GamesMaster 286 Sampler

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WIN!

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welcome

“Your cover feature is filled with information that no other publication on Earth can bring you” ere at GM we’re serious about getting the new year started on the right foot. Healthy food, lots of exercise, only cracking open the gin when we’ve eaten all our breakfast. And that ethos extends to the mag we make. Your cover feature this issue is the culmination of months of planning: a genuine world exclusive filled with information that no other publication on Earth can currently bring you. We’re proud to have this to kick off 2015, and we hope you enjoy it. Also, keep at least an eye and a half out for what’s coming next time out. We’re currently planning one of the most ambitious features in the magazine’s history and, whether we triumph gloriously or fail miserably and have to go into exile, it’ll definitely be worth tuning in for.

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EDITOR’S CHOICE

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Issue 286 / February 2015

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The brilliant Anki Drive Starter Kit plus two cars! See p80 to enter.

My top picks this issue

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A trip to NetherRealm has left me in no doubt that this is the best Mortal Kombat’s ever been.

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Soon we’ll have two FromSoft games to play in the space of a fortnight. I can’t… *faints*

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I was already sure that Evolve was going to be great. Now I’m even surer. Er.

Joel Gregory – Editor

Get more from your GM!

Online at www.facebook.com/gamesmaster

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…or subscribe. See page 92 for details.

february 2015

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cover story

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Contents

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What’s In Your Latest Issue?

Only the best games are featured on GM's cover! ver story co y co ve or r st

46 Evolve With the game nearly here, we take a

trip over to Turtle Rock to find out how the team behind Left 4 Dead is planning to strike multiplayer gold all over again. Hint: it involves rigorous hand sanitisation.

24 Mortal Kombat X

66 Super Smash Bros

A world exclusive look at one of the biggest beat-’em-ups around. We’ve seen it. We’ve played it. We’ve been made to feel really quite queasy. Get over here!

For Wii U

Is this the Smash to end all Smashes? Our expert reviewer delves deeper than anyone to find out how Mario’s melee soirée fares in big-screen form.

Reviews

Previews

V 58 GTA Should every other game just give

32 Bloodborne Don’t be afraid. Well do, obviously,

up and go home? It’s a valid question as we venture inside the new-gen do-over.

WoW: Warlords 62 Of Draenor

War, huh? What is it good for? Re-booting your ailing MMO, for starters.

2K15 70 WWE The last-gen version was pinned

all too easily last issue. Can the new-gen outing put up more of a fight?

Tales From The 72 Borderlands

One of two Telltale offerings this month. Can Pandora still appeal without that mega list of insane-o guns?

Crew 74 The MMO? Racing game? Climb into

our review and let us take you on a little drive to find out. 04

February 2015

Regulars 06 Fanbase We welcome a whole host of

but not for the quality of FromSoft’s latest. We’ve played more, and it’s looking rosy.

ex-ONM readers to GM, while one man champions the resurgence of retro style.

legend of zelda: 36 the Majora’s Mask 3d

10 Upfront Our news ferrets have been busy

How will the weirdest Zelda ever made fare on 3DS? Find out in our exclusive interview.

39 Trove You can’t throw a pickaxe without

striking a Minecraft clone these days, but this indie MMO has that special something to set it apart.

Gone 40 Everybody’s To The Rapture

Not the underwater kind, but the kind you find in Shropshire. Confused? Flick this way.

The Tomorrow 42 Children

What happens when a game becomes a job? In Soviet homage, game plays you.

this month, digging up the latest on Assassin’s Creed Victory and Just Cause 3.

52 IndieMaster What happens when you mix FTL

and XCOM with an episode of Breaking Bad? Delve into our dedicated alt gaming section to find out!

Master 56 Minecraft Buster a gut to get a gander at our

block-centric compartment this month, as we’ve a FFVII-shaped creation to share.

82 RetroMaster Follow through with a retro

fatality as we look back at the fighter which jump-started a generation of sideon gore-scrums. www.twitter.com/gamesmaster


Team GM

Issue 286 / February 2015

Meet The Magazine’s Makers!

