Issue 106 february 2015 £5.99 officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk
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first look
assassin’s creed victory Swing across Victorian London’s
brand new games inside
rooftops like Spider-Man
Street Fighter V day of the tentacle
Drawn To Death Bastion & more
t h e
h e r o e s
i s s u e
Who is Drake’s brother? Where is it set? Every plot secret and new feature unearthed in our ten-page gameplay blowout
Final Fantasy VII on PS4 Metal Gear Online reinvents multiplayer God Of War turns ten
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greatest
playstation heroes
Snake vs Cloud! PlayStation’s ultimate icon revealed
Meet the new PS4! How to get hold of the
20th Anniversary Edition
ISSUE 106 / FEBRUARY 2015 Future Publishing Ltd, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA, United Kingdom Tel +44 (0) 1225 442244 Fax: +44 (0) 1225 732275 Email opm@futurenet.com Twitter @OPM_UK Web officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk
Welcome G
EDITORIAL Editor Matthew Pellett @Pelloki Managing Art Editor Milford Coppock @milfcoppock Production Editor Dom Reseigh-Lincoln @furianreseigh News Editor Dave Meikleham Games Editor Phil Iwaniuk @PhilIwaniuk CONTRIBUTORS Writers Louise Blain, Ben Borthwick, Joel Gregory, Ben Griffin, Leon Hurley, Alysia Judge, Louis Pattison, Rob Pearson, Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman, Chris Schilling, Ben Wilson, Iain Wilson, Richard Wordsworth Designers Amber Clark, Ian Lloyd-Edwards, Rob Speed Production Ian Evendon PSX photography James Jarvis ADVERTISING For Ad enquiries please contact Michael Pyatt, michael.pyatt@futurenet.com MARKETING Group Marketing Manager Laura Driffield Marketing Manager Kristianne Stanton Production & Distribution Production Controller Vivienne Calvert 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 bySeymour International
Game of the month Nidhogg Fave playstation icon Nathan Drake
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 pom@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk 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 NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 13 February 2015 The ABC combined print, digital and digital publication circulation for Jan-Dec 2013 is
29,973 (Print 27,758 Digital 2,215) A member of the Audited Bureau of Circulations
Future is an award-winning international media group and leading digital business. We reach more than 49 million international consumers a month and create world-class content and advertising solutions for passionate consumers online, on tablet & smartphone and in print. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). www.futureplc.com
ood to see you again Mr Drake. And nice to make your acquaintance, er, the other Mr Drake. Oh, and welcome back Ryu and chums. Not forgetting you Mr Purple Tentacle, of course. Or you, sweary, scribbled bear… thing. Actually, forgive me if I can’t greet every new character featured in this issue – there are just too many. In the games writing industry, June is typically our Christmas. E3 (i.e. the world’s biggest gaming convention) is where all the big games are announced and where we get to corner the best developers on the planet for the latest info. But in the PlayStation Experience – a new, annual PlayStation-only event – we’ve got a new Christmas. One where we get to rub our faces in the first ever Uncharted 4 gameplay (p52), celebrate stunning new exclusives (p6) and speak with our favourite devs (p46). Enjoy the issue, and join us on Facebook to debate your controversial picks in the PlayStation Icons feature (p64). See you online.
“in the annual playstation experience event, sony just created Matthew Pellett a brand new Editor matthew.pellett@futurenet.com christmas.” @Pelloki this month’s uncharted explorers…
Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick Non-executive chairman Peter Allen Chief financial officer Richard Haley Tel +44 (0)207 042 4000 (London) Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 (Bath)
All contents copyright © 2015 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored, transmitted or used in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication 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. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price and other details of products or services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any changes or updates to them. 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. 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).
Phil Iwaniuk
Dave Meikleham
games EDITOR OPM’s resident Doctor snapped on the rubber gloves before diving into our Volume feature, giving the game a full aural exam.
news editor A human-shaped golem made from pure anger, high-level Destiny players recently discovered that Boy Fury IS the dark below.
Game of the month Grand Theft Auto V Fave playstation icon Tony Hawk
Game of the month Destiny: The Dark Below Fave playstation icon Solid Snake
Dom ReseighLincoln
Nathan Ditum
PRODUCTION EDITOR Energy drink addict Dom can’t wait for Evolve. He’s counting down the days ‘til he can hunt the Monster.
guest writer Former OPM staff member Nath drove across the USA while reviewing The Crew. He claims it was the Maine highlight of his month.
