from the Editor...
Issue number 4 is here and it's an important one. Not only is it because it's the last issue for the year, but it also launches our 2014 Gaming Awards! Our gaming awards have categories of Game of the Year, Peripheral Designer of the Year, Australian Convention of the Year and Australian Gaming Celebrity of the Year. We started our gaming awards two years back with Gaming Celebrity of the year to showcase those people who help keep us entertained in the Gaming industry. So be sure to go check out who is nominated and cast your votes!
We take a look at many big titles in this issue, including one of my personal favourites, Super Smash Bros for the Wii U. This issue also has a focus on the Australian gaming scene. From how to get into the gaming industry in Australia, how to survive the coming hot Summer and a look at some Australian made board games.
All of us hear at Anti-Gravity Gaming Network wish you all the best for the holiday season, hope you get lots of awesome swag for Christmas and have some epic gaming sessions with your mates.
We'll see you all next year.
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 4 | December 2014
8
ARTICLES
22 REVIEWS
8
Survive the Aussie Summer
24
Super Smash Bros
10
Melbourne Spotlight
28
Kromaia
12
Women in Games
30
Assassin's Creed Unity
14
Getting into the Industry
18
Where to now Aussie Development
20
Table Top Corner
FEATURES
24 SUPER SMASH BROS 34
Dragon Age: Inquisition
38
TRI: Of Friendship and Madness
40
Far Cry 4
44
Wasteland 2
We review the latest hit for the Wii U console, Super Smash Bros.
14 GETTING IN THE INDUSTRY The different ways you can get into the gaming industry here in Australia.
BE OUR FRIEND 10 MELBOURNE SPOTLIGHT /ANTIGRAVNET
A look at the gaming scene in and around Melbourne.
@ANTIGRAVNET
34 DA: INQUISITION /AGGNTV
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We review the latest instalment in the Dragon Age franchise, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
30 ASSASSINS CREED UNITY OFF TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO BE AN ASSASSIN
12 WOMEN IN GAMES
20 TABLE TOP CORNER
FEMALE DEVELOPERS
TIME TO PLAY SOME AUSSIE BOARDGAMES
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Survive the Aussie Summer Staying cool this summer isn't just for you Author: Daniel Bailey
Summer is coming round the corner pretty fast and down here in Adelaide there have already been some pretty hot days. So it’s time for some tips to help you keep your rig cool in this summer. Generally speaking if you are feeling pretty hot, sitting there drinking a cool drink, playing one of new holiday releases, it’s a safe bet that your computer isn’t having a fun time. This is especially the case if you don’t take proper care of your rig. The first thing you are going to want to do is unplug everything, open up your case and take a look inside. If you see a layer of dust across everything on the inside you are going to run into some drama on hot days. Taking care of dust is one of the easiest ways to dial down the heat of your PC. There's a few way you can go about cleaning out the dust but one of the easiest is to
use a can of compressed air. You should be able to find this at your local hardware or computer shop. Make sure to follow the directions on the can being careful to spray a good distance from the components; you don’t need to jam the can right up close and you should never need to come into contact with anything while spraying. Don't forget to spray in behind the fans, clearing the dust off of the heat sinks. The best place to spray is outside somewhere breezy so the dust doesn’t settle back onto the computer. Now that your computer is as shiny and clean as when you first bought it, you should look at where it is sitting. Is the computer tucked away in the corner? Is the back pushed up right against the wall? Are you in a room that has no breeze or air conditioning? If you answered yes to any of these you are going to
"if you are feeling pretty hot... it's a safe bet that your computer isn't having a fun time."
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Above: We may think this is over the top gross, but it's more common than you think.
Below: Even zombies head to the beach to cool off in the summer.
run into some trouble while playing those intensive games. If you can move your computer into an air conditioned room even just for the really hot days it would solve a lot of problems. The computer loves open areas where its fans can do their work ventilating the system. Try putting at least 15cm of space around each vented section of the computer and if you can’t get an
Left: If you are seeing this on your computer, please attend this issue. This is not good.
air conditioner in, run a fan in the room so the air is circulating. Here is a quick note for those guys who want to add a couple extra fans to their computer. It is not always a good idea to place fans on towers where the tower hasn’t given you grates and screw holes. I have seen guys create pockets of air around key components by adding grates and fans where they shouldn’t and this just intensifies the heat by not letting cool air get to that area of the computer. Sometimes this isn’t the case for lower end priced towers but for the high-mid to high end cases, the experts have designed great air flow pathways for their towers and messing with them can lead to disastrous effects.
particularly fast and will be better for you in the long run. And also for those guys who just can’t be in a cooled room or don’t have liquid cooling, maybe it’s a good idea to not over clock during the summer. Having to turn down the settings of your games will be a lot better in the end rather than having to fork out for a new computer when you melt the current one. Hope these tips have helped guys, remember to keep yourself cool this summer and keep your fluids up for those long gaming marathons!
The last couple of things you can do is to let your computer have regular breaks, if you can when you leave for an extended period (5 minutes or more) turn off the computer. I know it can be inconvenient but letting your computer take a break when you aren’t using it will let it cool down
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Melbourne Spotlight
The new capital for Australian gaming Author: Brooke Geller
Unless you’re from Sydney, you probably think that Melbourne is the coolest kid in town when it comes to our country’s big cities. After all, it’s the cultural hub for all things artistic and amazing, with sexy buskers lining every city street and dapper bearded folk serving up the best damn cup of coffee this side of the equator. Yes, Melbourne sure is swell- did you know that it was originally going to be called Batmania? Yeah, we’re pretty cool. Melbourne is also somewhat of a gamer’s paradise, known for its thriving gaming community and birthplace of many a suitably eccentric indie game. It’s even been speculated that Melbourne has become the games capital of Australia. My absolute favourite thing about Melbourne- apart from the attractive buskers- is that there’s always something on. So whether you’re a long-time resident Melbournian or just a curious gamer passing through, there’s plenty this fine city has to offer. If your cards are foretelling a visit to the culture capital of Australia in the near future, you may want to schedule your holiday around one of the many gaming-related events held in Melbourne. If huge crowds, phenomenal cosplay and sensory overload are your kind of thing, then PAX Aus is an absolute must-attend. It’s an undeniably unique opportunity to swim through waves of like-minded attendees, trial the latest games from both big name publishers and small indie studios alike, and reaffirm your undying love for all things games. Not to mention Melbourne has been confirmed as the host city for the next five years! The next PAX Aus isn’t until October 2015, but passes are already on sale so make sure you put aside a good chunk of this year’s Christmas money from nanna. Take it from me: there’s nothing sadder than missing out on one of those lucrative three day passes.
"melbourne is also somewhat of a gamer's paradise, known for its thriving gaming community"
If weaving through crowds of 50,000 people turns you in to a writhing ball of awkwardness and anxiety, or you’re more in to serious grown up discussions than watching animated League of Legends tournaments, then maybe Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) is more suited to you. Held around the end of October, GCAP was Australia’s first ever game development conference, offering a number of amazing human beings giving passionate talks about all things game development. It is also the home of The Australian Above: The Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square.
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Below: The infamous PAX Aus crowd. Enter at your own risk.
