Gamecca Magazine November 2014

I S S U E 6 5 / Vo l . 6 N ove m b e r 2 0 1 4

w w w. g a m e c c a m ag . c o m

The Evil Within Alien: isolation Drive Club

In Space...

A geeky day out coming up

Over the Top!

Sunset Overdrive Boosted

Around the Bend Social racing with DriveClub

Out the Box Asus’ ROG G20 reviewed

The Peak Far Cry 4 takes the high ground...

Sunset Overdrive

2014

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

GeekFest

Civilization: Beyond Earth...and more...

Investigating Alien: Isolation

NBA 2K15

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Gold Award

Given to games and hardware that score above 90

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Given to games and hardware that score above 85

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Given to games and hardware that score above 80

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Ed’s Choice

Given to products that stand out for various reasons. This award is not dependent on score.

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riter’s block is not something that I normally suffer from.

Maybe a few years back, but these days the words tend to flow to my keyboard quite easily. But, for some or other reason, sitting down to write this Ed’s Note feels like really hard work.

I could, of course, talk about the fact that this issue of Gamecca Magazine is a whopping 184 pages in length.

It’s the largest issue we’ve ever done, and I am extremely grateful to, and proud of, the Gamecca Crew for putting this issue together. I am pretty impressed with it, and I am sure you will be too.

Or, if I wanted, I could talk about the month ahead. We’ve hit November, and that means that store shelves will soon be heaving with new AAA titles, released to take advantage of the Festive Season consumer feeding frenzy. It’s a little concerning, though, because this year (as Mario dos Santos, CEO of Ster Kinekor Entertainment, points out in our interview on page 122) the market has seen a significant drop in sales, leaving us in a double digit downward move year-on-year. These games will, naturally, stimulate sales when they hit cheaper price points, because the South African gaming market thrives on so-called Catalogue titles.

But it remains to be seen how merry the Christmasses of our game distributors will be this

From the Editor

TheBlock

by Walt Pretorius

year.

Alternatively, I could talk a bit about rAge 2014, which happened in the second week of October, and how it afforded us several interviews with developers (two of which are in this issue). The show was pretty impressive this year, with tons of people heading down to the Dome in Johannesburg to see what’s hot and what’s coming soon. And, as always, it left everyone in the industry dog tired… getting anything done right after rAge is always a tough chore, and this year was no different.

I could also talk more about this issue, and about how we are seeing the major releases start to trickle in. We have 18 game reviews in this issue, including some rather big names: Alien: Isolation, The Evil Within, Sunset Overdrive, DriveClub, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and more are on offer in our review section.

Or I could talk about gearing up towards the end of the year, getting ready for what we believe will be a massive December issue. No rest for the wicked; as soon as this one is done we’re back in action for the next one. We’re even starting to work on our Game of the Year feature, which will be published in the January 2015 issue. I could even extend that into the fact that we have some pretty big plans for 2015, which we elaborate on in the months to come.

I could write about any of those things… but man, this writer’s block is unrelenting.

So I think I will give up trying and go play some games instead… g mgeect 2 c7a 6 5 ggl a ad

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THIS MONTH’S COVER

Far Cry 4 promises to take us to new heights... literally.

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Regular: Did you know More video game coversation starters

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Interview: Far Cry 4 Taking on the Himalayas...

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PReviews: Games 7 titles to look forward to

Publisher / Editor: Walt Pretorius walt@1337-media.com

Publisher / Art Director Katia Taliadoros Katia@1337-media.com

Writers: Alex Scanlon Charlie Fripp Clive Burmeister Katia Taliadoros Lein Baart Nthato Morakabi Rob Edwards Suvesh Arumugam Walt Pretorius

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Interview: Assassin’s Creed Unity Pack your bags for Revolutionary Paris...

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Reviews: Games 18 new titles scrutinised

118

Regular: Legacy How E.T. almost broke everything

Letters:

letters@gameccamag.com

Competition Entries:

122

Interview: Mario dos Santos The state of the SA industry

126

Column: Ramjet’s Rantality Testosterone overdose

competitions@gameccamag.com

Newsletter Subscriptions:

www.gameccamag.com

Marketing Contact:

Copyright © 1337 Media CC 2009 - 2014

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Taking fun seriously!

All rights reserved. No content may be reproduced, copied or transmitted without the express permission of the publishers. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editors and publishers. All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the sole property of the respective owners.

GAMECCA is published by 1337 MEDIA

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Interview: A Calculated Bet Syntech and xTc talk sponsorship

136

reviews: Hardware Four great bits of tech

144

Regular: Internet The trolls are lurking

148

Regular: Security Being conscious of online shopping safety

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Column: Technically Speaking Stop moving the goal posts...

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Interview: GeekFest 2014 An awesome day out approaches

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COOL STUFF Three board games to try out

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Column: The Time Betwixt No real distinctions

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Gadgets enhance your lifestyle

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Feature: rAge 2014 Report What went down at the SA expo

172

COOL STUFF Four more great new comic titles

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Gamecca Vol. 6 Issue 65 November 2014

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Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Read the review on page 66

“This is a game that the player can really, truly delve into and make the experience their own.�

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18 22 24 28 30 34 36

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Interviews Far Cry 4 Assassin’s Creed Unity Mario dos Santos

PReviews The Order: 1886 Dragon Age: Inquisition Evolve Lara Croft & the Temple of Osiris Resident Evil Revelations 2 Bladestorm: Nightmare Rabbids Invasion Interactive TV Show

Reviews Sunset Overdrive Alien: Isolation DriveClub Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Just Dance 2015 The Evil Within Civilization: Beyond Earth Shadow Warrior Spelunky Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition MX vs ATV: Supercross F1 2014 Lords of the Fallen NBA 2K15 Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments Pac Man & the Ghostly Adventures 2 Chariot

RegularS Did you know Legacy

COLUMN Ramjet’s Rantality

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Did You

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1…

that Microsoft sold 2.4 million Xbox consoles in the last quarter?

While the Xbox-PlayStation race is still very much on, the technology giant in Redmond revealed that for the last quarter they have sold over 2-million Xbox consoles. Now this should be read as 2.4-million Xbox One consoles, as the company didn’t separate the old-gen from the currentgen numbers. But suffice to say, the bulk of that should have been Xbox One machines. What is in a number? Well, that is a 102% growth in sales compared to the previous quarter – just before it launched the XO in 28 more territories.

2…

that Dark Souls 2 has a first-person option?

Well… kind of. The notoriously hellish game where players have to dig around in caves and ungodly environments only to be whacked over the head by a hiding skeleton is played in third-person, but a PC modder created a first-person perspective. The first Dark Souls game also had the same mod, but for this one YouTuber Benzoin-Gum created the current version. “Simply freeze the camera zoom value, equip a bow/binoculars and zoom in. The camera will stay zoomed, allowing you to roam Drangleic in first person,” he explains. If you want to see your own demise from a POV angle, make sure to check out his YouTube channel for details.

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that Assassin’s Creed Unity will need 8GB of RAM to run?

One of the most anticipated games of the year is undoubted the next iteration in the hugely successful Assassin’s Creed franchise. While consoles games don’t have to wait to find out if they will be able to play the game on their machine, PC gamers always worry that they won’t be able to bump the specs to enjoy the full game. Well, Ubisoft has released the PC requirements for it, and if you have 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 graphics card, Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz and 50 GB available of hard drive space, you should be able to traverse Paris in its full glory. gamecca65

DID YOU KNOW

Xbox One, Assassin’s Creed and Codemasters...

4…

that Outlast is getting a sequel?

There are few games that will test your ability to play a game for a long time with the lights off than Outlast (well, maybe Alien: Isolation). The creepy title took place in the abandoned Mount Massive Asylum, but developer Red Barrels Games detailed that the 12-man studio will be working on a sequel – and will be set in a different location. “After shipping the XB1 version of Outlast, we took some time to analyze our situation and we quickly realised we had at least another horror game in us,” the studio said.

5…

that you’ll have a Homestead in Far Cry 4?

Casting their minds back to Assassin’s Creed 3, players will remember that they had a little house by the seaside to take care of, adding buildings and structures to enhance the experience and abilities of the main character. Well, it turns out that Far Cry 4 will also feature the same type of build-a-homestead mechanic. What exactly you will be able to build is still to be revealed, as the inclusion of the homestead has been discovered by some clever gamers who had a sneak peak at the achievements list. Let hope that you would be able to build a giant elephant ranch.

6…

that Codemasters is making a Micro Machinesstyle racer?

Codemasters is well-known for their rally games such as the Dirt franchise, and while they have made some changes of the years, they haven’t really scaled things down like this before. The development studio recently announced that they will be making a Micro Machines-style racer called Toybox Turbos – and it’s going to be just as awesome as it sounds.

Players will race on 18 circuits inspired by childhood locations and will have a 90s retro-style to it. Just in case you really missed Micro Machines from back in the day... g

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High Altitude

by Lein Baart

ltitude

guys on high... gamecca

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he Far Cry franchise has always been about conflict – both physical and mental – and the next instalment, which heads into the Himalayas, will be no different.

We spoke to Ryan Boyer, Production Manager of the Narrative Team for Far Cry 4, to find out what to expect from this new setting, and what sets Far Cry 4 apart from its predecessors.

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RB: Yeah, we kind of have an idea of what we’re going to do with a player when we drop them into a Far Cry game. But it’s going to be a little different because this time you’re playing Ajay, who’s actually from Kyrat.

He was born in Kyrat but grew up in the States – he moved there with his mom after his father died. Now he’s returning to spread his mother’s ashes as her final wish. So he’s a little familiar with the country and people know his parents and the story behind their family and their rebellion against Pagan Min. As a player in Far Cry 4 you’re discovering the story of Kyrat, but also Ajay’s past, which is really interesting from a narrative side.

GM: Are we going to see a strong emphasis on sanity?

RB: Yeah, you’ll find more of that. If you’ve seen the E3 trailer you’ll get the idea that some of our characters are a bit… off, to say the least.

You’ll have to make a lot of choices during the game as well that will play into the idea.

GM: How heavily will those choices influence the narrative?

RB: You’re basically thrown into a civil war. Ajay, as a person, will need to make hard choices. There are no easy choices when you’re at war, and the choices that he

makes will have impact on the characters and the way they interact with you later on. They will remember if you helped them or slighted them, and that will shape the story as it goes on. There are no easy decisions for Ajay, and it becomes very personal because they’re tied into the motives that he has.

GM: The original Far Cry and Far Cry 3 were based on islands, taking on a criminal element. Far Cry 3 was land-locked, and also set during a civil war.

Does that make Far Cry 4 something of a spiritual successor to the second title?

RB: I don’t know about it being a spiritual successor.

When Far Cry 3 was done we had a bunch of ideas for things we wanted to do and locations we wanted to visit.

We chose Kyrat, nestled in the Himalayas, because it’s very rich in history and culture, and the environment allows us to bring verticality into the game. That’s a huge part of Far Cry 4. It’s a massive game as far as square kilometres go, but it’s also very densely populated.

And with the verticality it brings a real depth to game play. We brought in things like the gyrocopter, the grapple hook and as you traverse from the valleys up to the mountains you will see that the fauna and flora change. So all those things combined gave this location a lot of things that we could check off of the board.

GM: In terms of square kilometres, how big is the game?

RB: It’s on par or slightly bigger than Far Cry 3, but like I said, it’s more densely populated. We have the

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verticality and Shangri La, as well as the mountain terrain.

So in that respect it’s larger than Far Cry 3.

GM: We were given a lot of freedom in Far Cry 3. Will we see that element in Far Cry 4?

RB: We support a lot of different play styles. People who play Far Cry games have different approaches, whether stealth or assault or crafting… so we’ve offered a bunch of tools and weapons that support those different approaches. If you’re into crafting, there are skills that you can unlock to help that; if you’re into stealth, we have the tools and skills that you need. So it supports a really wide range. We have this 360 approach – you can approach from a lot of different angles and play styles.

GM: What was the biggest challenge in introducing the verticality into Far Cry 4?

RB: There are tons of challenges; when you add verticality, you’re making it hard on yourself from an AI perspective. And then it’s a challenge in finding tools that the player can use to navigate a more vertical space. We needed to introduce something to allow the player to move freely and quickly in these mountain regions. So we brought in things like the grapple hook and the gyrocopter. We then had to make sure that those elements are balanced and make sense in the world.

GM: What are the biggest differences between Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4?

RB: There’s tons of new content that we have added in. TO mention a few things: fortresses, which are a

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GM: Far Cry has an interesting pedigree.

Although it is a franchise, the stories told haven’t really had a lot to do with each other, save for a central theme concerning the mental effects of extreme situations. What can players expect this time around?

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GM: Where did your inspiration for characters and the narrative come from?

RB: I don’t think there’s one particular inspiration for our characters. We have an amazing team of writers that have been doing this for a long time and who come from a lot of different fields.

It’s more of an idea that we know what we want the conflict to be for the player, and then filling out the rest with characters. We have an endless supply of great characters in Far Cry, and for Far Cry 4 I think the fans will connect with a lot of them.

GM: Is Pagan Min going to live up to Vas? Particularly with Troy Baker doing the voice acting?

RB: He’s amazing, and he really took Pagan Min to the next level. It’s sometimes difficult to capture lightning in a bottle a second time around (when looking at Vas) but Pagan Min is such

a dynamic and interesting character. He’s different from Vas in a lot of ways; first of all, he’s very well educated. He comes from a very powerful Hong Kong crime family. And let’s not forget that he performed a coup over Kyrat and has placed himself as the king of the land. Compared to things that Vas accomplished, you can see that this character and his motives are different.

But he is so deep and I think fans of Vas will really like Pagan Min.

GM: We’re seeing, these days, a tighter fusion of game play and narrative.

How is Far Cry 4 going about this?

RB: We’ve offered a lot of different things – one thing that we showed off at GamesCom is Shangri La. It’s an area where the player can explore the history and culture outside of Kyrat. It’s separate, but you will see these worlds merge towards the end. It’s obvious that we need to offer exciting game play. Far Cry has also always been about having a great story line. We think we’ve combined those really well.

GM: There was some controversy aimed at the Pagan Min cover art. Ubisoft responded by saying that this was purely marketing material and that there would be differences in-game. What are those differences?

RB: I am not too familiar with that comment by Ubisoft, so I can’t comment on that specifically. But I will say that you’re dropped into an area of the world that is at civil war. When you’re dealing with that as a narrative theme it’s always going to

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be difficult. You’re always going to be addressing things that are real issues. And that can sometimes be difficult to accomplish. But we have never been shy, or shied away from tackling these topics head on, and we stand by our work.

GM: As gamers get older, games take on more serious and mature topics. Do you think that there is a place in gaming for subject matter that would traditionally be considered taboo?

RB: Of course. I think video games are a good place to tackle these topics. They are getting more mature and studios are willing to take more and more risks. I think Far Cry has always been the type of brand that hasn’t been afraid to take those topics on, and we’ll continue to do so in the future.

GM: What is your favourite aspect of this new Far Cry title?

RB: That’s difficult to answer. The fact that I cannot pinpoint any particular thing, I think, is a testament to the game that Ubisoft has made.

It is extremely deep and a massive game; it’s a huge accomplishment. It wasn’t just Ubisoft Montreal that did it – we had help from Ubisoft Toronto, Red Storm and Shanghai.

It’s difficult for me to pick one particular thing. But when I am playing the game right now, what I’m loving is the world around me. The animal life, the civilians in the world… I just roaming around and seeing the world. But it’s a very rich game and I cannot identify any one particular thing. I think anyone picking up Far Cry 4 will have a similar problem. g

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bigger, badder version of outposts. You’re going to need great weapons and great tactics if you’re going to try and take them down.

We’ve added drive-and-shoot and drive-and-takedown, so you can now pull up alongside a convoy, jump out your car and take control of another vehicle. We’ve added weapons and animals, including weaponised animals. You can use them as a decoy or an assault method. We also have missions in the Himalayas in which you needs gas masks and you have to consider your oxygen levels and how you will traverse the terrain… we’ve added a lot of stuff to Far Cry 4. A lot of new things for Far Cry fand to enjoy.

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The Order: 1 GAMING

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The Order: 1886

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for the God of War franchise, The Order: 1886 will be a cover-based shooter set in Victorian London.

While gameplay footage has been extremely limited, with only two short sections of the title revealed, it’s already apparent that the game will borrow liberally from its steampunk setting, with electric rifles, grenade launchers and even shoulder-mounted radios all making a brief if explosive appearance. Whether The Order: 1886 will bring anything new other than imaginative weaponry to the shooter genre remains to be seen, but at this point it at least looks mechanically competent.

The main draw of the game though is its plot. The Order: 1886 is set in a world where humanity is

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here’s a charming romance to the idea of alternative histories. It’s an exploration of what could have been had circumstances (both large and small) been different, an examination of the endless permutations that can spring from a single decision. While admittedly most titles will shy away from being utterly unrecognisable, the exercise nonetheless remains enthralling more often than not.

Throw in steampunk technology, werewolves and a centuries long battle for humanity, and it’s easy to see why The Order: 1886 has caught so many eyes.

Developed by Ready at Dawn, a studio mainly involved in the PSP market up until now, with help from the SCE Santa Monica Studio, responsible

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The Order: 1886

themselves taking the role of Grayson, the third to bear the title of Sir Galahad.

This alluring premise will be backed by some of the most promising visuals that we have seen from next-gen titles thus far. Even from the brief glimpses that Ready at Dawn have shown it’s apparent that industrial age London will be brought to life in all its gritty glory, and you can expect the game to be at the very least a feast of graphical prowess. While the true worth of any title will always lie in its gameplay and plot, the immersion that will hopefully be offered by its graphics could go a long way to making this game truly stand out, and as yet there is little to suggest that The Order: 1886 won’t do so. g

AT A GLANCE 3rd Person Shooter

The Order: 1886 certainly looks extremely promising, and as a PS4 exclusive could be a major feather in Sony’s cap Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Ready at Dawn SCEE Ster Kinekor

Feb 2015

Platforms

GENRE

ETA

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

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by Lein Baart

battling against half breeds, men who many centuries ago began to exhibit animalistic traits, with war soon following. It wasn’t until the rise of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table though that mankind finally started to find firm footing, with the discovery of the miraculous life-extending Black Water elixir giving us some small hope in the conflict. Through the years the Knights have remained, passing down their title to a successor as battle and age finally claim them, and with the dawn of the Industrial Age humanity has finally regained the upper hand. To complicate matters however the lower classes have risen in revolt against the nobility and the rich, and it is in this melting pot of wars both ancient and new that players will find

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Dragon Age: Inquisition The new old-school

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as Dragon Age: Inquisition seems to be offering more than a little taste of old-school adventuring.

Unsurprisingly, Inquisition will once again see players return to the troubled world of Thedas, though this time the game looks set to take place in Orlais.

While Bioware have been somewhat cagey regarding plot details, it has been confirmed that Inquisition will follow on from the plot of Dragon Age 2, and will revolve primarily around a civil-war between the mages and the templars. Gamers will take the role of the leader of the Inquisition, who will be a completely new protagonist to the franchise, and players can expect to see a host of familiar faces from both previous titles, along with more than a few tie-ins to

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he age of the isometric RPG is well past us. Not just in terms of visuals, but also in the approach to the genre as a whole.

Gone are the days when a 50 to 100 hour singleplayer campaign was considered par for the course, and where combat did not overshadow plot and character development. Even Bioware, the once masters of the classic RPG, seem to have wholeheartedly embraced the transition of the genre, with the Dragon Age series seeing the most drastic transformation of all their franchises.

