OPC Magazine - Issue 4 by Matt Simpson

EN OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION COMMUNITY PRESENTS...

OPC

WELCOME TO EDITION #04 - JAN 2013

magazine EXCLUSIVE!

THREE Q&A SESSIONS WITH GAME DEVELOPERS

MUCH MORE INSIDE... FEATURES, REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

COMMUNITY.EU.PLAYSTATION.COM

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WELCOME/ CONTENTS JAN 2013 reviews - part I

extras

Unfinished Swan

The 19th Hole

Dark Souls Artorias of the Abyss

Community Events

Jak II: Renegade

When Vikings Attack

Tales of Graces f

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Derrick the Deathfin Comp Winner

Top 10 PSP Titles

Codemasters Q&A (F1 Race Stars)

2 Player Local Co-op Games

THQ Q&A (WWE 13)

2013 Gaming Resolutions

Defiance Q&A

reviews - part II 44

Derrick the Deathfin

46 Datura 50

DMC: Devil May Cry

MESSAGE FROM THE COMMUNITY TEAM

EN COMMUNITY MODERATOR: Serum_Lake TWITTER: @Serum_Lake WEB: community.eu.playstation.com

This issue, a message from Serum_Lake... - EN Community Moderator Welcome to the fourth blockbuster issue of the OPC Magazine, made exclusively by the Official PlayStation Community for the Official PlayStation Community. In this issue, as well as featuring our usual plethora of reviews and interviews, we’ve started a new initiative to further highlight the great content made by our community. I recently asked what your gaming New Year’s resolutions were and we had a terrific response. In fact it was such a great response that we decided to publish some of the best resolutions this issue. As ever, we’re always on the lookout for more contributors. So if you fancy the chance of seeing your name in digital print then feel free to get in touch. See you next issue!

magazine info

opc magazine

Published by the EN OPC Community. Editors: englishgolfer & QuietlyWrong

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to issue 04 of the OPC Magazine. Keep an eye out for the below logo within the magazine as we highlight content from the OPC forum that you may have missed.

feedback/want to help? We’d love to hear what you’d like to see in the magazine and your general feedback, please let us know via the Magazine thread in the OPC forum. Keep an eye on the ‘fan art’ section of the forum as we will be asking for volunteers in the near future to contribute to issue 5. Until the next time, happy gaming and we hope you enjoy reading the magazine. - mattsimmo

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THE UNFINISHED SWAN

REVIEW

REVIEWER: QuietlyWrong PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 23 October 2012

QW MAKES A MESS OF THINGS IN GIANT SPARROW’S DEBUT RELEASE... In this game, you play the part of ten-year old orphan, Monroe, who wakes one night to discover that a last remembrance of his mother, her painting of the titular swan, is blank, and the bird itself has freed itself from the frame and disappeared through a strange doorway. Armed only with a magic paintbrush, Monroe follows, and finds himself in a strange new realm... Here is a game with the unusual central premise of discovery. Never is this more true than in the game’s much-publicised opening stages – you are deposited into a world of purest white, only a tiny circular reticule centred on the screen, and no hint as to how you should proceed. A push on the left stick elicits the sound of footsteps. A tap on ‘X’ and you hear your character jump. Squeeze L1 or R1 and a ball of blackest ink flies forward and splats satisfyingly on the landscape before you, suddenly revealing edges and shapes where none had been visible. (PlayStation Move controls are also available for those with the equipment.) From a first-person perspective, squeezing out a deluge of jet black paint, you quickly learn the shape of your surroundings and now you can start to see enough to explore further. Among the walled corridors

crates and benches, lanterns and fences are delineated, white on black and black on white; in static screenshots, it resembles the light and shadow exercises of capable art students – in motion, on the screen, it is at once mesmerising, surreal, disorienting. As you progress, you find a reedy river bank where the swan’s footprints are outlined in yellow, the only other colour in this opening section (apart from a few collectable balloons – there to add replayability or longevity to the game). This trail of breadcrumbs gives you something to follow, as you hop between stepping stones and cross bridges and climb stairways – all the while painting the landscape into being as you go along. Just as you’re getting the hang of this new mode of exploration, the game changes: shadows start to flesh out the shapes; one or two other water-colour shades begin to appear, and you’re called upon to put your magic-paint-launching talents to new uses as you explore your way through the story. To explain the various new tricks and traps and ‘wow’ moments this game has up its sleeve would be to spoil it for you though – this is a discovery game, after all, and you need to discover its charms by playing and experiencing them, not by reading about them!

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Suffice to say, though, as you progress, you’ll see moments of brilliance that call to mind the works of M.C. Escher as well as some recent video game classics – including a not-so-subtle tip of the cap to thatgamecompany’s Journey.

Throughout, the audio is kept interesting through a well-balanced mixture of musical cues and convincing atmospheric effects. The graphics in the game are good, if not remarkable – the real effort here is on the evolving visual effects, which manage to retain a coherent style throughout, despite the limitations on textures and light sources that are imposed by the unusual set up. The whole story is held together with a very effective line-drawn fairy tale book motif. If you don’t try to belt through it as fast as you can, it will take maybe four hours of pleasant discovery and exploration to take you from one end of the story to the other. Then you can go back and try to mop up the remaining balloons to attain all the unlockable extras, collect all the trophies (including the extremely challenging ‘Minimalist’ trophy, which challenges you to get through the first world with no more than three paint splats). It tells a charming story, there’s some replayability there, especially if you can share the experience with family or friends – it’s a real interactive fairy tale.

