Jan 2015 lq copy

volume 1 • issue 4 • jan 15th - feb 14th 2015

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REVIEWED The Crew WWE 2K15 Far Cry 4 LittleBigPlanet 3 and more

HALO 5: GUARDIANS

A New Generation of FPS Multiplayer

plus

Mumbai Comic Con 2014, Mad Catz’s India Plans, and more

THE BIG 15

FOR ‘15 free poster The Witcher 3

from th

ditor Whatever way you look at it, 2014 was a mediocre year for gaming; one where developers and publishers struggled to cope with the challenges of creating games for new platforms. A lot of last years most promising games were also delayed for this very reason, but the up side to that is that we now have an even stronger line-up of games in 2015.

We ended 2014 by highlighting our favourite games of the year, and with the start of a new year, it’s time to look forward to all the fantastic gaming experiences that await us. Our cover feature is an extensive line-up of the most promising games of 2015, from Batman: Arkham Knight and Mortal Kombat X to Halo 5 and Uncharted 4. We’ve also got a few games in there that you may not be aware of.

The popularity of first-person shooters on consoles can be attributed to one game – Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox. It made shooters on console fun, and Bungie changed the game again on Xbox 360 with the Halo 3.

It’s the Xbox One era now and while some of the sheen has lifted off the Halo name with Bungie parting ways with Microsoft, a new Halo on a new console is always reason to be excited. Multiplayer is at the heart of the Halo experience, and we recently had a chance to try out multiplayer of Halo 5 at length ahead of its release later this year. There are a few surprises in there.

We’ve got a lot more in store this month, and over the coming months, we’ll be bringing you lots of exclusive features, developer interviews, and of course, great reviews and features. So here’s wishing all the readers of KnowGames a year full of happy gaming in 2015.

Sameer Desai Editor

Contents

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COVER STORY

THE BIG 15 IN ‘15 The definitive list of the most anticipated games of 2015.

REVIEWS 38 WWE 2K15

WWE makes its PS4 and Xbox One debut, but it isn’t quite what you may have expected.

42 LARA CROFT AND THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS

As we wait for Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics brings us another isometric Lara adventure.

44 MAD CATZ S.T.R.I.K.E. TE

Mad Catz has just launched its Tournament Edition range, and we put its new keyboard to the test.

46 LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM Quite possibly every DC character packed into one game. Need we say more?

50 KINGSTON KYPERX CLOUD

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FAR CRY 4 Ride auto rickshaws and elephants as Far Cry moves to the Nepal-inspired land of Kyrat.

Kingston enters the gaming arena and knocks it out of the park on the first attempt.

REVIEWS

SPECIAL FEATURES

60 KINGDOM HEARTS 2.5 HD REMIX 51 TRITTON KUNAI

Square Enix delivers a content-packed remaster of one of the greatest games from the PS2 era..

30 MAD CATZ SETS ITS SIGHTS ON INDIA

Tritton takes on Microsoft’s own Xbox One stereo headset, and we came away impressed.

We speak with the peripheral maker’s regional VP about the company’s plans in India.

62 HALO: MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION Four Halo games in one package! How can you mess that up? Well, ask Microsoft

52 THE CREW

SPECIAL FEATURES 72 MUMBAI FILM AND COMIC CON 2014

Possibly the most ambitious racing game ever impresses and disappoints in equal measure.

Pictures from three jam-packed days of Mumbai’s celebration of all things popculture.

70 The Best on Mobile

This month: a circular platformer, an endless road-crosser, a Marvel fighting game, and a full-fledged MOBA.

74 The Rumour Mill

Respite for Xbox One developers, Microsoft’s VR ambitions, and Naughty Dog’s next game.

56 LITTLEBIGPLANET 3 Sackboy makes his PS4 debut, and this time he’s brought some friends along.

26 PREVIEW: HALO 5 We get our first taste of multiplayer action from Halo’s Xbox One debut.

76 Game Calendar

All the games releasing over the coming months. Circle the dates and plan your purchases.

Cover Story

The Big 15 for ‘15

After what could best be described as a mediocre year for games, things are once again looking up in 2015. Here are the hottest games you should be looking out for online and in stores this year (in alphabetical order) by Sameer Desai and Amit Goyal

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Batman:

Arkham Knight Of all the games 2015 has coming our way, Batman: Arkham Knight is easily among the most sought after.

After a lukewarm filler in the form of Arkham Origins, the newest release in the critically acclaimed Arkham series has its creators, Rocksteady, at the helm, which makes this all the more exciting. If there were any doubters, the first look at the game was enough to set them at ease. Permanently.

Set after the events of Arkham City, the mysterious Arkham Knight (an original villain created by Rocksteady in collaboration with DC Comics) has Gotham under siege, and its up to the Batman to set things right.

Apart from the new consoles powering everything from the largest Gotham City ever created

by Rocksteady (five times as large as Arkham City’s map) to Batman’s

almost photorealistic scowl, one of the most anticipated features is the Batmobile, which will not only be driveable but will also be an integral part of the experience. The gameplay remains similar to what we have seen in the series, but Rocksteady has made numerous tweaks to the existing formula, such as improved takedowns, environmental attacks, more lethal enemies, and vehicular battle. With a great penchant for storytelling and a deep respect for the source material, Rocksteady has us all on the edge for Batman: Arkham Knight.

Why we picked it: It’s Rocksteady’s

return, plus you’ll get to kick ass with the Batmobile.

Similar Games: Assassin’s Creed series, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Game details: Developer: Rocksteady Studios Publisher: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: 2nd June

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Bloodborne

Game details: Developer: From Software Publisher: Sony Genre: Action-RPG Platforms: PS4 Release date: 25th March

Given the success of Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls, anything coming out of From Software will have a great deal of hype around it. Announced at E3 2014, Bloodborne brings the gut-wrenching horror and hard as nails difficulty one has now come to expect from Hidetaka Miyazaki to a Victorian setting. The game takes place in the ruined city of Y’harnam, which is said to hide an efficacious medical remedy that attracts many pilgrims. Once you get there, however, you realise that you have been trolled harder than the last time you were rickrolled. The city is plagued with an illness that has turned all its citizens into bloodthirsty monstrosities for your hacking pleasure.

The gameplay, while reminiscent of Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls 10

in many ways, is fundamentally different in its pace of combat. Your character moves much faster, and can dodge enemy attacks quickly. You even carry around a gun that can be used strategically to stun an enemy before launching a flurry of light and heavy attacks with your scythe. Like its spiritual predecessors, you cannot take Bloodborne lightly. The game is designed to punish you the moment you slip up even a little bit, but for those who relish the challenge, Bloodborne has to be on the top of their list of 2015 releases.

Why we picked it:

The hack-n-slash approach to the Souls gameplay formula sounds fun and challenging.

Similar games: Dark Souls series, Demon’s Souls

Game details: Developer: Turtle Rock Studios Publisher: 2K Games Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: 10th February

Evolve It must take something really special to take consecutive Game of the Show awards at E3 and Gamescom, but Evolve did just that. From Turtle Rock Studios, the team that brought us the brilliant co-op zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, Evolve is a different take on the same genre. It’s a co-op and a versus game at the same time, with its asymmetric nature pitting four players, who play as human hunters, against one powerful monster. This fourversus-one set-up alone had us intrigued.

Pitting four players with varying skills who can work together against one might seem unfair, until you take into the account that the monster that is controlled by the fifth player keeps growing and getting stronger the longer he survives (hence the name of the game). Add this to the fact that there are AI-controlled minions also in the way of the four humans, and the hunters can very quickly become the hunted. There are a few questions surrounding the game - how balanced 4-on-1 encounters will end up being, how the maps will be made

to not feel empty with just five players in it, and what the single-player is all about – but what we’ve seen so far has us sufficiently excited, and if you’re looking for a co-op shooter with a difference, you should be too.

Why we picked it: It’s the most

interesting spin on the co-op multiplayer FPS genre in a long time.

Similar games: Left 4 Dead series, Gears of War series.

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Halo 5: Guardians

Not much is known about Halo 5: Guardians, but whatever little is available is still not enough to answer the burning question we were left with after watching the game’s trailer: Why does Master Chief need to wear a cloak over full-body armour. Jokes aside, 343 Industries proved with Halo 4 that they are more than capable of handling Bungie’s legacy, while the latter hangs out with Peter Dinklage. Microsoft has announced that the new Reclaimer trilogy is going to be a much lengthier Reclaimer Saga that will undoubtedly be an important factor in the success of the Xbox One. From that perspective, Halo 5: Guardians is like the opening batsman in the all important World Cup final.

There is sufficient intrigue and hype around the game. Amidst the mysterious events surrounding Master Chief and Cortana, a new protagonist named Locke has been thrown into the mix. A new live-action television series with big names like Ridley Scott and Sergio MimicaGezzen (of the Battlestar Galactica fame) attached to it is also around the corner. And if the recent multiplayer beta is any indication, we can expect all the awesomeness of Halo at a roaring 60 fps. Microsoft may continue to be tight-lipped about their biggest release of 2015, but they sure know how to do it with style.

Why we picked it: Master Chief is back for the start of a new, and hopefully epic, trilogy.

Similar games: Destiny, Call of Duty series (multiplayer).

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Game details: Deve loper: 343 Industries Publisher: Microsoft Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: Xbox One Release date: TBA 2015

Just Cause 3 If you thought Saints Row was the king of open-world games that laughed in the face of realism, a certain Rico Rodriguez would like to have a word with you. Avalanche Software surprised us recently by dropping this bombshell out of nowhere. Just Cause 3 is coming, and it’s coming this year! If you’re new to the series, think of it as the ultimate sandbox, where everything seems to have been put carefully in place just so you can blow it up in increasingly creative ways.

Game details: Developer: Avalanche Studios Publisher: Square-Enix Genre: Action Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: TBA 2015

Don’t get us wrong; there will be a story and a supporting cast, but we really can’t tell you much about it. You see, we spent most of our time in Just Cause 2 blissfully ignoring missions to attach explosives to a plane using the game’s ingenious harpoon-like tether, then proceeding to surf on top of the plane thousands of feet in the air, and then skydiving off it as an explosion ripped through the sky, and we descended back onto tropical Panau so we could do it all over again. Just Cause 3 looks to bring all of this and more to the new consoles, with a new fictional Mediterranean location, a new wingsuit for Rico’s aeronautical exploits, and a lot more.

We can’t wait!

Why we picked it: For the sort of over-the-top open-world daredevilry you won’t find anywhere else.

Similar games: Saints Row series, Crackdown 13

Cover Story

Metal Gear Solid 5:

The Phantom Pain

Game details: Developer: Kojima Productions Publisher: Konami Genre: Stealth, Action-Adventure Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 Release date: TBA 2015

If we try to talk about the story of The Phantom Pain in this piece, chances are we will run out of space we have for this issue. Instead let’s talk about the iconic cardboard box.

And believe us, there is nothing quite as exciting about 2015 (and we are counting Avengers: Age of Ultron here) as the cardboard box of Metal Gear Solid 5. Gone are the days when the box simply served as a flimsy disguise. In Phantom Pain, you will be able to spring out of the box to get the jump on your enemies, use it as a decoy to bait an enemy by putting stickers on it, and even vacate it stealthily while enemies scratch their heads over the threat posed by seemingly sentient cardboard boxes.

If our fixation over the cardboard box seems a tad unhealthy, it only serves to highlight the plethora of new features that come together in what is shaping up to be a singularly 14

compelling stealth action game.

Metal Gear Solid is embracing the brave new world in style with a massive open world, non-linear mission structure, day-night cycles that can be strategically used to plan infiltration, base building, and… uh, horses. The most exciting thing about The Phantom Pain, however, is none other than Hideo Kojima.

For all its new features, the flair and the signature Kojima style oozes out of every second of the footage that has been on display till date.

It’s Metal-Friggin-Gear-Solid. If that doesn’t excite you, we don’t know what will!

Why we picked it: An open world with day-night cycles could be a game-changer for stealth. Also Kojima.

Similar games: Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Thief.

Mortal Kombat X Mortal Kombat’s unnecessary and grammatically incorrect infatuation with the letter K is not coming to an end anytime soon.

Fighting games aren’t for everybody, but we have always found it easier to get into Mortal Kombat than its far more technical competitors like Street Fighter. The newest title, Mortal Kombat X, looks very promising, largely because it is combining some of the best features that were seen in the last two major releases from NetherRealm Studios. The interactive destructible environments from Injustice: Gods Among Us make a return in the newest Mortal Kombat game, as well as the brutal X-Ray moves from the studio’s 2011 series reboot. Even more interesting are the variation in fighting stances for all characters, each with its own set of moves.

After successfully pulling off the “Days-of-the-Future-Past” reboot spin with the last title, the story will move 25 years through the game and will set up a new roster of characters that will hopefully be the future of the series. These characters will have their links with the veteran cast of the series. For example, Cassie Cage is the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. With a story that aims to blend the old with the new, Mortal Kombat X could very well be the beginning of the future for the series.

Why we picked it: The new story, the inclusion of a new

Game details: Developer: NetherRealm Studios

generation of fighters, and all that gore.

Publisher: Warner Bros

Similar games: Injustice: Gods Among Us, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Killer Instinct

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

Genre: Fighting Release date: 14th April

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No Man’s Sky

Game details: Developer: Hello Games Publisher: Hello Games Genre: Adventure Platforms: PC, PS4 Release date: TBA 2015

It must take some serious guts to go from making a side-scrolling motorcycle platformer like Joe Danger to something as ridiculously ambitious as No Man’s Sky. Hello Games is a tiny team, but the scope of its second game is anything but. It’s essentially a space exploration game, where you can get on a space ship, travel far and wide into the universe and explore planets that you happen to discover. Every planet you see can be travelled to and explored. Everything in No Man’s Sky, from all the planets to the landscapes and the living creatures, are procedurally generated, so everything you see in the game is unexplored and unique to your experience. In fact, this game is so big that visiting every planet in the game for just a second will take 585 billion years.