Game Developer Awards, followed by a kick-ass after party. Time to suit up! Game developer looking to meet likeminded types? Melbourne welcomes you with open arms! Our very own chapter of the International Game Developers’ Association (IGDA) has a monthly meet up where they get together and talk fluent dev at some of Melbourne’s beloved bars. The meet ups often feature talks and play testing and are a great opportunity to make friends and network in the Melbourne games scene- just check their website for details of upcoming meet ups. And if you’d like a chance to show off your mean skills, check out the Melbourne Global Game Jam. The 2015 event, to be hosted at Swinburne University in January, is 48 hours of pure game creation goodness. Better start bulk buying those energy drinks now. If you’re a passionate indie aficionado, then Freeplay Independent Games Festival will knock your ironic socks off. Taking a hiatus for this year, the festival
will return April 2015 with 10 days of games, talks, panels, parties and of course awards, making it their tenth and biggest festival yet. Seriously, clear your schedule for this one, because Freeplay is awesome. For the musically inclined, checking out Melbourne’s signature chip tunes community is an absolute must. SoundBytes is a regular chip tunes event featuring a host of rad 8-bit artists busting out their finest digital tunes. If you like the sound of that, then you’re going to love Square Sounds, a ‘microfestival’ held in March across various Melbourne locations. Square sounds not only showcases some amazing artists but also offers open mic- don’t forget to bring your GameBoy!
Above: ACMI's ongoing Screen Worlds exhibition.
over to Federation Square in the CBD and check out the Screen Worlds exhibition at ACMI, which celebrates the history and culture of all things screen, including videogames. After whiling the hours away battling strangers at Mario Kart, wind down with a few hard-earned beverages at Beta Bar, Melbourne’s newest pop-up social gaming space. Beta Bar was recently set up by the same managers of Fitzroy’s much-loved Mana Bar (R.I.P) and provides a monthly opportunity to combine everyone’s favourite pastimes: booze and games. They offer an impressive range of board, card and digital games, arcade cabinets and a multitude of consoles to enjoy. The perfect end to your perfectly geeky Melbourne getaway? Yes sir.
Of course, you don’t have to try and squeeze a conference or three in to your busy schedule if you’re just visiting Melbourne for the day. You don’t even have to be loaded with cash to experience a small taste of Melbourne’s gaming culture. Venture
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Women in Games
Addressing the distinct lack of female developers in the industry Author: Brooke Geller
Let’s face it: our society is a little behind. No, I’m not talking about the distinct lack of hoverboards and cloned dinosaur theme parks. I’m talking about social progression. The world has reluctantly but gradually accepted that women play games. I personally have never faced the conundrum of ‘YOU play… VIDEO GAMES? With… that chromosome structure?!’ Except, perhaps, from people who’ve never picked up a controller beyond that one isolated incident in 1997 when they experimented with Mario Kart at that neighbour kid’s place. But the fact still remains that only a very small amount of game developers are women. In Australia, this percentage lies at below ten percent. It’s no secret that gaming culture, despite becoming less and less of a “Boy’s Club”, is still rather malefocused. The recent Gamergate scandal only highlighted the massive issue of sexism in the industry and
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Above: Don't let your studio turn in to a sausage fest.
Left: Zoe Quinn, female developer and target of much internet hate.
Above: The password is "Doritos".
women crave positive role models. Rather than being discouraged from a male-dominated industry, wouldn’t it be awesome if we celebrated and applauded the women doing great work within it? More women in the industry means more female voices, more amazing and inclusive games, and a number that’s better than a meagre ten percent. It’s 2014, and female developers shouldn’t be a novelty for any studio. Inclusivity in this industry should be a given, not a rare and often frowned upon occurrence. We live on a planet where roughly half the people you interact with are women. Around half of all gamers are women. So wouldn’t it make sense that more than ten percent of the people creating those games are women?
"it's no secret that gaming culture, despite becoming less and less of a boys club, is still rather male-focused." wider community. It’s doesn’t make for the most welcoming environment for women. While an open and honest discourse is integral to helping tackle this problem, I feel it’s also important to recognise the effect that taking a positive approach can have. I’m definitely not one to discredit the voicing of passionate and unapologetically honest opinions. But sometimes, I like to shift the focus to one that encourages an
already positive presence, rather than the obvious lack of good. We need to recognise that there are amazing women working in games. Just this year, Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy won the Qantas Australian of the Year award in the UK. She also made the list as one of the top 100 most powerful women in the UK. Whilst this isn’t a single solution issue, I’m a huge believer that
Above: Hint- if you have an issue with female developers but not with booth babes, you're kind of missing the point.
Let’s celebrate women like Siobhan Reddy. Let’s make this industry more welcoming for women.
if you like this Women in Games Eve Beauregard
Featured: Issue 3
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"yes, there are jobs in australia, but you'll seriously have to fight for them. and i mean hunger games/battle royale style."
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Getting into the Industry Is it something you should study in Australia Author: Jordan Antonelli
Gaming for many of us is purely a hobby. It is a way to spend our disposable income or to alleviate the stress from work and school. We then have the industry, people who sell the games, getting them into the consumer's hands, as well as people like us who write about them. Finally, we have the people who make them. To be a part of game development, there are numerous areas you can work in, such as; design, writing, testing, sound editor, animator, programming/ engineering and marketing.
Left: JMC Academy, just one option for prospective students, this one speaks from experience.
These are just some of the fields present in Game development. Some studios don't have all of these listed and some have made them into combined roles. The point to grasp is that there are MANY ways in which you can get into development. In regards to HOW one gets into the industry, there are many study options available for you. • Study a “Game” specific degree Here in Melbourne you can take game design courses from colleges such as Qantm/SAE and JMC Academy, both of which you'll find in locations up the east coast as well. These degrees aim to have you ready to go specifically into the gaming industry with a set of useful skills, many of which will let you tailor specific subjects of interest just as with any other degree. However, keep in mind that these specialist degrees are often expensive as anything. Not to worry though, if you can't afford one or aren't offered
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a government subsidy for that degree, there are other options. â&#x20AC;˘
Study a related degree
This would be my recommendation. To get into game design you often don't need a game specific degree. Potential employers are interested in two things; Do you have the skills required and can you prove it? Many people with IT Programming degrees find themselves looking towards game design or employment opportunities. The benefit of this is that there are courses at larger institutions like Melbourne's RMIT will allow you to undertake some electives of choice for any specialisations you may want to undertake. As a musician, there weren't exactly any 'Write music for video game' courses as such, but inside my performance degree I did take specific classes on writing music for mixed media. The things I did in that class became the foundation of my first folio, even though my degree was themed much broader than that. I know for a fact that RMIT's IT: Programming degree has
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relevant course material related to game programming, so for any prospective students, it is always an option to think outside the box. â&#x20AC;˘
Above: Autodesk, Maya.
Study a non-related degree
Believe it or not, there is rarely a rule saying one must have a specific degree for a certain job. Yes it does happen sometimes, but you can always wow yourself into a job by showing you know the skills, and excelling at them. Employers care that you can do the job, not that you spent three years skipping classes and drinking beer at 10 in the morning. I'm of the opinion that everyone should have some form of tertiary education if possible, but there have been instances where people have skipped the queue and gone straight into working for a team. This is rare, but it happens. Once more, this is more about proving you have the skills, rather than a piece of paper. There are two core concepts I believe prospective
Right: Learning Maya, one gruelling tutorial at a time.
game designers should keep in mind when thinking about studying to get into the industry. Firstly, there aren't a huge amount of game related jobs in Australia. We are lucky enough to live on a tiny island floating in the ocean, leagues and leagues away from anything interesting, and that relates to media as well. We don't exactly give publishers or developers enough of a reason to set up shop down under, which means most job opportunities will be locally sourced start ups. The majority of game development happens in hotspots around the world. This is the same way that Silicon Valley is for the Tech industry, Hollywood for Cinema, the Jersey Shore for
Right: Qantum, another option for prospective students.