Future plc, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Tel 01225 442244 Fax 01225 732275 Email gamesmaster@futurenet.com

Editorial

Editor Joel Gregory Games Editor Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman Art Editor Phil Haycraft Production Editor Daniella Lucas

Contributors

Louise Blain, Luke Brown, Matthew Castle, Emma Davies, Ian Evenden, Duncan Geere, Ben Griffin, Leon Hurley, Phil Iwaniuk, Alex Jones, Leigh Loveday, Dave Meikleham, Matt Pellett, John Robertson, Tom Senior, Joe Skrebels, Paul Taylor, Justin Towell, Iain Wilson

Advertising 3

For advertising enquiries please contact Michael Pyatt, michael.pyatt@futurenet.com

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marketing

Group Marketing Manager Laura Driffield Marketing Manager Kristianne Stanton

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Production & Distribution

Production Controller Fran Twentyman Production Manager​Mark Constance​ Printed in the UK by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed by​Seymour Distribution Ltd​, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT, Tel: 0207 429 4000 Overseas distribution by Seymour International​

Circulation

Trade Marketing Manager Juliette Winyard – 07551 150 984

Subscriptions

UK reader order line & enquiries 0844 848 2852 Overseas reader order line & enquiries +44 (0)1604 251045 Online enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Email gamesmaster@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk

the most dedicated team in the business

A new year means resolutions aplenty. Matt’s not going to rage out at Dark Souls bosses (yeah, right), Dani will secure a pygmy goat for the office, and Joel’s promised to smile at least once an issue. As for Phil…

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Licensing

International Director Regina Erak, regina.erak@futurenet.com +44 (0)1225 442244 Fax +44 (0)1225 732275)

Management

Content & Marketing Director Nial Ferguson Head of Content & Marketing, Film, Music & Games Declan Gough Group Editor-in-Chief Daniel Dawkins Group Art Director Graham Dalzell

Future Publishing

Head of Content and Marketing Nial Ferguson Head of Games, Film and Music Declan Gough UK CEO Zillah Byng-Maddick Next issue on sale 29 January 2015

A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations

Daniella Lucas

A refusal to return to work unless we leave the Christmas decorations up all year is threatening to escalate out of proportion. Dani’s now showing up in a Santa Claus onesie, but Joel refuses to budge beyond throwing lumps of coal at the team.

Phil Haycraft

We’re writing this as tears pepper the keyboard and strains of the Spice Girls’ Goodbye blare out of the office speakers, for this is Phil’s final issue aboard GM. Rumours that he’s leaving to go full-time with his Link cosplay career are unconfirmed.

Matthew Sakuraoka-Gilman

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Jan-Dec 2013

For his Christmas break this year Matt decided to head over to Japan. We instructed him to come back with playable builds of both Zelda and Star Fox for the office, but apparently he was “spending time with his family.” Part-timer.

The big game finder

Just Cause 3

Assassin’s Creed Victory

Resident Evil Revelations 2

Upfront – P14

Upfront – P16

Upfront – P18

© Future Publishing Limited 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. The registered office of Future Publishing Limited is at Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. All information contained in this magazine is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this magazine. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Future a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including licensed editions worldwide and in any physical or digital format throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. Future Games: The First Choice For Gamers. This magazine is brought to you by Future Publishing Ltd., the makers of Edge, PC Gamer, Official XBox Magazine and Official PlayStation Magazine.

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from well managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. Future Publishing and its paper suppliers have been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).

Battlecry

Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric

Preview – P38

Review – P73

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Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Review – P76

march 2014

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CONTACT US Email gamesmaster@futurenet.com Twitter www.twitter.com/gamesmaster Facebook www.facebook.com/ officialgamesmaster

The best of your emails, tweets, and carrier pigeon death threats

Post GamesMaster, Future, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1AU, UK

ONM RIP

I’m one of those fellow Nintendo nerds who just moved on from Official Nintendo Magazine which, as you probably know, has recently been shut down. If I’m honest I don’t really like Sony or Microsoft at all, so I’m having to grit my teeth reading the non-Nintendo areas, but when it comes to the Ninty sections (that’s what we called Nintendo back in ONM), it feels like a successor to our fallen buddy. ONM was like a way of life for me and I hope you can (sort of) replicate what it meant to me. When I was younger I even made my own business card as I wanted to work there so much! Jacob Middleton, email Welcome to the club, Jacob! There’s a lot of fan-flaming, side-taking negativity out there in gaming, but here at GamesMaster we’re all united by our passion for the hobby. We love great games wherever they come from and whoever is behind them. So sure, grin and bear the stuff from non-Nintendo types, but you never know: you might find something amazing in there too.