While the game will be primarily about exploration and creating your own story, there will be a reason for players to progress deeper into the galaxy. Hello Games hasn’t revealed what that is; only that it will get more dangerous and rewarding the longer you play. Along the way, you can trade, pirate or play the protector to earn money to help upgrade your ship and travel further. The scope seems almost limitless, and it will be interesting to see how Hello Games manages to keep players hooked to the universe in the long term.

Why we picked it: The procedural nature of the game means every player’s experience is unique.

Similar games: Proteus, Space Engineers 16

Game details: Developer: Slightly Mad Studios Publisher: Slightly Mad Studios Genre: Racing Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: 20th March

Project CARS Project CARS might sound like a terribly unoriginal name, but the CARS here also stands for Community Assisted Racing Simulator. That’s right; developer Slightly Mad (of Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2 fame) has involved a community of passionate racing fans at every step of the development process in its quest to make Project CARS the complete racing game.

If you’re a fan of racing games, and particularly sims, this game ticks all the right boxes. It’s got a vast array of cars, from road to muscle to GT to open-wheel to karts. There are over 60 unique tracks in the game with day-night cycles and dynamic weather. For advanced players, Project CARS will also feature tuning options as well as pit-stop functionality.

The game will also include a full-fledged career mode, where you’ll sign your first contract and get offers from teams and sponsors as you progress towards the motorsport Hall of Fame. Outside the career, you’ll be able to create your own

custom racing seasons or participate in race weekends (including practice and qualifying) with others online. All of this comes wrapped up in a stunning audio visual package. Project CARS is probably the best looking racer out there, and it will launch with 4K support, and will also support Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus VR headsets.

Why we picked it: A jaw-droppingly

gorgeous sim racer that could make Forza and Gran Turismo sweat.

Similar games: GTR series, Gran Turismo series, Forza Motorsport series

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Quantum Break

Game details: Developer: Remedy Entertainment Publisher: Microsoft Genre: Third-person Action/Shooter Platforms: Xbox One Release date: Mid-2015

Quantum Break was announced at a time when Microsoft was going big on its plans to make television programming central to its Xbox One strategy. That didn’t last long, but Quantum Break will continue to be a cross-media product, which means that the game will be interlinked with a TV show, although we’re not quite sure how this is going to work out.

What we do know is that the game half of Quantum Break is looking great, and it sees Max Payne creator Remedy Entertainment return to the time-manipulating gameplay mechanic that it pioneered. The game begins after a time travel experiment goes horribly wrong, which not only causes time to break down, but also grants the game’s three main characters the ability to manipulate time. While the game’s antagonist, Paul Serene, can see into the future to decide its course in the present, Jack Joyce, one of the protagonists, will have the ability to stop time. This opens up various possibilities in combat, which plays out mostly as a third-person cover-based shooter, as you’ll be able to stop or slow down time to plan out your attacks and outmaneuver your enemies. If you own or plan to pick up an Xbox One, Quantum Break should definitely be a must-buy.

Why we picked it: The studio that pioneered time manipulation with Max Payne is back it. Need we say more?

Similar games: Max Payne 3, Uncharted series 18

Rime Rime grips you instantly with its beautiful, watercolourstyled visuals, but there’s a lot more to this PS4 exclusive than a pretty art style. For Spanish developer Tequila Works, it’s a drastic change of pace and mood from its debut effort, Deadlight. While its first game was a bleak and cinematic side-scrolling platformer, Rime is an openworld exploration game with very little hand-holding.

You control a young boy stranded on an island and there’s no information to go on. As you set about exploring the beautiful island, the game throws subtle cues your way, such as a flock of seagulls flying in a particular direction to indicate a point of interest. Rime is also big on puzzles, most of which revolve around light, sound and the use of perspectives. This is an open-world game, of course, so getting around it is part of what makes it great. The island is big on verticality as well, so there will be a lot of climbing rocks and mountains as well as diving underwater to see what mysteries lie beneath the surface. Rime reminds us of Thatgamecompany’s brilliant Journey, and that can only be a good thing.

Why we picked it: A refreshing exporation game that

Game details: Developer: Tequila Works Publisher: Sony

reminds us of Journey.

Genre: Adventure

Similar Games: The Witness, Journey

Release date: TBA 2015

Platforms: PS4

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

Game details: Developer: Crystal Dynamics Publisher: Microsoft Genre: Action-Adventure Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One Release date: TBA 2015

Apart from the fact that Rise of the Tomb Raider is exclusive to Xbox despite a multiplatform release of its predecessor, hardly anything is known about the game till date. Its predecessor, which was also a reboot of the series, was so good that it was the biggest up yours from Microsoft to Sony at E3 2014. The only other information about the game comes from its trailer that has Lara Croft listening to a psychiatrist drone on, all the while imagining being chased by bears, hanging onto cliffs and shooting an arrow into a man’s skull, before rudely interrupting him with a deep and meaningful epiphany of her own.

It is safe to say that we won’t be seeing much of the psychiatrist in the game, but given how well the reboot was handled by Crystal Dynamics, expecting a gripping and fantastic action-adventure sequel featuring gaming’s most iconic female protagonist wouldn’t be asking for too much.

Why we picked it: To see a more hardened and seasoned Ms Croft after the 2013 reboot.

Similar games: Uncharted series, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor 20

The Witcher 3:

Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3 has been delayed a few times now – most recently from February to May – but that hasn’t dampened our excitement for CD Projekt RED’s epic RPG experience one bit. The Wild Hunt will be the conclusion of the story of Geralt of Rivia, and it signals many firsts for the series. Wild Hunt will be the first time a Witcher game will release simultaneously across multiple platforms, and it will also be the series’ PlayStation debut.

The third game is also far larger in scope, with CDPR now adopting an open-world approach to the game without a single loading screen anywhere. That’s a startling achievement considering that this is a bigger game world than Skyrim’s, and one with dynamic weather, and the sort of varied landscapes that Witcher games are known for. You can of course expect the rich story, excellent writing and moral choices that the series is known for, while the devs have also reworked the combat to make it more fluid and action-oriented, allowing you to use attacks and Witcher Signs (magic) at the same time. As always, you can expect The Witcher 3 to push the boundaries for visuals, and you can be sure that it’ll push your hardware – PC or console – to the limit.

If you happen to be new to the series, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need to have played the first two to enjoy The Witcher 3, so there’s really no reason for it to not be on everyone’s must-play list.

Game details: Developer: CD Projekt RED Publisher: CD Projekt Genre: RPG Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: 19th May

Why we picked it: For its rich story, interesting characters, intriguing moral choices, and stunning visuals.

Similar games: The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Dragon Age series 21

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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege

Game details: Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft Genre: Tactical First-person Shooter Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Release date: TBA 2015

Rainbow Six: Vegas was one of the best shooters early on in the previous console life cycle, blending tactical squad-based FPS mechanics with more accessible gameplay, but the series has been on hiatus since its 2008 sequel while Ubisoft focused on its other franchises.

However, Rainbow Six returns this year and what we’ve seen so far has us excited. Siege will ditch the bright lights and set pieces of the Vegas games for more of a tactical game of cat and mouse.

The game is being built using the AnvilNext engine (used in Assassin’s Creed) and will feature destructible environments, which are key to turning the tide of battle. Siege will be heavily multiplayer-focused, with an emphasis on teamwork to rescue hostages or foil rescue attempts, depending on which side of the battle you’re on. Ubisoft is hell-bent on getting the gameplay 22

spot-on. To that end, you can now lean, not only out of cover, but even while moving or when following a teammate, and you’ll also be able to shoot while rappelling or blasting through a window. Siege is also big on tools, so both sides will have drones, barricades, shields, charges and more. The biggest change of all though comes in the CounterStrike-esque no-respawn rule. If you die, you sit out the rest of the match. There’s still a lot more to see of Rainbow Six: Siege, but Ubisoft certainly seems to have its priorities right this time around.

Why we picked it:

A good tactical multiplayer FPS has been long overdue, and Rainbow Six has been MIA for too long.

Similar games: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Counter-strike: Global Offensive

Game details: Developer: Naughty Dog Publisher: Sony Genre: Third-person Action/Shooter Platforms: PS4 Release date: TBA 2015

Uncharted 4:

A Thief’s End No PlayStation exclusive franchise stood out in the PS3 era more than Uncharted, and that’s despite the presence of the likes of God of War and Gran Turismo.

Naughty Dog left behind the cartoony exploits of Crash and Jak and Daxter towards something more realistic, and so we got Nathan Drake, a likeable treasure

hunter who jumped, climbed and shot his way through some stunning environments across three brilliant games (plus one on the Vita). While Naughty Dog took a step away from the franchise to bring us the amazing The Last of Us, it’s about time we got another Uncharted, and this year we will.

Little is known about the story of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, although the ominous sounding title does hint that this one may not have a happy ending. We got our first glimpse of the game in action at last month’s PlayStation Experience and it looks downright stunning, with a mix of platforming, stealth, hand-tohand combat and gunplay set against the backdrop of a lush tropical jungle.

Naughty Dog will no doubt spruce up the series’ severely underrated competitive multiplayer as well. Uncharted 4 may well be Nathan Drake’s final treasure hunt, but if it is, you can bet he’ll be going out with a bang.

Why we picked it:

This one is a no-brainer. No one delivers a cinematic action-adventure quite like Naughty Dog.

Similar games: Tomb Raider, Gears of War series

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Cover Story

Those were our top 15 picks of games to watch out for in 2015, but there are so many more that we wish we could have included. Here some other of this year’s games that you may want to keep an eye out for.

Inside Inside is another dark and atmospheric platformer from Playdead, who also brought us the brilliant Limbo. Little is known about the game so far, but judging by the debut trailer, there will be little in the way of narrative, with players having to arrive at their own conclusions as the control a little boy across some bleak and harsh industrial environments. Inside is set to debut on Xbox One early this year, but should make it to other platforms eventually.

Game details: Genre: Adventure, Platforms: Xbox One, Release date: Early 2015

Mad Max We haven’t heard much about Mad Max since E3 2013, and even though developer Avalanche is also set to release Just Cause 3 this year, we should expect Mad Max some time around the release of the new film, even though it tells a different story. The openworld game has a heavy emphasis on vehicular combat, with over 50 iconic vehicles with realistic physics. Combat will be gore-filled as you’d expect thanks in no small part to Max’s sidekick Chumbucket and his harpoon gun. The vast open world will be a dangerous place, but also one filled with items to loot and scavenge and camps to explore.

Game details: Genre: Third-person Action, Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Release date: TBA 2014

Star Wars: battlefront Depending on how excited you get at the sound of heavy breathing, you are either madly anticipating or deeply dreading the final quarter of 2015. A new Star Wars movie, and a reboot of the Star Wars: Battlefront series made by none other than the talented folks at DICE, is the stuff that the sweaty dreams of basement geeks are made of. There isn’t too much to go on, but the early alpha footage of the game looks gorgeous. If the amount of effort DICE is putting into recreating the world of Star Wars is anything to go by, fans of the series will soon have a lot more to talk about than the flaws in the design of the new lightsaber.

Game details: Genre: Action, Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Release date: TBA 2014

Street Fighter 5 One of the surprise revelations at the PlayStation Experience was the next installment in Capcom’s acclaimed fighting series: Street Fighter. The gameplay mechanics of Street Fighter 5 seem to be similar to its predecessors, with features such as the Ex Meter and the Revenge Bar making a return. What remains to be seen is if Street Fighter 5 makes a better effort at being more accessible. Even if it doesn’t, there are enough people who can’t wait to get their hands on the newest release in the legendary fighting series.

Game details: Genre: Fighting, Platforms: PC, PS4, Release date: TBA 2014 24

The Order: 1886 At first glance, The Order: 1886 comes across as a fairly standard third-person shooter with all the usual tropes – cover-based shooting, regenerative health, and context-sensitive mini games. However, with its unique and distinctive Steampunk setting in an alternative universe and a story that attempts to weave together a story that mixes up supernatural enemies with an uprising of the masses against the upper echelons of society, the debut PS4 release from Ready at Dawn (of God of War on PSP fame) might be an interesting addition to your library of games.

Game details: Genre: Third-person Shooter, Platforms: PS4, Release date: 20th February 2015

Superhot Superhot is the perfect example of a game that is built around one brilliant idea. It’s a first-person shooter, but with one huge difference – time only moves when you move. So even if you have five bullets headed your way, they won’t travel towards you until you move, allowing you to think of ways to get out of their trajectory. It’s as much a puzzle game as it is a shooter, and with a piercing art style that mostly comprises of whites and reds, it’s easily one of the most unique games coming our way this year.

Game details: Genre: First-person Shooter, Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, Release date: June 2015

Until Dawn Why a bunch of teenagers would want to spend a night in a spooky log cabin with all kinds of weird stuff happening around them is beyond us, but that is the premise you are presented with in Until Dawn, a PS4 exclusive slated to launch in mid-2015. The gameplay footage from Playstation Experience was enough for our hearts to try and make a forcible exit through our mouths on more than one occasion. If horror is your thing, then Until Dawn deserves a spot on your mustwatch list for 2015.

Game details: Genre: Survival-Horror, Platforms: PS4, Release date: Mid-2015

Volume Volume is a classic top-down third person stealth game that takes heavy inspiration from Metal Gear Solid. In it, players move from one point of a neon-coloured area to the other, and though you can’t kill the guards that stand in the way, the game gives players various tools and distractions to use. Developed by Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, Volume once again relies heavily on voice narrative, with the likes of Andy Serkis lending their voices to the game. Volume will also ship with a level creator. Fans of classic stealth games will want to keep and eye out for this one.

Game details: Genre: Stealth, Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, PS Vita, Release date: TBA 2015 25

GAME PREVIEW

A public beta almost a year prior to release? Unheard of!