However the studio seems to be listening to their long-time fans, and for those that still yearn to embark on quests that span whole nations, fear not,

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Dragon Age: Inquisition

crafting system that will allow players to mix and match materials and enchantments to create entirely unique items. By the far biggest addition though will lie in the game’s strategic elements. As the leader of the Inquisition players will have the option to take keeps and forts, which will open up new areas in a map set to be many times larger than the first game.

Troops and agents can then be deployed as you see fit, allowing you to expand your influence in the world.

It seems to point towards a far more open game than anything before, and Dragon Age: Inquisition could be Bioware’s most ambitious and expansive game to date, no mean feat from the developer of Baldur’s Gate 2. g

AT A GLANCE RPG Adventure

A blend of the old and new, Inquisition could be a game that drives the franchise and the studio to new heights Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Bioware Electronic Arts Prima Interactive

Nov 2014

Platforms

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by Lein Baart

past stories.

Dragon Age 2 received a decidedly mixed response to its more action-RPG elements, and Bioware appears to have taken the feedback to heart. As such, Inquisition should be far more similar to Origins than the second game, with a much stronger focus on tactical combat. The ability to zoom to the overhead view will be making a return (on all platforms this time), and according to the studio “preparation, teamwork, and positioning” will be of vital importance.

Inquisition will be more than a return to original form however. Once again allowing players to select from multiple races, with the being Qunari an option for the first time, and the game will feature an expanded

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Evolve GAMING

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Evolve

an team work

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The way in which the game is played ties in greatly with the storyline of the title – it’s four human players against one gamer who controls the giant monster that is trying to hunt them down.

Each player (hunter) has their own unique abilities and roles to play, while the monster is a giant treestomping machine that can jump and dodge almost all attacks – but it does have weaknesses.

The most important part of Evolve is that players need to work together if they want to successfully bring the monster down – and that will take some planning. For example, the sniper has the ability to slowdown and poison the monster, while the trapper is the only one who can trap the monster

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here have been many games that featured co-op multiplayer, but there are few games that allow four players to tackle one other player. Evolve, developed by the same people that brought us Left 4 Dead, has taken their concept of co-op multiplayer a bit further and tweaked some of the elements to create a different take on the genre.

The concept of Evolve is a rather unique one, in the sense that it isn’t really a fair fight – and that is the point. But who exactly has the advantage is a different matter altogether. See, the premise for Evolve is to fight four players versus just one, but it’s not that simple really.

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Evolve

game might become a bit stale after a while, as the action tends to be the same. Yes the maps are different and players can experiment with different roles, but the outcome of the match will always be the same.

But with that said, there have been a number of tweaks and changes since we first traversed the jungles of Shear, and we are positive that the experience will be a lot better now. In term of graphics, it looked amazing and the controls were pretty easy to figure out. If you like the concept of Left 4 Dead in a jungle setting while hunting down a lone monster controlled by another player, you will love this. g

AT A GLANCE Shooter

It’s taking the concept of four-versus-one to a whole new level.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Turtle Rock Studios 2k Games Megarom

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by Charlie Fripp

and keep it in place. The muscle of the title is then the only character that has the heavy weaponry to successfully take down the beast.

The problems for the hunters start to emerge if they aren’t able to track and kill the monster quickly enough. To explain the name, in certain phases the monster can evolve to become even more powerful that the last. This brings a different skill set with which he can evade and even kill some of the hunters.

To be completely honest, we played a couple of rounds a while ago when the game was still in the development phase, and it was great fun.

The only issue that we had was the fear that the

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Dec 2014 Crystal Dynamics Square Enix Megarom

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PLATFORMS

Drop-in, drop-out, drop friends into spike pits‌

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

AT A GLANCE GENRE

Action-Adventure

Lara Croft and rival tomb raider Carter Bell, team up with Horus and Isis to defeat the Egyptian god of evil and chaos, Set.

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by Nthato Morakabi

Lara Croft & the Temple of Osiris

ara Croft returns for yet another adventure, now within the trap riddled tombs below the sand dunes and desert wastes of Egypt – within the temple of Osiris. The prize at the end of this scavenger hunt is the Staff of Osiris but such an artefact is never easy to reach, nor is there ever a single pursuer.

Renowned archaeologist Lara Croft and rival treasure hunter, Carter Bell, find themselves vying for the legendary item.

Unfortunately, once the Staff is removed from its resting place, a curse befalls the treasure hunters, releasing the Egyptian god of evil and chaos Set from his ancient imprisonment.

Fortunately for the pair Isis and Horus are also released from their incarceration, and together the four must prevent Set from enslaving mankind.

Temple of Osiris is the sequel to Lara Croft: Guardian of Light, and looks to hitch on to what worked in its predecessor. The Two-Player Co-Op gameplay of Guardian of Light was such a success, the developers saw it as the best way to improve Temple of Osiris, by including two more players for four-player Co-Op gameplay.

Each playable character has unique abilities and skills required for the various traps and puzzles that players will have to work their way past. The gods Horus and Isis will utilize their unique abilities to assist Lara and Carter reach areas that would have been near impossible otherwise.

An assortment of Gems that alter how weapons react and work between players, as well as loot scattered across the tombs used for upgrading weapons and abilities, creates the need for co-operation with an added competitive edge.

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Lara Croft & the Temple of Osiris Bound of flame

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Resident Evi Revelations GAMING

More zombies, more problems

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That is exactly the question that developer Capcom must have asked themselves when they started planning the next title – Resident Evil Revelations 2. The game is due for release at some point next year, and some familiar faces will be returning.

Claire Redfield, who has been the main character in a number of titles, will once again be serving as the main protagonist, while Barry Burton’s daughter Moira will be making an appearance as a supporting character. It might be a bit of sad news for die-hard Resident Evil fans, but Alyson Court has confirmed that she will not be reprising her role as Redfield in this one.

Details of the game are a little sparse at this point, but what we do know is that the events that unfold

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ny gamer worth their salt will have heard about Resident Evil at some point during their gaming sessions – even if they don’t have a system to play the games. The franchise has been ingrained in the fabric of gaming since it fearfully sprang to live in 1996, and to name all the titles that have been released in the franchise’s history could take a while.

So it really doesn’t need much of an introduction, just maybe that the Umbrella Corporation is really evil and along the way there are hordes of zombies that naturally stop our heroes from completing their task to save the world.

And why stop now if the series is so successful?

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Resident Evil Revelations 2

operative gameplay in the campaign without online support.

While each episode’s plot and the over-arching storyline hasn’t been revealed just yet, Capcom did give us a bit of teaser as to what the first episode will be all about.

“The party is crashed, Claire and Moira are knocked unconscious and taken to a mysterious detention centre located on an island. They soon encounter demented, writhing enemies called Afflicted roaming the halls of this abandoned facility, and have to team up to survive. The real question is, who brought them here? And... why?”

Oooh - mystery, mayhem and crazy people, what could go wrong? g

AT A GLANCE It fighting more zombies with familiar faces, but the setting is a mystery Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Survival horror

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in Revelations 2 will be set between Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Taking a leaf from Telltale Games’ release strategy, Revelations 2 will be released as episodic snippets, much like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us was. There are plans however to release the game in its entirety at some point after the last episode.

If you decide to hold off and buy the full disc version after the episodic release, Capcom has something special for you, as they detailed that disc version will feature additional game content – exactly what that entails, only they will know at this point.

Lovers of co-op gaming will be in for a treat as well, as this will be the first title in the series to have co-

E M W A VIE G E R P

Bladestorm Nightmare GAMING

RTS history lesson

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Bladestorm: Nightmare

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AT A GLANCE RTS

Command your battalion, plan strategy and execute it to win the war, in this Real-Time Strategy title based on the Angle French Hundred Years War. Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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Omega Force Tecmo Koei TBC

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Q1 2015

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by Nthato Morakabi

rom the developers of the Dynasty Warriors series, Ninja Gaiden, Disgaea and other titles that capture the essence and trademark of Japanese artwork and game style, comes another title featuring characters familiar to the developer and publisher, Tecmo Koei, roster.

Bladestorm: Nightmare is the sequel to the 2007 title Bladestorm The Hundred Years, based on the Anglo-French Hundred Years war era. Players will enter the battle fields as mercenaries for either England or France, leading their respective armies into war that changes in real time according to actions taken.

Players will command an army of various units such as elephant soldiers, infantry, archers, cavalry and more.

Up to 200 soldiers will be available to command, each forming four various battalions which players can then switch between. Should one of the squads begin to struggle, they will be able to join up with another battalion in order to form new Corps units. These unites are strengthened by their numbers to unleash powerful “All Out Assault” abilities, each unique according to formation.

The title will feature two campaigns.

One will focus on the Hundred Years’ War, the historical events that transpired and the iconic characters and heroes of the time such as Joan of Arc and Edward the Black Prince. The other game mode, Nightmare, focusses on a far more fantastical world filled with mythological creatures like goblins, cyclops and dragons.

This RTS title might show off Koei’s unique real-time strategy interpretation, especially in the online game mode that is said to feature in the finished product.

How it will all work is a matter of time as the last pieces of the puzzle fit together for a January release. g

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Nov 2014 Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

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Welcome to the Mayhem!

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Interactive-Camera

Family entertainment is now interactive in this 20 episode escapade that puts the Rabbids in the home for an interactive TV Show.

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Rabbids Interactive TV

bisoft and Aardman (creators of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and other stop motion animations) have come together to bring the Rabbids to your Television screen as an interactive television show. Based off the Rabbids Invasion TV series, this title hopes to grow from that success by giving players a unique experience gaming is able to offer – immersive interaction.

Rabbids Invasion is aimed towards a younger audience and offers 20 interactive episodes to watch and play. As each episode plays out, opportunities to play and interact with the on-screen Rabbids will appear, thereby bringing both the show and the game to life.

The title is set to feature 400 activities sure to keep the younger gamers entertained with quirky actions, slapstick comedy and fun co-operative gameplay that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Up to four players can compete against each other on the XboxOne and PS4 while the Xbox 360 version will only have up to two players.

The interactive activities include: speed drawing and colouring in, crazy dancing to match the energetic Rabbids, egg battles that see on-screen characters peppered with egg yolk and more!

Utilizing the Kinect sensor and Playstation Move, players will be able control on-screen characters, strike a pose like the as done by the Rabbids and discover new characters as they appear ingame.

Additional episodes and game content will be unlocked through reaching highscores, as the battle for the best individual score drives competitive gameplay in a fun way.

Utilizing camera functionalities in this family orientated title may be Ubisoft’s way of finding a new niche in the market; we can look forward to more interactive titles in this Next-Gen era. g

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Realising the Revolution

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GM: Obviously the big news is four player co-op.

How has that affected the overall design philosophy behind what has traditionally been a very strongly focused single player franchise.

GM: Just from what you were saying there, in Assassin Creed 3 and 4 you kind of felt removed from being the master assassin. Are we seeing a refocusing on that element of the game in Unity?

LP: I think so because it really is about you becoming a master assassin, but in the way that you want to. We support what I call RPGlite; it’s not a full on RPG but the idea is that you can develop skills as well as equip yourself with gear and weapons. We have tons of choices, with 200 pieces of gear and something like 85 weapons, and all these will play into five styles, being combat ability, your defence, your stealth, your navigation and your assassination abilities. So the idea is that by focussing on Arno we’re actually focussing on you as a player, and you can choose to develop any way you want. The great thing is that we don’t lock you down into one path, so that if you want to max out everything you can.

GM: Recent Ubisoft titles tend to share a lot of similar features in how the mechanics of the game operate, and in past titles like Splinter Cell: Blacklist you were given the option of your own play style but you were rewarded for taking a more stealthy approach. Are we going to

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LP: That’s certainly a good question, and I’d say it’s only one factor, but it’s not the only reason why we’re focused on player progression. I was speaking with creative director Alex Amancio and he was saying that in previous Assassin’s Creed games the story was always very important, and even in Unity the personal story of Arno is central to the experience, but when the main motivation for the player is to complete the campaign, it works kind of against the open world exploration. You’re driving towards finishing the campaign but the world is saying,” No, explore me!”

So it works in opposition to each other. What’s great about Unity is that we’ve moved the motivation towards player progression.

What that allows you to do is still play Arno and have a strong narrative, but now you’re able to play single-player, co-op and side quests, which is all about you becoming a master assassin, and been able to customise Arno to your play style. So that feeds into co-op pretty well because when you join up with friends they’re going to have either different play styles or similar skills which will reinforce your strengths. The idea is that

when you play as a team you complement each other, and as a stronger team together.

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see something similar to this in Unity?

LP: It’s interesting that you bring up Blacklist. You were rewarded for whatever play style you chose, so if you wanted to go loud you would be rewarded for that, or if you wanted to be more panther-like you would be rewarded for that as well. I don’t think it’s specific to Ubisoft games in particular, but I think player choice is something that’s really important as we get more and more into modern gaming. I think what we’re seeing from players is that they don’t just want to follow a trail of breadcrumbs necessarily, especially in a game that promises an open world exploration of Paris. It doesn’t make sense to create this giant playground without giving players the tools to enable them to make their own choices. As an example, there are three game pillars, being navigation, combat and stealth, and we’ve revamped all three of these for Unity, and with navigation the philosophy we’ve taken has been let’s give players more freedom and control over where they want to go. Instead of just free-running and been able to kind of see the highways that were planned for you, now the whole game is explorable. We have close to a one to one scale for the city of Paris which allows us to build real interiors, and you can go seamlessly from exteriors to interiors, and the parkour system is now

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flexible enough for you to choose to do that. So when running around you can choose to go up through the roof, or you can also go in or down underground too.

There’s a lot more freedom of choice, and it’s about giving the players the tools and letting them play the way they want to play.

GM: Talking about the new parkour system, how exactly is that going to work? We’ve have already seen a more fluid approach, but how do the mechanics differ?

GM: That leads to another question with regards to the combat controls. Apparently it’s to be made less counterbased, which was kind of an exploit before as you could take on as large a crowd as you wanted as long as you could counter well.

LP: Exactly. We still have the ability to parry, but what we’ve done is made enemies a lot smarter and a lot more strategic.

Now they’ll work together, instead of hanging out and waiting to be killed.

To give another example, you’ll often see in the game that you can take on two or three enemies, but with more than that they’re going to come up with a new way to attack you, like shooting you from afar.

There could be an alarm bell in the area, and one of your enemies is going to run and call in reinforcements, so once you’re surrounded by more than three guys you’re going to be toast if you don’t have a lot of additional tools available to you like smoke bombs. Even with these tools you’re still going to be in pretty heavy situation. We’ve also given players the ability to do a directional dodge, so you’re not locked on to one enemy anymore. So there’s a lot more freedom in terms of how you can approach

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LP: The primary difference, and this comes from how it was implemented initially, is that the climbing and the free-running were actually two separate systems.

You would be free-running then all of a sudden you would you need to climb and you would stop to go up and go over, so what we did was revamp that system to combine them into one. I think a lot of fans have noticed that now you can climb diagonally for instance, which gives you a lot more freedom.

Before, when you were going down, you either launched yourself off the top a building a prayed you didn’t die, or you had to look for a haystack. So now we’ve taken the same philosophy to going up and applied it to going down.

You’ve probably seen where you hop all the way down.

The interesting thing about the system is that it’s really easy to pick up and play, and if you want to get to a

certain location it’s easy to do, but because there’s a certain amount of finesse with the controls you can become a master with enough practice.

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a combat situation. The other thing too, which ties in really well to our third pillar, is stealth. By giving players a real stealth option now, where you can go into stealth mode and sneak around without being detected, it really helps play into how you approach combat. If you don’t want to get into the thick of things you can stealth and flank around your enemies, which works really well in co-op too. Maybe your friend is in big trouble, and you can stealth around the combat and figure out a way to help him out.

GM: Speaking of co-op, how integral is that going to be? For someone who doesn’t play any of the co-op, are they going to get the full story or are we going to have to play the co-op as well?

LP: The co-op is completely optional, and you can play everything solo, so there’s nothing blocked if you want to be the lone wolf. We have tried to make it as seamless as possible in the world though. We have the singleplayer campaign, which is Arno’s personal story of redemption and becoming a master assassin, and it’s very a personal story taking place in the context of the French Revolution. He does encounter some of the key figures of the Revolution, though he obviously is not going to be in every single event, it would just be a little too convenient. So what we’ve done is used the brotherhood missions,

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GM: Where are we likely to see the series going after Unity?

LP: Honestly, even if I had an answer, I couldn’t tell you. My focus has really been on this game, which isn’t even done yet, and my next project is vacation.

There are all sorts of clues, let’s just put it that way.

I will tell you that we love doing stuff like that, we’ve love putting little hints and easter eggs, and that stuff is all in there, so if you dig hard enough you’re going to be able to potentially predict what’s going to happen next.

GM: That leads to another question.

Obviously when we talk Assassin’s Creed we love talking about the setting, but there’s an integral part of the game which is the current setting, where the player is experiencing the memories. Seeing as we lost Desmond in the third game and got a whole new approach in Black Flag, is Unity going to progress that particular story? Are we going to see some new investigation into Abstergo?

LP: I’m really fascinated because I’ve been doing promotions for the game, and everyone is South Africa wants to know about the present day. I haven’t been asked this question at all before, and every single person I’ve met here wants to know about that. What’s cool about it is that people are really interested in it, so what I can tell you is that you do play yourself, and

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which is one type of co-op mission, to tell stories about the French Revolution. It gives us a way of providing little vignettes of other really interesting stories or interesting characters of the Revolution, and how it could fit within the fiction of the Templars versus the Assassins. The really cool thing about that is it really is seamless. Say you’re just wondering around the world, you’re going to come upon a quest giver for a brotherhood mission, and you can start it in private or in public.

Another way to join co-op missions is when you go inside a tavern, which are scattered throughout the world, you’re going to see what we call ghosts of all your friends that are online playing Unity, and when you go up to those ghosts you’re going to be able see what they’re doing, such as wondering the world or playing through a mission.

If they’re playing a mission and there’s a slot open, such as it’s a four player mission and there are only two people playing right now, you can join that mission in progress. To bring it around, because you’re playing your own version of Arno, it’s a seamless way of continuing on that journey. When you get into a co-op mission you’re playing that same character, so you don’t have to choose a load-out or anything like that. We really wanted to have this feeling of player progression throughout the entire game.

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you will know more about an hour into the game.

GM: That’s not cryptic at all

LP: We really don’t want to spoil things, and we feel that part of the experience is discovering what’s happening. We hope that players don’t spoil it for each other, but we know that it sort of happens.

GM: Now for our usual closer, what’s your personal favourite aspect of Assassin’s Creed Unity?

LP: I just love what we’ve done with the city of Paris.

You know you hear about it lots, and you probably hear the same kind of stuff in other interviews, but the reality is we couldn’t have even approximated the kind of scale and the beauty of the world in terms of the lighting and the way it reflects of objects like the water and the stone or the ground. It’s realistic but it almost has a feeling of a painting. It was a really interesting choice that the art director made in terms of going for a lot of detail, but still keeping it beautiful, kind of like how film is very realistic but at the same time it’s really beautiful when compared to something like digital video.

There’s something about the way Paris looks which translates to how it feels as a player, and because it’s so massive, and because we have thousands in the crowd, there’s something about next-gen which has opened us a lot of doors for us which we couldn’t do with the previous gen.

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Sunset Over GAMING

Pop goes the monster

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Sunset Overdrive

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a sense of frantic urgency when dealing with crazy freaks that explode into a massive ball of soft drink.

Starting the game, you will be asked to create a character for yourself. Here you can really let your imagination take hold, but don’t worry if you put a beard on a pretty lady – you will be able to change your character’s appearance whenever you want to, and there are plenty of crazy options to choose from.

While it’s not the biggest selling point of the game, there is a huge degree of fun that goes into creating a character, and then dressing them up the way that you want – or at least with the clothes and accessories that you have unlocked.