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Towerfall Ascension is a cracking example of how just one person can put together a stellar game.

L E T T E R

of the month

The retro style is back and Martyn’s got pixels in his eyes

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’m noticing a recurring trend in gaming these days that I never thought I would see again. New-gen has already started and I’m going to buy a PS4 soon, as new games come thick and fast. But a lot of developers are going down the retro route as they recognise that real innovation lies not in new-fangled 1080p graphics or new, hugely powerful consoles. The 2D look is back in fashion: 8-bit graphics are now extremely popular again. The games may look simple but there’s a real charm to this retro look – they are easy to play and easy to get into.

For too long we’ve had the same recycled gunk being fed to us. The independent developers are where the really amazing gaming is happening. These games are really starting to catch my eye; some of them look absolutely fantastic. Just look at what they’re able to create. Bedlam looks really interesting, for example. What I find amazing is that pretty much anyone can make a game now and get it published. I would love to create a game myself. Martyn Jamieson, email It’s long been one of the more aggravating differences between games and films or books. Anyone can pick up a camera in their own two hands and start filming. Anyone can grab a pen and start writing. Now, anyone can grab a keyboard and learn to code. When you see so many minds pulling in so many new directions, partly thanks to retro styles which require less manpower to produce, it can only be a good thing. n

My first GM

I’ll admit that I was sceptical about receiving this magazine as a substitute for the Official Nintendo Magazine. I won’t call myself the biggest fan of Xbox or PlayStation, but upon receiving issue 284 I was relieved to discover that Matthew Castle had made a fantastic choice appointing a new source of games journalism to me. The articles were hilarious and the way it was written really made it feel like you guys and gals loved what you do. The GTA poster now sits proudly on my wall as the very first one to go up that does not feature a Nintendo game, and I hope it will not be the last. Ben Tedds, email Well, shucks. Thanks for giving us a go, Ben – and you’ll be glad to hear we intend to continue roping Matt Castle in to contribute from time to time. He’s

win!

Got an opinion? Have even the barest grasp of words and how to put them together? The best letter bags a free mystery game!* Nidhogg’s visually sparse, but the intricacies of its battles took its maker four years to get absolutely perfect.

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february 2015

*Don’t forget to include your postal address and chosen format!

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fanbase

reader’s crib

Show us your rooms of gaming glory!

This Month: Guy Mulloy, email “This is my gaming set up,” Guy tells us, with Full Metal Jacket-like verbal efficiency. “I’ve got a twin-monitor display for my PC. I use the small screen for my 360, while I record my gaming on the PC using Roxio. I mainly use the big screen for the Xbox One. I use either my Tritton headset or my soundboard for gaming, depending if I’m recording or not. “The desk itself is made from a kitchen unit and fixed into the wall. I drilled four 6cm holes for the cables to run down the back. Most of my games are stored in the cupboards either side.” n This setup clearly has the technical side well covered. There’s only one thing that would make this den better… GM posters on that wall! Why not start with this issue’s lovely offering?

had I witnessed one of the best and biggest games of a generation, I’d also purposely saved it until last. On completing it I purchased my white Xbox One. As excited as I was about new-gen, I was also very sad to be unplugging my 360. I’ve had one since launch, and if XO is like an excitable new puppy then my 360 is that comfy pair of trainers you can never throw away. It’s seen me through dark days and even lasted longer than some relationships. I won’t trade or sell it, though it’ll be in storage with my C64 and Amiga. Goodbye, old friend… Gavin Eggar, email

“My 360 has lasted even longer than some relationships’’ actually been bombing around these pages (pinching all the Whispa Golds when we aren’t looking) for donkey’s years. Get a load of his take on Smash Bros over on page 66.

Gimmie five

I love the mag and am a long-time subscriber, but I just wanted to clear some things up regarding GTA V on PS4 and Xbox One. It annoys me when people keep asking why Rockstar is releasing a ‘remastered’ edition. As far as I’m aware it’s not a remastered edition, and has never been called anything of the sort. Yes, it might be a year later than the initial release, and while other games have been brought to us in ‘Remastered’ or ‘Definitive’ versions, I believe GTA V is just a normal release that took a

further year to finish due to the extra polish. What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to know if other gamers feel the same way. James Champion, email We’d agree with you, expect for the fact that GTA V on new-gen really is the definitive version of the game to own. This is why we believe it’s important to occasionally look closer at re-releases. Because often, amid the marketing spiel, it’s easy to lose track of just how much (or indeed little) work has been put into making a game worth picking up a second time.