Then again, when it’s the next Halo game, we can’t help but be piqued to see what’s up. by Varun Verma

There are a slew of changes to the old Halo multiplayer formula, and most of them feel right at home with the franchise.

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or a franchise that’s proven that first-person shooters can work on consoles, it’s telling how far Halo has slipped from relevance.

Coupled with the fact that Halo: The Master Chief Collection isn’t exactly playable on Xbox Live either makes things all the more disappointing. It’s reached a point where today, the first-person shooter segment is dominated by Call of Duty and Battlefield, two military-based shooters instead of Microsoft’s marquee series.

Sure, both of them, particularly Call of Duty, have had new games with alarming regularity, with each entry improving on the other in interesting ways, Halo has

stayed the same for most part. Sprinting was absent (until Halo 4, while Halo Reach had it as a power-up), as was the option to aim down the sights of a gun, which most modern first-person shooters feature.

All this is about to change with Halo 5: Guardians. We sampled the beta, which is open to all Halo: The Master Chief Collection owners. There are a slew of changes to the old Halo multiplayer formula we know and love, and most of which have been done in such a way that they feel right at home with the franchise.

For starters, sprinting makes a return and it’s done in a manner that doesn’t simply

Beneath all the enhanced movement and shooting options lies the same old Halo we know and love. locations. Granted they do get a little noisy at times, but they’re quite useful all the same.

let you run around the battlefield without a care in the world. Rather, if you get hit while sprinting, your shields will not recharge. It’s a smart way to keep players from abusing the option. Another addition is dashing. The tap of a button allows you to boost your jump, letting you reach areas that you’d think were impossible. It also allows you to hover in the air for a bit to line up your shot. Dashing has a cool down period to ensure it’s not exploited.

Speaking of lining up your shot, you’ll be able to aim down the sights of most weapons in Halo 5, barring the sniper

rifle (that lets you zoom in anyway) and the covenant energy sword (for obvious reasons). As with sprinting, it comes to Halo 5 with some side effects. When you aim down the sights, you won’t be able to view your radar, which is crucial to check if there are any foes lurking behind you. If you get hit while aiming down the sights, you’ll go back to the game’s standard view. Another welcome addition is the automated battle chatter provided by your team mates. With most people shying away from using a headset, these do a great job of letting you know where new weapons respawn, and tell you of enemy

Beneath all these enhanced movement and shooting options lies the same old Halo we know and love. The pacing isn’t as fast as say, Titanfall, neither is it as slow as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It treads the middle-ground in terms of mobility, speed and gunplay with ease, augmented by sprint and dash functions that have their uses and don’t appear to be primed for exploitation just yet.

When writing this, the beta only had human weapons for most part (barring the Covenant energy sword). Nonetheless, they handled as they should. From the sniper rifle letting you pull off satisfying one-shot kills to the pistol that acts as a 27

GAME PREVIEW

Barring the smattering of super weapons that each player is encouraged to attain, there’s very little in the way of unbalanced weaponry.

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handy secondary weapon, they all work as they should. Barring the smattering of super weapons that each player is encouraged to attain, there’s very little in the way of unbalanced weaponry. Always a good thing. Furthermore, gone is the loadout system that was prevalent in Halo 4. What this means is that instead of having to choose from an assortment of (potentially overpowering) guns to start with, everyone starts with the same weapons, making for encounters that are skill-based, much like it was in Halo games pre-Halo 4.

As for the maps, Truth is a remake of the classic Halo 2 map, Midship, which has you running around your enemies in circles in an alien vessel, complete with an energy sword in the middle. Grabbing it would make the fight a lot easier, allowing for you to slash down multiple foes in succession.

The second map, Empire, is an industrial complex that has two sniper rifles at either end, and a host of narrow corridors in between. Both maps have an intense focus on weapon control i.e. getting to these high powered harbingers of death to allow

Game details: Developer: 343 Industries PUBLISHER: Microsoft Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: Xbox One

for victory, much like the earlier games in the series. They work in-sync with the new movement and shooting systems. Not once did I feel like any one gameplay element, such as aim down sights or sprinting, overpowered the others. Would this hold up on bigger maps or not remains to be seen though.

Also welcome are the game’s new melee moves courtesy of being able to sprint and dash. The ground pound happens when you hover over an opponent and slam down on them. It’s a neat addition

that doesn’t upset Halo 5’s balance simply because there’s a long charge time.

This means players would have to use it astutely lest it would backfire, having them shot in face instead. Then there’s jet bash, which lets you dash into your opposition, crushing them completely. Lining up a kill using this tactic is rather tough, making it worth consideration for only the most unsuspecting of enemies.

We’ve seen betas and alphas of games this year. Most of them, such as Titanfall and Destiny, were done when the game

was nearly ready to ship. They acted as marketing tools for a finished game rather than developers seeking player feedback.

With Halo 5: Guardians due late this year, it’s interesting to see a multiplayer beta made accessible to the public this early.

Considering their missteps with Halo 4 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, it seems that 343 Industries and Microsoft are looking to do right by the legions of Halo fans by incorporating their feedback at this juncture prior to release, making the final product all the more interesting when it hits 29

Interview

Game

With a multi-platform gaming arsenal, an increasing focus on mobile, and expansion into the entry level, Mad Catz looks to take India’s gaming peripherals market by storm. by Sameer Desai

M Arto Makela

From 2015, we will start introducing attractive products from a price point-of-view and also in terms of functionality.

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ad Catz is one the best known brands for gaming peripherals in the world, but it’s been keeping a low-profile in India since its products first started making their way here last February.

However, the company is now focussed on growing its business in India with a range of products that span various categories and multiple platforms. We spoke with Arto Makela, Mad Catz’s Vice President for Asia-Pacific; Albert Sun, Sales Director for the region; and Reuben Pereira from Mad Catz’s Indian distributor, Origin Games, to find out about the company’s plans to attract the Indian gamer.

Can you tell us a bit about Mad Catz and its products?

Arto Makela: Mad Catz is a company created by gamers for the gamers over 20 years ago. For the last five to

seven years, Mad Catz’s focus has been more on high-end products. With the acquisition of Saitek, which develops flight simulation products, and Tritton, the headset and audio firm, we’re now a top quality company and that’s how we’re giving an advantage to the player.

We’ve now reached a point where we’re not worried about our competition; they’re worried about us.

For India, will the mobile range be a priority for Mad Catz, or will it be the high-end PC products?

Makela: We’re stilling building up our business here. We’re very strong in Europe and America, and our focus is now in the Asia-Pacific region, namely key markets like China and Japan. In the South-East Asia region, India is one of the key markets for us. Business isn’t easy here though. There’s a big population here, but when you look at the gaming aspect, it’s a bit of a new

market. We want to make available are you also looking to develop all that we have because earlier, our lower-priced products for products were for gamers only, but markets like India? now they’re lifestyle products, so we Makela: We’ve just introduced the R.A.T. target what we like to call passionate 3 mouse, which I wouldn’t call entry consumers. These products are ideal level, but it’s a lower priced mouse in for gaming, but you can just as well use the R.A.T. range. Going forward, we are them in the office. Because it’s a new definitely looking to have very attractive market, the competition in many areas is next to nothing, so it’s good for us. For products from price point perspective as well. We’ll be looking to attract causal now, we’re coming mostly with the mice gamers with these and keyboards and products and give the audio products as One of the most them the Mad well. Mobile will come Catz experience, into the picture as important assets of our from where they well, but we just have company and our brand can upgrade to the to time it. Personally, ones.

I think that’s a huge is our design... you’ll see higher-end Our marketing market in India, just that when you look at approach is to come like China, because the audience also our keyboards and mice. up with high-end goes far beyond gaming.

products for the most demanding gamers, and at the same time start introducing a different range. So I would say that from 2015, we will start introducing many attractive products from a price point of view and also in terms of functionality.

Is Mad Catz looking to undertake any marketing or brand awareness campaigns to help popularise the brand in India?

Makela: Yes, we’ve been touring the market with Origin (Mad Catz’s India distributor) and they have lots of plans to help popularise the brand. We want to convey our brand image and what it stands for, which is, above all, high quality. The hardcore gaming aspect is also an important part of that. That said,

Reuben Pereira: The PC market is definitely bigger than the console market in India. Even though we started [with Mad Catz] in February, our focus has only been on Saitek products all this while. Now that Saitek is in place and doing well, the focus is going to be on the PC platform, and eventually on mobile. So in the next year, it will be PC and mobile. That includes the audio products.

While Mad Catz has been focussing on high-end products,

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Interview

building the brand image will happen slowly and with small steps. We want to engage with gamers and the gaming community. We plan to start supporting the various e-sports events that happen here, and have the opportunity for gamers to experience our products before they buy. So you want see a big marketing wave, where we through lots of marketing dollars pushing the brand.

We don’t think that’s a sustainable way to approach it.

efforts in Europe, and number two is the fact that our designs are so unique that they naturally attract the attention of the consumers. What also helps us is the fact that our company covers every aspect of gaming – console gaming and headsets, PC gaming and headsets, and of course the latest focus is mobile. In the next 18 months, mobile gaming will be our bread and butter. If you look at our competition, some just focus on PC or on headsets, while we have a full I think mobile is a huge range. With good retail execution and market in India, just online presence, I think our brand like China, because the will definitely audience also goes far be noticed by consumers. beyond gaming.

What sets Mad Catz products apart from highend gaming peripherals from other top brands, and what advantages does the brand have coming in to India?

Albert Sun: Well, one of the most important assets of our company and our brand is our design. We spend a lot of time on design, and we want people to experience these products. You’ll see that when you look at our keyboards and mice. That also extends to our keyboards and headsets. Since we’re very strong in Europe, I think a lot of gamers also get information from there.

So number one is the overflow of our

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Mad Catz products have been available in India for almost a year now. What have you learned about the India market in this time, and how will that determine your future approach in India?

Makela: Our entry into India will not have any impact on our designs or our philosophies.

That won’t change, but we do take countries like India into

consideration when we design our entrylevel product range. What we usually do with our products, is we have the flagship products, and then we introduce variants. Going forward, we’ll have the flagship products and at the same time, we’ll have the other variants so they can ride on the wave.

Sun: On console, we used to have really high-end products. Now, in the US and

all over, and even in India, we have really high quality headsets for USD 39, so we’re eating up a lot of the market. We believe that we can attract consumers with the entry level and they can then progress from there.

While Mad Catz is a gaming brand, your products also have uses outside gaming, so will you be looking to push the brand to non-gamers as well?

Makela: Well, gamers are also regular of the shops that we visited in the first people, right? They have day jobs too, area we went to [Lamington Road, so the products do Mumbai]. I think have applications the gamers know in everyday use.

“We’re all about passionate where to go, and We actually have a they can go to a range of products, consumers, but our store and ask, “Do like the Office you have Mad cornerstone has been and R.A.T., specifically Catz?” Now, some always will be gaming.” targeting of these stores passionate do, but not all. consumers like graphics designers, The most important thing is availability. who can use a gaming mouse in their When there is a demanding consumer or environment by using macros. That’s gamer looking for a Mad Catz product, the way we can go, and we did decide they should find it. It’s not like we to go, because we have the products have very expensive products and we already. So we’re all about passionate don’t want to make them available to consumers, but our cornerstone has everyone. That’s not our strategy here, been and always will be gaming. or anywhere.

Having been around the local markets, what’s your impression of the Indian games industry and the potential for Mad Catz here?

Makela: It’s much better than I expected. We’re already visible in some

With online retail becoming so popular in India, will that be your main focus or will there be an equal emphasis on physical stores?

Makela: We believe that online sales is

the way to go, but we want to be visible in offline stores as well. Offline visibility and availability is important. In some markets it’s even more important. I think there needs to be a good balance.

What sort of after-sales support can Indian consumers expect from Mad Catz?

Makela: We aim to deliver products of the highest quality and so there is that price point for these products. So we do our utmost to make everything happy, so that consumers never have to come back other than to buy something more.

That said, some of these are mechanical products and so there is a chance that there could be some issues. If there is a disappointed customer, we really need to have damage control and to make them happy as soon as possible.

Representatives from Origin Games confirmed that all Mad Catz products carry a one-year replacement warranty in India

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GAME REVIEW

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If riding an elephant into battle while wielding an RPG doesn’t sound like fun, you clearly need to rethink your priorities in life. by Arjun Kumar

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GAME REVIEW

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or someone who thought Far Cry 4 was merely a reskinning of Far Cry 3, I’ve put in a solid 50 hours into the campaign. So why did I do it? To be brutally honest, there really is nothing else to play now, but to be fair to the game, it’s also addictive as hell. At first it does seem like a copy-paste job, with singleplayer missions, side-quests and even certain animations being taken as they were from Far Cry 3. But as you explore the game world, and get into all sorts of trouble, you’ll see that Ubisoft has refined and tweaked their openworld formula to offer players the definitive Far Cry experience.

Far Cry 4 is a sequel in name only as it has nothing to do with Jason Brody or the events of Rook Island. You play as Ajay Ghale, an American, who’s returned to his native country of Kyrat (the game’s version of Nepal) to scatter his mother’s ashes. Unfortunately for Ajay, his spiritual journey is cut short when he realises that Kyrat is in the midst of a civil war, and pulling the strings is Pagan Min, a dictator who has a penchant for outlandish attire and wanton violence. Fighting Min’s oppression is a rag tag group of rebels called the Golden Path.

After a relatively long introduction sequence, we see Ajay aligning himself with the Golden Path in a bid to take Min and his cronies

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down. If you actually pay attention to the story, Far Cry 4 has a pretty interesting plot. In no way is it explained how Ajay can go from mild-mannered expat to a badass AKwielding rebel, but hey, video games. The man in nearly every video game today, Troy Baker, is highly enjoyable as the enigmatic and violent Pagan Min. He doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time, but he kills it when he’s on screen. Ajay is also quite likeable, but once again he’s bogged down by a bunch of needy dudes who simply cannot function without him.