The title sets up the action by allowing you to join four different factions to fight off the hordes of overdosed former-humans. The factions are unlocked as you

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unset Overdrive has one of the weirdest plots for any game so far. Steering away from the usual ‘world is taken over by baddies and you need to save it’ story, it revolves around a soft drink.

Yes, you read that right: a soft drink.

To boil the plot down a little bit, the fictional FizzCo released a soft drink to the public. But the problem is that the drink is powerful that it has turned the population of Sunset into strange mutated monsters.

It is naturally your job to figure out a way to stop the spread and restore order.

It is definitely inventive and slightly off-centre, just like the entire game is.

Dropped into the middle of the action straight from the title screen, it becomes very clear that Sunset Overdrive shouldn’t be taken too seriously, yet there is

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progress through the game, and getting to them is where Sunset Overdrive really wanted to make a statement.

See, plain old running isn’t good enough for this title. Oh no, you have to make use of the traversing element that can become hugely annoying at the best of times - you have you grind, dash, swing and bounce your way around the map.

It’s fun at first, but once you realise that there is no ‘run faster’ button for when you just want to travel by foot, the jumping and grinding begins to seem like a bit of a chore. Don’t get me wrong, it is incredibly satisfying to string 100+ grind combos together (and it does get you from point A to point B a lot faster), but it feels forced.

And in a game that allows for player freedom, being forced into particular activities that aren’t necessarily demanded by missions is a bit of a push in the wrong

direction.

I would have like the grinding to be secondary, in a ‘you can use it, but it’s not a necessity’ kind of way, instead of being punted as the only way that you should make your way across roof tops. But with that said, almost everything can be used in the world, probably with the exception of the trucks – because face it, those are just too big to realistically provide any sort of elasticity to propel you 20 to 30 meters into the air.

Oddly enough, while the swing-grind-jump-bounce manoeuvre is the recommend mode of transportation, you can fast travel back to your base or selected other areas. Granted, you don’t get all the special stuff and kills you would have if you’d “legged” it, but it’s a little bit faster.

And with any game that requires a set of incredibly fast

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of monster.

The more players you have in your team the better, but there needs to be a great deal of communication to make sense of it all. Once the soda blood starts flowing and you have scary monsters chomping at your heels, you can get disorientated very quickly.

While it makes for some great fun with a bunch of friends, it’s definitely not the biggest selling point of the game. It does feel a bit tacked on, and it would have been better if it was a bit… less chaotic.

Trying to figure who started the great soft drink infestation and how to stop it with the help of your new friends can be a daunting task, but luckily you have some mechanical help.

During the course of the game you develop different skills and upgrades that you can use to fight of

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fingers to juggle the grinding speed, the direction, when to jump and what else to grab on while possibly changing direction yet again, there will be some conflicts in command – which nine times out of 10 will result in your carefully crafted character faceplanting.

Well, not really, as there is no fall damage, but you get the idea.

There is a multiplayer element to the game as well, which is accessed by going to Chaos Squad stations placed throughout the game’s world. Setting it up, you and your friends will be placed in a lobby, where you can select which map you want to play on.

Chaos Squad is, as the name implies, chaotic at the best of times. There are different modes in the one-world setting that you can compete in, such as destroying a certain amount of boxes of killing one kind

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invest the time to tweak them all. I really just filled them up with what I had, and left them like that for the rest of the game.

Getting around can be fun, but once in a while you really just want to put boots on the ground and go for a good old-fashion run-and-gun, but because there is no sprint option, you become a throbbing target very quickly.

Then there are the challenges. These can be completed to get more customisation options, like leg tattoos, jacket and hats. But the problem with them is that they are so difficult, that the effort far outweighs the reward.

All in all, it’s not a bad game, but it is by no means a title that will be shifting consoles for Microsoft. The graphics are pretty good and the humour is hilarious, but drilling it down to the bare bones, it does get a bit monotonous after a while. g

AT A GLANCE GENRE

Shooter

REVIEWED ON

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Insomniac Games Microsoft Microsoft

PARENTAL ADVISORY

16+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

x360 PLATFORMS

If you like over-the-top action, then this is for you.

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

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by Charlie Fripp

the hordes. These skills are upgraded by spending Overcharge – the in-game currency that is picked up by killing enemies. Upgrades include better health, bigger ammunition capacity and doing more damage to a certain type of enemy.

The quirky and often-hilarious weapons can be upgraded in the same manner, which will increase their damage or other factors that will aide you in restoring order to the world.

But while all of that sounds pretty cool, I’m starting to wonder that maybe I’m the only person that didn’t find Sunset Overdrive has great as everybody else has been making it out to be. Sure, the action it fast-paced and very forthcoming, but is that all to the game?

The extensive upgrading system took some wind out of my sails, as I found it to be more cumbersome to actually

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Alien: Isolat GAMING

Don’t scream!

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Alien: Isolation

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hapless crew of the Nostromo from the predations of the previously undiscovered, acid-blooded xenomorph. All but Ellen Ripley, of course… and that’s the springboard that Alien: Isolation uses to catapult the player into a game that is, to this point, the best Alien game ever made.

That sounds like really lofty praise but, if you consider the competition, it still leaves room for Alien: Isolation to have a few faults… which it does. But how you view those faults purely depends on your perception of the Alien universe, and your understanding of the brutal predator that is hunting you down.

The player takes on the role of Amanda Ripley, the nowadult daughter of Ellen who desperately wants to find out what happened to her mother. As the game is set shortly after the first film, no-one really knows what happened to the Nostromo, or about the creature that destroyed its

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ames based on movies manage to normally deliver an extremely high level of suck. And despite having a wealth of rich subject matter to be based on, this has been as true for games based on the Alien series as any other. Perhaps the problem was that, despite terrible, powerful foes, they always gravitated to the idea of the USCMC, popularised by the second film. This turned virtually every Alien game into an FPS death-fest that somehow just didn’t do the source material justice.

Alien: Isolation, however, does things differently. Instead of trying to turn the player into a Hicks or Hudson, the game delves back deeper into the Alien mythology’s timeline. This time around, the game goes back to the stark terror that was the original film, in which no manner of fighting back was enough to save the

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crew. When the Nostromo’s flight recorder is discovered and delivered to the remote Sevastopol station, Amanda travels there to try and uncover the truth. What she finds instead is an archaic, crumbling space station that has been terrorised by a seemingly unbeatable foe… the Alien.

What sets Isolation apart from other Alien games is that you’re not going to be wading through Aliens. Instead, you find yourself on a mostly deserted space station with only one xenomorph stalking bout. There are other people on Sevatopol, too, mostly driven mad by fear, as well as synthetics who don’t have all that “preservation of human life” rubbish coded into their systems. In other words, the Alien forms the pinnacle of numerous dangers on the station.

Isolation’s setting is pitch perfect – so much so that the player might wonder if they were walking through the sets

of the original film. From cramped corridors complete with excellent smoke and steam effects right through to archaic computers and technology that looked really advanced in the ‘70s, the developers recreated the feel of the first film with great skill. And that’s part of what makes the game really creepy. You won’t run into the Alien for some time initially, but the atmosphere itself is enough to raise hairs on the back of your neck. And when you finally do run into the xenomorph, things rise to an almost fever-pitch.

That’s largely because the Alien’s coding gives it a massive degree of autonomy. Very little about the Alien is scripted, meaning that you are being stalked by a reactive, unpredictable predator that responds to your actions.

Make a lot of noise, and it will come looking for you.

Use too much light, ditto. In fact, if you have a camera attached to your console, the noise in your location will

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hold of you – which happens frequently.

The game has a fair number of save locations, but they are manual. Each time the player finds one, they need to make a conscious decision to save. Not doing so can result in long setbacks when you get taken out (which you will) and even diligent saving can result in the player being punished by needing to replay sections.

That brings up something that a few people have criticised about the game. Sevastopol station is a big playground, and the player will need to do a lot of back and forth travelling through the derelict facility. Adding new tools to their arsenal will allow access to new areas previously passed by, and the game’s narrative will meander through numerous locations more than once.

The familiarity that this breed with the setting can be quite an advantage, though – and in a game that really

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attract the creature. Don’t tell friends and family this…

This does lead to a bit of a problem, which some may not view quite so badly, and others will get furious over. The Alien will strike anywhere, at any time. It might provide you with a few clues to its presence, but you can expect to die a lot playing Isolation. This creature can be fended off, but it cannot be killed.

And so the player will spend a lot of time hiding in cupboards or under desks while the Alien stalks around. Sometimes it may perform a quick sweep, others it may linger, waiting for further clues. It is completely unpredictable in its nature, which works as a blessing and a curse for the game’s overall experience. And that’s largely because there is absolutely nothing you can do when the Alien gets a

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duration that the player feels safe or is able to relax.

The combination of a massive, creepy setting, an enemy so brutal that there is no surviving an encounter with it and atmosphere that perfectly recreates the feel of the original film adds up to making Alien: Isolation a thoroughly immersive and entertaining experience for fans of the first film – even if it isn’t necessarily superbly polished in all areas.

If you’re looking for a good scare that is beautifully presented, thoroughly engaging and full of the kind of tension that horror fans thrive on, it’s a fantastic option.

It’s not all about action and being the hero. This is a game about survival against all odds, and that’s what makes it the kind of game that the Alien franchise has sorely needed for all these years… because it goes back to those all-important roots, and thrives among them. g

AT A GLANCE Survival horror

Although it might not be the perfect game, Alien: Isolation is the best title we have seen in the franchise to date, thanks to its return to the tale’s roots.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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PARENTAL ADVISORY

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does adhere to numerous survival horror ideals, any advantage is a good thing.

Equipment, for example, is scarce, and with Amanda being an engineer, almost everything the player uses needs to be crafted. There are other bits of equipment that can be found, like the beautifully recreated motion tracker (a massive help in finding out if the xenomorph is near) or a variety of weapons (almost all of which are painstakingly slow to reload and have no real effect on the Alien, other than creating enough noise to attract it).

If you look at Alien: Isolation in the purest of video game terms, it has a number of problems. The Alien’s AI is sometimes just too smart for the player’s good, and some elements of the title feel a little clunky. But they all add up to making Alien: Isolation a twentyhour terror-fest. There is nary a moment in its entire

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DriveClub GAMING

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exclusive were stunning visuals and the developers lived up to their word in that respect; DriveClub looks really good. From detailed cars (exteriors and interiors) through to tracks that are not only beautiful vistas, but also alive with little details (like leaves blowing across the track in the wake of speeding cars and highly detailed textures). DriveClub is visually appealing in almost every aspect, and offers a variety of camera views from which to behold the grandeur. The tracks span a variety of locations as well, from the colourful Indian countryside to icy Scandanavian stretches, from Canadian woodlands to desolate Scottish scenes, DriveClub captures each of the five main locations beautifully, lending each one a unique feel.

But looks aren’t everything – they’re a big thing, yes, but not everything. Seeing a great looking car is all good

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very console needs a killer game or two, titles that redefine the way things are done.

Because gaming is so broad, these are genre specific attempts at capturing hearts and minds, and the racing genre is hotly contested. The Xbox, for example, has Forza, which has become something of an unassailable fortress for Microsoft console car gaming. The PS3 had the Gran Turismo series which, despite a wobbly later run, still managed to captivate audiences. For the PS4… well, that space still needs to be filled, really, and it seems that it was the main aim of DriveClub to do just that. But definitive racers need to offer a whole array of positives, including a realistic driving model and, unfortunately, DriveClub doesn’t really deliver in all the areas that it should.

One thing that we were promised by this PS4

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and well, but a great driving game is one in which the cars don’t only look good, but feel good too. That, sadly, is an aspect in which DriveClub will leave the more serious racing game enthusiast a little cold. The handling model leans heavily towards an arcade experience; it’s less Forza and more Need for Speed. While this does broaden the accessibility of the market, it goes against the grain of being a definitive driving simulator to a large degree. In addition, the physics model varies only slightly between the 50 cars available for play. That means that leaping from a smaller starter car to a more powerful supercar won’t have that much of an impact, except for elements like speed and acceleration (which, at times, don’t really seem to matter, but we’ll get to that later). The tires are generally all rather grippy, which is great for taking corners a bit faster than you

should but leaves the drifting aspect of the game feeling like a red-headed step-child, crammed with frustration.

The brakes are always good. The cars shift weight in very similar fashions. It feels – just a little – like the car models are more like skins than actual different vehicles.

Racing purists may also be a little affronted by the selection of vehicles on offer. They are all European, and while there are some great cars in the game, fans of American Muscle or Japanese Speed are going to be left wanting. It’s a weird move by the developers. While other cars will undoubtedly be added by way of DLC, it seems like a strange omission for the initial release.

Another omission which will not sit too well with more serious racers is the lack of customisation. You can change the way that the car looks in terms of paint jobs (and even these are based on presets) but you’re

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AI driver forces you off of the track or smacks into you, that seems just a little unfair. And the system is inconsistent, too. Some corners a tire off of the road surface will result in punishment, while others allow a virtual safari off track before scolding you.

At the heart of DriveClub is the social aspect of the title. This extends beyond multiplayer; DriveClub is all about starting a club and achieving things together.

With up to six members, each club gains rank much like players do. These ranks unlock cars exclusive to club members. Not being a member of a club, leaving a club or even not being able to connect to a server renders those cars unusable. There is a great feel to being a club member, of course, and the asynchronous system that is employed in much of the game’s social side adds a number of challenges to a title that could start feeling

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not going to be tinkering under the hood at all. That would be OK, really, if the cars performed the way you expected them to. However, either through the catch-all physics model, or because the often brutal AI seems a little elastic, you may well find yourself beaten at the last minute by a vehicle that had no possible hope of doing so in the real world.

That gets really frustrating, and this is added to by the fact that the game will inconsistently punish you… not only for your own errors but for the actions of aggressive AI drivers on generally tight tracks. The game’s progression system, see, is based on earning fame. Cut a corner, hit a track element or clip another car, and you’re not only given a short speed penalty, but you lose some fame points too. That’s fair enough, but when these penalties are applied because an

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lot of fun, and chasing the next level or beating the next face-off can get very addictive, but its overall arcade nature will prevent it from really competing against the big guns out there. The social aspect is great, too, but it is hardly the revolutionary system that we hoped it might be.

DriveClub sits in that slightly uncomfortable space somewhere between true arcade racing and technical simulations. It is extremely accessible, and it looks great. It demands a bit more from the player than an arcade racer, but it never goes far enough into the technical side to remove itself from that same category.

It takes a number of steps in the right direction – particularly in terms of visuals – but purists will be left cold. And that’s a pity, because DriveClub can provide a lot of carefree fun, despite some of it’s quibbles. g

AT A GLANCE Racing

REVIEWED ON

It tries to address many areas, but ultimately it is DriveClub’s arcade-like nature that truly defines it.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Evolution Studios SCEE Ster Kinekor

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x360 PLATFORMS

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PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

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by Walt Pretorius

a little limited after a while. Once you get through the single player events and somewhat limited multiplayer options, the system of leader boards and beating your friends (or the PSN community at large) in area specific face-offs does lend a touch of added longevity. It might be setting adrift score that’s better than your buddy, or completing a section of track in a more accurate way.

Whatever the case may be, this aspect does keep the competition a little fresher.

In a marketplace that is dominated by technically precise open-world racing games, DriveClub feels a little anachronistic. Being given a list of cars that cannot be modified doesn’t really compete with selecting your own vehicle and setting it up the way you like it, inside and out, before getting to grips with each vehicles habits and eccentricities on-track. DriveClub does provide a

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Borderland The Pre-Sequ GAMING

Fly me to the moon

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and-loot experience to the table.

While it is a standalone title, Pre-Sequel plays heavily on the gamer’s knowledge of the franchise. The story here is set between the first two games, and focusses on Handsome Jack, the villain from Borderlands 2. In this game, Jack has not yet become the homicidal maniac that he is the Borderlands 2, although he is already cocky and arrogant (and provides numerous laughs thanks to the usual degree of irreverent dialogue scripting). The player takes on one of four all new characters, who have been hired by Jack to find a vault hidden on Pandora’s moon, Elpis. But, of course, things are never that simple, and the player will have to spend a lot of time running around doing missions for people.

Here’s one of the game’s problems, and it is one that has always been present in Borderlands. There is a lot

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he idea that a popular franchise like Borderlands should already be getting a bit long in the tooth after only a handful of iterations seems odd, but there are certainly some signs that tell exactly this story. The fact that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was not released for the latest console hardware indicates that either the series is about to get a serious (and much needed) overhaul, or that Gearbox, the developers behind the franchise, are getting ready to turn their attention to other projects. The fact that some of the issues that have been present in the series persist into this new version could imply either course of action, too.

With that said, Borderland: The Pre-Sequel delivers almost exactly what Borderlands fans have come to expect. While it might not have addressed elements like pacing issues, it still brings a gloriously chaotic shoot-

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has an Australian accent. This may have to do with 2K Australia’s involvement in the development of the title, but it does help to create the impression of a different setting, with different rules.

The new playable characters are almost standard fare. Of the four, the cyborg Wilhelm stands out as the best choice for the action oriented gamer, complete with two drones (one for fighting and one for healing). And for those who want a totally unpredictable, chaotic experience, there is a Clap Trap playable character too.

Overall, Pre-Sequel does a good job as a third Borderlands title, although the franchise does need some serious tweaks to bring it up to spec. It’s still massive amounts of fun, though, and hopefully indicates that the franchise is alive and well, and heading to next generation consoles soon. Time will tell on that one. g

AT A GLANCE First-person shooter

The chaotic Shoot-and-loot franchise returns with a new setting, new characters and some of the same old problems. But it’s still great fun.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

2K 2K Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

18+ gamecca65

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REVIEWED ON

PS3 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

77 67

by Rob Edwards

of trekking back and forth over vast stretches that are generally unpopulated in completing missions. This doesn’t tie into the game’s generally chaotic nature very well, but as you work your way through the campaign, things do get a little more action packed. The game is pretty generous with loot, too, and has a new system for recombining weapons into randomised, improved weapons – via a machine called the Grinder.

The setting also offers new challenges. Lower gravity means that the player can jump higher and further, which has a few advantages, and Oz Kits allow the player to breathe on the moon, as well as bestowing other abilities.

But Oz Kits can run out, adding an element of being conscious of oxygen levels at all times. That said, it’s never really far to go to get an Oz refill.

Speaking of Oz, almost everyone you run into on Elpis

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Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor GAMING

Between the TALES

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But purists will point out that Mordor became a scorched wasteland centuries before events in the Hobbit unfolded.

That brings up an important point about this particular game; Shadows of Mordor isn’t based on the books. Rather, it is based on Peter Jackson and Warner Bros interpretations of Tolkien’s novels, and should be seen in that light.

Just as the X-Men movies were an ‘alternate universe’ to the comic books, so the liberties taken in producing these films and, by extension, this game provide a differing view. I can already hear purists grumbling about “no such thing as an alternate Middle Earth”, so I am going to stop that train of thought right in its tracks.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is – whether you

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hen Peter Jackson created his Lord of the Rings movies, many Tolkien purists got their undergarments twisted at the liberties that the film-maker took. When The Hobbit movies came along, things went from bad to worse, as Jackson’s messing with original canon stretched the tale over three films, and essentially messed with a tale that so many held dear.

And Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor will get a similar reaction from the same crowd, because this game pretty much flips the officially accepted story on its head. It is set in the long time span between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings – a time in which the game developers chose to represent Mordor as a more verdant, fertile land.

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like the setting and narrative or not – one of the best titles based on the films (a distinction which we’ll retain here). It provides the player with a massive playground in which to do battle and fight against the forces of Sauron.