But I love ’Rim

This month: globe-trotting plumbers and FF remakes! Post your best pics to our Facebook wall, or tag them #GMfanbase on Twitter

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“I’m not obsessed,” Mollie attempts to tell us, alongside this shot of a veritable trove of gaming merch. Of course you’re not… We spy a mooshroom plushie and TNT block tissue box amid the menagerie, ideal for snuggles and sniffles for the cold start to the year.

Mollie Steel, @woofgirl99

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Look closer. A little closer. See it? Curiously named Tweeter last1alive has at last discovered just what our man Mario gets up to when he’s not bum-bashing goombas or body rocking the plumbing of the Mushroom Kingdom. He sells fizzy drinks at a local cafe in Italy. We should’ve guessed.

last1alive, @pausd79

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One gamer’s trash is another’s treasure, sure, but who in their right mind would flog this vintage copy of LucasArts Archives Vol 1? Rebel Assault, Day Of The Tentacle, Sam And Max Hit The Road: Liam picked up all these retro hits and gave €3 to an autism charity shop all in one purchase.

Liam Thomas Davies, Facebook

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I recently finished Skyrim, which for me was a double-edged sword. Not only

off the chart!

Like a pie made of Skittles and natter 26% GTA V new-gen excitement bubbles over 11% Why you love multiplayer betas 04% Rediscovering World Of Warcraft 27% GM’s GOTY awards aftermath 32% Building your own Metal Gear Solid boss

www.facebook.com/officialgamesmaster

You think that’s bad: we’ve got a drawer brimming with old consoles that Matt won’t let anyone throw away. The prized possession? The imported portable NES that was only available in Japan and a pristine copy of the original Mario Bros cartridge. Sometimes he likes to stroke them and talk about ‘the precious’. What about you readers? What piece of gaming loot do you find too beloved to get rid of? n

SHOW US YOUR SNAPS!

It took two long years, but Jamie managed to do what Square Enix has been mithering about for over a decade: he’s remade Final Fanatasy VII in its entirety. In LittleBigPlanet, that is. Check out his vids here: http://bit.ly/GMFFVIIJamie

Jamie Colliver, @jamiecolliver

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fanbase you love ga mes me ga e v

SOCIAL GROUSING

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you love games

D.I.Y. MAGIC!

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Cool stuff and videogame culture

Wisdom and weirdness from our social media channels

ove games yo ul ul yo o

How’s this for a masterful costume? Artist Cosplay Py took first place at Blizzcon with her remarkable recreation of WOW’s Grand Empress Shek’zeer.

Like games and tiny things? Then get these awesome PS1 cases dangling in your ears thanks to Etsy seller oh my geekness.

Good point in the latest GM about too many games being made to last for too long. I totally agree. Zinn, @JinxedThoughts

I’d like to see London, Tokyo and Russia as locations added to GTA Online that you can fly to from the airport. That would be awesome, and a better way for the game to move forward. David Postans, Facebook

maniac of the month! Baker LittleWikis has made these delightful Nintendo-inspired cookies that are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. *wipes away crumbs*

d.i.y. magic!

cosplay star!

Stop using stupid puns already! You’re (fortunately) not The Sun newspaper. Otherwise it’s a great mag, keep it up! Last1Alive, @pausd79

Open betas are the way to go. The servers need to be tested so another Driveclub doesn’t happen, plus it may also attract players who weren’t thinking of getting the game! Christian Camilleri, Facebook

Etsy seller CreativeTsurera has crafted these blinging Professor Layton hint coins. If only they could solve our real-life money woes…

Check out these gorgeous triforce nails by Deviantartist ras-blackfire – they’ve got us itching to give it a go ourselves. Get a better look here: http://bit.ly/gmzeldanails

Square Enix should totally make blitzball into an annual franchise sports game with a more direct control system to make it more fast-paced. Phil Smart, Facebook

killer fan art!

Reader Neal Morton sent us this picture of his partner Abi Rayner’s incredibly impressive Nintendo collection. Top work.