Guidos and Amsterdam for Weed. Yes, there are jobs in Australia, but you'll seriously have to fight for them. And I mean Hunger Games/Battle Royale style. The second concept to grasp is that by studying to be in game development you will not be working on the next COD a year out of Uni. That doesn't happen, you'll be lucky if you ever get to be in the same room as developers for that kind of AAA content. In all likelihood, successful and persevering students will go on to work with mobile games as the market is far bigger and cycles around quicker. Potential investors don't know crap about the French Assassins Creed sequel to the Caribbean, American, Turkish and Italian sequels to that game about stabbing fools in Jerusalem, but they sure as hell know about Angry Birds and Candy Crush. To lead off from the latter, people that choose to study a broader degree, or none at all, may find that they NEVER enter the game industry no matter how hard they try, or at the very least spend a lot of
time doing different jobs before an opportunity properly comes around. It might be working the checkout at Coles or working Tech Support, hell it might be mocking up animations for a business or university. You have to remember to be flexible until the time comes. In the meantime, keep busy.
when paid jobs come around you'll be the first person they think of. Learn the standards and be flexible. You know Pro Tools but they only edit sound in Logic? Learn it. You need to know Maya but have only used 3DS Max and Blender? Learn it.
"be proactive, this is what'll separate you from the kid who got an A over your B's and c's." If you're interested in art, design, sound/music etc, get a folio together, hell get a dozen different folios together and choose the best piece from each.
Network. Get to every event you can snake your way into and just get talking to people. Be vocal on forums, post your ideas and projects to reddit, whatever you have to do.
If you're interested in programming, animating or testing, work on as many projects as you can. Work on something with your friends when no one's around. Get involved with a modding group. Put you name into communities, both local and abroad.
If someone offers you an internship, take it. Oh, it's unpaid? ...take it.
Volunteer your services for unpaid/charity causes. Someone needs some mockups or a song written for a charity event? Do it. Get people remembering who you are, so
Be Proactive, this is what'll separate you from the kid who got an A over your Bs and Cs. Who knows, maybe you WILL get to be the person making a COD game, only time will tell.
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Where to for Aussie Development Predictions for the future of Australia's video games from PAX Aus 2014 Author: Brooke Geller
It’s been a tentative few years for Australian game developers. A string of studio closures, retracted government funding and the lure of overseas job opportunities have made for a slightly scary climate. The question of whether video games really are “recession proof” or not still hangs in the air. The once promising future of tablet gaming isn’t looking quite so secure anymore. Despite being a massively profitable industry for our little island nation, many budding developers are double guessing themselves- and you can’t really blame them. ‘Where to now for Australian game development’ was the final panel I attended at this year’s PAX. To be entirely honest, I wasn’t in the finest form. I could count the hours of sleep I’d had on one hand, and the multiple coffees and overpriced lukewarm chips I’d downed throughout the
day had ceased to have any sort of awakening effect on me. Any energy I was experiencing had to be some sort of remaining buzz I’d absorbed from the chaos of the showroom floor. My ability to form thoughts in to coherent sentences had vanished, and I was seriously doubting my ability to focus during another hour-long panel.
Above: The future for Aussie games is bright.
As tempted as I was to jump on the nearest tram and be welcomed in to the warm embrace of my nap-ready bed at home, this panel seemed important. I somehow knew that there was an important message to be heard, and I was going to regret missing out on it. So I stayed.
Below: There's more to the Australian games industry than this, guys.
Somewhat ironically hosted by Scottish Mark Serrels, the Kotaku Australia editor reflected on watching the Australian industry transform and rebuild from a time of destruction and chaos. More
"they don't need flashy graphics or a hour hundred million dollar budget" 18 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
importantly, he highlighted the importance of the changing stories of the industry. That’s exactly how I like to view the local industry right now: a changing story. Games excite me. I love the anticipation of a new installation in a beloved franchise of big-title games. Seeing how far a massive studio can push the boundaries with breathtaking graphics, twisted dialogue and yes, even that shamelessly irresistible DLC gets my heart rate up. But
you know what excites me even more about games? The simple beauty of indies- especially when they’re proudly Australian made. I’ve never been one to call myself patriotic. My relationship with my own country is a strange mixture of ironic jest and mudded embarrassment. Australian indies, however, make me beam with Aussie pride, which is strange for someone who’s never been a hard-core indie devotee.
Above: The recently released Framed is a terrific example of innovative Australian game development.
You know what’s so great about great indies? They don’t need flashy graphics or a four hundred million dollar budget to impress. A great indie is undeniably unforgettable, because it pushes the envelope on the creative capabilities for video games, with a tiny little budget and even tinier development team. The future of Australian game development lies with indies.
the rush of fan girl love I felt at PAX outside the Bethesda stall was amazing, it actually couldn’t compare to the amazement I experienced over discovering the Indie pavilion. These games were so intricate, yet so simple and beautiful. It was inspiring. This was the definite tone of that final Sunday panel. The quality games coming out of this local industry are not only inspiring, but incredibly innovative and progressive. Let’s shift the focus from big titles and monetary success and focus on what really matters: celebrating a high standard of creativity and encouraging the evolution of a rapidly-growing community. The future is bright for this industry, and I can’t wait to see the next chapter of this exciting story.
It’s an exciting time to be an Australian gamer as our industry heads in a brave and wildly creative direction. While
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Table Top Corner Australian designers Author: Daniel Bailey
When I think of Australian board games, only one game comes to mind and that saddens me a little. While trying to come up with what games to play for this article it was rather hard to find any actual information on Australian board game developers and I’m not sure whether it’s because they aren’t opening advertising it or some other reason. I would love to see more Australian developers and if anyone knows of any I would love to have discussions about the state of Australian board games and gaming, so hit me up.
ask is to expand your land and turn natural barren pasture into a luscious irrigated land and stock it all chock a block full with sheep. You do this by obtaining money from sheep sales and the sales of the wool from sheep. You must keep your sheep nice and healthy and avoid the destructive drought if you can.
Everything started off nicely for the two of us.... for the first half of the board, selling sheep at pretty good prices and what not. Anyway back to the games, the game that always Then straight away on the first trip around pops into my head is of course Squatter and the fact that the board, I hit the drought space and sold a lot people my age hasn’t actually heard of this game off sheep for the lowest possible price. Brett shocked me as I was discussing it when contemplating managed to miss the first one and skirted this article. I had always considered Squatter to be along fairly well, while I received a pretty up there with the classic games such as Monopoly, nasty tucker box card (like a chance card in Scrabble or Trivia Pursuit. So after talking about it so monopoly) which set my shed on fire, making much I was very excited to pull out a reprinted copy me lose a further 50% of my current sheep. So of the game with Brett at our board game meet up. now before even the first lap is completed I was down to two sheep and wasn’t able to buy For those guys who haven’t played squatter let’s or sell sheep until I had made a lap around the quickly go over what it is about. You are a sheep farmer board to the same tucker bag spot. in charge of your very own station. Your job you may
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Above: What fantastic art design.
win. That is the great thing about squatter, no matter how far behind you are, if you can manage a good round you can catch straight back up and steal the victory. Brett’s thoughts - “No game will ever be as Australian, also no game will ever screw you over as hard as when you land on a drought and have to sell half your livelihood. Still can’t believe I lost in the last stages of the game. CURSE YOU RED LEGGED EARTH MITES!!”