Game of the month Dragon Age: Inquisition Fave playstation icon Lara Croft
Game of the month Rogue Legacy Fave playstation icon Tenzin (Uncharted 2)
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highlights The big 10
006 psx rules in vegas PlayStation comes to Sin City and unveils so many games we’re still counting them all up. 004
pREVIEW
030 the order: 1886 We set our facial hair to stun and go hands-on with Ready At Dawn’s gentleman simulator. feature
052 uncharted 4: a thief’s end Prepare for information overload as we bring you all the juicy details from PS4’s killer app. featurE
064 the 20 greatest playstation icons Your list of the most iconic PS characters has got some biggies… and a few shockers. feature
074 volume Our very own Phil Iwaniuk catches up with Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell and talks stealth, loving MGS and whether he’s still ‘indie’. review
084 the crew Ubisoft shows us how to drive about in a club that actually works, but is it a smooth ride? retrostation
106 psychonauts We mind-meld with Double Fine’s infectiously charming platformer. Raz, you little rascal.
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s e c ti o n s a t a g l a n c e
the big 10
previews
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Latest info, screens and playtests All the hottest news
features
reviews
network
retro STATION
To-the-point, detailed analysis
In-depth verdicts on every big new game
Max out your PS4, online and off
Classics revisited
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THE Games index 014 Adr1ft 098 assassin’s creed unity 010 assassin’s creed victory 008 bastion 044 batman: arkham knight 045 battlefield hardline 034 bloodborne 046 broken age 114 bulletstorm 084 the crew 046 day of the tentacle 091 destiny: the dark below 019 dmc: definitive edition 099 dragon age: inquisition 008 drawn to death 045 evolve 099 far cry 4 008 fat princess: adventures 011 final fantasy vii 008 the forest 090 game of thrones: s1e1 – iron from ice 008 gang beasts 095 geometry wars 3: dimensions 018 god of war 020 grand theft auto online 046 Grim fandango remastered 008 killing floor 2 092 kingdom hearts 2.5 hd remix 016 metal gear online 094 nidhogg 008 no man’s sky 030 THE ORDER: 1886 106 psychonauts 088 RESIDENT EVIL 094 SECRET PONCHOS 039 shovel knight 006 street fighter v 008 super time force ultra 042 tearaway unfolded 045 tekken 7 094 teslagrad 052 uncharted 4: a thief’s end 036 until dawn 006 ultra street fighter iv 074 volume 008 wattam 040 the witcher 3 wild hunt 008 what remains of edith finch 020 yakuza 5
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Just look at that face – we’re sure we’ll be seeing a lot of it when SF V meets the Share button.
The Big10
Stories everyone’s talking about
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street fighter v being consolelocked to ps4 is a big coup.
10 capital punishment
AC Victory heads to London Town.
14 spacing out
Switch off the gravity with Adr1ft.
18 war games
A tasty leak as God Of War turns ten.
TheBig10 Stories everyone’s talking about
X marks the spot as PlayStation 4 rules Las Vegas
Amazing game reveals and Uncharted gameplay highlight Sony’s PS Experience Gamescom? E3? What were they? Forgive our affected amnesia, we’re just trying to pull ourselves together after no fewer than 32 new game announcements broke during and around Sony’s PlayStation Experience, held at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas between December 5-7. And considering we also got to see Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End running live on-stage, Street Fighter V’s full reveal, and confirmation that it’ll be exclusive to PS4 and PC… well, you can forgive us for letting the ‘big’ conferences of 2014 get filed away under ‘Hmm?’ while we process what was the biggest event of last year for PlayStation 4. It seems mad not to start with Nathan Drake’s return to the public eye. He’s looking magnificent, of course, and Uncharted 4’s first live gameplay demo was everything we hoped it would be – cinematic,
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varied, whoop-worthy, and boasting more luxurious foliage than Russell Brand’s chest. We break down the demo and hunt down its secrets in our ten-page feature, starting on p52. Nate would be proud. are ryu experienced? We were also treated to sinewy gaming icon Ryu demonstrating that crossed arms very much mark the spot; Street Fighter V is a full (not timed) PS4 console-exclusive that will also feature Cross-Play between PS4 and PC versions. Long-lost Street Fighter Alpha fighter Charlie Nash and old-favourite Chun-Li join the Hadouken-spaming one in the confirmed lineup so far. Being a legendary fighting series with an enormous following, it represents a mighty counterpunch from Sony after Lara’s E3… treachery. Bonus news: Ultra Street Fighter IV is also coming to PS4! In the words of inimitable Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono: “Get hyped!” Supermassive’s survival horror Until Dawn also made its way to Vegas, with fresh gameplay and new
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The Big10
the sound of static
It wasn’t all new games, of course: among the fresh looks at existing titles, No Man’s Sky teased some new gameplay footage and announced that rock band 65daysofstatic will be writing an album-length soundtrack.