The game isn’t perfect by any means. The whole thing is very linear. ‘Discovery’ is definitely the word rather than ‘exploration’, because there is little deviation from the set path, and most of the gameplay is figuring out what to do next. Not everything here feels all that new, though mostly it’s been well polished and there are some moments here that are genuinely amazing. Though there are little environmental puzzles here and there, there is nothing that will really challenge the grey matter.

At a tenner, it feels just a shade expensive to be an instant recommendation, but if you’re looking for a genuinely novel experience, something to blow the cobwebs away and remind you what gaming should be all about, what it can achieve in its most imaginative moments, then The Unfinished Swan is a short sweet one-way ticket to an unforgettable fairy tale adventure.

ALEX DE-GRUCHY TESTS HIS METTLE AGAINST DARK SOULS: ARTORIAS OF THE ABYSS

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ARTORIAS OF THE ABYSS

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REVIEWER: Alex De-Gruchy PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 24 October 2012

HARD AS NAILS DLC FROM THE PSN STORE Although From Software originally took a stance of not planning to release any downloadable content for their punishing RPG Dark Souls, the surprise critical and financial success caused them to change their minds. Enter the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, available for purchase as a digital download or already included in the recently released Prepare to Die edition of Dark Souls. At its current price of £9.99 on the EU PlayStation Store, Artorias of the Abyss certainly isn’t cheap considering that the original edition of the full game can be purchased for not much more. But is it worth it?

And that’s certainly not meant to be taken as a negative – Dark Souls is one of the finest games of this console generation, featuring a dark fantasy world with a massive amount of depth; precise and brutal combat; brilliantly unique online multiplayer; enough role-playing customisation to keep players tinkering with weapons, armour and magic for countless hours; and some of the most thrilling and intense boss fights ever found in a video game.

In typical From Software fashion, even the act of getting to the point in the game where you can access the DLC is a challenge. It isn’t available from the beginning or as a separate menu choice or anything so simple. Oh no, in fact, the game gives you almost no information as to how you access the DLC. Even after having played through the game once before, after hours of fruitless searching I had to look online to find out how to access the content. And even then, it took me several more hours of gameplay to reach the point in question. Although a big part of the appeal of Dark Souls is the often vague and ambiguous nature of the plot, characters and the world they inhabit, this design choice in regards to the player accessing content they have already paid for is bordering on obnoxious. Just begun a playthrough and want to play the DLC? Tough, you’ve got a long way to go until you can do so.

Story-wise, Artorias of the Abyss finds the player pulled through a portal into the past, centuries before the events of the main game, and coming face-to-face with the renowned Knight Artorias, a figure of legend in the present day. Mainly, though, you are tasked with rescuing a character originally met in the present day and stopping the spread of The Abyss, a terrible blight threatening to consume the land. As you play through the DLC you meet characters – some new, like the brilliantly named ‘Marvellous Chester’, and some younger versions of present-day characters – and learn hidden truths relating to the main game, and as such the content adds even more depth to the game’s lore, something which many fans will be pleased with. As well as new characters, there are also a number of new weapons, outfits, items and sorceries to be found, all of which can be used within the main game. The DLC also features some fantastic boss battles, including perhaps the most badass dragon to ever appear in a Souls game.

Existing fans of the game probably won’t be surprised at this approach, but many players will simply want to play the content they’ve paid for as soon as possible, and in this case the conditions enforced by the developer could easily cause a great deal of frustration. However, all can soon be forgiven once the player has entered the world of the DLC, as From Software haven’t strayed from such a successful formula but have instead simply delivered more of the same.

Regarding the difficulty, From Software make it immediately clear with the DLC that they’ve made no attempt to soften the challenge presented by the game, which is to be applauded, especially since that high level of challenge – and the accompanying euphoria when a hardearned victory is finally won – is a huge part of the appeal of the Souls games.

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It’s not just the difficulty which has been maintained but also the sound and graphics, both of which are just as impressive as in the main game. The designs of the monsters, NPCs and bosses is excellent, and the scenery is just as impressive as ever, whether you’re exploring a spacious forest or an almost pitch-black cave system deep underground. The music, used sparingly but to great effect, always suits the mood, whether it’s epic and rousing or something more sinister. The DLC doesn’t force you to play through all of the new content in one sitting, as although your character may have been pulled into the past, through the use of the bonfires scattered throughout the game you are able to warp to both present-day and past locations whenever you choose, as long as those locations have already been visited. It’s a good design choice, as if you’re struggling with a particular section of the DLC then you can always leave and play through some of the present-day content and then return to the past later when your character is stronger. The brilliant and innovative online multiplayer mechanic returns, allowing players to invade the world of another player in order to hunt them down and kill them. Alternatively, less maliciously-minded players could allow themselves to be summoned into another player’s world to fight alongside them, allowing for three-person online co-op play. This multiplayer mechanic was carried through into Dark Souls and remains in full use for the areas contained within the DLC. As well as this, From Software have actually gone one step further and provided a new feature which many fans have been asking for – a more organised and structured method for allowing interested players to duel online.