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Grab me a torch, gems, invisible duct tape and a workbench, and bam! I’d have a laser sword from Dead Rising. Steven Ford, Facebook

www.twitter.com/gamesmaster



14 Just deserts So, Rico Rodriguez has retired to the Med to farm goats. Not really: Just Cause 3 is flippin’ bonkers.

happy new year!

Street Fighter V, Uncharted 4, Zelda Wii U, and a whole lot more. It’s shaping up to be a hell of a 2015…

Ryu spent all day queuing at the PSX event. He was not going to get in line again. He’d Had-ouken enough.

P-Listers

Sony’s star-studded event packed celebrities great and small

World’s nicest massive magician Penn Jillette dropped by to say, and we quote: “Hey there, nice to see ya.”

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The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann can be seen here bossing Hotline Miami 2 (he doesn’t know we took this).

UFC hardman Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell swung by the EA booth, and is surprisingly not-huge in real-life.

www.twitter.com/gamesmaster


16 Capital gains

19 Track day There’s parkour on the streets of London in the newlyrevealed Assassin’s Creed Victory.

20 Fear and Loathing The team tests out Scalextric-beater Anki Drive. Fun and friendship-ruining in equal measure.

With the Resident Evil HD remake nearly here, does the experience still hold up for first-timers?

The

Burning Question Which newly-revealed game are you most excited about?

Yakuza 5

Uncharted 4 we already knew about, so for me this was game of the show. Although Shenmue HD would have melted the internet. Daz Er, Facebook

Final Fantasy VII Not a remake or an HD remaster but it'll do. Justin Hunt, Facebook Visit www.facebook.com/ officialgamesmaster and www.twitter. com/gamesmaster to take part in next issue’s burning questions.

We’re pretty sure it’s not polite to greet your siblings with guns, but Uncharted 4’s big bro Drake doesn’t seem to mind.

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t’s hard to stand out in Las Vegas, a city with penetrating pop music piped down the streets by day and pseudo-volcano explosions every night. More power to our beloved medium then, because it recently managed to wrestle the spotlight away from the seemingly eternal cycle of David Copperfield shows to deliver an extravaganza of announcements. Led off by the Game Awards and backed-up by a two-day trade show put on by Sony, there was big buzz, even bigger celebrities, and brand-spanking new game reveals. Not to mention extended looks at Uncharted 4, The Legend Of Zelda on Wii U, and a ton of other forthcoming releases. Let’s get started then, shall we? Announcements! Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the PlayStation event concerns Street Fighter V. Not so much the fact it exists, but who it exists for. In a major coup for Sony and its new-gen box, the beat-’em-up sequel to 2008’s fight fan rally cry is a console exclusive on PS4. As the sequel to one of the most revered beat-’em-ups ever it’s a big ol’ deal, and a riposte to Microsoft signing up Rise Of The

painted style, but everything is of a much higher fidelity. Plus there are the destructible stages. An in-engine scrap between Ry-boy and Chunners sees the latter kick the former straight through a window and open the level up even further. Those poor shopkeepers. Then there’s the small matter of a new look at Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, itself a PS4 exclusive. Drake’s fourth adventure sees our

“the sequel to one of the most revered beat-’em-ups ever, coming exclusively to ps4” Tomb Raider. The announcement comes hot on the heels of other timed exclusives such as No Man’s Sky, and PS-only bits of content for games such as Destiny, but this is the biggest catch yet. Well done, men in suits making deals. So what do we know? Well, firstly that Street Fighter V features a massive graphical overhaul. The likes of Ryu and Chun-Li benefit from detailed new character models, their outfits looking suitably fibrous and their outrageously muscular arms even more so. Capcom is still following the same exaggerated, over-proportioned template in a

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older, wearier, but no-less-wisecracking hero embark on another globetrotting adventure and stumble upon his big brother in the process, voiced by the talented Troy Baker. See next issue for a full breakdown of what’s new.