Above: Bob Lloyd is the inventor of Squatter.
Below: Poor dummy hand, no one cared how neat you were.
"this fast paced game is exciting and fun to break up the long games, or to just crack out when you only have 15 minutes" Brett managed to buy his first stud ram, collect his hay which helps defend against the drought and get a pretty good wool sale on the first trip. He ran into a few problems during the game but nothing too major, he ran into a card sort of like a drought but was able to sell off at market value, making his losses minimal. I dragged along throughout the game buying as many sheep as I could once I could and then immediately hitting another drought making me drop my half my sheep at an extremely low price. I think I had one of the worst first half of squatter that I have ever had, barely making it round the board with a couple good tucker bag cards to keep me afloat. I then managed to save up extra percentage cards to
my next sales that I got a big payout and then managed to buy sheep at a really good price. After that I got hit by a rather bad tax card that lost me a good stack of the money I made, but I still wasn’t in too bad of shape. In true Squatter fashion I ran into a couple good sales of sheep and managed to catch straight back up to Brett and then Bam, Brett sheep get infected by red legged earth mites. The race was on and we both fully upgraded our stations and it was down to me buying 11 sheep before he could buy 13. Brett mite card gave me a half a board to land on a stock sale space before Brett even had a chance to buy sheep. That gave me the edge I needed to secure the
The other game we played was Sushi Go! Developed by Australia’s own Phil Walker-Harding and is a very well received game since its release last year. The main mechanic of the game is card drafting game in which you start with a card of a certain number depending on the number of players you have. Once you have your deck you select one card to keep and then you pass your hand onto the next player, certain cards give certain points depending on how many of them you have collected or if you have a multiplier card before playing one of the three cards able to be multiplied. Other cards will reward you for collecting the most, while one will make you lose points if you have collected the least. As the name implies, all the cards are represented as Japanese cuisine and proves to give the game a fairly strong theme, being able to relate that wasabi goes well with nigiri and that dumplings only get better if you eat more of them (up to a certain amount of course.) The game is extremely fast and states that it can be played the normal way with 2 players, but really the best way to play if you only have 2 players is to go by there variant. This involves having a third dummy hand that is faced down in a pile and each player takes it in turn to control the dummy hand. When you control the dummy hand you take the first card off the pile and add it to your hand and then from your hand you select one card to be played in front of you and one card to be played by the dummy. This adds an extra level of strategy because the dummy hand can be counted as having collected the most of one card, which will help you stop the other player from receiving extra points if you yourself don’t want to collect those cards. Also by picking up the card from the deck gives an added layer of predetermined randomness as you might know all the cards that are in both active players hand, but you won’t know what card you will draw from the dummy deck. This fast paced game is exciting and fun to break up the long games, or to just crack out when you only have 15 minutes to play a game. It is in a tiny tin that can be carried around in your pocket and would be fantastic to play while you are waiting in long lines, or while you are waiting for your class to begin. Brett and I used this game to warm up for Squatter and really enjoyed it, playing multiple rounds before starting up. Brett’s thoughts - “Games like these make me happy. Quick, fun and can be played whilst shouting at each other in awful accents. *Insert Old Japanese Voice* SUSHI!!!”
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REVIEWS 24
Super Smash Bros. Wii U
Wii U
28 30
Kromaia
PC
Assassin's Creed Unity
Xbox One
34
Dragon Age: Inquisition
PC
38
TRI: Of Friendship and Madness
PC
Review 40
FAR CRY 4 22 | Anti-Gravity Gaming Network
40
Far Cry 4
44
Wasteland 2
PC PC
24
28
30
34
38
44 Anti-Gravity Gaming Network | 23
>> REVIEW
"even those who don't play games can pick it up and have some fun."
SUPER SMASH BROS. WII U Author: Ryan Sattell It's time to beat the crap out of your friends as your favourite Nintendo Characters in the latest instalment of the Super Smash Bros franchise. Every time a new Super Smash Bros game comes out it is huge. Sales go through the roof and everyone heads over to their friends place to play it. Hell, people were still hammering out Super Smash Bros on Nintendo 64 and Gamecube! Super Smash Bros for Wii U is pulling out all the big guns and just like Mario Kart 8, it has helped sky rocket Wii U sales. There are 49 different characters to play as, online play with up to 4 players and up to 8 players on local play. "8 players? In the same room, on the same console? But Ryan, that doesn't seem right!" I hear you proclaim, but that's where Nintendo continue to step it up and make sure that awkward 5th person that is over for the game night can still
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feel included. The release of the Gamecube controller USB connector let's you plug an additional 4 Gamecube controllers in to your Wii U (if you prefer the Gamecube controller and if you can ever find a place that has stock of the adapter). You can also use up to 7 of the Wii Remotes or Pro Controllers to get a big 8 player smash going.
an easy to pick up game, there is no tutorial when you first boot it up. I did however stumble across a 'how-to-play' video in the sea of menus (Go to 'Games and More', then 'Vault', then 'Movies' and it's called 'How to Play'). I just feel this could have been a little easier to find or they could have informed people that the video actually exists.
The thing about Super Smash Bros is that it's a game for everyone. Even those who don't play games can pick it up and have some fun. It sets itself apart from other fighter games because there isn't a huge list of moves to remember for each character. They are all the same, very basic button combinations that apply across the board with all characters. That, along with short game lengths, it makes for a quick and easy to pick up game when you have some spare time to kill. Now, even though I mentioned it is
The gameplay is fluid and to the quality you would expect. I haven't come across a point during this game when I thought hits or movement were off (not taking into account the fact I have no idea how to play as Little Mac, damn that guy is fast!). Every character has their trademark move types, such as Pikachu throwing lighting all over the place, Sammus leaving bombs everywhere and Captain Falcon punching in only ways Captain Falcon can punch. This is nothing compared to the
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Game Info: Format: Wii U Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo
Right: Welcome to my pit of death and lava.
super smashes each character has. These are beautiful to watch and usually bloody hurt. There are lots of different game types you can play as well, from health based, life based, coin collecting and timed. I found that the health and life based modes were much better for larger games (such as the 8 player smashes) as it would slowly reduce the number of players on the field, giving you some breathing room. There is also another game type that takes place like a board game, where each person moves around, slowly gathering fighters and stats. In this, you gather fighters for the end fight, while also battling other players on the way to make them drop their characters. It's a refreshing take on the standard game type but took a few turns to fully understand what I was doing. In all the game types, there are heaps of maps to choose from, with that number being understandably smaller for 8 player smashes. This is great to limit the chaos when there are lots of players on the screen, but some of the maps are so massive that it would zoom out to the point where I didn't know which way I was facing or if I was hitting anyone. If by chance you aren't a fan of the maps on offer, go make your
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unbearable and left a bitter taste in my mouth for the online aspect.
Above: You can play as Charizard. This is all I've ever wanted to do as a child.