In the game, the player takes on the role of Talion, a former Ranger of Gondor who witnesses his whole family ritualistically slaughtered before his own life is taken. But death does not await Talion – a mysterious spirit of a long dead elf denies him death, and he returns to the world of the living “possessed” by this entity. As such, Talion cannot die – at least not in the strictest sense of the idea.

That adds a lot of leeway to what the player can get away with, but the clever balancing of the AI and a wonderful AI progression system keeps things

from being taken too lightly. It is extremely easy, for example, to get into a lot of trouble early on in the game. There are a lot or uruk warriors wandering around, and they will band together at any sign of trouble. Becoming outnumbered is fairly simple to do, and when the game throws an uruk captain into the mix (which invariably happens during protracted combat sessions) things get pretty tough.

Which is where the character progression for NPCs comes in.

See, Sauron’s army may be ugly, but they do have better brains than looks, and work on a structure.

Promotions occur within the ranks all the time, and quite often as a result of Talion being killed by the uruk in question. Because Talion comes back from the brink of death throughout the game,

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mechanics work very well too. The player can easily mix and match tactics to take on missions (whether main or one of the numerous side quests).

These tactics can also encompass environmental elements, like attracting savage beasts into an uruk camp, poisoning their beverages and a whole lot more. It’s like dumping a whole bunch of building blocks in front of a creative kid and watching them go wild. Shadow of Mordor places very few restrictions on the player, and those that are willing to really toy with the way that they take on the quests in the game will reap the most rewards.

This even extends into the previously mentioned subversion. The player can interfere with the progression of uruks through the ranks in special side quests and, later in the game – when they

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it is possible to therefore meet old foes time and again. But as they move up through the ranks, they become more powerful, and harder to defeat. It really is a great system that adds a sense of continuity and consequence to the game.

These captains also get randomised abilities, meaning that no two battles require exactly the same approach. That keeps things interesting, and the highly individualised looks of the captains (and most uruks in the game, for that matter) is a cherry on top.

The player’s mission is quite simple; he needs to subvert Sauron’s army. To this end, the player is provided with all the tools they need. The combat system is extremely robust, and the stealth

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draw on these titles for inspiration, it takes what they have on offer and makes these elements its own. While you may initially spot the similarities, delving further into the game will soon have you forgetting comparisons and relishing in the vibrant, large world that is on offer. And despite a few quibbles and departures from what many hold to be Tolkienian gospel, Shadow of Mordor manages to craft a world – and consequently an experience – that is rich and thoroughly engrossing.

Even if it does insult your purist sensibilities, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is an epic fantasy adventure that will grab your attention and provide you with many hours of play. And it comes with all the freedom you need to express yourself within its skilfully crafted paradigm. g

AT A GLANCE Action adventure

While it may mess with canon, Shadow of Mordor provides the player with a wonderfully free playground in which to take on Sauron’s uruk forces.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Monolith Warner Bros Ster Kinekor

PARENTAL ADVISORY

18+ gamecca65

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ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

REVIEWED ON

PS4 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

88 73

by Walt Pretorius

earn the ability to “brand” uruks and take control of them – the spectrum for freedom of play widens even further.

Add to that the fact that Shadow offers a really open character advancement system, and you start seeing that this is a game that the player can really, truly delve into and make the experience their own.

The player can even mount and “tame” wild beasts to aide in their quest to weaken the evil forces that threaten Middle Earth.

There has been some criticism levelled at the game, largely related to the fact that it feels somewhat derivative. You can clearly see the influence of other open world games in Shadow, particularly titles like Assassin’s Creed and the recent Batman games. But while Shadow may

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Just Dance 2 GAMING

Going through the motions

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say, because the game still works really well as a party pleaser. But there are certainly areas that Just Dance can address (and doesn’t in this latest game).

Movement detection still seems a little loose, meaning that the game is a lot more forgiving than someone who takes their dancing seriously would want it to be.

That, combined with move cues that are still a little ambiguous, means that almost anything goes. While other dance games try and correct the player, Just Dance 2015 doesn’t. Aside from ranking the player with words like good or perfect, very little guidance is given. Sure, you can work your way through a given song multiple times to get it just right, but it’s a lot more work than you may have to do with other titles.

One very good addition that has been made to the game this time out is Challenger mode. It’s a sort of

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t’s been many years (or at least, it feels like it) since Ubisoft first scored their massive sleeper success with an unassuming Wii title called Just Dance. In fact, since the initial release five years ago, the series has seen several releases, and has kept fans going with new additions and ideas, migrating onto other platforms and bringing the dance craziness to more and more gamers. But the series is starting to show its age a little. It may be the only dance game that is consistently seeing a yearly release, but it is starting to feel like the developers really need to do more to the new titles, rather than just adding a bunch of funky tracks and dance routines. It’s time for Just Dance to take a much needed next step.

What exactly that step right be is difficult to

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remix efforts is all fine and well, but that could have happened on the previous generation. So, in fact, could anything that this current title has on offer.

It raises a question about annualised games, because we’re seeing more and more of them do just enough to be slightly distinct from the previous iteration.

And that seems to be setting a trend that should be disturbing to most gamers, and particularly the fans of these annualised franchises. When the game doesn’t do enough new to really stand apart from what came before, what real motivation does the consumer have to buy it year after year? It is a question publishers need to ask themselves; funky graphics, some new songs and an added feature or two just cover up the fact that Just Dance is a franchise in need of evolution, no matter how fun it is. g

AT A GLANCE GENRE

Dance

REVIEWED ON

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Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

3+ gamecca65

PLATFORMS

It’s great fun, but Just Dance 2015 shows that the series needs some deep evolution.

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

73 77

by Alex Scanlon

extension of World Dance Floor, which surfaced last year and allows players to compete against other players online, rather than trying to cram a group of players in front of one TV. Well, Challenger records high scores and performances of players around the globe, and allows you to compete with them, even when they are not online – almost like a ghost in a racing game. It adds a lot of value for the solo practitioner, and can be used across most modes.

While Just Dance 2015 is a perfectly serviceable new edition of the franchise, and features 41 songs to get down to, it simply doesn’t feel like the franchise is taking advantage of the move it made to new generation consoles. Adding in a Community Remix feature (which allows players to record performances and submit them to Ubisoft for possible inclusion in

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The Evil With GAMING

Get ready for punishment‌

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these days simply isn’t scary. It’s just shocking… and that’s not what horror should be. Have of the scare of good horror comes from what you’re not being told or shown – the personal realisations of the person that is experiencing the entertainment can be so chilling that they are far more effective than any hockey-masked, chainsaw-wielding, blood-drenched antagonist ever could be. Real horror is insidious. It creeps behind the scenes, under the skin, and chills from within.

At least, that’s what I think.

I am not much of a fan of what is considered horror these days, because it simply doesn’t give me what I want from a horror experience. That cold uncertainty, those sneaky suspicions and awful “oh-oh” moments simply aren’t there anymore. And that goes as much for games as it does for any other form of modern entertainment media.

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orror is not an easy genre to get right, Whether it be in the format of books or films, scaring the crap out of the audience is a lot tougher than you might think. It is, arguably, easier to do with video games, because the player is so much more involved with the activity, actually providing feedback rather than just receiving information intended to get their heart pounding.

The thing is, though, that a few years back horror stopped being horror. It became gratuitous, rather than subtle, with over-the-top ideas and plots taking away the really scary, creepy stuff and substituting it with graphic violence and gruesome scenes. I personally blame the early slasher films, oh so popular in the ‘80s, for the death of real, nail-biting, gut-wrenching, cold sweat horror. Because ninety per cent of what you get

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See, most games – particularly lately – depend more on frights than actual mind-numbing horror. It’s the quick fix of a society that is becoming more focussed on instant gratification. There are a few games out there – notably titles like Alien: Isolation – which use techniques and tactics to keep the player mentally off guard, which is the real secret in horror. But those games are few and far between. So when it was announced, with no small fanfare, that The Evil Within, from the mind of acclaimed horror game director Shinji Mikami, would be returning to the roots of the survival horror genre, I got a bit excited – even hopeful.

But here’s the thing… apparently the roots of survival horror, in this case, are to make the game so punishingly difficult that it stops being fun to play. Sure, The Evil Within has frights aplenty, and manages to put together

a cast of sometimes awesome villains to face off against, but the essence of survival horror shouldn’t be dying a lot. It should be more subtle.

Not that The Evil Within can be accused of subtlety.

Just like the Japanese horror that has heavily influenced the game, it is as subtle as a brick to the face. The characters, based on the expected stereotypes, are over the top, the plot is over the top (until the point that it seems to lose itself and become a bit of a rambling mess) and the villains are over the top. So is the gruesome, gratuitous violence and the collection of almost standard settings – these are all set up for shock value and maximum frights, rather than to dig down into the depths of the human psyche and tickle the fight-orflight gland.

The plot kicks off with a group of detectives setting out

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The game also plays inconsistently. Whether this is to try and unsettle the player or not is moot – the fact is that if I do something that works in a game, it should work every time. It should not be rendered useless all of a sudden, for no apparent reason. Yet The Evil Within will do this to you, particularly where the AI is concerned.

The bad guys can be daft as brushes one moment, and then razor sharp the next. That’s simply annoying, not scary.

With all this said, The Evil Within can provide an entertaining experience for those who don’t mind many deaths and few checkpoints. The game does provide its challenges, and an upgrade system does make getting though the later stages a bit more bearable.

In addition, some of the characters the player will face off against – the ones that don’t feel overly generic – are

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to investigate a mass murder in a mental asylum. We won’t mention originality here… Anyway, inexplicably the player’s character, a cardboard cut-out called Sebastian Castellanos, gets dumped into a world of weirdness, and he has to fight his way through to the end of the game’s numerous, linear chapters in order to survive. He never has enough ammo, and even when he does, the combat feels clunky. That’s fine and well if you use the excuse of an inexperienced protagonist (like they did in Silent Hill) by this guy’s a detective.

Surely he can shoot a bit?

But this is the way of it in The Evil Within; the game hobbles that player in every way possible, using what could easily be called cheap shots to create a “scary” experience that really is more frustrating than terrifying.

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It is a step in a few better directions, yes, but there is still a way to go for games to get to where they need to be. You can wring enjoyment out of The Evil Within, but it is a masochistic experience, overall, and one than many people may simply walk away from in frustration.

It needed a better balance right off the bat, rather than keeping the player weak and powerless against brutal foes. After all, we play games because we want to be heroes, whether they are horror games or not, and heroes aren’t helpless. Even Alan Wake got that bit right.

Perhaps the next instalment of this game will be more in the direction that fans of chilling horror crave. For now, though, this will appeal more to the fans of shock horror. And they’ll need to be patient and forgiving at that, with possibly a little masochism thrown in for good measure.g

AT A GLANCE Survival horror

While it can deliver some great experiences, The Evil Within’s inconsistency and punishing dynamics can mess up the experience.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Tango Gameworks Bethesda Ster Kinekor

PARENTAL ADVISORY

18+ gamecca65

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ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

REVIEWED ON

x360 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

72 83

by Walt Pretorius

truly interesting visually, and show a decent application of the developers’ imaginations. This can also be said for a number of the settings, and the developers have managed to inject a good level of unease into some of them. They’re good looking, too - The Evil Within manages to be very pretty, considering.

The Evil Within is a mixed bag. It doesn’t get truly scary, but rather resorts to frights and cheap shots to create unease in the player. It features some great settings and villains, but mixes them up with generic stuff we’ve seen tons of times before. It punishes the player mercilessly whenever it can, with inconsistency and simple extreme difficulty, not to mention very scarce resources. The controls sometimes feel great, and then get all clunky without warning. And while it has a decent premise, its plot manages to stumble and falter before long.

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Civilization: Beyond Eart GAMING

Changing the formula

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methodical, strategic approach required. Fleeing the calamity of a pollution-ravaged Earth, you will still be required to start your colony with a single city, explore, expand, exploit and (if you so choose) exterminate. Basic structures like the hexagonal grid are still in place, and resource management is much the same as before, though gold and happiness are now updated to energy and health. Likewise combat is will be instantly familiar, while diplomacy with your fellow colonists largely resembles your interactions with the A.I. in Civ 5.

All of this familiarity however is interwoven with some spectacular new additions. To begin with, players are given the option to customise their start by choosing from a choice of sponsors, cargo, passengers and vessel, each bringing a small but perceptible benefit. It isn’t until you touch down on the planet however that you will begin to notice just how truly alien the world of Beyond Earth is. The landscape

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he 4X subgenre has a rather unique position in gaming. Whereas almost all the other early progenitors of today’s genres have either diminished or drastically altered their form, by and large 4X games have remained relatively popular whilst still playing in a manner fairly reminiscent of their earlier ancestors. Of them all though the Civilisation series has always set the bar, and 2010’s Civ 5 introduced us to perhaps the most refined incarnation of 4X gaming to date. Now, for the first time since Alpha Centauri, Firaxis have finally seen fit to once again journey into the final frontier, and Civilization: Beyond Earth introduces more than enough new features to catch the eye of any fan.

Of course, Beyond Earth is still a Civilization game, and veteran players shouldn’t experience much difficulty in the transition from earthling to extra-terrestrial, with the same

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the introduction of the technology web. Filled with appropriately sci-fi sounding names such as mechatronics and protogenetics, its non-linear nature provides a far broader freedom in your technological expansion than you would otherwise suspect, though it requires some serious study of the in-game help to fathom. Your choice of research will feed into the affinity system, which is perhaps the largest change in the game. Selecting from harmony, supremacy or purity (i.e. alien-lovers, techjunkies or earth racists), each affinity will provide a drastically different approach to not only your development but your choice of victory, and your units’ strengths and abilities will change and improve as your progress down your chosen path. It creates a vastly different approach than we’ve seen before, and more than anything sets Civilisation: Beyond Earth apart from its predecessors. g

AT A GLANCE 4X Strategy

REVIEWED ON

While new-comers may feel a bit baffled by all the mechanics, Beyond Earth offers up a satisfying mix of old and new for experienced gamers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Firaxis 2K Megarom

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PC PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

84 87

by Lein Baart

is dotted with fantastical features like alien remnants and floating rocks, while persistent clouds of poisonous miasma occupy a large portion of the map. The bug-like natives of the planet are equally foreign, which, while for all intents unintelligent, serve as far stronger opposition than the barbarian camps of previous titles. These natural barriers mean that your early expansion will be far more conservative than before, and your interactions with other colonies are likewise hindered. This doesn’t mean uneventful however, as aliens will give you frequent moments of concern while your civilisation is still fragile, and the inclusion of quests (usually binary options which are triggered by events such as researching a technology or constructing a building) provide a welcome relief to the tedium of clicking the “next turn” button.

Actually growing your colony is greatly affected by

E M W A IE G EV R

Shadow War GAMING

In the good old days‌

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gathers up a massive arsenal of varied and awesome weapons. All of the weapons can be upgraded, too, meaning that towards the end of the game, the player will be in possession of a really incredible variety of guns that all feature alternate fire and a host of improvements. And then there’s always the trusty katana for variety…

Shadow Warrior has a surprisingly convoluted plot for a game that is paying homage to the past. It tells the story of Lo Wang (yes, it has the puerile humour of the old games as well), a guy who needs to get hold on an ancient sword named the Nobitsura Kage. But this blade is more than just a valuable antique, and as the story progresses, Wang finds out that he has become embroiled in a tale of angels, demons and ancient revenge.

Not that the player is likely to care. There is a lot

GAMING

hadow Warrior is, on the surface, a remake of a 3D Realms “classic” that takes on a strange mixture of oriental mythology and combines it with tons of enemies and lots of violence. That’s what the original game did, and it’s pretty much exactly what this modern version, developed by Flying Wild Hog, does too. It is, if you want to sum it up in a nutshell, an old fashioned first-person shooter with modern looks and physics.

The result is that the player – if they are old enough – can relive one of the FPS most enjoyable eras, in which levels were large, enemies plentiful and ammunition never scarce. Like games of old (and completely unlike many new games) Shadow Warrior never limits the player to the amount of weapons they can carry, meaning that through the game’s campaign the player

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But that also means that it is extremely anachronistic, and it’s non-stop action, pubescent humour and other oddities may not sit well with modern audiences, who have come to expect more from the first-person shooter genre. It will likely appeal more to those who want to relive the old days of endless enemy fragging, rather than to those that expect a game that demands a little more than just good aim and fast reactions. It is, ultimately, mindless violence in the way that we haven’t seen in video games for more than a decade now, and this is sure to be its biggest downfall.

With that said, Shadow Warrior can be immense amounts of fun, so long as you don’t expect too much from it. And if you can look past the school locker room humour, even better. It’s a decent homage in a time that might not really want one. g

AT A GLANCE First-person shooter

It’s fast paced, pretty and crammed with action... but Shadow Warrior is, ultimately, an anachronistic game that may not appeal to modern audiences.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Flying Wild Hog Namco Bandai Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

18+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

REVIEWED ON

PS4 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

76 91

by Walt Pretorius

of exploring to do in the massive levels (which are sometimes a little too large) and there is even more fighting to do. Enemies are generally extremely thick on the ground, and the game follows the ancient formula of ‘fight, explore, fight, explore, fight some more’ that was a mainstay in first person shooters in the ‘90s.

And just like those games, Shadow Warrior is about all-out action. There is no finesse or stealth required; just a quick trigger finger will do. And yet, character progression is surprisingly deep, with numerous options for building a stronger Lo Wang available to the player.

The game is incessantly fast paced, and never really lets up too much on the blast-o-rama that it starts out with.

With tons of action and a strong reverence for the roots of first-person shooters, Shadow Warrior is the game the Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be.

I

92

REVIEWED ON Infuriating, frustrating, maddening and utterly addictive, Spelunky is the most fun punishment around.

Rouge-like platform

PS4 PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

GENRE

AT A GLANCE

GAMING Bound of flame

Dead again!

PLATFORMS

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Mossmouth Various Online

PARENTAL ADVISORY

7+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY Hard-Core Medium Casual

Score

Spelunky

80

by Rob Edwards

am not a fan of rogue like games. I find them far too frustrating. And while the classification of Spelunky as a rogue like title may be a little tenuous, its punishing dynamics fit the bill perfectly. So why is it, then, that I cannot put it down?

The premise behind Spelunky is that an Arabian guide brings an explorer to a bunch of Mayan ruins hidden in the desert. OK, so the setting Is pretty messed, but it stops being important after around 30 seconds. The explorer gets trapped within the ever shifting walls of these ruins, and simply has to survive the journey through them. It sounds simple enough, and if all you did was just that, it would be fine.

But the developers behind this torturous little gem know what makes gamers tick, and by adding damsels to rescue, treasure to gather, enemies to fight and random underground shops to visit, the temptation to spend more time in a level than necessary is never far off.

And if you die, you go back to the start.

And you will die. A lot.

Sometimes so cheaply it feels like you’re in the bargain basement of death. See, the randomised nature of the game means that traps and pitfalls are often so directly and brutally arrayed in your path that death, quite frankly, is inevitable. At least rescuing damsels restored some life after each level, but even that can be a daunting task.

Spelunky is frustratingly fantastic. It’s a simple, extremely addictive title that is well worth the effort – if you’re going to be able to keep calm playing it. Online leader boards adds a little competition to the deal, too. g

Spelunky

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E M W A IE G EV R

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition Back to the mean streets

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on PC, there are some tweaks that are good, and the inclusion of all DLC in the title is a great bonus, as it adds significantly not only to the overall play time, but also to things like costumes and collectibles.

If you have only ever played the previous version on the Xbox 360 or PS3, or haven’t played Sleeping Dogs at all, you’re in for a treat. And perhaps that’s the best way to look at this title – as an upgraded console version. And, as such, there are a number of changes the really do improve the experience. Vehicle physics, for example, have been overhauled, and while the changes may not be immediately apparent, driving around Hong Kong’s now more populated streets is a tad easier than it was before.