Snakes on the plains

And did we hear you say Metal Gear Online? Well it certainly sounded like it! Konami’s first reveal of The Phantom Pain’s co-op and competitive multiplayer component was suitably Kojima-like, featuring man-transporting balloons, mechs, and at one point the tactical

february 2015

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deployment of a stuffed husky to distract a guard (love hearts emanate from his head as he fawns). And did we also hear you say Tacoma, Fullbright’s character-driven, space-based follow-up to Gone Home? And then Adrift, the Gravity-like first-person adventure set aboard a perilous Earth-orbiting station? It’s almost like you’re naming specific games in order for us to link them thematically. While all of this was going down, over at the Game Awards Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto sat down in front of the cameras to give Zelda on Wii U a go. The huge world map was shown off, with Eiji using both Epona and the sailcloth from Skyward Sword to get about. Miyamoto, tease that he is, even revealed that his own Star Fox game would be out before Zelda, despite the fact that no-one outside of Ninty HQ has even seen it yet. Back over at PSX, not everything notable demanded a stage. At the two-day trade show, held in the cavernous interior of the Venetian, developers big and small hawked their wares for attendees to try – and what a bunch of wares they were. Although the wealth of titles on offer made this the place to be for anyone of the gaming persuasion, lines were short and the atmosphere relaxed (apart from us: GM never lets its guard down). There was ample room to

mum was an actor”), while the Nom Nom Galaxy (the latest in the Pixel Junk series) guys at Q-Games gave away sweets and badges to successful speed-runners. Anyone who raced through this fast-paced platformer’s challenge level in under 50 seconds scored a charming platinum pin. The indie side of PSX boomed: the place where you could play a hundred games and never encounter the same idea twice. There was Hotline Miami 2 running on both console and handheld, and inciting winces at chainsaw disembowelments. Armikrog, the spiritual successor to classic stop-motion point-and-click adventure The Netherhood, also dazzled.

Crowd stealers

Elsewhere, God Of War creator David Jaffe revealed new game Drawn To Death, a third-person multiplayer shooter that takes place in the visually mad world of a doodling student’s notebook. His wasn’t the only surprising reveal, though. The folks behind The Unfinished Swan gave us a first look at What Remains Of Edith Finch, a haunting series of interactive short stories surrounding a cursed family based in Washington state, moving from the early 1900s to the present day. For the more cheer-disposed, we had Keita Takahashi’s latest

“The Indie side boomed: you could play a hundred games and never encounter the same idea twice” manoeuvre between groups of players and their amassed swag, a lively atmosphere between exhibitioners and attendees, and thanks that the music was low enough to hold a conversation (when you’ve been to enough of these you learn to appreciate the little things). And there were conversations aplenty. Wait a while in The Witness queue and you could get a word with creator Jonathan Blow. He was in high spirits when we caught up, discussing the intricacies of his brain-bending first-person puzzler (he tells us how he hired an architecture firm to help design the island) between handing out bookmarks. Pretentious? We won’t hear of it. The only worry is that Blow’s apparently blown through the last of his budget, so the pressure truly is on.

Independents day

Over in indie corner, game makers stood in front of their cherished works waiting eagerly to explain mechanics to players. The couple who made Dishwasher: Dead Samurai brought their latest goth-gore hack-and-slasher, Salt And Sanctuary, and reminisced about the time Xbox community man Major Nelson visited their house to record a segment (“the house wasn’t actually our house and the

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project. The mad genius behind Noby Noby Boy and We Love Katamari is putting together Wattam, a PS4 exclusive which looks suitably barmy. Yakuza 5 got a western release date, too, so Kazuma Kiryu fans can finally stop signing petitions to Sega for a localisation (there’s still no sign of Shenmue, before you ask). Elsewhere the games just would not stop coming. Guacamelee studio Drinkbox revealed more of its sultry 2D title Severed, Fat Princess is due another serving, and King’s Quest, a series long thought dead, is being rebooted by a studio that’s also been brought back to life in Activision’s Sierra development arm. Then, to cap things off, Hello Games’ Sean Murray introduced the unique A Night Under No Man’s Sky event. Indie band 65 Days Of Static played their brand of atmospheric techno-rock while three huge screens projected incredible footage from a game that just looks better and better. Oh, there’s also the fact that Shovel Knight is heading to all PlayStation platforms, complete with a playable (and shockingly cute) version of Kratos. PSX is a lesson in how to do trade shows. Plug the big boys, give ample floor space to the indies, and in the process encapsulate what 2015 looks set to be: for the players. n

Eiji Aonuma showed off just how big and beautiful the new Zelda on Wii U is going to be to Nintendo’s favourite son, Shigeru Miyamoto.

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