One of the big launches that accompanied Super Smash Bros for Wii U is Nintendo's figures, known as Amiibo. While this isn't a review for the Amiibo system, it does play a rather big roll with Super Smash Bros, so I have to mention it here. You name your Amiibo, pick what it look like in fights and feed it items to make it stronger. But, much to my disappointment, you cannot actually play as your Amiibo. This was quite a missed opportunity in my view. Being able to level up your Amiibo and then head over to a friend's place or a tournament and play as that actual character would have made it awesome. This would have without a doubt made me want to grab the whole Amiibo series. However, all I can do is play against my Mario Amiibo (or have him on my team). With so many characters available, I personally prefer putting the CPUs on random instead of always being up against a Mario. Customisation is also another great addition to this game. You can unlock different moves and attacks and use these to change characters in the game. You can also create your own Mii fighter. You get to choose between a brawler, sword fighter or gunner and alter how they look and what moves they can use. This expands the 49 playable characters by a large amount seeing as you can make multiple Mii fighters based on all your friends.
"If by chance you aren't a fan of the maps on offer, go make your own!" own! Grab the Wii U Gamepad and draw out your own map to fight on. I found this fun, easy and very quick to do. You can also be very evil, such as my lava death pit. Super Smash Bros is definitely a game that is best suited to playing with other people. There is only so much joy beating up the NPC's can bring. Thankfully with the Wii U, you can head online and fight against others. You can jump on for matches with your friends or
against randomly matched up people, so having those options available is a good touch. However, this did have one major downfall that I ran into multiple times. If someone you are playing against has a slow internet connection, the whole game keeps pausing and lags to keep them up to speed. I timed it for one of my games (with the game timer set to 2 minutes) and from start to finish took over 7 minutes to complete. That was
Above: Some of the maps for 8 player smashes are just too big. It's like playing spot the character.
Super Smash Bros for Wii U is a solid game and a must have for any Wii U owner. You will keep coming back to it and it is always a great game to bust out when you have friends over. Also, laugh all you want but Wii Fit Trainer is actually an amazing character to play!
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Kromaia
Taking back space, one galaxy at a time Author: Jordan Antonelli
Developed by indie developers Kraken Empire, Kromaia brings classic design from the arcade generation straight to your PC. While my interest in such games usually wanes after 10 minutes, I've been very impressed with how Kromaia has held up, play after play. I was interested to learn that this project started on indiegogo with a crowd funding campaign, and over the years it has made a slow haul to the top, now appearing on the steam store for sale. Players will find themselves in control of a spacecraft and have all of space to accomplish their goals, as well as full 3D mobility, something arcade gamers from 30 years ago would be fuming about. Each level will place the player somewhere in space, with the goal of finding 20 items via use of your compass. There are also some pretty cool boss fights, but like much of this game, they aren't especially difficult. While you collect your 20 shiny gold orb/portal thingymabobs, you'll be attacked by an array of enemies, with your job being to thin out their ranks before they simply overwhelm you.
"there is no denying the beauty of this game."
In reality there are only really four levels to the game, which means that for all the really great things they've managed to squeeze into it, Kraken Empire have still only released a portion of what I would've like to see in a full release, which is disappointing to say the least. The mythos behind the game is a little vague, and to be honest it was probably something the game could do without. There is nothing that I hate more than an irrelevant story, and for this reason, I wasn't too
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Above: The PSOne generation will love these boss fights.
Left: Hexagons! My only weakness!
impressed with the few sparse plot points that did end up in the game. As much as I've enjoyed this title, there is always room for improvement. Unlike some, I won't go ahead and call Kromaia's navigation innovative or even easy to use. Successfully weaving through the games intricate geometry in my ship took a little longer than I'd like, as it was difficult to distinguish some objects and distances with so many colours and effects, especially during a fight. For this reason specifically, I found myself often having trouble playing for more than 20ish minutes.
Above: Meet the dual function Shield/ Compass, for all your shielding/orienteering needs. The Shield/Compass TM.
Visually, there isn't much else that comes to mind, save a few choice words like arcade, or maybe Tron. Those neon dreamscapes introduce temple like structures to be navigated, as well as large asteroid fields. Sometimes you'll feel as if you're flying inside, and other times you'll feel stranded in space. Its these kind of design choices that
Above: Swinging that ship around gets exhausting after a time.
take a very simple idea, and give it value. Kromaia is excellent at making sure there is always something on my screen to take an interest in, which I think is a rare quality. Even taking this small annoyance, there is no denying the beauty behind this game. The levels themselves seem infinite in space, and while you have clear objectives on each level, you really can pick your own route, or explore any piece of architecture that catches your eye. Fighting off wave after wave of enemies will test your patience for annoying or brilliant, and since I truly enjoyed the game, I'd encourage you to try it out for yourself.
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>> REVIEW
ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY Author: Brett Sellar Being the ninth title in the series, there's not much to say about the foundation of the new Assassins Creed game that everyone wouldn’t already know. However, this time you are dropped in the middle of the French Revolution (not the Le Miserable one) and into the shoes of Arno Victor Dorian, a young man who joins the Assassins to investigate the murder of his adoptive father, followed by lots of climbing and killing Templars. Despite a few (sometimes hilarious) glitches, AU: Unity is stunning to look at - Ubisoft built this around a whole new engine and it really shows. The first climb to the top of Notre Dame was breathtaking and despite how far the city stretched out it was beautifully rendered. The animations, for the most part, are fluid and seem
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practical… except when you leap between rooftops and seem to fly for a split second. The combat animations are really nicely done, especially the finishing moves, and some are just brutal. When the combat worked it was genuinely impressive to see how fluid it was. Speaking of combat… it’s awful. Just, plain awful. Everything that made the combat in Black Flag good has been completely revamped. It’s become a lot less fast-paced and clunkier; they took away the combat counters and replaced it with parrying, everyone has firearms and no more human shields. It’s actually made fighting more than three or four enemies almost impossible. Well, impossible without using all of your Medicine. The fact that everyone has firearms has produced a catastrophic issue, they deal way too much damage and cause you to let go when climbing,
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making it painfully hard to escape. When the combat worked so well in previous games, I don’t know why they had to tweak it so much. Why mess with a good thing hey? Something that they did get right; it is the first Assassins Creed with a respectable level of customisation. There is a great selection of weapons, from polearms to battle-axes and scimitars to maces. I was quite fond of the long weapons just because the combat animations were brilliant. Throw in a vast collection of different armours that all provide different stats and bonuses, and some just look amazing. There is a set that comes with a sweet Victorian style mask and a huge pimp collar…it looked great running around with that thing on. And now we come to the absolute best thing about this game - you are an actual Assassin again. You go through your training and initiation, starting off as a rookie Assassin and having honest to god missions to assassinate some Templars. Perched on the rooftops, surveying the area, looking for opportunities and finding the best way to eliminate your target. It’s a very great and satisfying feeling to have everything go your way and slip out un-noticed. As for the absolute worst thing about AC: Unity… we have Ubisoft to blame. It’s the freaking companion app… and Initiates. I am for the most part a completionist, or an 'Achievement Whore' to some. My map is scattered with these chests that I cannot open unless I download this app AND signup for the Initiates programme on U-Play. The problem with the app is that it doesn’t make
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Game Info: Format: Xbox One Other Formats: PC, PS4 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft
"ubisoft, you have failed this assassin."