The biggest change, needless to say, comes in the graphics department. Improved textures, better

GAMING

hen Sleeping Dogs first hit shelves around two years ago, it brought players crashing into the world of Wei Shen, an undercover cop trying to break into the seedy underbelly of Hong Kong’s crime syndicates. It’s setting was fresh and, while there was a lot of similarities between it and other open world games, it managed to deliver an experience that was rich and rewarding. The release of the Definitive Edition, however, may seem a little bit of a push. It is quite a lot older than the bulk of other games reworked for PS4 and Xbox One, and players may well wonder of it does the trick.

Simply put, placing the Definitive Edition next to older console versions shows a lot of improvement in this new release. Comparing it to the original PC release… not so much. If you haven’t played it before

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around for a while, and even the DLC that is included has been available before. The answer to that is not quite that simple. Yes, this does feel a bit like Square Enix are trying to pull a cash-in move with one of their better titles rereleased for the next gen consoles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if something like Deus Ex showed up too. And that is a bit annoying, because it feels a little like exploitation. However, if you haven’t played Sleeping Dogs before, there are two simple truths: it is a game well worth playing, and this version is the one to play (provided, of course, you own a new console). The developers have done a great job in bringing it up to speed, and it will provide you with many hours of enjoyment and challenge. The choice, ultimately, is yours… but if you haven’t played it before, you should. g

AT A GLANCE Action Adventure

It’s a decent reworking of the original, with all DLC included and a handful of improvements thrown in.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

United Front Square Enix Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

18+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

REVIEWED ON

x0 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

80 95

by Walt Pretorius

lighting… even things like volumetric smoke have all been added to this version, made possible thanks to the power of the better hardware that the PS4 and Xbox One are sporting.

All in all, it’s a much improved experience, and one that still delivers the challenging, entertaining game dynamics that made the original such a decent game. The added value of the DLC helps, too, and some of it is really great fun. Exploring Hong Kong, performing missions and favours, getting into brawls and letting lose with guns (when you can find these rarities in Hong Kong) all combine with a convoluted and well told narrative to make this Definitive Edition well worth playing for fans and newcomers.

The real question is whether it is worth the full price tag that has been attached to it. After all, it’s been

E M W A IE G EV R

MX vs ATV: Supercross GAMING

A little bit dirty‌

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that the developers left physics completely out of the mix, though. The right stick control of the rider attitude is still there, and is crucial for tightening up fast turns and orienting the bike properly for landing. However, this later part, as well as precharging the bike over jumps, feels a bit clunky. Getting it just right is a massive feat, and one that many simply may not have the patience for.

A big thing in Supercross is busting out all kinds of sweet tricks while racing. Airborne antics are a great crowd pleaser. But, truth be told, the system for that particular aspect of this game is far too complex to bother with. Add to this the fact that the game offers no tutorial, and the player will need to spend a lot of time figuring out how exactly it works. It’s a big oversight, and one that takes a little of the joy out of the game.

Additionally, the game’s modes are extremely

GAMING

otorcycle games are - as we’ve said so many times before – tricky affairs to get right. So often we get a game that screams out about improved physics and all that kind of exciting stuff, only to find that the developers, once again, missed the target just a little.

MX vs ATV: Supercross doesn’t pretend to be technically superior in that way. In fact, it never claims to be the be-all and end-all of motorcycle racing games. Instead, it promises the player lots of action, across 17 tracks, astride an MX bike or ATV quad.

And it’s a good thing that the game doesn’t make promises about realistic physics, because there has been something of a step backwards in this department for the franchise. The result is a fun, arcade style racer in which speed is everything. Not

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It sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but, quite frankly, there is still a lot of fun to be had here.

Perhaps this is a case of being a stop-gap while the franchise makes the move to next generation consoles. It certainly looks ready to, because some of the polish that we have seen in previous MX vs ATV titles – particularly visually – is not here.

It implies that the developers did this one in the background. However, if you can look past some of the idiosyncrasies that Supercross brings to the table, you will find an often challenging, enjoyable dirt racer. The tracks offer great variety, and the five series and varied vehicles tie in to that quite nicely.

While it feels like a bit of a step backwards, it’s not a massive one… it might just be that half step required before a massive leap forward. Here’s hoping. g

AT A GLANCE Racing

REVIEWED ON

It feels a bit like a stop gap... perhaps the developers are preparing for a big jump into next gen?

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Rainbow Nordic Games Apex Interactive

PARENTAL ADVISORY

3+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

X360 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

74 99

by Alex Scanlon

simplified. Career mode, for example, is nothing more than a selection of races across a particular class. There are things to unlock, sure, but all of these races and unlocks can be accessed through the single race mode too, which makes the career seem a bit redundant. There is no back story or motivation within the career mode, which is yet another oversight.

And yet the game allows for both customisation of vehicles and rider apparel. It’s really strange that there is this depth here, but not in other areas.

And then there’s the AI. It’s got a weird level of elasticity… opponents will zoom ahead of you, and then cruise along at slow speeds which are easy to reel in. It’s almost as though they don’t want to beat you, they just want to remind you that they are there.

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F1 2014 Spin out

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year’s release of F1, because (quite frankly) it feels like a rushed bit of lip-service, rather than a release that really advances the franchise. And that’s a little disappointing, really.

Yes, there have been changes. The most notable of these is the inclusion of the new engine standard that has been introduced to F1 racing. The V8s are gone, now replaced with grunty V6 turbo engines that can be tricky to control.

This adds a significantly new feel to the game in terms of feel.

Another new addition makes the game much more accessible. After an initial test lap, the player is given suggestions on difficulty levels and driving assists, rather than going through the whole academy thing. The difficulty levels also make it much easier for players to get somewhere, thanks to an AI that can be dumbed right

GAMING

odemasters have been making F1 games for a long time now and, just with any annualised sporting franchise, they sometimes face periods when it seems unclear where to go next. But here’s the thing… we have a whole new console generation out there and, despite us getting the Xbox One later here in South Africa, this generation has been out for some time.

And the generation was announced some time before launch, too. So why, then, when Codemasters have this massive potential for taking this well-loved franchise and really building it up to new heights, have they apparently ignored the Xbox One and PS4 in favour of the older versions of both? It makes very little sense.

One possible explanation is that they are busy working hard on getting things just right for the new consoles.

That argument could very well be supported by this

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of F1 feels decidedly dated. Even the graphics don’t really come up to par, even for a game on previous generation hardware. While the inclusion of new cars and some of the popular modes from previous iterations do provide some enjoyment, and the overall improved accessibility means that more people can take on this simulation, the whole package feels flatter than it should. And that’s a bad thing, because this license is extremely valuable, considering how popular the sport is the world over. But it would require a true enthusiast to hook up their old hardware (if they’ve moved to newer consoles, and if they still even have the older devices) for this title.

Hopefully next year’s edition of the game will make the leap to Xbox One or PS4, and show off a great new engine.

That really can be the only reason that Codemasters didn’t lavish the attention on F1 2014 that they should have. g

AT A GLANCE GENRE

Racing

REVIEWED ON

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Codemasters Codemaster Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

3+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

PS3 PLATFORMS

This iteration of the popular driving simulation feels like an afterthought.

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

70 101

by Rob Edwards

down, and elements like unlimited rewinds.

Also new is the way in which the career works. Instead of having to slog through teams to get to the top, the player can now pretty much join any team. It’s great for enthusiasts, but it does seem to remove the achievement of reaching for higher goals.

And then they removed the Classic mode entirely. Being able to get to grips with older cars in the previous release was a lot of fun, and the omission of this mode from the latest title seems a little strange.

When you add it all together, you end up with a title that feels somewhat lazy in its execution. This, combined with the fact that there is no next generation support for the game, leads one to wonder about where exactly the franchise is going? Will there be a big change next year – I, for one, certainly hope so, because this particular version

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Lords of the Fallen GAMING

Get ready to grind

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In the game you play the part of a prisoner, released to help save the world from invading demons. That’s pretty much as deep as the plot goes, and the personalities of the characters aren’t much deeper. Initially you will be able to choose between fighter, cleric or rogue classes, each with four powerful associated skills. A second play through will allow you to add another class, and so on.

The whole character progression things is driven by a risk-reward system. Checkpoints are dotted around the maps, at which you will be able to replenish life and potions, as well as “bank” any experience gained to that point. However, if you don’t stash the experience, you gain higher experience point modifiers. And if you die while holding a whole bunch of experience, a “ghost” will appear. Find the ghost, and you get the lost experience back… but it’s on a timer, so if you take too long in

GAMING

f you’re one of those players who turned away from Dark Souls in disgust – because you wanted to have more fun than the brutal punishment in those games delivered – then you might well want to turn your attention to Lords of the Fallen. The game admittedly borrows heavily from the Dark Souls games, but it makes the overall experience much less frustrating and more approachable. For some, that just won’t do… but for those who don’t gain gratification out of endlessly reworking the same sections over and over again, it will be a bit of a blessing.

Not that you won’t grind in Lords of the Fallen; you will, as you try and build up skill and power levels to where they should be to take on the next boss. And you will repeat areas more than once. But you’ll do less of it, and the rewards will be far greater.

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with runes. This includes a magical gauntlet that takes care of the game’s ranged combat requirement.

While the earlier stages of the game can lead to some frustration, Lords of the Fallen is a surprisingly fun title to get to grips with. It is nowhere near as challenging as Dark Souls, as said before, and the player is allowed to develop the sense that they actually are a hero as their character’s abilities grow. The risk-reward system is fun too, but it does seem a little redundant once the character becomes powerful enough that banking experience no longer seems necessary. That snowballs into larger rewards, and more power for the character.

Still, it’s an enjoyable title that is good looking and plays beautifully, complete with a measured approach to combat that requires more thought than button mashing. g

AT A GLANCE Action adventure

It’s more forgiving than Dark Souls, but Lords of the Fallen still provides a decent challenge.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Deck 13 City Interactive Apex Interactive

PARENTAL ADVISORY

16+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

REVIEWED ON

PS4 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

80 105

by Walt Pretorius

getting to it, you lose it.

The main issue with the game is that, in later stages, the character becomes a true tank. That means that while it might take a few tries with earlier bosses, later on you can pretty much made through them like a super-soldier. It diminishes the challenge of the title somewhat, but there is still lots of fun to be had. The difficulty level ramps up with a New Game + play through, but later levels once again become a little easier as you add significantly to your character’s powers.

Lords of the Fallen is beautifully presented, with great graphics across the board. Best of all are the varied, often disturbing enemies, as well as the clunky equipment that the player finds along the way. And there is a lot of equipment, much of which can be modified

E M W A IE G EV R

NBA 2k15 GAMING

Head and shoulders above the res

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up. This shows in almost every aspect of NBA 2K15. And the most obvious place to spot it is in the looks. This game is truly beautiful, with fantastically smooth animations that will have you believing that you’re watching a real broadcast at times, rather than playing a game. That, combined with accurate character models which respond in ways that their real life counterparts would, makes for a visual feast. The presentation, too, using the TV style that surfaced in last year’s game, is equally excellent.

The controls are also great, with things like a power meter making a welcome appearance in the title. The AI has been beefed up a bit though, particularly defensively, and it will take some work to master this title.

In addition, certain game modes have been improved, too. The best example of these is the MyPlayer mode.

This time around, instead of being a top draft player, the

GAMING

hile basketball might not be widely played in South Africa – at least not at a level that gets massive sponsors, TV coverage and massive prize packages – it continues to be arguably the most popular of the American sports here on the southern tip. Perhaps it is our fascination with American culture, or perhaps it is the massive amounts of fanfare and exposure that top basketball players get. Whatever the case may be, it’s surprisingly popular in a country that plays mainly rugby and cricket, and as such South Africa becomes a fairly fertile ground for games like 2K’s latest foray onto the court, NBA 2K15.

2K have, in many ways, grabbed true dominance when it comes to basketball games. Their only true rival in this arena is EA, but while that particular giant may dominate in things like football and golf, 2K has basketball sewn

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rewarding experience, should you wish to play the part of a team manager.

NBA 2K15 makes for a great single player experience.

It’s the online multiplayer aspect of the game that sees things go more than a little pear-shaped. Just like last year, 2K have managed to not deliver great servers as yet.

This may change, with time, but for the moment, online multiplayer is best avoided, because it will lead to a lot of frustration thanks to lag, dropping and a host of other issues.

That doesn’t break the game, though, and hopefully 2K will be able to get things ship-shape before too long. In the meantime, the excellent graphics, great control and sheer brilliance in recreating basketball in a digital format makes NBA 2k15 stand out among the crowd… pretty much like a real-life basketball player would. g

AT A GLANCE Sports

REVIEWED ON

Although the multiplayer is (currently) broken, this still makes for an awesome single player experience.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

2K Sports 2K Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

3+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS4 PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

82 109

by Alex Scanlon

actions starts out right at the bottom, and the player will need to guide their character through the ins and outs of a long career. Advice is also given to the player by reallife team members of whatever team they represent. It’s a nice touch, even though basketball players aren’t really noted for their voice acting skills. Still, having a player that has taken you under their wing speak to you feels kind of special.

You can even map your face onto your player, if you have the right cameras attached to your hardware. But the face mapping generally results in monstrosities, so it’s probably best to just avoid it altogether.

While the franchise mode is very lacklustre this time out, the other mode that got a great treatment is MyGM. Everything from player Reponses to XP while simulating games has been reworked, resulting in a much more

E M W A IE G EV R

Sherlock Ho Crimes & Pun GAMING

Look closer‌ 110

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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments

olmes: nishments

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crammed with clues and evidence that could lead in multiple directions. And this, really, is where Crimes and Punishments shows its only real weakness. Much of the evidence gathered is circumstantial. The player needs to combine clues to arrive at deductions, but the combination of this less-than-damning evidence with the fact that there are multiple combination sets means that the player will, at some times at least, be guessing the right outcome. Even the most thorough of investigations will rarely turn up ironclad proof of a suspect’s guilt, making the determination of who the guilty party is very difficult. You can replay your final determination (thankfully) and can recombine different threads of evidence. It takes a lot of head scratching to find the right culprit, and the game treats Holmes word as law. Send the wrong man to prison, and his fate is sealed as far as the game is concerned. This can be slightly

GAMING

here is something thoroughly enjoyable about playing detective in video games, uncovering evidence and piecing clues together to create a final picture of what happened, who did what to whom, and so on. And there are no detectives quite as accomplished and down-right smart as Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments isn’t the first adventure in which we have had the ability to play the super-sleuth. But it can unequivocally be stated that, to date, it is the best. The game will take the player through six convoluted murder cases, running the gamut from death by harpoon right through to death by Ancient Egyptian ritual. And all the while Holmes, controlled by the player, snoops, searches and condescends his way to conclusions.

All of the cases are wonderfully complex, and are

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makes the job fairly easy. Perhaps, at times, a little too easy. While not all clues are obvious, they are generally highlightd. In addition, Holmes has a “detective vision” that allows him to see things others may not. It’s a handy tool, but the game will tell you when to use it – which takes a little bit of the challenge away. That said, some of the clues can be dastardly to find, so there is something of a balance.

Overall, Crimes and Punishments offers a great experience to those who like investigating. And, as an added bonus, it looks absolutely fantastic, with tiny details in the environment and characters not only bringing the game to life, but sometimes forming part of an investigation. It’s not a fast paced action game, but it is highly entertaining, engrossing and interesting, if you’re into getting to the bottom of things. g

AT A GLANCE Adventure

REVIEWED ON

A great game for those who love investigating, but the heavy reliance on circumstantial evidence can muddy deductions somewhat.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Frogwares Focus Apex Interactive

PARENTAL ADVISORY

16+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

XO PLATFORMS

GENRE

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

Score

80 113

by Walt Pretorius

mitigated by a morality mechanic which allows the player if the culprit should be prosecuted or absolved, but this has very little bearing on the game overall.

As, it seems, does getting cases just right. The six stories feel a lot like individual chapters, rather than a collection of events that tie into an overarching narrative.

That could also be seen as a flaw.

But the truth of it is that unravelling the cases is so much fun. None of that really matters much, because digging up the evidence and creating the links (however tenuous they may be) is the real joy of this game. And it gives the player all the tools to do so. Whether it be engaging in a mini-game brought about by chemical analysis or picking a lock (or a number of other opportunities) or digging through the scene of a crime and interrogating suspects, Crimes and Punishments

E M W A IE G EV R

Pac Man & the Ghostly Adventures GAMING

Eat it all!

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Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2

by Rob Edwards

AT A GLANCE GENRE

Platform

REVIEWED ON

It’s decidedly run-of-the-mill, and doesn’t do much to distinguish itself as a modern platformer.

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Vicious Cycle Namco Bandai Megarom

PARENTAL ADVISORY

7+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY

Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS3 PLATFORMS

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ac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is based on the animated series of the same name. So, in short, it’s a game based on a series which is based on a game. You might think that the extra filter in there has a negative effect on the game and, to some degree, it does. This game might be aimed at a much younger audience, but it feels a little hollow.

Sure, it will offer youngsters challenges like choosing the right kind of modification to the Pac character (rubber for higher bouncing, magnetic for metal walls and so forth) and its dynamics are quite fun, but they never enter into the realms of pushing any kind of limit. This is, essentially, a run of the mill platformer that never really does anything exceptional. The only real variations come in on-the-rails shooter sections and a few welcome boss fights.

This counts for the plot, too. While the action can get pretty intense and satisfying, there really isn’t much narrative depth to tie things together. And with kids these days enjoying more complex tales, that leaves Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 on the back foot.

As far as presentation goes, it’s all about bright colours and bold images. This does hide lower texture quality a bit, but this title looks a bit more dated than it should.

Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 may provide some fun for youngsters, and its mindless chomping and easy combat make for a fairly enjoyable distraction. But the franchise is showing cracks, and Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 doesn’t do much to compete with many of the more prominent platformers out there. g

PC X360 X0 PS3 PS4 Wii U PSV 3DS AND iOS

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has many faults, forgiving gamers will discover some great dynamics hidden within it.

Physics

PS4

PLATFORMS

Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Frima Studio’s Microsoft Microsoft

PARENTAL ADVISORY

3+ gamecca65

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

ACCESSIBILITY Hard-Core Medium Casual

Score

REVIEWED ON While Bound by Flame

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AT A GLANCE

Chariot Bound of flame

Over the mountains and under the sea

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by Charlie Fripp

Chariot

aming is a bit of a weird thing: it’s sometimes the simplest of games that will give you the most enjoyment – and Frima Studio’s Chariot is just one such game. Released as part of Microsoft’s monthly Games with Gold package, the free title is simple, but don’t underestimate its difficulty.

The little physics-based game sees gamers trying to navigate a chariot from one point of the map to the other, which doesn’t sound that hard. But once they have to haul it up steep hills and speed down slopes while staying on top, that it becomes very challenging.

And there is a bit of a story attached to it as well. The chariot actually isn’t a chariot at all, but it would have sounded incredibly sombre if the quirky game was called Funeral Wagon – as that is exactly what it is.

The princess and her fiancé are on their way to bury the King, and as they go along they need to pick up a wealth of gems to bury the King with. It is this journey that the players will make, but there is nothing deathly about it – it’s actually the opposite.

The multitude of levels are colourful and the humour is incredibly sharp, and playing for a number of minutes one soon forgets that you are dragging the dead body of a King behind you. While it can be played by one player, it has the ability for a second player to drop in and help with the quests. For a bigger reward of gems, there are certain spots that can only be accessed with two players.

It’s a great little game, and even if it wasn’t free, it’s still worth picking up. g

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Legacy: E.T. the

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E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

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ost games whose names have stuck with us through the years are remembered for being pioneers, either in a genre or for the industry as whole. There are however a certain few titles whose infamy has extended far beyond their time, whose failure was so spectacular that they stand as testament of what a game should not be. Of them all though, none have ever had the same affect that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had on the industry, which to this day is known as probably the worst game ever made.