His transition into the Golden Path seems very convenient, and he rarely questions their motives, just doing their bidding like a good soldier. Cue stupid fetch quests or the staple ‘go here and kill x’ quests. Thankfully, the game makes up for its more boring characters with some really quirky dudes, such as Hurk, a dudebro manchild who has an unhealthy obsession with monkeys, or Rabi Ray Rana, a wise-cracking radio jockey worried about Ajay’s personal hygiene. And we also have Yogi and Reggie, two recreational smokers in search of quality herbs. Your choices in the game (during the campaign) will influence who ultimately

emerges as the leader of the Golden Path.

Even during the final chapter, there is a choice that will affect the outcome. It’s not ground breaking, but it’s a welcome addition to the series.

Far Cry 4 has a plethora of side stuff to indulge in so you can stray as far away from the campaign as you’d like. You can liberate outposts and use them as quick-travel points, hunt animals (exotic and normal) to craft bigger and better gear, free hostages, defuse bombs and basically get into a whole lot of trouble. Like its predecessor, Far Cry 4 allows you to choose an approach in any combat situation. Pick a bow and arrow and stalk your prey like a stealthy predator or load up a grenade launcher with an assault rifle and kill anything that moves. It’s this diversity that kept me completely hooked. Sometimes, I would liberate outposts without raising the alarm, while sometimes I would purposely get spotted just so I could blow up all the reinforcements with C4 charges. And every time I’d plan on quitting the game, that one outpost or bell

Game details: Developer: Ubisoft PUBLISHER: Ubisoft Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC Reviewed on: PC

In Far Cry 4, you can unlock the ability to ride elephants, and it is as awesome as it sounds.

Oh that’s right. In Far Cry 4, you can unlock the ability to ride elephants, and it is as awesome as it sounds.

Through the skill tree, Ajay can unlock a bunch of abilities, such as increased health, a variety of takedowns, sprinting for an unlimited period of time, and more. And it’s one of these abilities that allows you to ride an elephant into battle.

You can then pound your enemies to death and even topple vehicles over with the flick of a button. If riding an elephant into battle seems too dramatic for you, you can lure a randomly generated predator towards enemies using bait and watch it tear stuff up.

Besides the sheer enjoyment derived from causing chaos, a lot of the side stuff in Far Cry 4 offers unlocks, so liberating outposts or doing side-quests for certain people will bestow you with better weapons/gear and may even unlock skills that were locked otherwise.

And I would recommend unlocking some of these weapons as the game’s pretty skimpy on its arsenal initially. I was running around with an AK for the longest time, and I personally

felt it wasn’t up to the mark, but as I unlocked more bell towers and freed them from Pin’s propaganda, my arsenal slowly expanded to include far deadlier firepower such as grenade launchers, sniper rifles, LMGs and more.

If blowing stuff up solo gets boring, you can invite a friend or jump into someone else’s game and wreak havoc co-operatively. This adds a whole new layer of chaos and strategy to your Far Cry experience.

Unfortunately, you can’t play any of the story missions co-operatively, but you can liberate outposts, take over forts and explore the game world with a buddy. It’s a lot of fun. Far Cry 4 also offers a versus mode in which you can chose to play as either the Golden Path or Pagan Min’s elite guards, the Rakshasa. You can chose from one of three modes spread out over ten maps. As the Golden Path, you use traditional firepower to get the job done, while as the Rakshasa, you wield old-school weapons of death such as the bow and arrow while teleporting across the map. Now, most of you may shirk this off as a tacked on multiplayer mode, but I would recommend giving it a shot.

It’s actually well thought out, and is rather entertaining. That being said, I would have preferred a conventional TDM option as well,

or the ability to play the entire game in co-op.

That would have been the icing on this ultraviolent cake.

I won’t lie; as much as I enjoyed this game, there is no denying the fact that it follows Ubisoft’s staple open-world formula with a bazillion icons cluttering your map and overwhelming your senses at all times. Plus, it seems extremely similar to Far Cry 3, so if you didn’t enjoy that game, chances are you won’t like this one either. Mission structure is predictable, and to many, liberating their tenth outpost may seem like unnecessary tedium.

That being said, I would still recommend this game. Play it in short bursts if you have to. It’s a world that is brimming with opportunities and watching its population (both human and animal) interact with each other and the player is something you don’t see in a lot in games today. This will result in crazy unscripted player encounters that your friends may or may not experience themselves. Co-op is a whole lot of fun too, and blowing stuff up with a friend is always awesome

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tower would call out to me.

Before I knew it, it was 3 AM and I’m wielding an RPG while riding an elephant into battle.

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VFM Verdict Besides a solid campaign and a myriad of side-quests, Far Cry 4 offers insanely enjoyable co-operative gameplay as well as a pretty entertaining multiplayer mode.

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GAME REVIEW

WWE debuts on PS4/Xbox One and even boasts a career mode exclusive to the new consoles. We enter the squared circle and put it through its paces. by Murali Venukumar

T

here’s a strange similarity between the current state of WWE’s product and the game that is WWE 2K15. They’re both, and pardon my lack of tact, boring and broken. There are instances when things just click and the output rises above the ordinary, 2013’s SummerSlam or the 30 years of WrestleMania mode in WWE 2K14 for instance, but it has been business as usual otherwise. The output has been sub-par beyond belief; an affront to wrestling’s past and the athletes who put their bodies on the line for our entertainment.

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I love pro-wrestling, and while I’ll immediately caveat that statement by declaring that I don’t really follow the WWE anymore, I genuinely do appreciate the athleticism and theatrics that go into running an entertaining edge-of-yourseat pro-wrestling show. From arguably better wrestling organisations like ROH, AJPW and NOAH, to classic grappling videogames such as Fire-Pro and King of Coliseum, there’s a lot for a dedicated fan to dig into. So it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see Yuke’s game stagnate - nay, regress - in its 2014 release.

The good first though. The new, slower-paced

matches add an interesting new wrinkle to an ageing formula. In pro-wrestling, the difference between a good match and a great match is all in the tempo, so it’s great that the new stamina (and health) system has a very real impact on your in-ring actions. The new tiered approach kicks a different animation set in depending on how depleted your stamina or health bars are. Expend too much energy or get beat up a bunch, and your grappler will show it by slumping down or collapsing altogether. You’ll need to think matches through and actually strategise and plan out your energy bursts and recoveries.

Some of the more esoteric match types, such as 3 Stages of Hell and Casket matches have either been gated behind other modes or removed entirely.

While this is great if you’re a fan of slower paced bouts, those who want an arcade style no-holds-barred brawl may find the system incredibly annoying.

And it does have some kinks that need to be worked out, in all fairness, as there will be multiple instances where you’re just sitting put waiting for an animation routine to run its course for a chance to actually play the game again. These issues aside, and I’m sure they can be ironed out in future games if Yuke’s can spare the effort, the stamina system is a net positive.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many other significant changes in gameplay to speak of. Counter-windows are slightly more forgiving, although you’ll still see far too many missed counters without any visual or aural feedback on when you should be hitting the counter button.

It’s frustrating that Yuke’s hasn’t addressed this after similar complaints with past iterations. Moves and move-sets, on the other hand, have either been mo-capped or cleaned up, and transitions between moves are a lot smoother than they were lastgen. The matches are also less clunky than they used to be and there’s a lot less sliding around the ring and more actual walking. That said, bugs and graphical oddities haven’t been eliminated entirely. The AI puts up a good fight in singles matches, but hasn’t improved by much when there are more than two wrestlers in-ring.

The new chain wrestling mini-game that kicks matches off is also a disappointment. What it amounts to is a rock-paper-scissors mini-game that doesn’t really emulate the skill 39

GAME REVIEW

Those who want an arcade style no-holds-barred brawl may find the [stamina] system incredibly annoying.

required to pull it off in real life. All you get as far as actual interaction goes is pressing a button to an on-screen prompt or twiddling an analog stick to find a hot-zone. It does start matches off at a slower pace, but it wears out its welcome far too soon, especially considering the limited number of animations available for each choice. All bets are off on this returning heavily-modified in next year’s release or getting scrapped entirely.

Continuing with the theme of minor improvements, the overall audio visual presentation has been refined but remains a colossal letdown when compared to NBA 2K15 – a 2K Sports stablemate no less.

You’ll still hear Cole and Lawler go through the motions, often times repeating phrases multiple times or getting the in-ring action completely wrong. 2K15 tries to take advantage of next-gen hardware by using 40

high-res body scans of wrestlers as part of their in-game models. Most of the new models look great – although the ones that weren’t body scanned really do stick out, and the crowd (or at least those ringside) have received a major overhaul. That said, the overall presentation could use a lesson in scale. Neither the arena nor the sound design does enough to make events or individual matches feel epic.

While the visuals have seen a marginal improvement, the available match types and customisation options have been pruned down. You won’t be able to create your own finishers, storylines or titles anymore, and some of the more esoteric match types such as 3 Stages of Hell, backstage and casket matches have either been gated behind other modes or removed entirely. The fan community was one of the best things about the series, and not giving them the tools they need to churn

out hilarious mini-episodes is disappointing beyond belief. These modes will most likely return in future games, but it’s a testament to rushed development cycles that they weren’t included in this release to begin with.

Showcase is one of the two story-centric modes in the game, and is a decent bit of fun.

The mode focuses on a couple of key feuds Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels from a decade ago, and the more recent CM Punk vs. John Cena arc from 2011. Both stories feature a bunch of matches with well-produced video packages and challenging objectives to complete, and are very similar to the Attitude and WrestleMania modes from WWE ‘13 and WWE 2K14. While there are a few inconsequential filler matches in the mix, the Showcase mode remains a brilliant way to experience some of the best feuds in WWE history. More, please.

Game details: Developer: Yuke’s, Visual Concepts PUBLISHER: 2K Sports Genre: Fighting Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 Reviewed on: PS4

launch and then pick up the season pass. It’s self-defeating.

And self-defeating is a theme that runs through WWE 2K15. There’s only enough effort put in to justify a next-gen release, whereas the complete engine and gameplay overhaul that fans have been clamoring for is nowhere in sight. The best thing to do would be to sit this version out and pick up the last two-three years’ games, if you haven’t already.

They’ll cost you as much as the current-gen release and have enough content to play through, at least till Yuke’s brings the game up to spec. Any time now rating:

The other story-based majority of your career will be spent playing mode, MyCareer, isn’t You’ll Cole and Lawler go through inconsequential as riveting or fleshed through the motions, often filler matches. And out. It starts the way any vanilla career want to play repeating phrases multiple you’ll mode would, with you through them for the creating a ‘superstar’ times or getting the in-ring upgrade points and the to beef up your using a pared-down action completely wrong. ability character builder. The move set. We’ve seen this shtick before, and mode, as you would expect, involves your NXT development it’s a shame that the formula wasn’t changed up for the series’ next-gen debut. circuit wannabe rising ranks to the main shows, PPVs and WrestleManias. It’s as much Online modes return, but latency issues a slog as it sounds. While the Showcase mode continue to affect the experience. As always, was a slickly produced package, MyCareer uses a whole lot of clumsily written textthe multiplayer remains strongest when you’re based storytelling to give you a reason to on a couch playing your buds. The game’s play on. There are a few cutscenes in the mix season pass approach is also disappointing as it locks way too much content behind a paywall. (mostly for the more fleshed out feuds that Most gamers will just wait for the core game thankfully break up the monotony), and some to get discounted a couple of months after pretty decent voiceover work as well, but the

6

VFM Verdict WWE 2K15 is Yuke’s at its complacent worst. Shop smart and pick up WWE ’13 and WWE 2K14 on the cheap instead.

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GAME REVIEW

While we wait for Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics brings us the follow-up to the surprisingly awesome Guardian of Light. by Sameer Desai

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That game was, of course, Lara Croft uring Gamescom last year, and the Guardian of Light. If you’re new there was outrage from to these games and you’re wondering PlayStation and PC gamers why they don’t carry the ‘Tomb Raider’ at Square Enix’s decision moniker, it’s because these are smaller in to make Rise of the Tomb scope and style. Rather than being bigRaider – sequel to the brilliant 2013 series budget third-person titles like 2013’s Tomb reboot – exclusive to the Xbox consoles.

Raider, Temple of Osiris, like Guardian Crystal Dynamics’ was response was of Light, is a top-down isometric game comical and almost sarcastic. ‘Those are that is designed to be great systems, with played co-operatively. great partners, Before you turn away and amazing As in Guardian of Light, disappointed, you communities. We combat and cinematics should know that have Lara Croft and the Temple of take a back seat to clever Guardian of Light was a brilliant game all the Osiris coming to environmental puzzles. same, and stayed true those platforms this to the Tomb Raider December’. Not franchise, more so some would say, than only did that response completely miss the latest console/PC release. So it was the point of the outrage, but it actually understandable that Square Enix would undermined Temple of Osiris, reducing it want to ride that wave of popularity with a to a peace offering for non-Xbox gamers rather than positioning it as a fitting sequel follow-up while fans waited for the next big to one of the best Tomb Raider games in third-person Lara Croft adventure. recent memory.

And so we have Lara Croft and the Temple

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of Osiris. With the Tomb Raider series heading more into action territory, there’s now even more room for a Lara Croft game. Like Guardian of Light, here too, combat and cinematics take a back seat to clever environmental puzzles. The big addition this time is four-player online co-op, up from two players in Guardian of Light. In combat, Temple of Osiris plays like a twin-stick shooter, just not a very good one. Controls feel sluggish and the guns lack a punch. You’ll start with Lara’s signature dual pistols and unlock more guns as you go along, from machine guns to shotguns, but neither does anything to make combat more fun. It doesn’t help that barring some of the bosses, all the enemies are just cannon fodder that put up no challenge and serve to only break up the puzzle segments.