Above: All the upgrades.
sense, the only reason people play phone apps is when they are away from the house. With this you have to be playing both on the console and on your phone at the same time, it’s extremely annoying. I can’t help but think that the series reached its pinnacle with AC: Black Flag. Unity seems to take one step forward to improving things, then two gigantic steps backwards. I'm not going to lie… I might have squealed a little when I saw the first few trailers for Assassins Creed: Unity. Not sure if I built too much hype in my mind or I’m still getting over how amazing Black Flag was, but I was very let down by this. Ubisoft, you have failed this Assassin.
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>> REVIEW
DRAGON AGE INQUISITION Author: Jordan Antonelli Dragon Age is one of my bread and butter gaming franchises. I played through Origins perhaps 5 times fully, with a half dozen semiplaythroughs. Its sequel, while not accepted nearly as well by the fan base, still racked up a decent play time in my house, and since its announcement, I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest instalment, Dragon Age: Inquisition. The third game in the franchise, Inquisition puts players in control of someone who really just wandered into the thick of it, after a terrorist attack during the proposed peace talks between the Rebel Mages, and the Templars, who have as of now succeeded from the Chantry. You character is one who is tied to the events behind this conclave, as well as the mysterious breach in the sky, and the demons that pour into Thedas from it. What starts as merely another movement grows into a battle for all of Thedas and
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players will find themselves at the epicentre. Inquisition brings together some of Bioware's most talented individuals to produce a clear GOTY contender, as well as potentially their best game to date. Myself and fellow writer Noel were invited by EA to attended a prelaunch demo of the game prior to PAX. We were very grateful for this opportunity to test the game out, and prod some of Bioware's team, including Laidlaw himself, on our thoughts about the game. Going into my preview experience, my single thought was this, If Bioware are trying to do Skyrim better than well...Skyrim, they're going to fail. To elaborate on this, Bioware's key strength in development is sticking to their own guns. Originality is their strength, not emulation. We've seen that over the years in KOTOR, Mass Effect, and DA, not to mention a half dozen other franchises. While
it was pretty inevitable that a little bit of Skyrim and The Witcher dripped into the mix, Bioware are still keenly aware of what they can do best. In most aspects of Inquisition, Bioware have kept to their own, which means that this feels like the Dragon Age universe, not someone else's take on things. Prior to this, I was also under the impression that combat would be largely like DA: II, with no micro management, top down view etc, and that they were approaching a more hack and slash approach like Skyrim. Luckily, these concerns were immediately alleviated. Combat feels pretty good on the whole, but doesn't always leave you feeling satisfied. My main save on my PC is just on standard difficulty, and getting through battles at my own level is pretty simple. I had a quick go at a higher difficulty and found myself stopping and starting A LOT. After
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an hour of this, I stopped and asked myself why. I'd beaten both previous titles on their highest difficulties, and it didn't feel as exhausting as this had. The answer came to me later via the criticisms of a friend. TACTICS. Dumbed down tactics control. I bring this up because we've seen this move from Bioware before. When Mass Effect had its tactics taken out for a sequel, the justification was that they would be appearing later that year in Dragon Age: Origins, tactical oversight and tactic behaviour sets as well. Fast forward from then 'till now and we see it reoccurring once more. Now while this kind of tactical management hasn't been removed as such, it has been watered down. One of my friends explained to me that he would tell his players to attack the mage in the room first, and after that target the strongest character in the room, as well as a dozen other restraints in battle. This worked perfectly. It was very complicated, but made the monotony of battling opponents boil down to a well designed formula of attack, which is a streamlining you need on the higher difficulties. Inquisition has removed both some hand holding in the game such as standard magic healing, as well as higher end customisations, such as those advanced squad tactics. For a game that is more complex, with bigger battles (Dragons for god
sake), the combat options should allow more complexity if anything.
to grab the game on, it should hold up very well across the board.
I got to demo Inquisition's prelaunch build on both PC and the PS4, and while I spent most of my time on the PC build, which I was advised was not entirely complete, I was impressed with how much they'd been able to get out of the console. Yes the developers have made graphical concessions to get the game to a playable frame rate, but I seem to remember the textures for Origins being severely more gimped on my humble 360 as well, maybe I'm just going crazy. At Launch, almost nothing except a few graphical effects, makes the platforms different. I was told this directly by developers, and this was more or less confirmed while I was playing. To that effect I'd actually recommend users play even their PC copy with a gamepad, as movement seems to be more intuitive in this way. The PC user base will have a further element of involvement if they open the game up to modding, which is likely given the heavy modding in the previous titles, as well as the popularity of the modding community for audiences of the other fantasy titles. At this point it almost feels like wish fulfilment, but my hope is that if Bioware can fix some base issues with the release, the modding community will take care of the rest. Here's hoping... For now, don't be concerned about what platform
Something great about Inquisition is the play time. With a 50 hour story, and another 100+ hours of content, this game could last someone the entire Summer. Unfortunately, fanboys/girls rarely know how to pace themselves. A million people have spent the last week frantically racing through this game, and the weight of so many missions, tasks and challenges, makes for a very good way to lose focus and dilute the narrative. In regards to the writing, I was fairly satisfied with Inquisition's, although I did have a few gripes here and there. While I loved the premise of the story, and even the motivations of the antagonist, I hated the main villain and found his inclusion to be a poor casting choice. The overall narrative however was not weak. I found the fleshed out characters far more envocative of DA:II's refined writing than Origin's, whose were a little clunky even if they were lovable. Characters like Sera and Cole feel awkward but endearing, while the opposite can be said for the blunt nature of a character like Solas. Over time you'll find yourself bonding to each characters idiosyncrasies, which is a good sign they've writing some excellent characters. Humour is something I've loved about Bioware's writing
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Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Developer: BioWare Publisher: EA
teams, and Inquisition succeeds again and again in this respect. Each and every character in the Inquisitor's party has absolute script gold throughout the course of the game, and they aren't afraid to make some downright filthy sexual innuendo when the time is right either. My personal favourite moment was judging the fate of a prisoner and being told that he had been brought in for laying siege to the castle by throwing goats at it, which a cutaway confirmed. Goats. This almost fable style of not taking themselves too seriously really spaced the emotion of the game out, a mix of comedy and calamity as it were. The entire Dragon Age universe feels more connected together than it has previously, and really gets across that you victories and mistakes of the previous titles matter. It makes Thedas feel big, almost too big, as if that were even possible. Graphically, the game is a big step up for the Dragon Age franchise.
Landscapes look impressive for the most part, as well as character models and costumes, when they work that is... The first ten minutes of the game had me seriously impressed just by looking at a frozen river. Snowscapes looked cold and harsh, while the desert looked coarse and rough. The Hinterlands, the forested area around Redcliffe, felt teeming with life. Add some warring Apostates and Templars into the mix and these landscapes are filled with a firework display of magic effects, spanning every colour in the rainbow. These sensations are brought on by a richer colour palette than we've seen in a Dragon Age title before, and I have to commend Bioware for making it feel so correct. While they've made some serious improvements, I'd encourage them to do even better next time around. While I'm impressed in the upgrades, a lot of characters till look...odd, lacking the realism of ones in Mass Effect for example. I can't quite place my finger on why, but at times characters just don't feel like
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Above: Last Supper or what?