GAMING

Why was he created?

E.T. was always meant as cashin, pure and simple. With the movie having broken box office records, Atari, who were the dominant force in the video game market in 1982, quickly entered into negotiations with Steven Spielburg and Universal Pictures to obtain the rights to the film, and by the end of July the deal had been signed and Howard Scott Warshaw, the creator of the best-selling Yar’s Revenge, had been contracted to create the game. However, in what would be the first in a litany of bad decisions, development deadlines were set for September 1, leaving Warshaw only five and half weeks to develop the game from start to finish. Envisioning an imaginative take on the movie, despite Spielburg’s disapproval, Warshaw’s adaptation saw players guide E.T. into pits in the ground in order to retrieve pieces of an interstellar phone, with the end goal being to contact his home planet and escape Earth.

While the concept itself was not without merit, especially given the limitations of the hardware at the time, the rushed development saw many bugs and flaws in design creep into the final product, a fact that was not picked up as Atari chose to skip audience testing.

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Why do we care?

Considered mind-numbingly repetitive and exceedingly difficult, especially with regards to the sections where players would have to fall down holes then levitate out, E.T. was met with almost universal dislike upon its release. From graphics to gameplay to plot, the game frankly failed to live up to its source material, though this was mostly attributed to the development time that Warshaw had been allotted. While this alone would probably have been enough for E.T. to earn its place the history books, it had ramifications that extended far beyond what anyone at the time could have imagined.

What truly sets E.T. apart is the fact that it was one of the biggest contributors to the video game crash of 1983, an event that nearly saw the industry destroyed. Atari had predicted that the game would be a massive commercial success, and as such had produced millions of cartridges in preparation for the Christmas season. While E.T. actually sold over 1.5 million copies, the eventual low demand for the game, coupled with an immense amount of returns and order cancellations, saw Atari post a loss of US$356 million the following year, and by 1984 the company was sold off. The perceived low quality of games being produced caused massive damage to the reputation of the industry, and video games were written off as a passing fad.

While the NES would eventual resuscitate gaming three years later, E.T. will forever remain an abject lesson in the dangers of hype and overconfidence. g

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Looking up afte t’s no real secret that the South African video game industry (like many others) has had a rough time in 2014.

The devaluation of local currency, combined with tighter consumer spend and numerous other factors, have resulted in declines in sales year-on-year. But that doesn’t mean all kinds of doom for South African gamers, as members of the local industry valiantly try to get us the best deals they can. And there are some other rays of hope too… we spoke to Mario dos Santos, the CEO of Ster Kinekor Entertainment, to see where we stand, and what we can expect from the local

GAMING

PlayStation distributor.

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State of the Industry

er a rough year

by Walt Pretorius

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und a spoke was aro d e w e tim st la launche GM: The e PS4 had just gs looking th d n a , o g a r yea thin frica. How are here in South A e moment? t th for PS4 here a od. It’s been an

ly very go MdS: Forunate units out into rms of getting te in we ar ye g in amaz ahead of where ay w e m so re e’ things, it has the market. W like with most , ut B . be to is under expected e the consumer us ca be g, in ng ’s a been challe 00 – whether it 60 R er ov d en t. But pressure. To sp TV – it’s difficul a or , ne O x reduced the PS4, or and Xbo entum. We’ve om m of t lo a We’re in a we have d some value. de ad ve e’ w e, price a littl good space.

GM: Back then, stock levels of the PS4 were problematic. Has that been resolved?

MdS: It was a messy situation – we don’t ever want to go through that again! It was hell. But we’ve found some consistency in our supply chain.

However, sadly there is a shortage world-wide. The numbers coming through from Europe is crazy. That puts supply under pressure. But we have enough to hold us through the festive season.

it has been a very GM: The word is that eo game industr y this difficult year for the vid perception? ur year. Has that been yo cs caught us a little

GAMING

nami MdS: Some of the dy we n stuff is positive, but off-guard. The next ge gen xt ystems – older and ne thought the two ecos e e, but they haven’t. Th – would live side by sid dy ea alr ch has pretty mu new release consumer lie; And the numbers don’t migrated to next gen. arye ound 13% on software the market is down ar and uble digits is tough… do wn do be To ar.

-ye on of continued devaluation then there’s been the ent nt co of tely there’s a lot the Rand. But fortuna way st xt gen stuff is the be coming. Some truly ne a should give the market to describe it. So that rket ma e th in e the Xbox On bit of impetus. Having g llin te e ar e the more people will also help, becaus e… lik e sharing visuals and th others about gaming, eeding. better chance of succ that means we have a

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GM: South Africa is generally very st in selling catalogue (older) games, but is not a lot of catalogue content for nex generation consoles yet. Has that affec market negatively?

MdS: That’s a fair assessment. Typically, year, since 2011, catalogue titles have bee like for like. But new release is contributin this year than back catalogue.

GM: When the high amou nt titles we’re seeing over the of ne ne hit catalogue status, will we xt fe see a Md

S: Yes, there will be. For the cons spend R799 or R899 on a new release decision to make in most instances. Fr we will already see a lot of content at points.

GM: Will that have a positive effe market next year?

MdS: Yes, certainly. The cost of own come down. Currently, if you’re getting and a Dualshock and a new release ga looking between R8000 and R9000. W cost of ownership is a little less, things feasible option.

GM: We have had an odd year rele wise. The middle of the year was qui normal, and now we’re seeing a vast of triple-A content about to hit shelv South African context, do you see th negative or a positive?

MdS: It’s a little bit of both. But if I wa it’s more of a negative. The consumer is be hard pressed to spend across severa I think the winners will still be fine, but t going to be some losers. Unfortunately very little control over release dates. It an issue.

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State of the Industry

trong there xt cted the

GM: So we get dictated to by an industry that doesn’t necessarily un derstand the South African market?

MdS: That’s exactly right.

The spend versus consumer income in most territories – developed countries like the UK – is different. The cost of a piece of software, as a fun ction of what people earn, is far less than what it is here. It’s less of an investment. Someone can buy more than one game there without thinking too much about it.

GM: Here’s a possibly sensitive topic – the increase of PSN costs that happened recently.

There has been a bit of an outcry surrounding that; have you seen this translate into PSN consumption?

MdS: It’s still early days. I guess it was more about the communication than the actual increase.

The truth of it is, it was a realignment of pricing with other markets. What up[set the consumer was to say a “slight increase. It wasn’t slight, it was fairly dramatic. From our side, being local distributors, we have little say on the local pricing.

But we still see value in the service for multiple platforms, including the Vita.

GM: Have you seen an inc rease in PS Vita sales because of its comp atibility with the PS4?

MdS: Not to the extent tha t we expected. The attachment level is there, but it once again has to do with pricing. Cost of ow nership is still high.

GM: In clo

sing, what can we expect from Ster Kinekor, as a game dis tributor, within the next few months?

MdS: Something that we’re very excited about is PSTV. The guys that ha ve migrated to PS4 will get the ability to remote pla y in their house without moving their PS4. It’s a go od innovation for the market.

From an overall Ster Kinek or perspective, we’re constantly in discussions with our publisher base to bring as much value to this market as possible.

We’re banging on doors to bring better deals for the South African consum er. I am pretty confident that we’ll have some excitin g initiative, from a value perspective, in the year ah ead. g

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I

Ramjet’s rantality

am old enough to remember the early days of the internet, chatting via bulletin boards and such. My, how our little wonder has grown. Now it’s a massive behemoth, straddling the globe. And it’s taking a dump on humanity.

That steaming pile of faeces comes in the form of anonymity. And, like any turd, it creates a fertile breeding ground for all kind of spineless morons to try and show off how big their balls are, even though they’re too afraid to ever do so in person. I use a male term because, by and large, it is a lamentable fragment of the male population who are doing this. They are a bunch of witless cowards who probably didn’t get the right kind of love growing up, and are too socially maladjusted to be anything near normal. I am talking, of course, of that joyful little group of flatulent windbags and shit-for-brains that call themselves GamersGate.

What started out as a

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movement that questioned the ethics of game journalism (incorrectly, it turns out, based on a bunch of fallacies and trumped-up accusations) has devolved into a misogynistic group of trolls who target any woman who dares to have a voice in the gaming community.

I seem to recall the idea that having female gamers around was considered cool.

If a girl played games, she was awesome. And now, this. Maybe it’s because these guys still can’t get laid, even with all the women in gaming these days.

And so, cloaked in the comfortable, irresponsible anonymity given them by the internet, they issue death threats, rape threats and a host of other completely vile acts. There are many theories about why they do this, one being that they don’t want the status quo of their gaming experience changed, particularly not by women. Can you handle that? It just proves that they are a bunch of

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BY rAMJET

Say What?

Neanderthals, because they are so opposed to evolution.

But more worrying is the fact that they think they have a right to speak to people the way they do.

And even more worrying is that all gamers are getting painted with a particularly sticky brush because these idiots don’t know how to behave properly.

So, the main reason for my tirade is to not only point out that they are a bunch of backwards fools, without a defined leadership or even set goals. It is also to appeal (yeah, can you believe it?) to the world at large; please, please, please… don’t think that just because a guy is a gamer that he is part of this misguided movement. Most of us – the vast majority of us – still think that chicks who dig games are cool.

And ladies, if you should ever come across one of these thugs in real life, a swift knee to the nuts might show him that his balls aren’t as impressive as he thinks they are. g

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A Calculated Bet

HARDWARE Reviews 136 138 140 142

Asus ROG G20 Gaming PC Logitech G910 Orion Spark Mechanical Gaming Keyboard SteelSeries Siberia Raw Prism Gaming Headset Asus Xonar Essence One MKII Muses Edition Amplifier

RegularS 144 148

Internet Security

COLUMN 150

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A new approach to findi

LIFESTYLE

It is always important for any company to get exposure in the right arena.

Sports teams have long offered opportunities for companies to promote their brands through sponsorships, and eSports is no different. Recently hardware distributor Syntech, responsible for, among others, the Crucial , Ballistix and Seasonic brands in South Africa, took a unique approach to find a team

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ing eSports sponsorship

to back. In the months leading up to rAge, Syntech ran a competition to find the South African eSports team that would best suit their needs. The winning team was xTc, who then took part at the Do Gaming League competition at rAge 2014. We spoke to Syntech’s Marketing Manager, Kimberley Blake, about this unique approach in finding a team to sponsor.

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GM: What are the criteria you look for in potential sponsorships?

KB: At the end of the competition there were several areas and criteria that we looked at. Is this an inspirational clan and will they be competitive? Do they have a good following on social media and did they take the time to prepare a detailed proposal? Was their proposal professional? Are they going to be excited about Syntech and did they believe in the actual products which were being sponsored by our suppliers?

Do we think they are going to work with us and support us in the long run? And we obviously also looked at the team itself and how they have carried themselves over the time that they have been together

LIFESTYLE

GM: Your approach to finding a team to sponsor this year was quite different to what other companies do. Explain the thinking behind your approach, as well as how the selection process worked‌ KB: We felt that the industry is extremely competitive so we decided to only invite clans who had pre-qualified for the Telkom DGL competition.

The sponsored products are of the highest quality and performance so we felt that we wanted clans entering who would really benefit from receiving exceptional hardware which, in turn, will give them that extra edge in the gaming arena. We were in fact very excited to receive 16 clan proposals. The application process also helped us to better understand the needs of the gaming community, this enables us to further improve on our product offering and offer better support in future.

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GM: What was it that most impressed you about xTc, the team that won your sponsorship?

KB: Besides the fact that they met almost all our specified criteria, we felt that their ethics and values along with presenting themselves in such a professional manner.

The fact that they are one of the longer standing clans in South Africa added in their good stead. And, of course, their sheer excitement and energy along with the fact that they loved the products that were being sponsored by Crucial, Ballistix and Seasonic

GM: How can sponsorships like this help the South African video game market?

KB: I think that there has been very little sponsorship of actual hardware and equipment within the gaming arena and this does not allow for many clans to regularly upgrade and play with the best possible hardware, like memory, SSDs and PSUs; not to mention that it is extremely expensive to take a clan to competitions, especially if they are out of town. We feel it’s an important platform to give enthusiasts access to the latest components and for the community to experience products in action.

GM: Will we see initiatives like this again in future from Syntech?

KB: We would certainly like to see this initiative continue in 2015 and we are currently looking at some forward planning and ideas for the year ahead. We are also busy with new vendors to be able to offer a larger selection of gaming devices to market in 2015.

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GM: How do you feel about the current state of competitive video gaming in South Africa?

KB: This industry has a lot of potential for growth and we are at a point now where infrastructure is far less of a hurdle for us to compete globally. While we are optimistic about the future of the competitive PC gaming, we feel that there is a need for stronger leadership and more structure in the industry.

South Africa has no shortage of enthusiastic gamers but we need to build an environment for individuals to excel and compete at an international standard. If our teams are picked up on the international circuit, it’s likely that we will see more foreign interest and investment.

GM: Do you have any advice for teams that would like to approach sponsors?

KB: A sponsor is going to look at how a team conducts themselves, and that includes their professional manner and how they have performed in previous competitions and leagues. It is also important to have a good presentation and proposal done as this will allow a potential sponsor to access their performance and view stats and history of the team.

I really feel that Syntech, along with Crucial, Ballistix and Seasonic, backed the right team. xTc have a great following, and their entire clan marketed and promoted our sponsors and their products in an exceptional manner. Their spirit and the way that they support each other simply made them winners, even if they were disappointed with their result at the Telkom DGL Championships.

We are proud to have been part of the Xtc team.

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Syntech’s fresh approach and solid faith in South African gaming shows a great degree of forward thinking from the company. But how is sponsorship treating the winners? We took some time to speak to Stephen Fowler de Witt, team captain of xTc Black Legion, to find out what their experience has been since landing the Syntech sponsorship.

GM: What is most exciting about being sponsored by a company like Syntech?

SFdW: I would say it is the massive support given by the company. Syntech have been truly amazing, they are fully behind our team and believe in us and in the local growth of eSports. We are lucky to have them in our corner.

GM: What does it take to be a great competitive gamer?

SFdW: For any gaming title or sport, my answer would always be “practice, practice, practice”. Starting out in a new team is really exciting, but never give up. Learn from your losses and stick it through, hard work pays off. Try master the game and always be open to learning something new.

Remember, you either win, or you learn.

GM: Tell us about your experiences thus far as a Syntech sponsored team.

LIFESTYLE

SFdW: The experience has been amazing. From the awesome hardware that they supply us to the great team spirit, motivational messages and willingness to help the

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team in any way they can. I can only imagine how awesome it must be to do business with them. The company loves technology, they are extremely proud. We spent so much time just standing at the Syntech stand at the rAge expo discussing hardware and drooling over the monster PC they had set up. My team loves Syntech and I think the feeling is mutual.

GM: There was some controversy with this year’s DGL competition at rAge. What’s your take on what went down?

SFdW: No use crying over spilled milk, I guess. But there were certain things that took place that could be questionable. Two teams being allowed into the venue a day early was the biggest thing I would say, as it does give you an advantage, getting used to the table height and environment in a much calmer setting. But you can’t take a win away from anyone. This has been an amazing year at the championships. Teams were so closely matched that you could literally not make a proper prediction. There were tons of upsets. And also tons of gossip, I guess.

I feel my team did extremely well. We were 1st in summer leg, and 2nd in winter leg DGL. At the championships we won 3 of our 4 games and felt that would be enough to secure a top2 spot. But we ended up playing BVD (the champions of the previous 2 years) in a best of one single elimination game.

We usually play best of 3, but for this specific bracket it was only one map, one chance.

One mistake and you are out.

BVD played extremely well and managed to knock us out. We were hoping that it would be an xTc vs BVD final, but I guess gamecca65

there’s always next year.

I must say, even though it felt harsh and we felt a bit bruised, the team held their heads high and took the loss on the chin and moved on; I am very proud of them.

GM: Why do you believe that Syntech selected Xtc for sponsorship?

SFdW: I believe that Syntech sees us as a professional team, that present ourselves in a professional manner and that they would like to have associated with them. We have quite a large following and we are well known in the community. I myself also do a lot of work on the side to help the community grow with events and side tournaments. We at xTc are all about helping the sport grow in South Africa. I think Syntech shares the same vision.

GM: Any advice for gamers who want to get into the competitive scene?

SFdW: Go look into the Telkom Do Gaming league, and also ORENA. There are plenty of titles and platforms available for you to compete in. You never really know how good you are until you play against the best I guess.

Be open to learning and be willing to improve. If you are looking to join a team or just wanting to ask some advice, look on Facebook for your titles community (example search: Battlefield South Africa) and join. These groups are filled with thousands of competitive and aspiring gamers.

I also enjoy helping out starter teams. It’s all about getting more people involved. So if you are interested in gaming competitively, just do it. You won’t be sorry. g

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Asus ROG G20 Gaming PC

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by Walt Pretorius

he idea of a prebuilt PC is one that is still gaining traction here in South Africa, where we traditionally chose components and easy upgrading over preset systems. But those preset systems are changing fast – particularly with the view that gamers are now becoming a very strong target market for them. And just because they are ready built in the box doesn’t mean they don’t offer options.

That’s where Asus’ ROG G20 steps in. Not only is it a powerful gaming desktop right out of the box, but the consumer can find a healthy balance between power and price by selecting the components they want inside.

The G20 looks the part; it features a striking overall design that looks like it was lifted from the Death Star, which is accented by patterned red areas for a bit of extra predatory impact on the aesthetic side. It even features customisable lighting effects and an awesome symmetry that bellows “performance”. And it is all a surprisingly small package, with the chassis topping out at a meagre 12.5 litres.

The design also beautifully works in the numerous ports that the system uses. These include two front USB 3.0 ports and two back USB 3.0 ports (with another four USB 2.0 ports in the back for good measure). And there are all the expected graphics, networking and other necessaries, too.

But the real beauty of this system is what’s inside… or what the user chooses to be inside. There are a lot of options here: the CPU ranges from i3 4150 to i7479; graphics options run the gamut from Geforce GTX GT705 with 2GB RAM through to GTX780 with 3GB of RAM; 2.5 inch SSD options up to 256GB; 3.5 inch HDD up to 3TB; even the optical drive comes in MultiDVD burner, Blu-ray combo and BD writer flavours.

The unit we tested was a middle of the road option, with an i5 4460 CPU, GTX750 (2GB) GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB 8G SSD Hybrid storage solution.

What we found was a remarkable solution for PC users – particularly gamers – that delivers performance more than the sum of its parts implies. And aside from the great performance, we were also surprised at how quiet the unit is, particularly when idle.

The ROG G20 is certainly an example of great design and sensible approach from Asus. It demonstrates that this company understands gamers, not just in terms of performance requirements, but also as far as aesthetics and accessibility go. The G20 (and it’s smaller, console sized sibling, the G8, which we hope to have the opportunity to review soon) is packed with power and appeal, making it a great option for those wanting a brilliant prebuilt PC. g

AT A GLANCE: Summary

As a prebuilt PC option aimed at gamers, the G20 is an excellent solution.

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i3 4150 – i74790 CPU GTX GT705 – GTX780 GPU Up to 256GB SSD Up to 3TB HDD 4 USB 3.0 ports 4 USB 2.0 ports

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Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

G910

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ogitech are making a big push back into the gaming peripheral market, and they show a strong understanding that – in a space that has become increasingly competitive – they need to really stand out to get the attention they desire. We have seen a number of their new G series mouse devices over the last few months, and these indicate that their thinking is on the right track. But it is the G910 Orion Spark keyboard that truly indicates how far Logitech are willing to go to retake their position as a peripheral market leader.