Sadly, although it may be better than nothing, the Arena seems like a somewhat wasted opportunity: apart from choosing your match type there is no battle customisation; there are just two (very similar) locations to choose from; and if a cowardly opponent is facing defeat, they can quit the battle at any time through the use of an in-game item, leaving the potential victor frustrated. Also, an online leaderboard feels out of place in a Souls game [though Demon’s Souls also had its online ‘Pantheon’ leaderboard – Ed]. It’s a feature that seems more at home in more commercial and competition-focused games. A leaderboard fosters competition, which of course is no bad thing in and of itself, but when it comes to video games there are always lazy and shallow players who will hack or glitch or do whatever else it takes to get to the top of a leaderboard, harming the overall experience for those players who would rather actually earn their victories. So rather than support and enhance the player-versus-player aspect of Dark Souls, the Arena might actually turn out to be a detriment to it, which would be a real shame. I know it took a long time to find opponents for me when I tried to compete in the Arena, which suggests either online technical issues or a lack of available players. Whether or not Artorias of the Abyss is a worthwhile purchase at its current price really depends upon your preferences as a player. If you’re the type to rush through a game as quickly as possible, with no interest in story or exploration or similar things, then there really isn’t a great deal of content here to hold your interest, and the whole DLC could be finished fairly quickly. However, if you’re fascinated by the game’s deep lore then the new content offers more history, revelations and characters for you to think about. If your focus is on weapons or armour or magic then there are a number of new items available for you to experiment with and take with you into the main game. And if you’re more concerned with PVP action, then the Arena – despite its faults – should scratch that itch. Dark Souls is an amazing game and Artorias of the Abyss simply expands upon that experience while at the same time offering a brandnew feature in the form of the online Arena. So to existing fans who have no desire to rush through it, the DLC comes highly recommended. While its general length may be fairly short, there is enough content packed into it that you shouldn’t feel short-changed, especially given that this content can enhance your enjoyment of the main game.

The Arena can be accessed during the course of the DLC, allowing you to compete against other players in a one-on-one deathmatch, a two-on-two team deathmatch, or a four-man free-for-all deathmatch. Consecutive victories can earn you a place on the online leaderboard named the Plaque of Legends. As I said, this kind of feature is something long-requested by the Dark Souls fan community, so From Software should be praised for taking fan feedback on board.

Or, if you’ve never played Dark Souls before and the release of this DLC has piqued your interest in the game, then now is the time to pick up the Prepare To Die edition and prepare yourself for one of the most deep, challenging, refined and intense action-RPGs ever created. Just remember that ‘Prepare to Die’ is no idle threat...

Score: 9/10

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JAK II: RENEGADE

REVIEW REVIEWER: ryannumber3gamer PLATFORM: PS2; re-released for PS3 RELEASE DATE: 17 October 2003

NAUGHTY DOG’S PLATFORMING CLASSIC WITH AN HD MAKEOVER Jak II: Renegade first came out in 2003 for PS2 and was the follow up to the ground-breaking Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. It was then given the HD treatment and re-released in the Jak & Daxter Trilogy bundle which came out in 2012 for PS3; it’s also available for purchase from the PlayStation Store. Story: After being thrown to the future while experimenting with a Precursor machine found at the end of the first game, Jak finds himself captured. Daxter, luckily, escapes whilst Keira and Samos have been separated from our two heroes. Two years later, Daxter frees Jak but unfortunately Jak has suffered under the hands of his imprisoners and has been injected with Dark Eco. Some side-effects of the Dark Eco are that Jak has finally found his voice and can turn into himself, Hulk-like, into a shadowy form called Dark Jak, harnessing new powers from the Dark Eco. As such Jak is now on a quest for revenge against the Baron who has done this to him. Along the way he will meet many characters and join a resistance, fighting against the oppression of the Baron. Gameplay: The gameplay still has the same fun feel of the first Jak & Daxter but it has been mixed with a Grand Theft Auto open-world feel.

Now Jak can use guns and can hijack and drive hover-cars. Jak can still punch, kick, long jump, high jump, uppercut and more but cannot use the blue, red, and yellow Eco powers from the first game. Instead he can use Dark Jak, the more powerful form with treacherous powers that Jak can use when he gets enough Dark Eco. The controls work well with a good mix of platforming and action. The controls are mostly the same as the first game but with the added addition for shooting guns and using a hover-board that Jak later finds in the game. Graphics: The game looked excellent when it first came out for PS2. Naughty Dog had used the PS2 hardware to show a thriving Haven City. Like any city, the slums of Haven City show how bad things for some of the population had gotten. Haven Forest looked great and looked like something from the first game. But unfortunately I have to say I preferred the first game’s graphics as they were superior. Now don’t get me wrong there are places like the Baron’s tower when you’re at the top of it that look great but I liked Sandover Village from the first game better. However I do like the improved character modelling, like Daxter, as it is not as blocky as the first game.