Stories everyone’s talking about
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ways to get its excitable teenage cast killed. You can read how it handles in our hands-on test on p36. With the big hitters revealed, shall we proceed with an absolute barrage of exciting new indie titles? Well, then: Twisted Metal and God Of War veteran David Jaffe is working on Drawn To Death, a multiplayer arena shooter set within a high school kid’s notebook (and rendered in the appropriate scribbles). At the other end of the spectrum entirely, Unfinished Swan developer Giant Sparrow hopes to take the ‘most hipster game name’ award away from The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter with (wait for it)… What Remains Of Edith Finch. Presumably development of this, “collection of short stories about a cursed family in Washington,” is punctuated by trips to Shoreditch cereal bars. Also: it looks unreservedly beautiful. Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi and Journey producer Robin Hunicke are teaming up to make a game called Wattam about sentient toys connecting with one another, while faintly twisted PlayStation alumni Fat Princess returns for more casual co-op
RPG-ing in Fat Princess Adventures. Oh, and Double Fine is reviving PC classic Day Of The Tentacle and porting over Broken Age (see p46). Good going back there. Let’s take a knee. While you catch your breath, just be aware that pitch-perfect 8-bit era platformer Shovel Knight is coming to PS4, and you can head to p39 for our preview. We like it a lot. Back in the game? Right: multiplayer brawler Gang Beasts would like you to know it exists, and would probably be more coy about the fact it looks like a riot taking place in a physics demo. Meanwhile, PC open-world survival horror The Forest also heads our way, and with it base building, scavenging and horrifying silhouettes on the horizon. the show must go on And speaking of PC hits migrating to bluer pastures, Bastion’s at it, too. It’s the reason we told you to be excited about Transistor in ‘14, both coming from Supergiant Games. Well, now we can use Transistor as the reason to be excited for this. The circle of life, eh? Well, games. And let’s not forget Skytorn, a procedurally generated action-
along with the big hitters, there were plenty of indie announcements as well.
New Blood 32 new PlayStation announcements Street Fighter V Drawn to Death What Remains Of Edith Finch Wattam Fat Princess Adventures Shovel Knight Gang Beasts The Forest Bastion Super Time Force Ultra Killing Floor 2 Darkest Dungeon Enter The Gungeon Orcs Must Die! Unchained Skytorn Day Of The Tentacle The Banner Saga King’s Quest Broken Age Super Stardust Ultra Suikoden Suikoden II Killstrain Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes Assassin’s Creed Victory Sniper: GW 3 Steins;Gate Krinkle Krusher Tower Of Guns Zombie Vikings Miegakure Godzilla: The Game
And some existing games coming to new homes...
Final Fantasy VII (PS4) Towerfall Ascension (PS Vita) Octodad: Dadliest Catch (PS Vita) Yakuza 5 (Western PS4s) Ultra Street Fighter IV (PS4) Geometry Wars 3 (PS Vita) Resogun (PS Vita) DmC: Definitive Edition (PS4) Devil May Cry 4 (PS4)
adventure from the Vancouver dev community behind Towerfall Ascension. Goodness. Incredibly, we’re still scratching the surface of all the PlayStation Experience reveals. We haven’t even touched on Super Time Force Ultra, Killing Floor 2, Darkest Dungeon, Enter The Gungeon, Miegakure, Orcs Must Die 2! Unchained and, boy, so many more, including several existing PS titles coming to new platforms, such as Octodad’s stumble towards PS Vita (see ‘New Blood’ for the full list). What an incredible haul of indie imagination and talent, and a clear sign that Sony wasn’t just posturing in the run-up to PS4’s release: this really is the home of indie on current-gen. There must have been something in the Las Vegas air – the reveals couldn’t all be contained by Sony’s mighty PlayStation Experience. The Game Awards 2014 also took place in the same city, and among the champagne, polite applause, and awards for the likes of Far Cry 4 (Best Shooter) and Dragon Age: Inquisition (Game Of The Year), King’s Quest was confirmed for PS4 and a new Godzilla game was unveiled. And before the event even took place, Assassin’s Creed Victory was confirmed. Turn over for more info… We were at PSX 2014 – shoot over to pages 26-27 for all the show highlights.
■ If you go down to The Forest today,
you’re sure of a big… grisly death.
PSX was a big success for Sony – if we forget about the whole Final Fantasy VII thing (p11)…
■ Toy bricks and bowler hats come alive
in the utterly beguiling Wattam.
Those Prometheusesque attack flourishes return in SFV – now inkier than ever on PS4.
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â– We got some brand new reveals in the form of scribbly shooter Drawn To Death, and the PlayStation debut of a classic, the incredible Bastion.
Hipster name aside, What Remains Of Edith Finch is one of the most strikinglooking reveals from PSX.