Below: Oh look, the have a cave troll.
they're properly alive, I'd love to see some attempt to smooth this out. Bioware have on one hand, made a very big effort to open up Thedas, landscapes are larger than ever, and filled with activity. On the other hand, when all is said and done, I'm still acutely aware that I'm moving from room to room. For all its advancement and progression, I honestly felt like I was going through more loading scenes than in Origins. Once the game started to open up, and I started pursing quest trees more keenly, I found myself fast travelling to my base between every mission. Combine this with the overwhelming amount of quests inside the game, and players might find themselves
messages in the meantime, there just isn't enough communication. Regardless of this, we sure have found ourselves in a bad position right now. At last half of AAA content is being released into the market requiring a day1 patch, or rife with errors and bugs to be patched at later dates. Consumers are paying for finished content, and developers are obligated to provide it, while their publishers should be ensuring that they do. This brilliant, fantastic multi-media market does not work if you start to take advantage of consumer confidence to release an unfinished product. The less finished a game is, the less incentive someone has to pay for it. For such a brilliant game like Inquisition, I would hate to see gamers forgoing a purchase for a torrent instead, and while I don't endorse this behaviour, we should be aware that this is part of the reason why it happens. If you want support from consumers, you have to reward consumers for their loyalty. struggling to remain immersed. If anything, this is something that has regressed from even DA:II.
So far, Inquisition's biggest detractor is the completion of its release build. Modern RPGs tend to be relatively complex, and as a result seem to produce their fair share of game bugs. We've gotten used to this. Sometimes a bug can be as innocent as duplicating jewellery with arrows, people's heads just failing to appear, and sometimes Navi just won't stop telling you she has a message...we can deal with bugs. Inquisition however, is rife with them, and not the fun kind. The big killer here is the gender bug. Miss the subtle hint on character creation and you'll find that not only will people sometimes refer to you as the wrong gender of your character, but also potentially race. For me this mean't armour restriction became messed up, helmets could be applied to my male Qunari, clipping his horns, and armour sets would clip against his body. Later on in the game the further hassle comes when retrieving your specialisations, my mage being offered the s specialisations for a rogue. At the time I'm writing this, it is a week after launch, and this bug hasn't been patched, word on the street
says that even after a patch, players will still probably have to start over. To add to this I have myself also experienced the save corruption bug/s as well, and if I wasn't so anal with backing up my computer files, I would've lost countless hours already sunk into this title. Audio glitches are another common error, as well as party banter. This isn't good enough. I can deal with the fact that my NVIDIA driver being out of date by 3 days made the game unplayable. I can deal with a crash or two here and there as well. I understand that ironing out bugs is an ongoing process, but where is the support for the community? In this sense, Bioware (and EA) have truly dropped the ball. Not only are we not seeing any fixes come through the system, we aren't getting any
All in all, it is very hard to call Inquisition anything other than brilliant, for all my gripes with it, the DA universe will continue to suck up time at my house for years to come. Dragon Age: Inquisition feels like the game that we asked Bioware for, as opposed to DA:II, which was the one that we didn't. They've listened to the things we love about fantasy, storytelling, and gameplay, and MOST of them have found their way into this game. The Dragon Age Universe is one of storytelling, and in Inquisition we get a great sense of that taking place before our very eyes. For the amount of time you can squeeze out of this game, you certainly will get your money's worth, even if you have to buy it off Origin, and it is definitely going to take a colossal effort for Bioware to top.
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TRI: Of Friendship and Madness Author: Noel Wheatley
Game Info: Format: PC Developer: Rat King Publisher: Rising Star Games
There is a certain style to TRI: Of Friendship and Madness that grabs your attention from the moment you first start to play. The game has a unique art style that reminded me of games like Journey, with a puzzle/physics motivated game mechanic that almost seems to be homage to Portal, so it had just the right blend of art and gameplay to capture my imagination and want me to play more. As mentioned, this game has a beautiful style to it, filled with vibrant water colours that exacerbate the jagged edged environment and lends itself to the game in an almost symbiotic nature. It was easy to see that Rat King had put a lot of passion into this game. As you step into the world of TRI you learn that you have been summoned to this realm to help restore balance between the Odd Gods, mischievous deities that have taken the form of foxes. Your quest is to help restore balance to the realm, uncovering the mystery behind the story using only your wits and the TRI artefact. The gameplay for each level is focused around finding, collecting and returning a set of 3 Fox statues. While I
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Above:The power of the TRI Artifact.
Above: Fox statue sits waiting to be recovered. Above: The art style of this game is simply breathtaking.
Below: Some of the stunning level design.
"this game has a beautiful style to it, filled with vibrant water colours that exacerbate the jagged edge environment" was never in a situation where time was going to run out, you are shown the time it takes to complete each level so those that wish to try and find the optimal way to complete these challenges and improve their times can attempt to do so. You are also able to share your best time with the community to see if they can beat your time, or just see how you compare to other players. To advance in the game itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not as simple as walk here, grab statue
of the TRI artefact some of these can be incredibly frustrating and yet, like any puzzle, oh so satisfying once you have bested them. Within some of the levels the areas you can explore are only limited by your own creativity. As you do, you will often find bonus idols which will lead to even more information about the Odd Gods or other game related information being shared with you through the striking cut scenes. However, with the freedom of movement also comes a need for very specific controls. This is especially true in a scenario when it may have taken you 5 minutes to get all the way up to a certain ledge, only to fall because the controls are not as responsive as you need them. You then have to restart the entire process, causing loss of precious time and growing frustration. Admittedly this could have been a result of my own rudimentary skills when it comes to playing PC games, but on other similar games Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always had a very smooth experience with the controls. Here they just felt a little clunky and not specific or fine enough for the movement required.
and return. The statues are placed strategically around each level to make you explore the realm you currently inhabit and test your wits with a series of ever increasingly harder puzzles, often requiring some creative puzzle solving. To overcome these obstacles you will need to do things such as reach across abysses, redirect lasers for use with the TRI artefact, walk on walls and even the ceiling (Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure there is a 'dancing on the ceiling' joke here somewhere). Even with the help
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>> REVIEW
FAR CRY 4 Author: Ryan Sattell If you were a fan of Far Cry 3, then you are going to feel right at home with Far Cry 4. Far Cry 4, the latest instalment in the Far Cry franchise see's you head to Kyrat in the mountain landscape of the Himalayas to over throw a dapper, self named king with a hipster hairstyle known as Pagan Min. Now, this game feels very much like Far Cry 3, but just in a different setting, with different animals and a different storyline. Usually, when developers reuse a lot of the core of a game for the sequel and only change some of the aesthetic's (cough, Call of Duty) it annoys me, however I feel different towards the Far Cry franchise. See, Far Cry 3 is like cheesecake, I love cheesecake. Here come Ubisoft with another, equally delicious cheesecake but this time the cheesecake has wingsuits and rideable elephants. This is fine
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with me, because who is going to say no to more delicious cheesecake? Booting up Far Cry 4 on PC, it's obvious to see that Ubisoft have done what they always do and have made the game for consoles, you can see from the way the lay out the menu with each clickable button linked to a keyboard button. This didn't faze me as much as it usually does because they have given PC gamers something that we always love, changeable field of view. The big driver in the Far Cry games, and is also apparent here in Far Cry 4, is that you are playing through a story. You are thrown in the shoes of someone who always manages to find himself in a terrible situation, yet always happens to be a complete badass and really good with guns and survival skills. I did, however, find myself falling back to what I always do in the Far
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Game Info: Format: PC Other Formats: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft
Right Top: Death from above. Right Bottom: Death from a distance.