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Characters: Some of the characters have changed a lot from the first game. Jak has changed from being an amusing person who never talked to a talking serious character who still does have his funny moments. Daxter is still the same joker he was in the first game – always thinking he’s the hero whilst being Jak’s sidekick. The Baron is the power-mad leader of Haven City who captures Jak a minute or two after Jak & Daxter find themselves in Haven City, wasting the next two years of Jak’s life injecting him with Dark eco. Torn is the leader of the resistance who sends Jak out on his missions. He is wary of Jak at first but starts trusting him more as the game progresses. Sound: The music fits the new style that Jak II has taken. While the music is good, I don’t think it’s a good as the first game’s soundtrack. Replayability: This game is full of items to collect and unlock. The Precursor Orbs from the first game make a return but this time they are hidden and harder to find. The more Orbs you collect the more objects you unlock. For example, some of the unlockable items are a scene viewer for each act of the game, the ability to re-select levels, and cheats. For people who really want a challenge, if they collect all the orbs then they unlock Hero mode which allows replaying the game on the hardest setting but thankfully you get to keep your hard-earned items. You can also collect Skull gems from Metal Heads to trade them for new Dark Jak powers. Difficulty: Now here is the game’s biggest downfall. The game is very hard with some sadistic difficulty spikes. Some of the hardest missions in the game include having to go through lots of enemies to get to one place in the slums or having two minutes to throw bombs into eco wells. It would not be so bad if you could take more than four hits but quite often you find that two hits from the Metal Heads result in the loss of Jak’s life. Fun Factor: In my opinion the game is really fun and the gameplay is great. The platforming is good too but remember that the game is very hard.

Good: Good gameplay Nice mix of platforming and sandbox styles Great characters Funny moments Great story Excellent graphics Bad: There are a few annoying missions The game is very hard Precursor Orbs are a pain to find and collect. There are loads of unfair missions. Overall: It is a pretty fun game in my opinion but I think it’s the worst in the main Jak trilogy. Many missions are annoying, the difficulty is too hard and unlike the first game Precursor Orbs are too hard to find. But there are more good points like a great story, mixed with plenty of funny moments and good graphics for a 2003 game. Rating: 8/10

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WHEN VIKINGS ATTACK!

REVIEW

REVIEWER: englishgolfer PLATFORM: PS3/PS Vita (cross buy) RELEASE DATE: 07 November 2012

ENGLISHGOLFER BATTLES THE INVADING VIKINGS... I’ve often joked to anyone who would listen – and that I assumed would politely laugh – that the reason I moved to Sweden was because the Vikings stole so many of our English roses when they raided our fair isle over 1000 years ago. I was determined to ‘steal’ one of their roses back, for queen and country of course. Well I got my rose but it seems the Vikings were none too happy about this and have declared war again. This time their raiding parties are hell-bent on destroying different pillars of our heritage – the village fête, the fish and chips shop on the street corner and an indoor shopping centre to name a few – in the new PSN store game, When Vikings Attack! Of course my romantic self isn’t the real reason Vikings are attacking. We’re actually not given a reason but we are encouraged from the start to take up arms and defend our homes. The opening stop-motion animated cut-scene sets the tone for the game and captures the British spirit wonderfully. Think back to a 1940’s propaganda newsreel that would be played before a Saturday matinée at the local cinema and mix in a 1960’s public information broadcast. Now throw in a good dose of British dry humour delivered by a cliptoned BBC radio presenter and by the end of the cut-scene the game

developers have achieved their goal of inciting you to do battle against those pesky invading Vikings. The game comes with both offline and online modes and can be played either on a PS3 or Vita (thanks to cross-buy), or both via the cross-save option. Play at home on your PS3, save the game and then pick up the action on the go seamlessly from where you left off on your Vita. The Quest mode sees you battling as a hapless band of British villagers over 15 levels. You can play Quest mode by yourself or online with up to 4 players. Each level comes with set challenges for score, time and deaths. From the start of the first stage these challenges are not easy! There are also 62 unlockable characters to collect, adding further to replay value. A nice touch is an online leaderboard so you can see where you place world-wide in defending against the Viking marauders. On the Vs. Mode there are three different types of gaming for up to four players - Last Man Standing, Vikings Vs. Vigilantes and Goldrush – set on 20 unique Vs. levels. A neat feature for online playing is cross-play. Whether you go online with your Vita or PS3 you’ll enter the same matchmaking system with no hassle. Just turn up and play.

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The graphics of the game are bright and crisp, almost having a handdrawn cartoony feel to them. The gameplay is very simple but don’t be fooled by that. You control a posse of characters taken from a broad spectrum of English life, including (but not limited to) an elderly vicar, a sleep-walker, a policeman, a mother and a school boy. The left analog stick steers your group. Simply walk to an object and the group automatically picks it up. You throw it in the direction you’re moving by using the circle or square button. You can also dash a short distance, steal an object the Vikings are carrying or catch a thrown object by using the X button. At certain points in the game you’ll need to rotate an object you’re carrying and this is done by using L1 or R1, or the shoulder buttons on the Vita. It might seem a little repetitive running around, picking up objects and then hurling them at on-coming Vikings in the first few levels. However, you will soon need to learn how to use your environment to your advantage – bouncing objects off stationary items to defeat bosses, or manipulating the flow of traffic in the ‘Highway Code’ level to gain an upper hand in the skirmishes. Throw in some modest platform/puzzle gameplay and you’ll soon forget that all you are using is one analog stick and two buttons. Your group dynamic is very well implemented. The larger your ‘band of merry men’ the more health you have so you are constantly looking for new stragglers to pick up. The larger a group is the more collective strength it has so you’ll soon be picking up heavier projectiles like tractors and red telephone boxes and tossing them at those bothersome invaders. But having a larger group comes at a cost; you’ll move around the level at a slower pace making it easier for Vikings to attack with the objects they are throwing at you. I should say here that there is some classic, funny British voice acting for all the characters in your group. From the upper-class gent to the Norfolk farmer to the Liverpudlian, they’re all there capturing the essence of Great Britain. At one point in the game, whilst trying to defeat a boss, a female character joined my group. The first thing she said, in the middle of the mayhem and her possible impending doom, was ‘’ows yer father?’ British humour at its best; deadpan, dry, ironic.