Aside from the guns, you also have grenades, a grappling hook, and a staff at your disposal. The grenades and staff are useful in combat, but they’re also of great

Game details: Developer: Crystal Dynamics PUBLISHER: Square-Enix Genre: Action-Adventure Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One Reviewed on: Xbox One

responsibilities. Puzzle elements are also moved around when you play in co-op so all players have a role to play. In addition to these variations, there’s also lots to collect and unlock in subsequent play-throughs.

At no time did Temple of Osiris evoke to sort of thrill or excitement that Guardian of Light did. The puzzles, while fun, aren’t that special and the combat is pretty average, so you’ll only really have fun when you’re playing with a friend, but that holds true for any co-op game. Add to this the sluggish controls, glitchy movement, and at times awkward camera angles, and you start to wonder how much time Crystal Dynamics really spent on polishing up this game. There’s still room in the industry for a Lara Croft game that focuses on puzzles and co-op over all else; it just needs to be better executed than this rating:

stick shooter. The camera poses issues use in puzzle solving. The puzzles are fun and they’ll be the reason you keep playing, as well, especially during fast movement sections where you’re escaping an enemy but they’re never too challenging. Thanks or dodging obstacles. There’s often not to the drawn out top-down view, it’s quite enough reaction time since the camera easy to figure them out, so the tricky bit is the execution, since timing is often the key. won’t let you see obstacles or jumps that lie ahead of you.

The staff comes into play here by allowing you slow down The campaign certain actions. consists of nine Execution is where The controls feel incredibly tombs in all, each the puzzles become sluggish and a little with their distinct less fun though. puzzle styles, but it The controls feel outdated, especially since should take you fourincredibly sluggish to-five hours to run and a little outdated, the camera is so drawn out. through them all. especially since the camera is so drawn out. You’ll often run into walls or get stuck in them. Climbing That said, there’s plenty of reason to replay walls with the grappling hook is glitchy too, game, if you can bear with the controls. and I lost count of the number of times I For one, the puzzles and the combat vary fell off an edge even though I wasn’t that quite a bit when you play with friends as close to it. opposed to playing solo. Where in solo mode you’ll be doing everything yourself, in co-op, one player will take on the role You’ll encounter many of these cheap of Lara or her archeologist companion, deaths because the controls just aren’t as while the other will play as one of the snappy as you’d expect from an isometric staff-wielding gods, thus sharing the game, especially one that’s also twin-

6

VFM Verdict Playing with friends can be a blast, but with short campaign that has a few niggling issues, everyone but the biggest Lara fans should wait for a sale.

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Gaming keyboard review

Mad Catz

S.T.R.I.K.E. TE Mad Catz’s latest keyboard has competitive gamers and e-sports pros in its crosshairs.

by Sameer Desai

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From plugging in the keyboard, to downloading drivers and software, to creating shortcuts and macros, and getting into a game of Far Cry 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition, everything about the Strike TE was effortless.

The keyboard’s metal body and its mechanical keys felt sturdy throughout. I had only one minor only issue with the keyboard’s layout – most keyboards have a gap between the direction keys and the Delete/End/Pg Dn row, so having a cluster of programmable keys there took a bit of getting used to. That aside, the Mad Catz Strike TE is a fantastic gaming keyboard, regardless of your game genre of choice. However, at Rs 11,990, it’s on the steeper side even within the high-end segment, so you’ll be paying quite a premium for this stellar performance

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a fine balance between tactility and response, ad Catz is a brand dedicated and they’re quickly becoming the key of choice to gamers and its TE range for gamers, although I personally prefer the is designed for the cream snappier Red keys. What mechanical keys offer of the crop. The ‘TE’ in S.T.R.I.K.E. TE (Strike TE is the best performance, and the Strike TE’s offer 50 million keystrokes worth of it. henceforth because that nomenclature is just too ridiculous to repeat) Like any gaming keyboard stands for Tournament its salt, the Strike Edition, and this keyboard The 12 programmable worth is designed for gaming at TE offers a range of customisable keys. There the highest level – e-sports. keys can further be In signature Mad Catz are seven of them on top, set to three modes, and another five around style, the Strike TE features an edgy design, with lots giving you a total of 36 the directional keys. These 12 can further be set to of angles everywhere. The customisations on tap. three modes, giving you a frame is made from sturdy metal and our review unit total of 36 customisations on tap, and with the brilliant software you can sported a red glossy paintjob; the kind you’d be more accustomed to seeing on a car. It download, setting macros and shortcuts for your games couldn’t be easier. As you’d expect, certainly looks slick, although I’d prefer the black variant to go with the 105 black-coloured you also get a Windows key lock and media controls. The keyboard is fully backlit (in mechanical keys that sit atop it. The keyboard white) and you can adjust the intensity of the uses Kailh Brown keys as opposed to the more commonly seen Cherry MX ones, but the lighting as a whole, and for individual clusters like WSAD and the directional keys. quality is unquestionable. Brown keys bring

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Ratings: Build: 8 Performance: 8 Value: 6

don’t just read it

experience it GAME REVIEW

If rIdIng an elephant Into battle whIle wIeldIng an rpg doesn’t sound lIke fun, you clearly need to rethInk your prIorItIes In lIfe. by Arjun Kumar GAME REVIEW

Sackboy makeS hiS nextgeneration debut, and he’S brought a few friendS.

by Amit Goyal

O

ut of the hands of Media Molecule for the first time, I was a little apprehensive about where the LittleBigPlanet series was heading. Right from its debut in 2007, it has stood apart from the hordes of medieval fantasies and space sagas and zombie apocalypses and futuristic wars that are quite literally clamoring over each other for our attention. LittleBigPlanet, however, stuck with the simple things. In a world obsessed with detail, it introduced the Sackperson (or Sackboy), a rather nondescript hero who can be anyone you want it to be.

It did not so much as glance in the direction of immersive experience. Instead, it asked you to invite a few friends

over and laugh, scream and curse as you trip over each other and bumbled through levels.

Most of all, what worked for Media Molecule and LittleBigPlanet was the confidence they placed in their simple credos of play, create and share. The fantastic create tools that allowed the players to create platformers of their own in the first LBP were further expanded in LBP2, which allowed users to stitch together any kind of games they could imagine. FPS? Top-down espionage? Role-playing side-scroller? The sky was the limit. So what could Sumo Digital possibly do to top that?

They tried, and the results are interesting.

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GAME REVIEW

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The grandest LEGO adventure till date.

by Amit Goyal

W

hy the game is called Lego “Batman” is beyond me, because this game is more Justice League than all the Lego blocks on this planet, combined. I’m guessing Zack Snyder will have to make a mind-blowing ensemble movie before the Justice League name sells as much as Batman. As the title indicates, the plot at hand is much grander. Brainiac has brainwashed seven different Lantern Corps to power a shrink ray that he wants to use on Earth to shrink it and add it to his collection. It is up to Batman, Robin and their Justice League buddies to foil this plan.

If none of that made sense to you, then half the charm of Lego Batman 3 will be lost on you.

The game is quite literally filled to the brim with pretty much every DC character you can think of. The first level, which has Batman and Robin chasing Killer Croc through the sewers, quickly escalates into a galactic conflict when the Joker and his cronies invade the Justice League Watchtower just as the superheroes and Brainiac himself arrive at the scene. The game features a whopping 150 unlockable characters that you will need if you feel compelled to find every collectible in the game.

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GAME REVIEW

Game details: Developer: Traveller’s Tales PUBLISHER: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action-Adventure Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS Vita, iOS Reviewed on: PS4

a trance by playing the If you have not The game is quite intro music of the ‘60s experienced Adam West Batman any of the other literally filled to the TV show. You need Lego game or the brim with pretty much not worry though, rather fantastic the writers Lego Movie that every DC character you because released earlier are up to the task, and can think of. this year, and you will find yourself laughing out loud at your impression many moments through the game. of Batman is distinctly Nolan-ised, you are in for a surprise. Lego takes The gameplay, however, is a bit the DC universe in a much lighter of a mixed bag. Like the previous vein, often diffusing situations with unexpected hilarity that goes with games, Lego Batman 3 is light on the “Lego -ed” aesthetics of the platforming and combat. Instead, the game. For example, in order to beat game involves puzzle-solving, where you must progress by break existing a brainwashed Batman in one of the initial levels, you must first put him in objects into Lego pieces and then

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Traveller’s Tales: More than just Lego UK-based Traveller’s Tales has become synonymous with the Lego video games, but the accomplished developer has quite an illustrious past before it began its adventure with colourful blocks. As an independent studio, it worked on iconic video game and pop culture franchises like Mickey Mouse, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Transformers. TT was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2007, and since then it’s been putting comical spins on some of the entertainment world’s most revered franchises.

reassemble the pieces into something new.

These devices must be used in conjunction with special suits for the various characters that you unlock as you play along. For example, one of Batman’s suits allows him to see through walls, and one of Robin’s suits allows him to walk in toxic water.

Switching suits is hassle-free and can be done on the fly. Most of the game breaks down into the act of assembling the right components and using them in conjunction with the right suit.

Other popular franchises that got the Lego game treatment • Harry Potter • The Hobbit • Indiana Jones • The Lord of the Rings • Marvel universe • Pirates of the Caribbean • Rock Band • Star Wars

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That brings us to the issues with this whole setup. At one point, you realise that this is all that you have to do throughout the game. Yes, the game does keep up the variety in taking you from one exotic level to the other, but being reduced to the same gameplay mechanic throughout the 12-hour campaign can be a little unsatisfactory. and wit that the The game also has more sombre comic Lego takes the DC universe poor onboarding. book and cinematic At times, you are in a much lighter vein, often universes cannot left twiddling your afford. Sadly, the diffusing situations with thumbs with no light-heartedness of clear direction to unexpected hilarity to go the tone extends to proceed in. This the gameplay as well, with the Lego-ed aesthetics. leads to some really and given how you’re frustrating stretches often left to grapple within your own of time where you jump about to every devices doesn’t make a very compelling nook and cranny of the playable area until case for the game. For superhero fans who you figure out what needs to be done by are open to an alternate outlook towards accident. their favourite characters, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham can be great experience, In the current scheme of things, with whether you are tearing down the Batcave high profile releases competing from with Alfred and Robin to restrain a hijacked your money, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Batman, or battling Joker’s plaything in a Gotham can be easily overlooked. There hectic dogfight around the Watchtower in is no denying the game has a lot of charm Space

7

VFM Verdict Unless you’re a huge Lego or DC fan, your money may be better spent on other titles, but there’s no denying that you will be missing out a singularly charming experience.

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Gaming headset review

Kingston HyperX Cloud Kingston enters the gaming peripherals market and aces it at the first time of asking. by Sameer Desai

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are more breathable, but I prefer the more comfortable leatherette memory foam ones that come attached as default.

The one area where Kingston has dropped the ball though is the mic. It comes as a separate attachment and it almost feels like an afterthought. Moreover, the voice quality in gaming and even in non-gaming applications like Skype is nothing to write home about. It doesn’t cancel noise too well either, with pops often audible. That’s about the only negative I can point out with the hardware itself. The other though is the price, depending on where you buy it. It’s MRP of `7,499 is steep, but at the time of writing, you could get it for as low as `5,600, and that’s a compelling price for a high quality headset such as this. The HyperX Cloud doesn’t claim to do a whole lot other than deliver comfort and great quality sound, and it does that in spades

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depth and distance to the sound. Even though ingston is brand you might Kingston doesn’t advertise this as a virtual know very well for its range of surround headset, it outperforms headsets memory and storage products, by many brands that do in this regard. That but it isn’t one you’d associate with gaming peripherals. I didn’t direction and depth is of great importance in gaming, of course, especially in first-person either, but then the company sent over the games like Battlefield 4.

HyperX Cloud gaming headset and it made me wonder what took them so long. HyperX is Unlike most gaming Kingston’s line of gaming products (previously headsets, however, the Although Kingston doesn’t HyperX Cloud is also restricted to SSDs and RAM), and the Cloud than competent for advertise this as a virtual more other uses, like watching headset, though it may movies or listening to not seem it from its list of surround headset, it speicifications, is one that music on the go. It’s quite outperforms headsets by easily the most versatile beats its competition on many fronts. gaming headset I’ve many brands that do. used, and its light weight The first of those is build and foldable design also makes it easy to carry around despite the large quality. The Cloud is built using a sturdy, drivers in it. Kingston includes a generous yet lightweight aluminium frame that holds the cups together. Over your head is comfy, number of attachments that you can plug in, including an inline controller for volume, padded cushioning with stitching around it that not only holds it together, but also looks an adaptor for aeroplane jacks, an adapter to combine the separate mic and headphone good doing it. The high-quality plastic cups enclose the headset’s large 53mm drivers that jacks into one for use with the PS4, and a pack a serious punch. The headset delivers great longer cable for use from a distance. You’ll also get a set of replaceable foam ear cups, which bass and crisp trebles, and there’s noticeable

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Ratings: Build: 9 Performance: 9 Value: 8

Gaming headset review

Tritton Kunai

Tritton’s surprisingly affordable Xbox One headset gives Microosft’s stereo headset a run for its money. by Sameer Desai

T

he Tritton brand is well known for its high-performance premium gaming headsets, but it has now entered into the console market and is targeting the entry-level segment first.

With the company having been acquired

by Mad Catz, its products are now officially available in India, and the Kunai headset is the first to make its way to us. Tritton offers three variants of the Kunai headset.

adapter is provided, which plugs into the Xbox One controller. The adapter, aside from making the headset compatible, also includes buttons for volume control, mute, chat, and controller battery status.

The headset comes with a flexible detachable mic that works flawlessly in voice chat over Xbox Live. I’m glad it’s detachable because you can take it off when you want to just use it to listen to music on your phone or game on your handheld.

There’s one for the PS4 and PS Vita (priced `4,990), and a universal wireless version that works across all platforms except Xbox One (`10,490). The one we got for review was the Xbox The 12 programmable One variant, which at `4,290, is the keys can further be set lowest priced of the lot.