Cry games. I begin my way through the storyline, learning of the new characters, finding out just how messed up the main baddie is, and then getting completely sidetracked with little missions, hunting to make myself a bigger wallet to carry all my cash so I can make it rain, climbing towers and taking over outposts. A good 6 hours later I thought I should continue on with the main campaign as, you know, I had to review this game. Plus, continuing with the main campaign unlocked even more side missions, so there I went again. That's the good thing about Far Cry 4, you can get lost in the wilderness of the game and you don't HAVE to follow the main campaign, it doesn't hold your hand and force you to go down a linear path, in fact at times it tried to draw you away. A good example of this is random missions popping up like saving fellow rebels who get stuck in a skirmish or attacking one of Pagan Min's supply runs. One of the big advantages of getting lost in the wilderness of Kyrat is that the graphics are breathtaking. The huge, open roaming map is stunning and you will find yourself walking around and driving for a long time with no regrets. The only graphical error that popped up for me is one of the characters in a cutscene felt her hair needed to spaz out like it was at a nightclub
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high on whatever it could buy for a $10, but apart from that it all looked great. One big improvement is when you heal yourself without a healing syringe, it makes a little more sense with the method of how you healed yourself to how you were injured. In Far Cry 3, you could be attacked by a bear and you will heal yourself by removing a bullet from your arm with your knife, doesn't make much sense unless the bear had a gun. In Far Cry 4, being attacked by animals results in you bandaging up scratches, gun shots are usually removing bullets or covering wounds, car crashes is removing metal shards from yourself and being hit by an arrow
Above: Explosions are always satisfying.
freedom to enter a combat scenario in a way you feel comfortable. Be that go in gun blazing like Rambo, sneaky like with a bow and silenced weapons, or throw a hunk of meat near the enemy to attract a bear or pack of wild dogs and sit back to watch the show. Having so many ways to go in to combat has its advantages and disadvantages, so finding one you are comfortable with is key. That, or you can just join co-op with a friend of someone else and be an elite strike force. The co-op is a great addition, with the ability to partner up in the main missions to take out fortresses or other scenarios. The best thing about the co-op though is it isn't forced on you. You can very much so go through playing just by yourself. While the co-op is good, some people just don't like it, so having the option to not use the function at all is a good choice made by the developers. Good work, folks.
"the huge, open roaming map is stunning and you will find youreslf walking around and driving for a long time with no regrests." results in you snapping an arrow of out you. Just this little detail that they looked at when developing the game really adds a lot, so I thank them for addressing this. Speaking of having to heal yourself, the combat is pretty great. At times it feels like certain guns do nothing at all to the enemy, while other times they feel spot on. Overall though each combat situation feels right. The AI seem
to respond in the way you would expect them to and tend not to 'give up' after not finding the source of a gunshot as quickly as other games. To be honest, if I was getting shot at, I wouldn't look around for 20 second then go "oh well, must have been nothing". IT WAS A GUNSHOT! HOW IS THAT NOTHING!? There are heaps of weapons to choose from, with a decent amount of customisations for each weapon as well. This partners well with the
Above: Elephants and tigers and bears, oh my!
If you are a fan of Far Cry 3, then you are going to love Far Cry 4. The unique and harsh environment of the game will keep you lost for days. Especially with the Australian Summer coming out, don't worry about going outdoors, stay inside, crank up the aircon and pretend like you are simulating the cold weather conditions of the Himalayas.
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Wasteland 2 The crowd funded game that hit it off Author: Noel Wheatley
Ah the 80’s, the decade that spawned so many memorable (and occasionally cringe worthy) franchises, some of which hold cult status even to this day, The original Wasteland game was released back in 1988 as a ground breaking post-apocalyptic role-playing video game thats themes and gameplay enthralled PC gamers and served as the inspiration for the Fallout series. Now back in 1988 I was firmly a Console and Arcade fan and I never got to experience the original Wasteland game, but given that this game is a post-apocalyptic RPG what’s not to like, so I decided to give its sequel a go. You’re given the option at the start of the game to either use pre-set or custom characters and given the landscape of this game I felt it would be remiss of me to not create a character based on the greatest post apocalyptic cop in history (in my option), the one and only Max Rockatansky aka Mad Max. The story is based around a group of former soldiers that have taken up the mantle of protecting the innocent in the dangerous, postapocalyptic world of the American Southwest as the Desert Rangers. You start off as a new, rag tag group of Rangers that are given the task of completing the mission of a former ranger killed in the line of duty and to also investigate what lead to your fellow rangers demise. As you play through the game you’ll need to make a fair amount of tactical choices, build alliances, investigate and occasionally just wander around aimlessly in the harsh world you now inhabit, trying to make sense of what’s happened and solve the riddle behind the storyline.
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Game Info: Format: PC Developer: inXile Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment Publisher: inXile Entertainment
"the game was genuinely enjoyable with a great action point based combat mechanic"
approach I took, which was great to see and would lead me to believe that the game would adapt to whatever approach you took or methods you used, this should lead to some great opportunities to replay the game for those that wanted to try new tactics, teams or approaches.
The gameplay is pretty straight forward and feels very familiar to anyone who has played this type of game before. You navigate your team through the world using a point and click mechanic to explore new areas, changing perspective from the standard top down view to a world map view to navigate the wider regions to get to new destinations and avoid areas of high radiation. This also brings the importance of one of the games key recourses (water) into play with the team taking damage when they have travelled beyond their water supply without topping up, while navigating the open terrain you can also stumble across some unfriendly locals forcing you into combat or an encounter, which is where the game gets really interesting. The combat is structured around a turn based attack system with action points that are allocated to each player defining what they can do per turn and how many attacks or moves they can make.
There is a wide variety of combat styles available to the player when selecting their team, with characters specialising in all forms of combat, so its not a bad idea to have a bit of a varied team so that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready for anything you enter an encounter you will need to plan out you groups movements well before you make your first move to ensure your best chance of victory and leverage the strengths of each teammate. As you progress through the game you and your team will level up by receiving promotions, unlocking new skills and equipment for your team, but as your team improve so will the enemies and the challenges you encounter. When I first played this game I started off as a single player to see how far I could get (not a smart move to be honest) and after the first few encounters, which I survived, I decided to restart with a full team. I noticed as I went through the same encounters again I noticed that the enemies tactics had changed to match the
The environment and landscape of the game have obviously been designed with a lot of detail to showcase what this sort of post apocalyptic landscape might be like. Lots of mutated wildlife and vegetation, huge expanses of nothing but arid deserts to explore and plenty of unfriendly locals. The local flora and fauna really stood out to me and have received some beautiful levels of detail to capture what this sort of harsh environment might have done to what would normally be un-noteworthy creatures, instead making them into something to be feared and respected. The soundtrack does help bring a bit of atmosphere to the game during the pinnacle moments (especially when entering an encounter), but it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand out too much. It instead serves as more of a great accompaniment to the game rather than overpowering the core gameplay and story, unlike in other games in recent times where the soundtrack has become more of a talking point than the game itself. Now with all the good things that this game had going for it I did come up against one issue unfortunately, which was something that should have been one of the simplest things in the game, and that is the movement. As I mentioned before, this was a simple point and click mechanic but I had seemingly endless issues when initially trying to play it, gameplay was completely unresponsive and only after I had uninstalled and reinstalled the game twice the controls began to work correctly.
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