Disclaimer: we’ve doctored the button prompt on the leaked screen to show you what it’ll look like on PS4.
The Big10
Stories everyone’s talking about
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Parkour on the streets of London Capital gains as Assassin’s Creed takes the Victorian line This is big, so you might want to sit down. Ready? Okay… Ubisoft is going to release another game in its hooded hitman franchise this coming autumn. We know, we know – next we’ll be telling you that the Earth orbits the Sun or that Mr Hitler was not a nice person. But we swear on all the collectibles in our Uplay accounts that it’s true. Not exactly a reality-shattering bombshell, but the manner in which the specifics came to light is hardly by the book – although it is becoming something of a tradition for the beleaguered French publisher. For the third year running the
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information leaked prior to the planned announcement, with sister website Kotaku gaining access to several screenshots, a seven-minute gameplay video, and the new logo. Another publication might suggest that this leak was orchestrated to divert attention away from Unity’s bugs, but we’d never be so cynical…
a grappling hook lets you traverse huge distances.
Flicking the v So what of those cats that escaped their low-security bag? Well, one of them is the title: Assassin’s Creed Victory. The other is setting-shaped: hello, 19th century London (Victory/ Victorian – do you see what they did there?). And rumour also suggests this will be both solely for current generation consoles and the only AC game released in 2015 – so no
pub talk “It’s unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we’re disappointed for our fans, and our dev team, that this conceptual asset is now public… we’re excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date.” Ubisoft statement
Rogue-style nod to those people still rocking last-gen hardware. In gameplay terms you can expect a mixture of the old and the new: free-running, contract killing and mini-games all return, but there will be some fresh introductions. Most notable so far is a grappling hook wielded by our (as yet unnamed) protagonist, allowing him to traverse huge distances in one mighty swing and create handy aerial vantage points in a jiffy. How very Batman. It’s put to use in the first mission that’s been witnessed: the murder of Roderick Bulmer, who’s trafficking young girls for the Templars. The player character (we’re liking Bobby Dazzler, or Freddy ‘Fingers’ Jones, as a moniker) is tasked with the hit by a masked woman, and leaps down to street level before climbing into a carriage. En route, the wagon is attacked, showcasing another new
hope springs eternal
Rumours of a proper FFVII remake took hold at E3 2008, when Hashimoto acknowledged that Square recognised the fans’ desire for it – and said it was too busy on other projects at the time.
The Big10 Stories everyone’s talking about
“Was it something I said?” No Shinji, actually it was the 17-year-old cutscene playing behind you.
Final Fantasy runs into Strife on PS4 FFVII announcement raises, then dashes, hopes The good news: Final Fantasy VII is coming to PlayStation 4, everyone! Like we’d always dreamed! The good times are here to stay. Everything’s going to be great forever. Before you go slaughtering the local Flan population in celebration though, prepare yourself for the bad news… You see, when Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto took to the stage at The PlayStation Experience, in front of an enormous Final Fantasy VII logo on the big screen, and intoned, “Seventeen long years ago…” the crowd thought it could see where this was headed. Whoops and cheers erupted. People were on their feet. After years of hope and speculation, it appeared Square was about to announce a full current-gen remake of its most celebrated JRPG.
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feature: combat atop moving vehicles. With his assailants dispatched the Assassin eventually reaches a crowded Charing Cross, where he uses his Wayne Techesque toy to swing over to Bulmer and rain down death from above. Ubisoft says that it has been, “hard at work on the game for the past few years,” although interestingly this is the first instalment in the franchise to be headed up by the publisher’s new Quebec (as opposed to Montreal) studio. Will this mean fewer floating horses, mega framerate-drops and NPCs with no faces? Only time will tell, although despite our issues with Unity (and our desire to see the series rested) there’s undoubted potential in them cobbled streets. Head over to Kotaku.co.uk to see the initial story about the Victory leak.
And it did – just not in the way the thousands of fans watching in person were expecting. The game Square actually announced is a port of a port – the 2013 PC version. Don’t expect a fancy new graphics engine, super hi-res cutscenes or a revamped battle system. It’s still the game you fell in love with all those years ago only, y’know, on PS4. When Hashimoto says he’s, “bringing the title back to PlayStation,” he means it very literally. This is still a good thing, make no mistake. But it isn’t a good thing of the magnitude many were expecting, and Square had to have known that. Still, it could have been worse – it could have been the fan-made remake within LBP. The game’s out this spring, so you at least have that long to regain your composure.
it’s still a good thing, but not of the magnitude many were hoping
Where did Cloud Strife place in our PS Icons feature? Find out on p64.
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The Big10 Stories everyone’s talking about
the 20th anniversary edition ps4 mimics the ‘original grey’ finish of the first playstation.
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