Sadly there are a few small niggling points in the game. Occasionally, action on the Vita screen felt a little cluttered as if there was too much happening. Coupled to this was the ‘Hint’ suggestion that popped up at the bottom of the screen covering, I felt, too much of the action. It left me wondering where my posse was, and I only found out when my last vigilante died. Strangely you couldn’t use the Vita’s touch screen to negotiate the menus – not really a problem per se; but it highlighted the fact that the Vita’s input options are very intuitive and that I’ve taken them for granted. A final problem for me was using the cross-save option. No matter how many times I tried, it never really worked going from my Vita to PS3, sometimes forcing me to ‘re-play’ levels again on my PS3 that I had already completed on the Vita. The opposite was true going from my PS3 to Vita – it worked a charm, I just simply carried on from where I saved. In all this is a brilliant, charming and thoroughly British game. The price of the game is £7.99 but considering you get both the PS3 and Vita versions of the game, 15 levels on the Quest mode, 20 levels on the Vs. Mode, online and offline play, and the ability to cross-play it is frankly a steal at this price. Just don’t tell the Vikings otherwise they might want to raid your homes for this game. Instead I encourage you with the words from the first propaganda newsreel: ‘Now let this be your finest hour. Go forth and battle Vikings!’

QUIETLYWRONG LOSES SEVERAL DAYS TO THE LATEST JRPG FROM NAMCO TALES STUDIO

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TALES OF GRACES F

REVIEW

REVIEWER: QuietlyWrong PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 31 August 2012

QUIETLYWRONG TAKES A JOURNEY TO EPHINEA The coming-of-age story is a dominant motif in fantasy fiction and so overused that what might have been derided as cliché now passes for set dressing, mere background radiation. This is especially true in JRPGs [Japanese-style Role-Playing Games], where the appeal of the Bildungsroman for this genre is entirely obvious. As the game’s player learns about the game world, the battle systems and inventory systems, and as the protagonists go out into that world, grow in strength and gain new abilities, it is natural, almost too easy, to parallel these twin developments with stories of young men and women growing into adulthood, exploring their identities, what life means and what they mean to each other. Transition into adulthood and JRPG plotline fit together like a hand in a glove – or a sword into an equipment slot, if you prefer. Tales of Graces is no exception: we are introduced to childhood friends Asbel and Cheria, Hubert and Richard, all at the cusp of adulthood, thrown into a life-changing, world-saving adventure when one day Asbel discovers a mysterious girl alone in a flower meadow near his village. The girl has no idea who she is, doesn’t remember her name, how she came to be there, or any detail at all of her life. Asbel leads her back to his home, hoping someone in the village may be able to help, though to no avail. He names her Sophie, after one of the meadow flowers, and solemnly vows that he will protect her. Thus is set up the main theme for the game – the ties of family and friendship and the power and desire to protect others, along with the doubts that arise when it seems like we might fail.

Graces takes a daring step in its introductory section: the initial story arc, the discovery of Sophie, takes place in the past, when Asbel and friends are not yet into their teens. Serving as the story’s dramatic set-up and also tutorial, the initial childhood section can take about 5 hours to play through. If your formative impressions of the game from this initiation (which also has a cut-down battle system and other restrictions) aren’t good, then the game could very easily alienate some of its potential fans before it really starts.

In such an event, it’s worth persisting. This back-story could have been told through flashbacks or some other narrative trickery but if it does work for you, there’s no denying the additional emotional impact that can be had by actually playing through the events of the past. It establishes the key driver for the narrative, being the connection between Asbel and Sophie. And it does allow the gradual introduction of a complex array of gameplay elements.

The main storyline kicks off seven years later when a chain of events including a death in Asbel’s family throws the estranged friends back together again in a world edging precariously close to all-out war. Without wishing to spoil the plot too much, over a 40-hour core campaign, Asbel and co will save the village, save the country, prevent all-out war and ultimately save their world from the mysterious monstrous entity ‘Lambda’. In so doing they will establish the ties of brotherhood and friendship, learn to trust in and protect one another. They will see how some problems cannot be solved by force alone, although along the way, there will be plenty of wandering monsters and bosses to beat up, not to mention collectable items by the bucketload. So far, so JRPG, right? The high level overview does the story no justice; boiled down to its essence, the narrative is very predictable. However the individual acts of the plot are more adventurous and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself woven into a tale of alliances forged and broken, of betrayals and reconciliation, and nothing ever quite so obviously black-and-white, good versus evil, as it initially seems to be. Asbel tries to understand and empathise with those whom he opposes and in so doing becomes stronger for it, achieving what might not otherwise have been possible…