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to three modes, giving

All three variants are essentially the you a total of 36 same in design and performance, customisations on tap. sporting 40mm drivers in an onthe-ear cup design. The headset itself is nice and light, but the glossy The Xbox One comes plastic used in its construction doesn’t with a rather cheap feel flimsy at all. The headband is well mono headset bundled padded and adjustable, as are the ear cups in, so if you’re looking to with leatherette padding that can also be upgrade to something to turned to fit the shape of your head. better sounding and more comfortable, However, since the cups fit on your ears the only rather than over them, they do get a bit other option painful over prolonged periods for those at this price is like me who wear glasses. For everyone Microsoft’s own Xbox One stereo headset. else, these will be quite comfortable, It does have bigger over-the-year cups, especially thanks to the light weight. but the headband does feel a little more rigid, so it may not be comfortable for all The Kunai features a single 3.5mm jack, users. And even after a hefty discount, it which can fit into pretty much every still costs about `500 more than the Kunai. audio device that sports one. This is an There’s not wrong choice, but I’d give the officially licensed Xbox product though, Kunai the edge for its superior build, more and to enable that functionality, a headset ergonomic design, and detachable mic

7

Ratings: Build: 7 Performance: 7 Value: 8

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The Crew is quite easily the most ambitious racing game in recent times. We drive across the US to find out if the final product matches those ambitions. by Sameer Desai

T

he Crew doesn’t look nextgen”, said many of my friends and fellow game reviewers after their first few hours with Ivory Tower’s all-terrain racer.

When I first started up the game, it was hard to disagree.

few crooked FBI agents in the process. As you can tell, this isn’t the most original of plots, but this is a racing game after all, so all it really needs to do is string the campaign along, and it does that pretty well.

The Crew is many things all at once. It’s an open-world game, it’s an on-road and off-road racer, it’s got MMO-like online features, it’s also got a plot similar to what Need for Speed delivered up until a few years go, and its customisation features

I first had a chance to play The Crew at E3 2013, when it was first announced, and while it

You’re constantly wrestling with the car to bend it to your will, and that’s not a feeling an arcade racer should convey. rival the likes of Midnight Club. The biggest USP of the game, however, is that it lets you drive all across a perpetually online, scaled down version of the entire continental United States. The game starts out with the story itself – you were once a promising rookie in a Detroit gang – the 5/10, but were then framed and imprisoned for the murder of your brother, who also happened to be the gang’s leader.

Fast-forward to a few years later and you’re now working for the FBI, infiltrating the 5/10s in the hopes of finding and punishing your brother’s killers and putting away a 52

was a very early build, I didn’t like the controls one bit. I’d hoped that Ivory Tower would fix it over time, and they have, but there’s still an overall sluggishness to the car handling even in usually nimble cars like the Nizzan 370z.

Ardent racing game fans will get used to this over time, but more causal players

will find the cars frustrating to control.

This is supposed to be an arcade racer, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else, but there just seems to be a lack of responsiveness in the controls, which makes it less than ideal when you’re weaving through traffic on the game’s sprawling highways. Especially infuriating

are the drift mechanics that just seem to have a mind of their own. You’ll drift just fine around one bend and then slam into a well around the near-identical next turn.

You’re constantly wrestling with the car to bend it to your will and that’s not a feeling an arcade racer should convey.

There is a silver lining to The Crew’s less than ideal handling though. Every time you level up or win events, you unlock parts that you can use to customise your car, and to the credit of the developers, they don’t bore you with technical details. Each part either improves or lowers your car’s overall performance, and this is denoted

by a plus or minus customisations number. Equip the In the over 20 hours that I on offer, from a ones you want and variety of paintjobs played The Crew, I could only break down the and decals, to body rest into in-game ever crew up with two players. parts, and even currency, and the interior trims. The process is as simple That’s not what I expected sheer number of as the press of a customisations are from a game that’s USP is its button. Over time, reminiscent of the seamless online world. car performance Need for Speed: will improve thanks Underground and to these upgrades. When you’re at the Midnight Club games; there’s plenty to tinker around with to make your ride truly garage, you’ll also be able buy perks to unique. help further improve performance, like increased acceleration or better braking.

And you’ll want to make your car unique You’ve also got an expansive set of visual 53

regardless of which because you’ll be car you own – even if using it a lot. The Yes, this open-world is you only own one – it game doesn’t hand massive, but it’s also can be adapted to any out too much cash of these styles and and the cars in the rich, diverse, and always can switch on-the-fly game are ridiculously refreshing each time you depending on the expensive, so I just found myself using venture into a new region. event at hand, and it was pretty cool my starter 370z for to see body kits and performances parts most of the game, upgrading it as I went being packed into my road-faring 370z to along and equipping it for the various terrains I ventured into. The US is broken turn it into a rugged 4x4 or a mean highperformance sports car. That said, I would up into various regions, each home to a have still liked to have more car options, unique car style. For example, the Detroit but the in-game economy is a little too and Mid-west region is home to Street stingy to allow that. spec; moving to the East Coast switches you to the Dirt spec, while moving down The most baffling aspect about The Crew, the coast to Miami introduces the Perf however, has to do with the game’s name (performance) spec. What’s great is that 54

itself. It’s pegged as this MMO-styled racing game, where you can form crews with friends and other online players and take off on epic road trips or enter campaign events together. In reality, you’ll only be able to join up with players who happen to be in your online session, and not everyone who’s playing the game at that moment, and number of players in your session are often too few. On top of that, chances are that most of the other players will be of a different level than you and therefore won’t be interested in entering the same events as you. In the over 20 hours that I spent playing The Crew, I could only ever crew up with two players, and that just isn’t what I expected from a game that’s USP is its seamless online world.

Heck, this is the very reason they made

Game details: Developer: Ivory Tower, Ubisoft Reflections PUBLISHER: Microsoft Genre: Racing Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 Reviewed on: PS4

this an always-online game. You can’t even get past the main menu if you’re not online or can’t connect to the game’s servers. I spent most of my time with the game playing solo anyway, so they might as well have not bothered.

At this point, you probably feel like I have nothing good to say about The Crew, but you’d be wrong. The one salvaging factor of this game is its stunning open-world.

At the start of this review, I talked about how The Crew didn’t look next-gen, but then I drove around its almost handcrafted recreation of the US and it made wonder that if this doesn’t scream next-gen, what will? The US is an incredibly diverse country, with deserts, mountains, forests, plains, and iconic urban landmarks dotting the landscape, and The Crew represents

all of this in its scaled down rendition of the country, and you can chart all of this without encountering a single loading screen. THIS is next-gen. You’ll chance upon historical landmarks like the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore, drive around the California Redwood forests on one coast, and tear through breezy Daytona on the other, and in-between you’ll drive through famous cities like New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, St Louis and Los Angeles, each with their distinct architecture intact. Everywhere you go, everything you see feels like it was put there by hand, rather than being a computerised copy-paste job. Yes, this open-world is massive, but it’s also rich, diverse, and always refreshing each time you venture into a new region. It’s this open-world that is the star of the game,

The Crew is the sort of game that you’ll either give up on within the first couple of hours, or plough through 40 hours with as you visit each region, drive every car class, and see the story to its end. I fear that for many it will be the former because the game’s beautiful open-world takes a while to present itself. In the mean time, you’re presented with a passable story, clumsy car handling, and online features that don’t work anywhere close to as they’re advertised. Ivory Tower’s beautiful rendition of the US is ripe for some epic road trips. It’s just a shame that pretty much everything else about The Crew gets in the way

rating:

In the over 20 hours that I played The Crew, I could only ever crew up with two players.

That’s not what I expected from a game that’s USP is its seamless online world.

and it goes a long way towards nullifying the many other aspects of the game that somehow didn’t get as much care and attention.

6

VFM Verdict If you stick with it long enough, there’s hours and hours of content here to plough through.

Just don’t expect engaging multiplayer to be part of it.

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GAME REVIEW

Sackboy makes his nextgeneration debut, and he’s brought a few friends along.

by Amit Goyal

O

ut of the hands of Media Molecule for the first time, I was a little apprehensive about where the LittleBigPlanet series was heading. Right from its debut in 2007, it has stood apart from the hordes of medieval fantasies and space sagas and zombie apocalypses and futuristic wars that are quite literally clamoring over each other for our attention. LittleBigPlanet, however, stuck with the simple things. In a world obsessed with detail, it introduced the Sackperson (or Sackboy), a rather nondescript hero who can be anyone you want it to be.

It did not so much as glance in the direction of immersive experience. Instead, it asked you to invite a few friends

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over and laugh, scream and curse as you trip over each other and bumbled through levels.

Most of all, what worked for Media Molecule and LittleBigPlanet was the confidence they placed in their simple credos of play, create and share. The fantastic create tools that allowed the players to create platformers of their own in the first LBP were further expanded in LBP2, which allowed users to stitch together any kind of games they could imagine. FPS? Top-down espionage? Role-playing side-scroller? The sky was the limit. So what could Sumo Digital possibly do to top that?

They tried, and the results are interesting.

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GAME REVIEW

Game details: Developer: Sumo Digital PUBLISHER: Sony Genre: Platformerr Platforms: PS3, PS4 Reviewed on: PS4

LittleBigPlanet 3. The The biggest draw of land of Bunkum, where LittleBigPlanet 3 is the The biggest draw of the campaign takes three new characters it LittleBigPlanet 3 is the place, is divided into four introduces that control very differently from three new characters it hub areas with multiple inaccessible areas that Sackboy. Oddsock, the introduces that control can only be reached by first that you come certain characters. The across, is a cute little very differently from downside, however, is Sackdog that can run Sackboy. the virtual absence of up vertical surfaces and these characters in the bounce off them. Playing as Oddsock was a refreshing change of campaign. The premise of LittleBigPlanet 3’s plot is the return of the Titans, a pace as you can scamper confidently across the level in contrast to Sackboy, who destructive race of monsters that had consumed the creativity from the land of always feels a tad out of control. Toggle Bunkum. A long time ago, Bunkum was is by far the most interesting of the lot. saved by three legendary heroes who had While playing as Toggle, you can “toggle” then disappeared into folklore. Sackboy between his normal form and a miniarrives in Bunkum and meets Newton version of him. Switching between these (voiced by Hugh Laurie), your guide who states allows you to use your momentum soon reveals his nefarious intention of to spring up to a higher platform or releasing the Titans and taking control of through water. Finally you have Swoop, a Sackbird that can fly by repeatedly pressing Bunkum. Sackboy is sent off on a quest to the X button and can swoop through find the lost heroes of Bunkum soon after. passages by holding the R1 button.

You control Sackboy for the majority All these characters add new ways to of the campaign as you visit three hub play and interact with the world of areas in three different acts where you 58

must play through levels to releases the marbles that when put together, would release the hero of that hub. Every act ends with a boss battle, where you finally assume control of the character you have released. Apart from the boss battles and a few optional levels, Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop are mostly missing from the action.

This is a disappointment not only because of all the interesting possibilities these characters bring to the table, but also because the pre-release marketing seemed to suggest using these characters in close coordination to get past levels. Instead, we must now wait and see what the community does with these characters in the create mode to play more with them.

Given the level of creativity in the user generated levels of the previous games though (all of which are available in LBP3), I can’t wait to see how the three heroes of Bunkum are put to use.

That is not to say that the game’s campaign is not fun. On the contrary, it is probably the most challenging amongst the three games, even if it is a tad bit on the short side. The game throws in a wide variety

of levels that are always delightful and beautifully scale up in the challenge they offer. So in one level you will be traversing through the innards of a monster, and in another you will be infiltrating a casino by travelling through portals. In yet another level, the perspective switches to top down as you guide a yeti through a maze to reach the end. The inclusion of gadgets makes the campaign even more engaging, with a new one showing up every so often.

Early in the game, you are introduced to the pumpinator that works both as a suction pump and a blower. Eventually, you get introduced to some really cool toys like a helmet that allows you to grind along rails and Boost Boots that let you boost up to higher platforms.

The campaign has always served as a showcase of all the possibilities that exist if you go about creating levels.

LBP3’s campaign, however, feels more substantial than that. There are

The game throws in a wide variety of levels that are always delightful and beautifully scale up in the challenge they offer. reinforced in a manner that eases you into the creation tools of the game.

The idea of blending the play and create modes is explored further in the Popit Puzzles. These are a series of levels that teach you the basics of creating levels by playing through them. This is a brilliant addition to the series, especially for someone like me, who clams up at the sight of the empty canvas in the create mode. Even the basics of scaling and moving objects is introduced and

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collectibles strewn all over the hub that can be exchanged for more costumes to further customise your character. The game also has Contraption Challenges - a unique blend of the play and create modes. These challenges require the player to create specific devices to complete the challenge. The first one, for example, requires you to create a catapult to get you across a burning pit.

All in all, LittleBigPlanet 3 is an interesting little package. It falls short of some expectations, especially with the under-utilisation of the new characters, but given the creative finesse of the community that the series attracts, that should be remedied with time.

LittleBigPlanet 3 deserves a spot in your library, no matter what kind of games you like

8

VFM Verdict Highly recommended, especially if you have never experienced the series before.

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GAME REVIEW

Square Enix gives the HD treatment to one of the best games from the PS2 era. by Sandeep Shah

N

ine years ago, when Kingdom Hearts 2 came around on the PS2, it had the welldeserved honour of being one of the best games the system had to offer. Needless to say, the HD remake, oddly named Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX, has some big shoes to fill.

The first thing that struck me as soon as I stuffed the disc into the PS3 was just how gorgeous Kingdom Hearts can still look.

Since the developers went for style instead of photorealism, Kingdom Hearts 2 looks just as gorgeous now as it ever has. While it may not take full advantage of the PS3’s hardware, it still made the transition from SD to HD and passed with flying colours.

