fps, but changing your CPU will move that value around a bit also, which is what we're looking at to compare. I was interested to see the 8370E struggle against the 2500k,
only beating it in The Witcher II. After all, these CPUs sell at similar price points, even though the Intel unit is quite a bit older. We've discussed reasons for this so it is to be expected with some titles. In the next few years, especially with AMD holding the console contracts, we'll see developers start to account for multi-thread systems, so that we can finally see AMD processors come into their own. In regards to over-clocking the FX range, there's definitely opportunity
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makes it an easy decision for current AMD users in regards to upgrading their systems. Stay with AMD and potentially save yourself the cost of a new motherboard, or switch to an Intel socket and start forking out for both CPU and Mobo. There is no question that Intel is ever evolving in this respect, certainly in contrast to AMD who are as of yet, â&#x20AC;&#x153;resisting the tideâ&#x20AC;? in regards to CPU architecture. Will this pay off for them in the long run? Potentially, it could.
to squeeze a bit more juice from these processors. With both the 9590 and the 8370E, one of the pros (depending how you look at it) is the continued upgrade path. In the last year, I've certainly seen it being difficult to move users over to the AM3+ socket, which is a pity considering that the AM3+ is still a valid socket option. While I wouldn't say that AMD are withholding a new socket range, they've certainly decided to capitalize on what they currently have in the market. This
FX 8370E
In looking at AMD's CPU range, I do have hope for the future. For a company that seems to have it a lot tougher than the competition, AMD make some genuinely great products, the difference being that you need to know both how and when to use them. If what you're after is adding some performance to your gaming rig, AMD might not be the most appropriate choice. The FX-9590 is a great CPU, but it needs that provided liquid cooling to bandaid its design flaws. The FX-8370E is certainly power efficient, but it also has its hands full competing with Intel designs from 2011. If however, you're looking to speed up your overall computer system, or maybe get into some more CPU intensive hobbies such as mixing your own album or making a CAD station, AMD's multi-core solutions will certainly get you there at a competitive price. For current users, you won't have to worry about upgrading your motherboard either.
FX 9590
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Natural Doctrine Not for the casuals Author: Daniel Bailey
Natural Doctrine is a turn based strategic RPG, developed by Kadokwa Games. Straight off the bat let’s just state that like most games of this genre, this game is definitely not going to be one that casual players will enjoy. This is a game you have to sink a hell of a lot of time into and has the difficulty of attempting to kill a zombie with a Tickle Me Elmo. It does feel like you get cheated a lot early on before you realise upon trial and error of how to get around certain enemies without your party being completely insta-killed. That being said there is a strong sense of accomplishment I felt after finally beating a zone that had kicked my ass for two hours straight. The graphics leave you feeling a bit wanting, as I played the PS4 version and it feels like no extra effort was made to make use of the new hardware. Even for a PS3 title it seems a bit lacklustre, I mean the colouring is fine and the models are on par, but I wasn’t really impressed by any of the designs. If anything I would say the game is passable and was trying to focus on the other systems without getting bogged down on making you really enjoy looking at the game you are playing. This is basically the same mark I would give the sound track, fine but nothing special. I certainly won’t be running out to get a hold of the sound track any time soon. Even in the multiple views of the games (you can switch from third person, first person and overviews) I didn’t find any I really enjoyed to be in. Now the game play was quite difficult to get my head around at first and it didn’t help that the tutorial seemed to spend more time laying down the “storyline” than teaching me the game. It certainly taught me the bare basics
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Game Info: Format: PS4 Other Formats: PS3, PS Vita Developer: Kadokwa Games Publisher: Kadokwa Games
"it has the difficulty of attempting to kill a zombie with a Tickle me elmo."
Above: Seems open and constricted at the same time.