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If it all sounds very wholesome or even, dare I say it, twee, that’s because it is, unashamedly so. This is coming-of-age à la Little House on the Prairie rather than Hollyoaks, in that altogether earnest way that is so endearingly Japanese. To modern Western sensibilities it comes across as very staid and old-fashioned, or perhaps (unfairly?) targeted at young children, though anyone who has played a handful of JRPGs will be familiar with the style. How interesting it would be to see a genre game with a more grown-up approach to the adventurous rites of passage… Still, Graces carries off its storyline, its well-crafted script and some excellent voice performances with enough charm that I found that I didn’t care at all about the otherworldly naivety of its characters. For example, in the whole game, despite the significant romantic subplot between main characters Asbel and Cheria, there is, I think, just one chaste kiss between them… And this in itself takes place in the context of a pantomime that the characters act out for a village audience, and this whole performance only takes place in an optional side quest that can only occur if you manage to find five hidden books scattered throughout the world and then return to a location that you have no special reason to revisit… But the whole cut-scene played out so enchantingly, so humorously – and I was, admittedly, so caught up with the characters’ story arc – that it left me with a huge soppy grin on my face. There is a strong vein of humour running throughout the game’s script, mainly derived from the interactions between the mismatched characters in your team. ‘Skits’, a feature of the majority of the Tales series, are short conversations between the characters (portrayed with inset animated character portraits) that can be triggered at certain locations depending on the current progress of the story.

scenes), and there truly aren’t many games I can say that about. Side-by-side with the humour, the game is also capable of some genuinely touching moments, particularly and notably because, like the comedic ones, so many of these are optional, achieved by completing certain side quests or by returning to locations whose resources appear to have been fully exhausted – and which are therefore, for the most part, entirely missable. The mixture of pathos and daftness does sometimes jar, however, when the two are inadvertently brought together – for example through costume modification and some lategame weapon modifications, you can end up with emotional scenes being played out in the in-game 3D engine between characters in fancy dress – Malik’s lifeguard costume with thong, perhaps – watermelons perched on characters’ heads or perhaps a stuffed giraffe (sword) tucked under Asbel’s arm. Suffice to say, after this happened to me once I deliberately played the rest of the game with more standard costumes. Video games have changed a great deal since the first in the Tales Of series, Tales of Phantasia, was originally released on the SNES in 1995. But whereas series like Final Fantasy have sought to reinvent themselves over the passing years, to the point where the newest game and the pre-PlayStation releases appear to have almost nothing in common beyond a common vocabulary, Tales of Graces f wears its heritage proudly. It is a modern game for the current console generation, imbued with a loving nostalgia for the old-fashioned ways that date back to the earliest console JRPGs.

Playing the Waiting Game The ‘Tales Of’ series of JRPGs is a relative upstart compared to 26-year-old Dragon Quest and 25-year-old Final Fantasy, but with 14 core ‘Mothership’ titles over its 17-year history, numerous spin-off games (‘Escort titles’), remakes, mobile games, anime features, manga collections and novelisations, it could arguably be considered Japan’s #3 RPG series after Square Enix’s heavyweights. But success in Japan has not been so well reflected on the international market. Incredibly, only two of the Tales Mothership titles (Symphonia on Gamecube, Vesperia on X360) ever reached European shores in their original format. (A third, the brilliant Tales of Xillia is due to reach us – on PS3 – later this year; watch this space!) Of the remainder, Europe has had to wait for ports to handheld consoles and even then, coverage has been very patchy – Tales of Eternia saw a 6-year wait until we saw it ported to European PSPs; we also had to wait until 2006 to see the original 1995 Tales of Phantasia eventually ported to GBA and released here. 2005’s PS2 Tales of the Abyss finally reached Europe in 2012 on the 3DS. The need to own every console under the sun to play through the series is yet another challenge for the fans! Fortunately, the wait for European localisation of Tales of Graces f, a 2010 port of the original 2009 Wii Tales of Graces, has not been so long, and comes with some bonuses. The PS3 port includes a substantial new ‘Lineage and Legacies’ story arc set some months after the conclusion of the main game (the ‘f’ stands for ‘future’). This epilogue offers 15-20 hours of additional story and even a new addition to the battle mechanic!

There are hundreds of these and all are optional, so that you can forego them on repeat playthroughs. These conversations usually reveal something about the characters, the situation, the current location, some world history or a combination of these, and the majority have a humorous turn. (In true JRPG fashion, the range of topics also include some random hints and tips on proper courteous behaviour towards others and advice about good personal hygiene.) Impressively, all 385 skits (if you can find them all!) are fully voice-acted. More than a few times I laughed out loud while playing (through skits and narrative

Also, if you’re lucky enough to still be able to lay your hands on a copy of the ‘Day One Special Edition’ (exclusive for the European release) you get a 100-page art-book, DLC codes, soundtrack CD and a DVD of Q&A with series producer Hideo Baba.