Right off the bat, the G910 is nothing if not striking. It features bold lines and finishes that are extremely eye catching. But the real joy of this keyboard goes beyond how it looks.

First off, every key has some kind of contouring, with variations in that shaping making it possible (once you get used to it) to identify keyboard areas by feel along. The contouring also helps keep fingers securely in place. Some keys, like the nine macro keys, WADS keys and arrow keys, also feature additional graphics (beyond just the letters) to make quick identification easier. But perhaps most impressive is that every single key has customisable backlighting. Individual, customisable backlighting. That means you can take the time to colour code virtually every key with a different hue – a massive plus for quick visual identification of areas, or even individual keys. Each key is driven by Romer-G mechanical switches, which allow actuation a little faster than other switches do.

Another great feature is the ARX Dock. It sounds a lot fancier than what it is, really, because it is a place for your smartphone to stand. What makes it great, though, is that you can download the ARX Control app, and get game info displayed on your smartphone while gaming. That’s pretty nifty.

It’s a pretty chunky keyboard that comes with interchangeable palm rests, as well as a full set of media controls and the aforementioned nine macro keys (for a total of 18 macros over three sets, recordable on the fly). But, as with other products in the new G range, there are one or two spots that Logitech missed the mark. It’s a great keyboard, yes, responsive and comfortable.

But it doesn’t have integrated audio jacks.

It’s a really small thing, but that extra bit of cable management goes a long way. It also has no USB expansion ports – once again, a small thing, but quite possibly a feature that people look for in a keyboard.

Still, it really is a great device, and one of the best that we have seen from Logitech in recent years. It’s full of great ideas that hold a lot of promise for the future. g gamecca65

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Logitech G910 Orion Spark Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

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Summary Logitech have built some really great ideas and design elements into the Orion Spark.

Tech Specs: • • • • • • •

4 ink cartridge system Wireless function Print, scan, copy Double sided printing ePrinting Web connected

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AT A GLANCE:

SteelSeries

H C EW E T VI E R

TECHNOLOGY

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Raw

The simple approach…

versatile headset is always a great thing to have, particularly if you are gaming across multiple platforms.

To date, no one has produced a headset that manages to bridge the divide between PC, PS4 and Xbox One yet, but there are some out there that can be used with PC and PS4 (a much hardware friendlier console, when all is said and done). The biggest problem, though, is that they tend to cost and arm and a leg.

SteelSeries has an option that doesn’t tip the financial scales quite as much; it comes in the form of their Siberia Raw Prism headset, and like other SteelSeries Raw products, it strips away some of the potentially unneeded features and leaves behind just what is necessary.

The Raw Prism’s versatility ends there, though. Because it has a USB connector, it works fine for PC and PS4, but won’t be useable with any devices that make use of a 3.5mm interface.

The fairly generous cable also does not feature an in-line volume control. In fact, there is no volume control built into the Raw Prism, which can get a little irritating. The only control that it offers the user is a mic mute switch built into the left ear cup.

Additionally, the microphone is not a boom – rather, the mic is housed in a small protrusion on the left ear

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cup.

The over-ear cups and headband are generously padded and finished with a breathable fabric, which proves fairly comfortable after protracted use. The rest of the unit is finished in a durable plastic which, while strong, feels a little on the flimsy side.

The only real special feature that the Raw Prism has is the fact that the user can define the colour of its lighting. That seems a little redundant, though, when not even an in-line volume control has been included in the final product.

IN terms of audio, the Raw Prism delivers great sound. This really is the most important aspect of any headset. However, there are many models out there with excellent audio performance, and it comes down to added features to differentiate them. Cost is a factor too, of course, but I don’t see that saving some money and having adjustable light colours is going to set the Raw Prism above its competitors.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you need a headset for, and how you want that experience to be. If you want a quality, inexpensive device that keeps things extremely simple, the Raw Prism is a very decent option. But it feels like too much as ben stripped away here to earn the Raw title, and some sensible inclusions have been omitted for simplicity sake. g gamecca65

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NAME OF THE SteelSeries Siberia PRODUCT Raw Prism Gaming Headset

ming Headset

Summary While it is a stripped down Rawproduct, it feels like the removing of features was a little too zealous in this case.

Tech Specs: • • • • • • •

USB powered Mic mute function Integrated mic PC compatible PS4 compatible Adjustable light colour

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by Rob Edwards

AT A GLANCE:

Asus

H C EW E T VI E R

Xonar

The heavenly choir

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ou may well think that you have seen this product reviewed by us before, and you would almost be right. The Asus Xonar Essence One MKII was one of the most impressive USB DAC and Headphone amplifiers we’ve ever come across, with excellent audio all around.

This particular unit, then, is an updated version – the Muses Edition makes use of six state-of-the-art Muses 01 op-amps, and it manages to elevate audio quality to even higher levels. Reading the specifications for this unit is like ticking off an audiophile’s wish list. It features direct digital inputs by way of USB, S/PDIF coaxial or optical. Sound delivered to the unit from these sources is (should the user wish) upsampled using *X symmetrical technology that restores lossless audio. Audio is then delivered in one of two ways; either through the frontmounted 6.3mm headphone jack, or via audio outputs mounted in the back. These come in two flavours:

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unbalanced stereo RCA outputs or, for the real, deep audiophiles, balanced XLR stereo jacks.

All of th is powered by a linear power supply armed with a toroidal transformer. This ensures even power delivery across the whole system, and negates interference that may result from power issues.

The result is truly exceptional audio with a 120dB signal-to-noise ratio and beautiful balance that delivers an exceptionally clear sound spectrum.

This device doesn’t fall into a must-have category, unless you are the type that would die with even slightly sub-standard audio. Rather, it is a luxury (until you’ve experienced it, that is, and it moves onto that must have list). But it is worth its weight in gold (and it’s a heavy bit of tech) for those that want audio that is beyond the norm. And thanks to its multiple inputs, it can form an integral part of any entertainment setup, whether your audio is coming from a computer, console – or virtually any other digital source.

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Asus Xonar Essence One MKII Muses Edition Amplifier

MKII Muses Edition Amplifier

by Walt Pretorius

To this end, the controls of the Asus Xonar Essence One MKII Muses Edition are pretty straight forward. In fact, there are only six: a power switch, input selector, upsampling selector (off or on), a mute button and two volume knobs.

One is for main volume, and the other is for the integrated headphone amplifier.

It’s retro looks will complement any setup, too, with brushed metal finished and generous analogue-style controls making it look the part of an old-school amp.

In a world in which digital audio has become so prevalent, the joys of analogue sound quality are quickly being forgotten. But devices like the Asus Xonar Essence One MKII Muses Edition manages to take what many believe to be sub-par audio and enrich it, providing user with an experience that is nothing short of sublime. It might not be something that everyone has to own, but those who love their sound on the upper end of awesome would be remiss not to investigate it further. g

AT A GLANCE: Summary

While not a must-have device, audiophiles would do well to look into this versatile and effective amp.

Ma nuf a c t ure r D i s t ri but e r: Onl i ne :

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A s us A s us w w w . a s us . c o m

Tech Specs: • • • • • • •

Six Muses 01 op-amps Native DSD support 120dB SNR Balanced XLR output 8X symmetrical upsampling

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Pay Your e-Troll

TECHNOLOGY

The dues of internet usage‌

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story tale trolling, that is eating little children, billy goats and so forth was most likely illegal or at least frowned upon in its day, online trolling draws very little attention, at least from the authorities anyway. Until now.

If you haven’t heard the name Andrew Auernheimer (aka weev), then it’s a name that you will come across in years to come as online behaviour becomes increasingly less free from consequence.

Sean Duffy may be less known, but probably should be more infamous. Let’s start with him. Duffy was prosecuted in late 2011 for internet trolling after he posted abusive messages about Natasha McBryde, shortly after her suicide.

This was not Duffy’s first rodeo. He had developed a taste for posting offensive messages on YouTube and Facebook memorial pages for teenagers who had recently passed, some under very tragic circumstances. Although it not really known why Duffy posted the messages or what his interest in their lives or families outrage was, it was clear that he had never met or known the subjects of his trolling.

His lawyer claimed that he suffered from Asperger’s syndrome (making it impossible for him to understand normal human reactions to his behaviour) and also from alcoholism and depression. But before we label internet trolls as mentally disturbed, let’s

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Pay Your e-Troll

r

orking in the digital and social media space, everyone in this industry eventually comes across the little understood creature called the troll. Unlike the mythological beast that appears in Terry Pratchett and Harry Potter novels (or in your favourite role playing game), the internet troll is a very real, and very nasty creature. In the books and movies, trolls stick to the dark and dank recesses of the fantasy world to prey on unsuspecting travellers or wayward children, but the internet troll is far more bold and far, far more wicked.

Unlike their mythical counterpart, the internet troll uses the anonymity of cyberspace to venture boldly into the public eye, and thrives on the reactions, misery and discord they can sow amongst unsuspecting online communities, rather than simply boiling their bones for meals.

Online trolling has been something that most of us have thought very little about. While we recognise a troll when we see one, it’s only been recently that we’ve started asking ourselves what kind of people would dedicate their time and resources into not only upsetting as many people about issues they most likely have no feeling about one way or another, but also prolonging these spiralling conversations for hours, sometimes days, on end. While

look at our other case.

Andrew Auernheimer is not primarily known for trolling, but there’s a reason he will become the poster boy for cyber bullying and harassment for the next generation (assuming nobody takes his place in online notoriety). Aurenheimer claimed responsibility for several high profile hacking incidents, notably involving Amazon and AT&T (for which he was later imprisoned, even though his prison sentence was later overturned). But the New York Times profiled him for a far more sinister campaign.

From 2007, Auernheimer engaged in the lengthy harassment of software programmer, Kathy Sierra, by trolling her blog and public online presences, as well posting fake accounts of her career, including false claims that had been sex worker. As his harassment campaign drew more attention, Sierra began to receive threats from other trolls of death and sexual violence. Eventually Sierra disappeared online completely and did not return for 5 years. When Sierra did eventually return to the internet, her blog revealed the true reason why trolling is the perfect cybercrime.

In her account of her experience, Sierra mentioned how powerless victims of trolling are. Especially when dealing with technically proficient group of individuals who capable of crashing a

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website using a DDoS attack (this is a distributed denial of service attack using hacked slave machines to crash a site or server with thousands of requests per minute), you are essentially dealing with a group of people with the capacity and will to escalate infinitely. In the section of her blog post entitled “The Game is Fixed”, Sierra points out that a victim of trolling has only 3 options: 1. Leave (they win) 2. Ignore them a.k.a Don’t Feed the Troll (they escalate, make your life more miserable, DDoS, ruin your career - they win) 3. Fight Back (they win) She also goes on to describe how trolling translates into the real world. Doxxing is when hackers and trollers publish personal information to encourage fellow trollers to harass the subject of their derision more directly. Swatting is using emergency services, like armed cops (SWAT) to burst into the subject’s home with potentially lethal force based on false reports. From there, it escalates to stalking, death threats and even physical violence. The point here is that trolls on this level not only have their own time and resources to devote to online harassment, but have willing hordes who are equally eager to devote their time to other’s misery.

If you’re thinking of cancelling all your online social media accounts and retreating to a cave in the mountains, maybe I’ve laid it on a little too thick.

I doubt most people will ever experience this level

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of trolling or cyber bullying.

But these extreme cases have prompted authorities and law makers to take a stronger stance towards making people more responsible for their online actions. British authorities recently issued strong statements regarding prosecuting online harassment, including social media. This followed feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez being threatened with assault and rape over Twitter in July last year (which also led Twitter to offering stronger measures and penalties to prevent online harassment, even though they initially assumed no responsibility until the harassment escalated).

Michelle Chapman knows how serious the British are about ending cyber harassment. She was put in jail for trolling - herself.

Chapman created fake profiles for her father and stepmother to support allegations that they were harassing and abusing her, initially resulting in their arrest. Once a forensic audit revealed her deception, she was put in prison for just under 2 years.

The days of the cloak of anonymity covering all our tracks on the internet are surely over. That may have a lot people up in arms, especially when privacy and personal information are so vitally important these days. But given how a small (but growing) minority people choose to use this privilege (and the potential harm they can do to people, families and businesses), perhaps it’s a sacrifice most would be willing to make

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by Iwan Pienaar

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hile the 2nd of December, a.k.a. Cyber Monday, is an American phenomenon, it is generally considered to mark the start of the online shopping season for Christmas presents.

US internet retailers expect to experience a major surge in traffic thanks to people shopping online for the holiday season. And with so many other things, this bubbles over to other Western markets with South Africa being no exception.

According to ComScore, last year’s Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day in history, with online spending reaching $1.46 billion on that day alone. This year, experts believe that sales will grow by 13.1 percent as people increasingly move from buying presents in traditional outlets to shopping online.

As with so many things internet-related, there could be a chance that attackers will take advantage of the day to target both the end user and the retailer.

According to a recent study from RSA Security and the Ponemon institute, 64 percent of retail-focused IT professionals have seen an increase in attacks and fraud attempts during high traffic days such as Cyber Monday.

But just one third of these professionals take special precautions to ensure high availability and integrity of Web sites on these days.

Worse still, the estimated direct cost of a cyber attack around the holiday season is believed to be $8,000 a minute

(translating to roughly R90,000).

The increased traffic ushered in by Cyber Monday could entice attackers to target vulnerabilities in retailers’ infrastructure in order to plant malware that could steal consumers’ information. Another possible threat to businesses could be distributed denial-ofservice (DDoS) attacks.

Many retailers have already experienced the effects of such attacks.

In 2012, among the UK firms that were hit with DDoS attacks, 43 percent were in the retail sector.

The Customer Of course, retailers aren’t the only ones who should protect themselves This year, analysts expect that more consumers than ever will be searching for deals through their mobile device. Marketing research firm eMarketer believes that mobile commerce will generate $41.68 billion of the total $262.3 billion in ecommerce sales for the year, representing a 68.2 percent increase in mobile commerce sales from 2012.

However, a recent 2013 Norton report showed that while 38 percent of smartphone users experienced mobile cybercrime in the past 12 months, almost half of mobile device owners didn’t implement basic protections such as passwords, security software or data backups. Even though some consumers may opt to shop on their mobile device rather than their computer, they could still be vulnerable to the threat of cybercrime.

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Scammers will still be relying on more well established techniques to target both businesses and consumers this Cyber Monday. An example is a recent spam campaign that tells the email’s recipient that they need to prepare for Cyber Monday if they want to make money from it. The email also includes two links claiming to offer advice on how to take advantage of the day.

These links redirect users to a spam Web page that includes a video to trick users into thinking the page is genuine.

You should always check to see that you’re internet browser is the latest version and that your software, including anti-virus, is up-todate. And of course you need to make sure you have security software installed on your mobile devices as well.

You should only buy stuff from reputable online retailers and should check if the Web site is secured through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). A good indication of this is if the URL includes “https” rather than just “http”. You should avoid inputting financial information on sites without this protection.

And never (well, be cautious about it) click on links in unsolicited emails, especially if they offer deals that seem too good to be true. You should always check legitimate retailers’ official Web sites to see what deals are on offer.

Also remember to never send sensitive financial information through email.

So happy shopping and be careful out there! g

Online Shopping Protection

Online Shopping

Protection Social networking tips and tricks

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BYcHARLIE Fripp

Progress is not in your Destiny...

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Technically Speaking

n last month’s column I berated that way in which Bungie has been treating players of its Destiny game, and unfortunately the company is my target again this month. It just seems that they just love making material for us to write about.

A while back the developer decided that players will no longer be able to use the infamous loot cave and the subsequent cave that have been discovered. The system of farming for loot was to stand a way back from the entrance, and just pelting it in a hail of bullets.

The result was a large number Uncommon and Rare engrams, but Bungie nerfed it as they didn’t want us to generate more engrams than they intended.

I have to admit that I didn’t really make use of the farming technique – not for the original one, and not for the other two that popped up. I was well past the level where the engram was useful to me, so I did check it out once, and moved on.

If you don’t know, engrams are then taken to the Cryptarch back in the tower to be decrypted.

The resulting item that is generated from the engram is randomly determined, so it’s not like certain items are guaranteed to give you certain objects.

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What raised my ire recently was the patch that Bungie delivered to the game so that players can’t finish the Raid boss in an alternative manner. I don’t know why gaming developers are so hell-bent on player having to complete their games the way they want – not the way players want to.

But let me explain what has my blood boiling this month.

The game’s very difficult Vault of Glass raid is one of the most testing missions in the title. It is probably the only one that gives you Raid gear – super strong and really powerful equipment.

The last boss, Atheon, is a real bastard to take down and that battle alone can take player upwards of 45 minutes to complete. As a side note, to complete the raid from start to finish usually takes around four hours.

Atheon is defeated by incessantly shooting at it (doing minimal damage), and after a while he selects the two players furthest from him to teleport to a different dimension. The two players who got teleport need to pick up a shield in the netherworld before going blind, and pass through an open portal (which is opened by the other players on the other side) to gamecca65

return. Once back with the group, the shield is then used to deliver a powerful blow to Atheon, chipping away at his health bar. The process is repeated a number of times, and if everyone dies you fail the mission.

That is the way in which Bungie wants you to play it.

The way that players have been completing it before the patch? One gamer goes up to Atheon’s platform, throw grenades at his until he starts walking backwards. Throw enough grenades and he eventually falls off the side of the platform, completing the Raid. It takes about five minutes to do.

I don’t see why Bungie had this dire need to patch it. The outcome of the game isn’t affected, the rewards for the Raid is still randomly generated and distributed and neither Bungie nor other players were cheated, exploited or disadvantaged.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the server issues that crop up every time Bungie rolls out a patch to “increase server stability”. It just seems that the more that Bungie wants to fix the game, the more they manage to actually break it. g

FeatureS 154 166

GeekFest 2014 rAge 2014 Report

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Gadget Reviews Sony Xperia C3 Sony Cyber-shot RX100M2

Cool stuff 185 159 160 172 174 176 178

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iKNOW Bananagrams The Settlers of Catan Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1 Amazing Spider-Man TP Vol 1: The Parker Luck Deadpool’s Art of War #1 Kwezi #1 & 2

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Geekfest 2014

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Get your geek on!

The idea of being a geek is no longer one to be scoffed at.

Over the past few years, the steady growth in appeal of geek culture has resulted in more and more people experiencing what once used to be fringe culture. TV shows like Big Bang Theory and the proliferation of superhero and sci-fi movies have helped, as have events that promote the interests and activities related to geek culture.

One such event is GeekFest, and it will be taking place later this month...

We spoke to event organisers (and owners of www. darkcarnival.co.za, an awesome online store for all things geek) about the event, and what we can expect there.

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GM: There are a number of cons and expos that deal with ‘geek’ lifestyle and products.

What makes GeekFest different?

GF: GeekFest aims at promoting Geek subcultures to everyone in South Africa.

We want to introduce the different activities and groups to people who have no clue they exist. It’s not just an awesome day out for Geeks, it’s an interesting and fun event for the entire family to enjoy.

GM: There are numerous activities that people can get involved in at GeekFest. Which are the most popular, historically, and which are you most looking forward to this year?

GF: There will be so much on offer to keep young and old entertained for hours. Last year we had a great turn out for our cosplay competition and people loved the medieval martial artist’s displays. Both events will be sure to draw crowds again.

We really excited about introducing a zombie compound to GeekFest. It will appeal to horror fans and newbies alike.

Zombie Run SA is running it and they have loads of walking dead activities planned.

GF: When we started darkcarnival.co.za we saw that South Africa was in desperate need of such an event. Our Geek community is growing and people are keen to learn about it but there are so few platforms introducing things such as LARPing or table top gaming to people outside of the groups.