Below: Link system at work.
and showed off the special system called the link that makes the game unique. Even with you going over the linking of your characters it didn’t really go over anything like the fact that while you are in a linked turn you can’t open chests or doors. While I came to understand that with the link system your characters get to aid the current characters turn as a free action, separate from their own action which would be the time to deal with such things, I still feel that going over this in the beginning through text or speech may have been handy. The way that the game punishes you for letting any of your team
die by failing the mission makes for a very interesting and difficult game. I started off hating it as I usually allow one person to fall to let the whole team succeed on hard mission in games similar to this, but after several hours of game play I felt myself playing the game in a new way. I guess this game challenged me in a way that although didn’t really reward me in the game, rewarded me in proving that I can adapt and conquer difficult situations.
Above: The travel system.
have made better use of the space they gave me in some zones. Overall I think the game could definitely improve in some areas, but I found myself enjoying the game more and more as the time went by. That being said I could not recommend this game to anyone who isn’t prepared to sink hours into this game and be prepared to get stomped continuously throughout this challenging game.
One of the major downfalls of the game I find is its need to constrict you into small areas. Even though some of the zones may appear large, I still felt constricted in where I could go and the spacing of my team seemed to always be small. The grid movement system seems to make sure that you are always right up in the enemies face at all times and sticking close to one another. I felt that they could
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COSPLAYCORNER
SHOWCASING SOME OF THE BEST COSPLAYERS FROM PAX AUSTRALIA!
Jack "Shiggy" Perks Jack "Shiggy" Perks pulled off a very convincing cosplay of Tryndamere from League of Legends at PAX Aus 2014. He even had the stupidly heavy sword! Prior to PAX Aus 2014, Jack had been known from the "Duke meets Duke" photo, where he cosplayed as Duke Nukem at AVCon 2014 in Adelaide, where he had a photo taken with the voice actor of Duke Nukem. The photo of the two Duke's got to the front page of Reddit. Jack has already started plans on his future cosplays, which will include Braum from League of Legends and Arkham City style Bane. Photo by Rebecca Houlden. You can find out more about Jack on his facebook page. www.facebook.com/shiggycosplay
Flash Frost
The Cosplay Shoggoth
Paige, also known as Flash Frost, is a new and upcoming cosplayer. She killed it as Midnight Ahri from League of Legends at PAX Aus 2014.
Bethany aka The Cosplay Shoggoth, got a lot of attention at PAX Aus 2014 with her amazing Vel'Koz cosplay from League of Legends.
Paige's next goal is to cosplay as Championship or Warring Kingdoms Shyvana from League of Legends. Photo by That Guy Jye.
Even though Vel'Koz has such a giant eye, I don't think it would be the easiest to see out of this cosplay, so props to her for being able to get up on stage.
You can find out more about Paige on her facebook page.
Photo by Sav Photography. You can find out more info on her cosplay page.
www.facebook.com/flashfrostcosplay
www.facebook.com/thecosplayshoggoth
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COSPLAYCORNER
Jenny Williams Jenny Williams pulled off an amazing Vi from League of Legends at PAX Aus 2014. I went for a Fist Bump, thankfully she held back a little and didn't break my hand. Cheers for that Jenny! Jenny has plans to cosplay as Ironscale Shyvana and Pool Party Leona from League of
Legends as well as School Uniform Nora from RWBY. Photo by SnapHappyIan. Jenny doesn't have a Facebook page yet, but keep an eye out for her!
Kat Latcham & Jess Stevenson Kat Latcham rocked out Lulu for League of Legends for PAX Aus 2014 with her friends Jess Stevenson as Katarina, also from League of Legends. This Katarina cosplay was Jess' very first convention, so props to her for doing a great job on the cosplay!
We hope to see more of both Kat and Jess at future conventions! Photo by MKAU Gaming. You can find out more about Kat on her Facebook page. www.facebook.com/katicuss
Are you an aspiring cosplayer? Would you like to be featured in our next magazine? Shoot us your favourite shot of you in cosplay to our facebook page, www.facebook.com/antigravnet and you could be the next talented cosplayer in a future issue! Anti-Gravity Gaming Network | 51