And speaking of colours, I had forgotten

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just how colourful the different Disney and Final Fantasyinspired worlds in Kingdom Hearts were.

hands on owing to the incredibly convoluted and downright confusing plot of Kingdom Hearts 2.

Thankfully, you can pick up Kingdom Hearts 2.5 by itself and understand most of what’s happening, since the game does a good enough job of (over time) explaining what the hell is going on at any given moment. Honestly, when you’ve got a game that combines some of the most popular characters and settings from Final Fantasy with levels based in Disney’s worlds like Agrabah or Mulan’s war camp, how can you even think

Since the developers went for style instead of photorealism, Kingdom Hearts 2 looks just as gorgeous now as it ever has.

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX is packed with content, including the Final Mix version of the epic Kingdom Hearts 2, a remastered and HDfied version of the PSP-exclusive Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, and three hours worth of HD cinematics from Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. Trust me when I say that you’re going to need all of the extra games, cutscenes and materials you can get your

Game details: Developer: Ubisoft PUBLISHER: Ubisoft Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC Reviewed on: PC

The gameplay starts off simple enough – you can attack, jump around and cast spells. Kingdom Hearts 2 also makes great use of the contextual Triangle button, which is used in most fights to just dodge enemies, but sometimes, it is used to start off an elaborate series of attacks that usually ends up with the enemy dead or near-death. There are also segments on the Gummi ship, where you get to play a third-person space shoot-em-up as you try to navigate between the different worlds.

Goofy and Donald make their return as partners in crime for player character Sora.

Also in the main cast this time around is a new guy by the name of Roxas – one of the bigger sources of confusion in the game’s plot. It takes a long time to get started (took me about three hours to get past the mandatory tutorial levels), but once it starts, it’s a sight to behold. Almost every other level has new gameplay elements in store, and depending on the world you’re in, there’s a good chance that Sora and crew will change to fit in accordingly.

Things like skateboarding levels, Rez-esque shooter levels and even a rhythm segment, while originally confusing and strange, soon become familiar and welcome. In fact, changes go beyond the gameplay and seep into the visuals of the game. For example, while you’re exploring the Pride Lands from Lion King, Sora will turn into a tiger cub. Explore worlds underwater with

Ariel, the Little Mermaid? Sora gets a fish’s lower body too, and Goofy and Donald turn into aquatic creatures as well.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep made the transition from the PSP to the PS3 quite well, but its gameplay has been simplified quite a bit. Three main abilities are already mapped to three out of the four face buttons, and X is for a regular attack.

Unlike the numbered Kingdom Hearts games, Birth Hearts Coded, and

by Sleep also lacks like Birth by Kingdom Hearts: Birth by much assistance from Sleep, will help you supporting characters Sleep made the transition better understand like Donald or Goofy. wondrous and from PSP to the PS3 well, the Its story, however, confusing storyline of does much to fill you but its gameplay has been Kingdom Hearts 2. in on the mystery of simplified quite a bit. the Keyblades as well Kingdom Hearts 2.5 as the connection HD ReMIX is easy to between Sora and Ventus – one of the recommend to fans of Disney and Final playable characters of Birth by Sleep. In Fantasy alike. It has everything you want the timeline, its events take place around from a game – high-speed combat, epic 10 years before the first Kingdom Hearts boss battles, and fan service that will make game. even the stoic and serious among us smile with glee upon seeing King Mickey wreck There’s not much to be said about the enemies with his Keyblade inclusion of Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded, since it doesn’t actually feature anything VFM Verdict in the way of gameplay, but I’d still recommend checking it out since it is A brilliant transition from SD to HD, bolstered by a heap of essentially a compilation of all of the additional bonus content. cutscenes from the mobile game, Kingdom rating:

of a story that would make sense in any situation?

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61

GAME REVIEW

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The well-loved Halo series receives a next-gen touch up. Is it any good? We wish. Read on to find out why. by Varun Verma

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GAME REVIEW

There’s a ton of lag in multiplayer, which makes one reminisce about the days of playing Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament on dial-up.

L

ast generation saw a slew of Gears of War and Halo games grace the Xbox 360 with a consistency that was almost factory-like. Nonetheless, the games themselves were superlative for most part and they cemented the Xbox brand to be synonymous with these two sci-fi shooters. Fast forward to more than a year since the Xbox One’s release globally, and we’re yet to see a new iteration of either franchise being made available for the console. With a new Gears of War game in the works and Halo 5 slated for sometime later this year, there’s nothing fresh in either series available for its fans in the meantime.

That is why the nice folks at Microsoft felt this would be a good time to unleash all the adventures of everyone’s favourite cybernetically enhanced super soldier, Master Chief, in the form of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

What this means is you get to relive Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4, all in 1080p, 60 frames per second. Well, almost, what with Microsoft admitting that Halo 2’s campaign won’t hit the magical 1920x1080 but 1328x1080 resolution instead, though it still is 60 fps.

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On paper (or tablet, if you’re reading this digitally), it might appear that there’s tremendous value to be had in MCC, and you wouldn’t be wrong for the single-player campaigns at least. The first Halo revolutionised the way first-person shooters played on console and it still feels as good as it was in 2001. Ditto with the three other games in this compilation.

The experience of gunning down countless aliens whilst navigating gorgeous vistas backed up with suitably epic music makes each of these fantastic to play. In terms of pure gameplay, they hold up extremely well.

This time around, you don’t need to trudge

through each and every level in each and every game to get to your favourite parts. Instead, the games unlock every level to play as per your choosing from the get-go. It’s a godsend for many a Halo veteran who in the past has had to endure some annoying missions, the most notable of which is the first game’s Library level, which till date is perhaps why most people switch off the game to do something else instead. Also available from the get-go are Skulls. These are in-game modifiers that let you play the four campaigns with some interesting additions… or subtractions. From removing every hint of auto-aim to ensuring each and every enemy you face is cloaked, they add another layer of variety to the proceedings that make up this run and gun affair.

You’ll find it tough to find fault in the nearperfect execution of it all in single-player.

Game details: Developer: 343 Industries PUBLISHER: Microsoft Genre: First-person shooter Platforms: Xbox One Reviewed on: Xbox One

Halo 4, which graced the Xbox 360, look just as good as they did back in the day, which isn’t saying much. Halo: Combat Evolved looks like it did in the Anniversary Edition remaster that released in 2011. With the tap of a button, you can see how it looked back in the day, and promptly tap it again to go back to what it is right now. It’s a nice feature that reminds you how rudimentary the presentation of Halo and Halo 2 were compared to what they are now.

All of these troubles melt away the moment you indulge in the lavish single-player campaigns this collection offers, which is nice if you haven’t played them before. But for many, the major reason to purchase Halo: The Master Chief Collection is for its multiplayer. Thanks to it being essentially broken, and with the sheer volume of patches being release, you’d do well to wait a while before jumping in. We’d be hard-pressed to recommend this even if you are the sort who has a Cortana inflatable doll and a suit of Master Chief ’s armour. Hold off until everything is in working order; hopefully before Halo 5 is out rating:

We use the term “near team of five versus three. perfect” because there It’s unbalanced, and not Halo’s multiplayer is a are some instances of particularly fun. thing of beauty... That is freezing. It’s annoying but its present even you managed to of course, when it works. Iftrudge after the game has been through a match patched an umpteen More often than not, it’s a online, prepare to be number of times since treated to post-game shambling mess. launch, the most statistics that are more notorious of which was a often than not wrong, day one 20 GB patch. No, that’s not a typo, it with a status that reads “match incomplete”. really was that big, followed up by some smaller While Microsoft likes to harp about its patches in the range of 1 to 5 GB. Given some dedicated servers, there’s a ton of lag in of the issues in multiplayer, you can expect a multiplayer, which makes one reminisce about few more patches to come. the days of playing Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament on dial-up. Yes, it’s that bad. A Needless to say, regardless of how you plan quick search on the internet reveals that while on buying this, be prepared for your internet the game does use dedicated servers, peer-toconnection to take a hammering if you’re the peer connectivity options are used as a back sort who loves playing with friends online. up just in case you can’t connect to a dedicated When it works, Halo’s multiplayer is a thing server. With the amount of latency we faced in of beauty. It rewards skill, strategy, and is most most of our multiplayer games, on a 10 Mbps importantly fun. That is of course, when it connection no less, it’s tragic that the heart of works. More often than not, it’s a shambling the Halo experience still remains unplayable for mess. Getting into a game is next to impossible most part. and when you do, it’s taken forever. If this wasn’t enough, you’re bogged down by uneven This is not all. Delve past the horrors of playing teams. What this means is a party of eight it online, and you’ll notice there are a few players won’t be divvied up into teams of four things amiss. For one, barring Halo 2 that’s each for some team deathmatch or capture the been touched up for the Xbox One, there’s very flag fun. For some reason, it would result in a little new here in terms of graphics. Halo 3 and

5

VFM Verdict It’s a product of quantity over quality that you’re better off avoiding until its many basic issues are addressed. At this time, it’s definitely not worth the price of admission.

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India Spotlight

Kshiraj Telang: The man with the magic brush

We speak with one of the country’s most talented game art professionals for his take on game development – and especially art – in India. by Amit Goyal

I

n every issue of KnowGames, we talk to some of the most exciting game development studios in India to give our readers the inside scoop on what’s happening in the Indian gaming industry. This time we sit down with Kshiraj Telang, co-founder of Pencillati Interactive, an art services studio in New Delhi. Telang is one of the most sought after artists in the Indian games industry, with a combination of skill and creativity that would put most artists around the world to shame.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the field of art and animation?

I come from a very small town, where everyone dreams of being doctors and engineers. I loved to draw from my early schooling days.

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I had great support from my parents, and my dad wanted to see me grow as an artist.

For me, it was okay to miss my homework, but mandatory to draw my weekly cartoon for the local newspaper. Animation was still a lesser known process and profession back then. We did watch Sunday morning cartoons on Doordarshan, but never really had an idea about how it was done. So the primary source of inspiration was political cartooning or comic book art.

Since you don’t have any training or education in this field, did you ever think you were at a disadvantage at any point?

I came to Delhi to get some formal education in fine arts. However, I could not qualify in the aptitude examinations of two of the leading colleges I applied to. A Delhi-based illustration house saw some potential in my work and offered me a job. That was my career

break right after my schooling, and therefore I never took any training in this field. A lot of senior artists during my early employment helped me polish my skills and improve my work. Formal training from any school and educating yourself are two different things. If you are choosing not to go to an art school, you will have to self-learn, keep reading, do a lot of practice, and stay focused.

How did you get into game art?

Being a digital animator, many of my projects required animations for Flash games, but the major shift happened, when I met a couple of indie developers - Amit Goyal and G Arjun from SuperSike Games - in 2011, who wanted to make their debut game for iPhone. It could have gone forward as just another art project, but being around these two guys during almost a year of development, with them being hardcore gamers, linked me back with the love for gaming, a discontinued passion from childhood. I made one game, but played

For me, it was okay to miss my homework, but mandatory to draw my weekly cartoon for the local newspaper. many that year, and that excited me to dig more.

How was the experience of working on a game? How was it different from the other kind of work you had done in the past?

In my case, it was more fun. Interactivity and non-linear format of entertainment adds a lot of excitement. I found myself more engaged, involved, and close to what I was creating.

How it is different, is that the course of game development is never too predictable.

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India Spotlight

As you make, you discover many things that require mild changes, or re-route your course entirely. This is both the evil aspect and the beauty of this ‘game’. You have to remain patient, keep the objectives of your game above everything else, and stay flexible. And it’s not just over after the release. You’ll have to listen to player feedback and respond with tweaks that work for them. Making a game is like a journey to the hills; there is scenic beauty, and lovely weather, but it is also a bumpy drive. To enjoy your experience, you need to have fun, and love what you are creating.

You went from an independent contractor to Lakshya Digital. Did you see a big difference in the way indie studios operate vis-a-vis a larger studio?

It sometimes gets difficult to take risks in a bigger studio. You can’t invest a lot in experiments. When you work with a large team, it costs a lot if you change your directions too often. In an indie setup, you have to sweat less to ensure that everyone’s vision is aligned. It is a bit of a task in a large team to make sure that every important thing everyone needs to know has reached them, and is followed as desired. It 68

becomes mandatory to have well documented art bibles, design documents, and everything else that relates to the work process.

You recently worked on a mobile title from the same genre as Clash of Clans. How was it different from your previous experiences?

It was very rewarding and I learned a lot of new things. The scale of the product was bigger, and we were involved from the very beginning, from defining the art style, to creating everything you see, along with postrelease updates. Our team has worked very hard for almost a year now, and we learned how to better research, push our limits, compete with global benchmarks, and celebrate all milestones.

The game uses a freemium model, so retaining the players was important, and therefore the entire art attempts to deliver a rewarding experience to the players as they purchase and upgrade their towers and heroes.

You have started various activities, such as SketchBomb and ArtDrop. Can you tell us a little bit about these?

SketchBomb and ArtDrop are the brainchilds

Making a game is like a journey to the hills; there is scenic beauty and lovely weather, but it is also a bumpy drive. of artists Mike Henry and Jake Parker respectively. Both of these activities are popular worldwide, and all I do is participate from my city. SketchBomb New Delhi is an event where a lot of artists (and many others who do not draw) meet at a coffee house every alternate weekend, and we draw, eat, drink, talk, and have fun. We usually have themed topics that anyone can suggest before the event. On the day we meet, we draw together. It helps each of us to practice, network, get critique, and enjoy at the same time. ArtDrop is a concept where you go to any place, and drop your artwork for anyone to find and pick up. You leave your contact details, and often the people who discover your dropped art message back and inform about the pickup. The artist also posts a social media update with a photograph of the art or the place, or any hint, so that anyone

who follows him/her have a chance to grab the art before anyone. It’s fun and you occasionally make new friends. I post announcements related to these on my Facebook page.