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haven’t saved recently, then you may have to kiss goodbye to hours of progress. Such frustrations belong in the history books. The game supposedly does away with random enemy encounters – you can see the enemies and try to avoid them, or approach them without them spotting you. But because the make-up of each enemy group is indicated only by a single unit from that group, you often don’t know what monsters you’ll actually be facing until you’ve already started the encounter, so if you’re looking for specific kills or item drops, the ‘non-random’ nature of the encounters is not nearly as helpful as it first seems. Fully-voiced in-engine 3D cut-scenes stand shoulder to shoulder with anime movies which in turn give way to character portrait dialogue and the usual endless round of speech bubble conversations with passersby. Gameplay has been tweaked and fighting more three-dimensional than ever, but should be immediately familiar to anyone who has played any Tales title before, and there is layer upon layer of complexity in the game’s systems, like the depths of the menus themselves, such that you’re doing really well – or taking your precious time – if you’ve fully understood it all by the end of a single playthrough. It sounds like it ought to be a mess but Graces holds the whole together through the quality of its vibrant visual style, its excellent and extensive voice acting and audio and the wit and charm of its enormous script. That isn’t to say there are no flaws in this approach – some of the ways of the past are best forgotten… Though exploration is conducted in a fully three-dimensional environment, Graces has adopted a noncontrollable viewpoint with a relatively fixed camera, which takes some getting used to, especially after the typical ‘world-map’ so common to other Tales games and many other JRPGs over the last 15 years (I spent much of the first few hours of gameplay repeatedly trying to get another view by pressing shoulder buttons and the right stick, all to no avail). And the game restricts the player’s movement range by means of painfully frustrating invisible walls – most annoying when treasure chests are hidden hither and thither: perhaps there’s one up this slope here? No, you can’t even walk up this gentle incline; the ankle-high grass is apparently impassable. No, this paving slab is twelve inches above the others; you can’t go this way, even though stairs and ladders apparently pose no problems in other locations...

There are places here and there where the game requires some backtracking – and though obligatory backtracking is relatively minor, it still feels like it belongs in the previous century, and that’s to say nothing of the optional backtracking if you want to see much of the side-quest narrative. Game saving can only be done at save points, which are scattered throughout the world but which can be annoyingly far apart in the later ‘dungeons’, and should you inadvertently engage in a battle beyond your characters’ abilities – other than a boss battle – and you

However, in many other respects the game is extremely generous to the player – some of history’s lessons have been learned. Once you get the freedom to travel wherever you like, almost every location in the game is indefinitely accessible. So if you feel the need to collect every collectible, see every sight, complete every side-quest and puzzle, beat up every type of wandering monster, master every recipe – and you’ve got a good game guide to hand, or a lot of patience and inquisitive nature – then the game makes it as painless as possible, doing its best not to close off any avenues. There’s even a game mechanic called the ‘Eleth Mixer’ that allows you, if you’re patient enough, to make copies of all manner of raw materials you find within the game, so instead of backtracking, or hunting down a rare beast for an even rarer drop, just set your Eleth Mixer to make the item for you, continue playing and after a while (depending on the rarity of the item), it will just pop out, ready for you. The game also keeps a close record of everything you’ve done, killed and made, and every one of its dozens of battle hints that it has shown you, so you can always pop into the menus for a reminder of how to make any item you’ve made before, what side-quests are on-going or completed, how many collectables you’ve discovered, all battle hints to date or a synopsis of the story so far. If you’ve been distracted by side quests for a few hours and are drawing a blank on what you’re supposed to be doing in the main story, you can always squeeze L1 on the main screen for an instant context-sensitive reminder of your next task. I’m not exaggerating about the side quests. Once the world opens out, it is your proverbial pearl-bearing bivalve and the optional distractions can easily double the length of the game. Although many of the quests are very samey (bring me a component; go kill a monster and collect an item), there are some doozies in there with their own little subplots and stories, even some optional puzzle components, and those aforementioned touching insights into some character backgrounds.

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the game for not doing enough new to distinguish itself from previous Tales games and JRPGs, but if I played JRPGs purely for novel gameplay mechanics I doubt I’d ever finish any of them.) Not every step is in the right direction, however, and there are still many ways in which it could mature for the better. If anything, this just makes me all the more excited for the prospects of the next in the series, Tales of Xillia, due out later this year.

One of the things that most struck me about Graces was the sheer enormity of it – not so much in terms of the size of the game world or its dungeons, but in its script and the amount of voice acting that goes along with it. As I’ve said above, there are nearly 400 optional skits, all acted out. This is in addition to all of the (always skippable) cut-scenes that take place in the course of the main storyline and in the many hours of side-questing. Even some of the basic fetch-and-retrieve quests lead to cut-scenes. On top of this, the battle system is full of sound-bites, over 1000 just for the main characters (including the whimsically understated ‘This may sting!’ from Hubert). Each battle ends with a short, usually humorous, often silly cut-scene between the participants and though you’ll eventually tire of them and skip them, I was impressed in the attention to detail that meant I was still occasionally seeing a brand new post-battle chat even towards the end of the game with 60 or 70 hours of gameplay behind me. But sorry, hardcore fans, there’s no Japanese speech option.

Graphically, the game holds true to the anime-like Tales style. But as vibrant and well-drawn as the characters and environments are, the textures lack detail and though they are supposed to be higher definition than the Wii version, the visuals do still feel like they’re being held back by their original incarnation on that console. They do have a colourful appeal and they certainly don’t detract from the game – the thoughtfully directed cut-scenes and the animated portraits used in the skits being very effective – but they certainly don’t show off the PS3 at its best. Music is of a high standard throughout, and there is plenty of it with lots of variation, though for a game of this potential length (I’ve played 125 hours, folks, in one single playthrough), many of the individual pieces could have done with being longer before they start to repeat, and one or two of the musical styles did seem a little incongruous. (Celtic jig battle music for a lifeless wasteland? Really?)