How many of us grew up watching Anime shows like Dragonball Z or Pokemon and didn’t actually realise we were fans of entire subculture based on the appreciation of Japanese animation. GeekFest is about introducing and including everyone to new things.

Or maybe we just want to grow our legions of Geeks and take over the world.

GM: Who are some of the exhibitors that attendees can expect to see?

GM: When did GeekFest start?

GF: The Medieval Fight Club will have a stand there promoting medieval martial arts.

The guys are fun and friendly and plan to chuck a few noobs in the ring for a one on one introduction to sword fighting with real swords.

Skycastle Gaming will be running some board gaming tournaments. Don’t expect to see Monopoly or Cluedo, these games are masterpieces that demand skill and concentration…also they are freaking fun.

Of course The Dark Carnival will have a super awesome stand at GeekFest with loads of amazing merchandise on offer.

There will also be loads of market stalls with a range of interesting products on offer.

GM: How difficult is it to set up an event like this?

GM: Aside from gaming, Cosplay and spending lots of money on cool stuff, what will people be able to get up to at GeekFest 2014?

GM: What kind of attendance are you expecting for GeekFest 2014?

GF: At our first event we pulled in close on 3000 people, this year we hoping to double that.

GF: In 2013. Not long ago but our first event surpassed all our expectations.

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GF: It is loads of work and planning. Last year we pulled it off in four months. This year’s event has been planned from the start of the year. There are so many factors to organising an event of this scale but we lucky enough to have an awesome team to cover it all.

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GM: What is the thinking behind GeekFest? Why did you start organising it?

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GF: The Zombie Compound will have talks, displays and face painting on offer, our beer garden will have a Geek quiz, LARPers will be doing a display, there will be a play area for the kids, GeekXP will be running a scavenger hunt and there will be bands throughout the day.

Geekfest 2014

GM: What is your personal favourite part of GeekFest?

KJ:The cosplay. I absolutely love and appreciate the work that people put into their outfits. These guys and gals are so creative and look amazing, and to top it all off they have the balls to then get on stage and be in character.

RH: The medieval combat. I am a martial artist myself and I appreciate the authenticity of the combat style incorporating the use of real weapons and armour.

GM: Lastly, give us the details.. when, where, how much?

GF: GeekFest will be taking place on the 29th of November 2014 from 10:00am till late.

It will be held at Ball and All Driving Range, Pub & Restaurant, Plot 126, Nooitgedacht (Old R114), Krugersdorp, Gauteng.

Tickets purchased via http:// www.webtickets.co.za/event. aspx?itemid=829802552 will be R50.00 per adults and R25.00 per kid under 12.

Tickets bought at the gate will be R60.00 per adult and R30.00 per kid under 12. g

Get your geek on! by:

Walt Pretorius

Organiser:

Dark Carnival

More Info:

www.darkcarnival.co.za

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rivia games don’t always sit well with people, because some have minds that retain all of the arguably useless facts, while other simply don’t. But iKnow throws out a very different approach to trivia, by simply introducing a betting system.

It works rather simply. A question category (history, pop culture, biography or science and geography) is selected. Players then place their individual markers according to how many clues (up to three) they think they would need to answer the question… up to three.

Next is where things get a little interesting, and where elements like bluffing and tactics can come into the game. Players then bet on each other, according to whether they think other players will get the answer wrong or right. The clues are read, and answering players get their rewards according to the difficulty of their clue selection. Players who bet are paid out

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accordingly, and play continues.

With around 1400 questions on offer, iKnow should keep you going for quite some time. It also eliminates a pure reliance on trivia, because players could theoretically win by betting smartly, instead of having all the answers. And because the winner is the first player to amass twenty points, the game could be over very quickly, or could stretch for a longer play session. iKnow takes a very different approach to the idea of trivia games, and becomes much more accessible thanks to its wagering system. The questions tend to be rather tough generally speaking, but the three clue system is a nice touch that adds an element of risk and reward to the game. Best of all, players can use their trivia strengths and weaknesses to their advantage, and bluff their way into getting others to place incorrect bets.g

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Bananagrams

t might have an odd name, but Bananagrams will change the way you view word games.

While you may have images of pedantic sessions of Scrabble on a Sunday afternoon evoked at the thought, Banangrams takes the whole idea of trying to get that perfect score by carefully considering letters and dumps it on its head. That’s because Bananagrams is about words, yes, but it’s also about speed.

Play starts with all the players drawing a certain number of tiles from the pool. They then have to construct word grids (like those in scrabble) with all the letters they have – all starting at once in a frantic mental race. Players who get a tile they cannot use can return the tile to the pool, but must take three more in its place. When someone finishes all their tiles, they yell out “peel” and

everyone takes a new tile, which needs to fit into their grid. The game ends when someone calls out “peel” but there are not enough tiles in the middle for everyone. If that player’s words are all valid, the player wins. If not, all their tiles go back into the pool and they are eliminated from the game.

This is a fun, fast paced and sometimes frantic game. It’s really easy to learn, and works well with almost any number of players – from two upwards.

And it doesn’t take hours to play – a session of Bananagrams typically lasts around fifteen minutes. It requires a less strategic approach than Scrabble of other words games, because score modifiers aren’t present, and long words aren’t necessary to guarantee winning. This is one that the whole family can have great fun with.g

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The Settlers of Catan

his game has been around for some time, but it still proves to be one of the most popular, as well as an excellent game to introduce new players to the exciting world of modern board games. Several expansions exist for Catan, too, making it a game that can be added too, thereby retaining freshness. But the modular design of the board, which can be changed with every new game means that even the basic Catan set will have players going through different experiences for years to come.

The Settlers of Catan is a game that is easy to learn, but challenging to truly master. Because of its slightly random nature, each session can teach the player new tips and tricks. It is largely based on strategy and player interaction, as players establish settlements to gather resources and further their

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faction. There is also an element of luck and chaos involved, in the form of a robber who can seriously hinder efforts at the wrong time. Resource production is also based on dice rolling, so the element of chance is furthered even more.

Resources can be traded and used to improve the player’s settlements, which will ultimately lead to victory. Trades can happen between players, or at a set ratio with the resource “bank.”

The Settlers of Catan is obviously more complex than this brief description implies, but it is still a very simple game to learn. The rules are not complicated, yet the game dynamic can allow for a great level of complexity. Few games offer the awesome longevity and almost instant accessibility of Catan, and it is the kind of title that everyone who is keen on board games should have in their collection.g

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The Time Betwixt

o it’s been another year and another October has come and gone, and once again South African gamers (in Jo’burg at least) have had their fill of lights, noises and enough cosplay ass and cleavage to draw the eyes of even the most pixel obsessed gamer. rAge, as usual, provided more than enough entertainment for anyone with even a passing interest in gaming, with the almost obscenely long lines for entrance standing as stark proof that the hobby is definitely growing in this country. More and more, those that I once thought would never have bothered with this pastime are now enthusiastically taking it up, and never has the appellation “gamer” being so widespread.

Yet, as I was shouldering my way through the crowds, staring at faces that

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were the near antithesis of what I once expected to see at a gaming convention, I realised that being a “gamer” has now become nearly meaningless. Where once we imagined ourselves as the special few (or so we thought), blessed with a rare insight into the awesomeness of our nascent form of entertainment, now we are legion, diverse in far more than just numbers. Games are being made to cater for every taste, and while the hard-core may scoff at titles that are quickly and unceremoniously dumped into the “casual games” category, the truth is a game is a game. When a fifty year old housewife finds herself losing hours hunting pixels on a screen, it doesn’t matter that she’s playing a hidden object title, she’s gaming nonetheless. Frankly, we’re living in a time where soon being

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a gamer will be the equivalent of being a movie-watcher.

It’s an industry that’s quickly coming of age, and there can be no denying that it’s gone mainstream, and massively so. While there will always be those that view this with distaste, the growth in popularity has meant that the bar is being pushed beyond what we could have hoped for even a mere decade ago, with games bigger and more varied than ever before. There have been accusations that the large publishers have sold-out and titles are now made to appeal to the lowest common denominator, with none of the innovation that was so prevalent before, but in fact those that count themselves among the hard-core owe a debt of gratitude to the casual market, as without them the heights that we have reached would not have been possible. g

BY Lein Baart

No Such Thing as a Gamer...

a Razer Hamper Courtesy of Razer TO ENTER: Send an email to competitions@gameccamag.com Insert “Razer” in the mail’s subject line Tell us the name of any Razer keyboard.

Subscribe to www.gamecca.com Become a fan on Gamecca’s Facebook Page Competition closes 30 November2014. Gamecca subscribers only. South African residents only.

Prizes may not be exchanged for cash. Competition closed to employees (& employee’s family) of 1337 Media CC, Lime Envelope and Razer. The judges’ decision is final. co mp e t i t i on • c o mp et it io n • c o mp et i ti on • com pe ti ti on • com pe ti ti on • com p etition •

com p e ti ti on • com p e ti ti on • com p e ti ti on • com p e ti ti on • com pe ti ti on • com petition • c omp et itio n • c ompetition • co mpetition

WIN

Sony

LIFESTYLE

Something for everyone

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C3

espite news that Sony may well be relooking their business in South Africa, they will keep providing mobile handsets and smartphones – which means that users will still be able to get hold of the excellent range of Xperia handsets.

There really is an Xperia for every taste and budget, with Sony producing a wide range of models to suit everyone. The C3 is a great mid-level device, with a 1.2GHz CPU and 8 megapixel rear camera. It’s a pretty big device, with a clear 13.4cm screen for that all-important interaction.

If you’re after a good phone at a decent price, here it is. g

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Sony Xperia C3

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Sony Cyber-shot RX100M2

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Cyber-Shot

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Tiny but mighty

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ith so many different pocket cameras available, we really are spoiled for choice. On the other hand, it also gets tricky picking the right camera, because each one offers a different set of features that may (or may not) suit us. And with technology moving so fast, it’s getting even more difficult to keep up.

For example, a camera the size of the Cyber-shot RX100M2 having a 20.2 megapixel sensor would, just a few years ago, have been unthinkable. But these days even the smallest of cameras have really powerful capabilities, and this one is no different. The real draw card for this little pocket rocket is its large aperture size (f1.8) but its zoom (3.6x optical) is a little on the low side. g gamecca65

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EXPO

GAMING

Celebrating Indu 166

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2014

by Walt Pretorius

a Growing ustry

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s the months edged on towards the end of the year and October loomed ahead promising the joys of summer, the ever present allure of one single anticipated event drew gamers from around South Africa near. Preparations and plans on how to spend a weekend gaming had already begun by the time September rolled around, and once tickets for the rAge Expo LAN went online, the reality and excitement of the Expo set in.

The 19 553 square meters of floor space gradually filled with eager patrons; veterans to the Expo who journey to the event annually like pilgrims, and newcomers whose awe and wonder was etched

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into their animated banter. They made up the 31 254 targeted visitors trekking between the exhibitors during the three day event, as well as the 2 370 NAG LAN gamers who enjoyed Internet Solutions’ sponsored, record breaking 5.2gigabit per second Internet service.

Although the event is used to draw in gamers of various ages and backgrounds, calling in fan-boys, casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike, the event catered for all in an environment that made for a fun filled family event too. One of the main attractions at the rAge expo, and a community grasping the imaginations and hearts of more and more people in South Africa, were the colourful and memorable

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rAge 2014 Report

Cosplayers (costume players) sauntering about the floor. The Cosplayers ranged from iconic Anime characters and comic book heroes, to video game characters, the undead, the Grim Reaper, and a variety of colourful, memorable personalities.

With an exponential growth in South Africa’s video game market, it is no wonder that such an event is so highly anticipated. All current Generation consoles were on display at the expo: the Xbox One, Playstation 4 as well as the Wii U and gaming PCs. The launch of the Xbox One the previous month meant that it was the new shiny toy everyone wanted to play. The Xbox One Stand featured over 34 consoles and a variety

of games at each station, titles both old and new but never experienced at the level that they could be at the Expo. Just the fact that players had to wait in line to play on not just the Xbox One but PS4 too, proved the popularity of the consoles.

As much as the big names in the gaming industry were showcasing their AAA titles and high performance machines, the expo also gave stage presence to upcoming, local Indie game developers. As the gaming industry continues to grow, the game developing community will grow alongside it and the display of what our local developers were capable of at the home_ coded exhibit proved that the industry is growing.

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3D animation, game development, digital art and similar career paths are an attraction to many who dream of working in big video game studios. Learn 3D, which have been at the rAge expo for over ten years, are one of the many companies continually exhibiting their courses and curriculum at the expo, hoping to grow the video game industry from a development perspective. These companies utilize the rAge Expo and it’s reach to plant the seeds and build the foundation required for South Africa to start making its mark around the world in the video game development industry.

The rAge Expo was also one of the best places

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to see upcoming and established artists, using either traditional methods for their artwork or digital media.

These artists captured the beauty and emotion that correlates so well with gamers and artists alike. As part of the 100 and more exhibitors spaced across the floor provided, it was obvious to see why the scale of the expo was as great as it was.

The continuous improvement and expansion of the expo meant that more content was being offered to visitors, broadening the target audience while drawing them in to the gaming industry. However, gaming at the rAge expo was never limited to just digital games, as a number of table top card games and board games made

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rAge 2014 Report

by Nthato Morakabi

their presence known at a designated area. Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering and many others, had players trading controllers for cards, and engaging in other traditional gaming methods.

Figures from PWC Media and Entertainment Outlook South Africa put the worth of the video games market at R2.4 billion in 2013 and foresee a market growth to R3.7 billion by 2018. With the range of titles and gaming peripherals aimed at younger gamers, families, friends and couples, as well as the ever growing number of fitness, dance and singing titles, it is not surprising to note that social and casual gamers are some of the major contributors to the growth of the gaming

industry. Not to mention the mobile smart phone users who do not own a console or PC but are able to enjoy some of the AAA titles on their tablets or smart phones.

The rAge Expo is Africa’s largest gaming event, bringing together developers from around the world, hosting presentations showcasing the latest titles and providing gamers across the board with a memorable weekend of gaming. Whether it’s as part of the amazing all-weekend NAG LAN or as a visitor enjoying the range of games, technology, collectables, presentations, demos and more, it is safe to say it is all part of continuing growth of the video game industry in South Africa. g

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Wolverine

Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1 Charles Soule Oliver Nome Marvel

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by Clive Burmeister

The unthinkable has happened, nobody ever thought that the day would come, but it has. Wolverine is dead. Now, X-23, Wolverine’s clone; Daken the Dark Wolverine; Sabertooth, Wolverine’s oldest enemy; and a few other mutants tied to Logan’s past, all find themselves trapped in a cell. But who is the mysterious man who has them trapped, what control does he have over them, why are they here and how can they escape? All these questions are somehow linked to the Wolverine, and they are going to have to face what he meant to them if they are going to get out of this alive.

Wolverine’s death has had an impact across the Marvel universe, but great men always live on through their legacy.

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The Amazing

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g Spiderman Amazing Spider-Man TP Vol 1: The Parker Luck Dan Slott Humberto Ramos Marvel

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by Clive Burmeister

Peter Parker, now returned to his body, has found out the hard way that everything has changed while he was out of action (see Superior SpiderMan). And keeping in line with the all too well know “Parker luck”, or lack thereof, everything seems to fall apart at once.

Now Parker must face huge changes in his social life, the damage that Doctor Octopus caused to relationships with his friends and allies, old and angry villains geared up to rip him a new one, and a totally new spider-powered individual. It’s going to be a rough ride!

The artistic team of Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos brings the Amazing Spider-Man back in style, with nothing short of a totally mind blowing “bang”.

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' Deadpools A

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Art of War Deadpool’s Art of War #1 Peter David Scott Koblish Marvel

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by Clive Burmeister

One of the most famous books of all time is Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and many have still found it applicable in today’s world, in terms of understanding business practices for example. When the crazy “Merc with a mouth” takes out Sun Tzu, he comes across the ancient texts, and does what any experienced mercenary would.

He thinks up a way to make money out of it. But does Deadpool really have the wisdom to interpret the lessons and make them his own, and does he really care, so long as he gets to shoot things and unleash chaos around him.

This may not be Sun Tzu’s intellectual manual of military style strategies, but it is very entertaining none the less.

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GET

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1

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COOL STUFF

KWEZI Title:

Kwezi #1 & 2

Writer:

Loyiso Mkize

Artist:

Loyiso Mkize

Publisher:

LOYISOMKIZEART

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by Clive Burmeister

Kwezi is a new South African comic by writer/artist Loyiso Mkize, who is also part of the creative team responsible for the Supa Strikas comic featured in the Sunday Times newspaper. There is some debate as to whether South Africa should emulate American comics, or do our own thing with a unique African flavour, but Kwezi combines these two schools of thought, with a typical Superhero style comic containing a very distinct local context and style. In Kwezi, Mkize tells the story of the mysterious beginnings of a new superhero, and the bigger picture of where he came from and why he is here begins to unfold.

Issue #1 is available for free viewing at www.kwezicomics. co.za and issue #2 is out in print at local comic stores.

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108 Back Issues avail

lable online for free

Narcissism...

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THE OBSERVER

cho was a lovely wood nymph who fell hopelessly in love with the very beautiful yet very vain Narcissus. Adored by so many, Narcissus arrogantly rejected her advances and love, and she was left to die of a broken heart.

As Narcissus continued to attract more nymphs, only to later scorn and refuse their love, the gods grew tired and cursed him. His curse was to fall in love with the one that could not return his love or affections. One day Narcissist reached for a drink in a pool of water. As he caught his reflection in a pool he became completely mesmerised by it, to the point that he was unable to leave its gaze until he, too, died of a broken heart.

Based on this Greek myth, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, first used the word narcissism as a psychological term in 1914.

Currently NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is now one of the ten identified personality disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Statistically, students entering into universities and colleges are far more narcissistic than any before and one of the main reasons for this is early exposure to a digital technology that fuels this egotistical environment in their formative

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years. Extreme narcissistic behaviour in our teens has grown over 67% in the last two decades, so one has to ask why. It is now believed by psychologists that while Digital Technology has certainly improved communications and productivity in all our lives, its downside may have some serious repercussions on the new generations to come See, healthy narcissism is an integral part of growing up. We all have it early in life until we begin to survive in society as a whole; where we learn respect, consideration, compassion and empathy and through these healthy attributes, a strong sense of confidence is developed. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and this tool is tipping the balance with our youth.

Even though, Digital Technology and Social Media is not the enemy here; they are tools that are misused by the user.

So what is full blown narcissism, exactly? Well, in layman’s terms it is called egomania, or an undisciplined mind. It is the need to feel superior, belittling and demeaning others in order to do so. Empathy is non-existent and one is always preoccupied with one’s owns problems. The typical narcissist is extremely sensitive to criticism and seeks power through exploitation. gamecca65

BY Katia Taliadoros

Digital

Prone to rage, the narcissist shows signs of envy while lacking the ability to admit when they are wrong, distorting lies to support their goals.

Unfortunately this incredible medium called the internet is perverted to the point that we are presently experiencing in a narcissist epidemic.

Internet addiction has become very much a part of a narcissist’s existence. Within this mesmerising paradigm, most social interaction in this environment lacks any real feelings or connections or intimacy. Social isolation is created by selecting one’s peer group only, stunting emotional growth and the normal process of developing healthy empathy within a society as a whole.

In this digital environment dominated by selfies the narcissist can be the centre of his world, with an unlimited ever-growing flood of “fans”, “friends” and “followers”… feeding the inflated self-image and pretentious fantasies.

Cyberbulling, trolling and false identities are not only accepted but encouraged, fuelling all narcissistic tendencies, including instant gratification.

Allow me to close with this…

In the intimacy of your own mind, ask yourself the following question: Am I a Narcissist? If the answer is no,…of course you are not. If the answer is maybe…there is hope for you yet. g