How do you think these activities will help in building the artist community?

It’s been less than six months since our first SketchBomb, and we already had so many takeaways. When we draw together, we look at how every other artist puts a different perspective and approach to a common theme. All of us learn a lot when we see all the sketches together. Plus, SketchBomb sees participation by some really talented professional artists from the city, who are otherwise not as accessible, so being at the event opens the door to sit among them, get your questions answered and your work critiqued.

We also discuss the industry in general, or maybe a new movie, talk about job vacancies in our studios, or discuss collaboration on projects. Besides the professional advantages, above anything else, we usually have a lot of fun when we meet, expand our friend circles, and return home with many memories.

Having worked with indie studios, a big studio and starting your own art services company, what is your opinion of the Indian game development industry?

There’s still a long way to go, but it’s been promising since the past five years. There have been many great things, including the scale of our Nasscom Game Developers Conference, game jams in several cities, hundreds of selfpublished titles, international presence in GDC-SFO/Casual Connect, etc. But it has all just started, and the global industry moves at a fast pace, so we have a lot to do in the next five years.

Even on the game art front, we are still to see acclaimed and exceptional work from an Indian studio. What is it that you think is holding us back?

It’s time to make our own games with exceptional work on all fronts of design, art and tech.

That’s not completely true. A lot of exceptional game art is being made by Indian studios, but it is not known to public due to the outsourcing nature of such projects. I wish I could name those games that are globally acclaimed for high level of work, and were done with the help of studios in India. What we need is such skill being invested in our own products. The day that happens, we all will be delighted to discover quality work from our creators.

Keeping in mind the above two questions, what’s the way forward in

your opinion?

It’s time to make our own games with exceptional work on all fronts of design, art and tech. I do wish for good support from the Government towards our industry to help developers achieve this. Tax relief, sponsoring delegates/exhibitors to international conferences, investment summits, park/spaces to establish business… anything that the Indian Government could do to help the industry.

I am delighted to see Nasscom and the big studios like Lakshya and Dhruva coming forward and helping the industry blossom.

What is your advice to budding artists and game developers?

Play a lot of games, have fun at work, and do your best. I read books so I have a couple of recommendations: ‘Conquering the Artist’s Struggle’ by Stephen Silver, and ‘Creativity, Inc.’ by Ed Catmull 69

Features

The Best on

Mobile

This issue’s mobile roundup covers a couple of ambitious titles that try to bring console and PC-like experiences to mobile, a remake of a retro game that has won over the hearts of over 10 million people around the world, and a circular puzzle-action game from an Indian developer. by Amit Goyal

Game details: Platforms: iOS (Free) Developer: Kabam

Marvel: Contest of Champions The first thing you will notice about Contest of Champions is how good it looks; after forcing you through a few unnecessary conversations that serve as the plot, the game throws you into action. As the two combatants run towards each other in the beginning of the battle, you notice the intricately detailed arenas, and the faithful recreation of the comic book avatars of your favourite superheroes. This one isn’t deadlocked in a battle of rights, so you’ll find the mutants, the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man all in one place.

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For those who must know, the plot involves Kang the Conqueror and the Collector to begin with, and becomes increasingly irrelevant as you go on, and only serves as a premise to put Hulk in a battle against Wolverine (not that those two need an excuse). The controls are simple and designed for mobile. Taps count as light attacks, swipes are medium and holding down the right side of the screen is a heavy attack. Holding down the left side is a block, and there are a couple of special attacks (depending on the rank of the player). This

makes the battles more about observing your opponents and attacking as per situations rather than memorising combos, which is a welcome change of pace for fighting game noobs such as me.

The game features a lengthy campaign and PvP multiplayer. The monetisation kicks in as crystals, which are required for gold, healing potions and even unlocking new heroes for your team. You can either earn these by playing the game or drop some cash to build your dream team of heroes.

Game details:

Game details: Platforms: iOS (Free),

Android (Free)

Developer: Two Men and a Dog

Platforms: iOS (Free), Developer:

Game details:

Android (Free)

Lucid Labs

Crossy Road ROTO

At the time of writing this, Crossy Road has crossed 10 million downloads on iOS alone within a month. Are they giving out free cash, you ask? They aren’t that hipster yet, but they do know how to make a fantastic, addictive game. Crossy Road is the result of a stormy night spent in a barn by the classic Frog game and the deeply philosophical question - why did the chicken cross the road?

In Crossy Road, you cross roads, water and even train tracks, one hop at a time. The game is isometric, with a tap or swipe up on the screen moving your character forward, and a swipe in any other direction moving your character in that direction. Every step forward is at your peril, because the roads are choked full of cars, the logs on the water move across the playable area quickly, and trains turn up on the tracks at alarming frequency.

You can’t wait forever either. The screen slowly scrolls up, so if you take too much time to make a move, an eagle will grab you and you’re back at the starting line. All this comes together in compelling gameplay, where you will be hard-pressed to put down the game.

Add to that a whopping list of 53 humorous characters that you can unlock (or buy), and Crossy Road has you covered for a long time.

Roto is the debut effort from the Delhibased indie studio, Lucid Labs. For a game pegged as a simple circular puzzle, the game does have some devilishly hard levels as you go on (that’s a good thing).

Roto has you play as a small circular… err, thing that is tracing the circumference of larger circular platforms. When you tap, the little circle jumps of whichever platform you are at currently in a direction that is perpendicular to the tangent. Yes, that’s the math way of saying it leaps off the platform to reach as far as it can from that point.

Using this simple technique, you must navigate to the end point of each level, and if possible, collect all three stars that are on the way.

The game scales its levels quite well. In the first act, you will come across rotating blades. Later, you will find disappearing platforms, bouncy surfaces and eventually, even portals (god bless Glados). Roto is great fun in quick bursts. The first 60 levels are free to play (30 of those 60 unlock if you collect all stars in the first act) and you can buy the remaining packs, giving you absolutely no reason to not try it out.

Platforms: iOS (Free) Developer: Super Evil Megacorp

Vain Glory

If you’ve been scared away by the complexity of DOTA and League of Legends, Vain Glory could be a good starting point. All the above fall under the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre, where two teams with multiple hero characters try to take down each other’s bases. The arena or the map also features a number of AI minions for both sides. Vain Glory offers enough features to make it deep and strategic, but not at the same scale as its PC counterparts. Maps in MOBAs are usually complicated, with multiple access points connecting the two bases, but Vain Glory features 3-on-3 battles on a map that is far simpler, reducing the number of strategic options at hand.

This is offset by other activities that can swing a match. For example, the map holds something called a Minion Mine and a Gold Mine. Both of these are controlled by an AI character that is neutral to both sides. Killing the Minion miner gives the side that kills him stronger minions, and killing the Gold miner gives the side that kills him more gold to buy abilities and upgrades during the match. This way, these side objectives can be helpful in turning the tide of battle.

Battles usually last 15-30 minutes, and the game looks very sharp and gorgeous thanks to the full utilisation of Apple’s metal hardware. It’s a far more core experience than most games you would see on the App Store, but holds something for both veterans and newcomers to the genre

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Events

Mumbai Film & Comic Con 2014 Mumbai Film and Comic Con returned to the Bombay Exhibition Centre as a three day event from 19th to 21st December. The weekend event witnessed thousands of attendees of all ages, some talented Indian and international cosplayers, as well as a special session with the creators of BBC’s hit show, Sherlock - Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (the latter also co-stars as Mycroft Holmes). It was the biggest Mumbai Comic Con yet, and here some photos from the event. by Sameer Desai

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Images courtesy: Comic Con India 73

rumours

RUMOUr

MILL

The Xbox One gets some extra juice, another player enters the VR space, and one of the best games of 2013 is getting a sequel. Here are all the rumours doing the rounds. by Sameer Desai

Xbox One’s Kinect resources could be getting freed up for developers.

Xbox One to give developers more CPU power

The Xbox One’s latest development tools have been leaked online and they appear to give game developers access to the console’s seventh CPU core, which was earlier reserved for Kinect functionalities. If the leak is true, the additional horsepower available will allow developers to ensure that games run smoother. So far, many multiplatform games have been performing under par on Xbox One when compared to PS4, and this could help bridge the gap.

The additional CPU power will come at the expense of Kinect features though. According to the leak, availing of the extra CPU core means games won’t be able to implement custom game-specific voice commands for Kinect. Moreover, Kinect’s infra-red and depth detection features will also be disabled.

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That said, the entire seventh CPU core won’t be available to devs at all times. System-related voice commands will still utilise that CPU core, often up to 50 percent.

Our take:

With Kinect no longer being bundled with every Xbox One, it doesn’t make sense to block off system resources for a peripheral that may not even be present. So it’s only logical that Microsoft would want to free up that space and let developers use it to make their games perform better.

The problem, however, is that the seventh CPU core won’t be available to developers all the time, so it will be tricky for developers to utilise that extra juice. The leaks seem genuine, but it’s hard to say how this will really affect the end product and how much better our Xbox One games will perform as a result. Only time will tell.

Naughty Dog is working on The Last of Us 2

Naughty Dog came out of nowhere and wowed us all with its first ever survival horror-ish game, The Last of Us, in 2013, and followed that up with the brilliant Remastered version last year.

While the studio is now hard at work on Uncharted 4: A Thief ’s end, which is set for release this year, a former employee of the studio has said that work has already begun on The Last of Us 2. The Linkedin profile of Michael Knowland, former lead character artist at Naughty Dog, mentions that the studio has been working on the sequel to The Last of Us since early 2014, probably alongside the PS4 re-master. Before leaving the studio, Knowland was working on Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us 2, according to his profile. Knowland’s profile didn’t previously mention The Last of Us 2, but only “Unannounced AAA game”.

That very description is also mentioned on the Linkedin profile of current Naughty Dog employee Frank Tzeng.

Our take:

The Last of Us picked up numerous game of the year awards.

Naughty Dog has never closed the door on a sequel to The Last of Us. In fact, it’s actually hinted at another game in the franchise. That said, it does seem strange that the studio would begin work on the sequel while Uncharted 4 development is in full swing, even though Naughty Dog has created a two-team setup in-house that can handle two projects simultaneously. You would think that the studio would have all hands on deck for its PS4 debut. Not that I’m complaining. Uncharted 4 one year and The Last of Us 2 the next would suit PS4 gamers just fine. If The Last of Us 2 is indeed in development, don’t expect a proper reveal any time soon. Sony wouldn’t want it stealing any of Uncharted’s spotlight.

Microsoft is entering the virtual reality space

A little late to the party, but it seems Microsoft too is developing its own virtual reality solution to rival Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheous, and several other VR efforts. Sources have told various media outlets that Microsoft’s VR headset is already well into development and that several game developers are already tinkering around with it. The device is said to enter mass production sometime this year, with a reveal likely at either GDC (like Sony did) or E3. Sources also suggest that the VR headset is being developed by the same hardware team behind the Microsoft Surface products.

Our take:

Virtual reality is the latest buzz word in gaming – heck, even mobile players like Samsung are getting into it – so it’s only natural for Microsoft to want in on the action. However, a 2015 launch does seem a tad ambitious for a device that hasn’t even been announced yet. Both the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus have been through multiple iterations thanks to extensive testing, so Microsoft won’t want to rush their product. You’d also have to take into account the hardware resources of the Xbox One that the headset would take up. Developers are having a tough time as it is to match game performance with the PS4. A virtual reality headset could further take up valuable system resources

Sony’s Project Morpheus

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Calendar

02 Jun 2015 Batman: Arkham Knight

Circle the dates and shed a silent tear for your wallet.

These are all the games coming out over the coming months.

January 2015

February 2015 March 2015

23rd Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

10th Evolve

06th Screamride

27th Grand Theft Auto V

13th Dragon Ball XenoVerse

17th DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition

27th Grim Fandango: Remastered

17th Total War: Attila

19th Battlefield: Hardline

30th Dying Light

18th Resident Evil: Revelations 2

20th Project CARS

30th Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

20th The Order: 1886

PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

PC, PS4, Xbox One

PC, PS4, Xbox One PS3, Xbox 360

PC

PC, PS4, PS Vita

PC, PS4, Xbox One

PS4, Xbox One

PC

PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

PS4

TBA

76

Don Bradman Cricket 14

PS4, Xbox One

Xbox One, Xbox 360

PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

PC, PS4, Xbox One,

20th Final Fantasy Type-0 HD PS4, Xbox One,

25th Bloodborne PS4

25 Mar 2015 Bloodborne

10 Feb 2015 Evolve

27 Jan 2015 Grand Theft Auto V

2015 Halo 5: Guardians 19 May 2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

20 Mar 2015 Project CARS

April 2015 03rd Dark Souls II: Scholar Of The First Sin

20 Feb 2015 The Order: 1886

June 2015

PC, PS4

02nd Batman: Arkham Knight

Just Cause 3

PC, PS4, Xbox One

PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

14th Mortal Kombat X

Later in 2015

April Dead Island 2

Halo 5: Guardians

PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

PC, PS4, Xbox One

May 2015 19th The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt PC, PS4, Xbox One

17 Apr 2015 Mortal Kombat X

Xbox One

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

PS4

Tom Clancy’s The Division

PC, PS4, Xbox One

Street Fighter V

PC, PS4 , Xbox One

Mad Max

PC, PS4 , Xbox One

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3

Quantum Break

Xbox One

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Xbox One, Xbox 360

77

next MONTH • Our February issue will be dedicated to hardware side of gaming, with a flurry of reviews, features and buying guides for console and PC gaming peripherals across a variety of budgets.

• We’ll also be bringing you features on some of the best bargains on games in India and a look at some of the great games from over the last year or two that you may have missed out on.

We have a lot more in store in January so make sure you pick up the next issue. If there’s something in particular you’d like for us to cover, don’t hesitate to suggest it on our Facebook page (Hint: We still haven’t decided which poster to include next month). fb.me/knowgames.in 78