Graces is undoubtedly up there with the best that the series has to offer, and the sheer depth of content in the game’s script is phenomenal (not to mention rewarding to a compulsive player like me…). With its antique ‘fixed’ camera and invisible walls, its potentially divisive opening section and the bewildering complexity of the battle and inventorycombination systems, however, I find myself reluctant to wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone not already familiar with JRPGs, at least as an introduction to the genre. If you are a Tales fan or a treasurechest-hunting experience-point devotee, though, I’m happy to state that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that it’s well worth an investment.

To Battle! Fans of the Tales series will recognise the basic action-battle format straight away: you take direct control of one character in a simplistic beat-’em-up mechanic while the rest of your party fights alongside in accordance with general team tactics. Most of the action is restricted to the straight line between you and your opponent, but Graces throws in the ability to side-step and even manoeuvre freely around the field of battle if you feel the need; position yourself correctly and you can not only dodge your enemies’ attacks but also take on multiple assailants with your swipes and thrusts. This ‘Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System’ allows each character to switch between two different skill-sets: combo-based ‘Assault Artes’ and specifically triggered ‘Burst Artes’ (for ‘A’ button and ‘B’ button respectively – yes, that worked better on the Wii). Different enemies are more or less vulnerable to one type or the other. Different Artes require different amounts of ‘Chain Capacity’, which depletes as you fight but can be replenished by stopping to defend, which adds a nice rhythm to the whole thing, and of course you can increase your maximum chain capacity as you progress through the game and grow in power. New Artes are learned (and Artes are improved) by gaining ‘Titles’ during the story’s progress, either from events or by proving perseverance or prowess (or lack of it) in one area or another. Furthermore, each of the main characters has their own variations on how they engage, whether they specialise in ranged attacks or mêlée, physical or magical damage, offensive or supportive magic. Because you can choose whom to control – and even switch between your team of four at any point mid-battle – you could learn seven different variations of fighting style. And if you’ve got some friends with you on the sofa when you’re playing, they can join in – with up to four controllers, all four of your party can be manually controlled in battle. Or if you’re on your own and you’re after a particular skill, you can switch between characters mid-fight with the D-pad or even assign a handful of any character’s commands to custom controls.

Tales of Graces f is a game that stands, like its callow protagonists, with one foot in the future and another in the past. Perhaps this is appropriate for a series now in its 18th year. Unlike some of its rivals, the Tales series still seems to recognise the fun that it had in its youth and hasn’t felt the need to reinvent every little thing in order to seem grown-up, and for that I applaud it. (Other reviewers have criticised

If you reckon you’re getting good at battling monsters, the game comes with some extras in the form of ‘Trials of Graces’, a set of standalone battles that you can take on and compare your scores against the online highscore table. On the other hand, if you just can’t take the active battles for a while (or at all), you can always switch them to ‘Auto’ and watch them play out frenetically while you concentrate on tweaking the party’s tactics.

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HOW OFTEN DO YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO WIN A GIANT CARDBOARD SHARK? NOT OFTEN ENOUGH! FOR ‘LEVELUPJORDAN’, ONE CHANCE WAS ALL HE NEEDED, AND HE RELATES HIS WINNER’S TALE HERE... A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a game on the PlayStation Store called Derrick The Deathfin; it looked interesting and had a relatively cheap price tag so I dived in. Little did I know what a great gem I had found! I sat there and marvelled at the papercraft masterpiece and was utterly disappointed when the experience was over. Because of this I was extremely excited for and welcomed the high score competition as it gave me the perfect excuse to team up with Derrick again. After I submitted my score I anxiously awaited the deadline, refreshing the forum thread a couple of times a day and I was overjoyed and only able to finally relax when it was announced I had won. The next day I headed to Sony’s offices and as a huge Sony fan it was a great experience; seeing the clocks with the DualShock’s face buttons (square, triangle, circle, cross), all the Sony products and meeting the community team. Meeting the team was a great honour, especially as they brought a guest, a real-life giant cardboard Derrick. Getting him back home was a struggle, the rain providing me great difficulty for the half-hour walk home as, unlike his digital counterpart, real Derrick is averse to the rain. However, somehow we managed it and now Derrick sits by my desk at university reminding me of the great experience and encourages me to revise with his look of complete indifference...

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PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

TOP 10

WRITER: MoltenArmour

Ten PSP games that deserve to be resurrected on your Vita You might be wondering why would I bother with PSP games when there are games that look as good as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, play as well as Gravity Rush and sound as good as Unit 13. But I’d like to argue that despite how amazing some of these games are, there are some games from yesteryear, from the PS Vita’s daddy the PSP, that hold up their own against their modern successors. Behold a list of 10 games that I think stand out from the rest and that are available today on the PSN store for a little more than a sixpence. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions The pinnacle of strategic gameplay interwoven with a great plot that any story-loving gamer will just adore. Half Minute Hero 30 seconds to save the world? Not possible you say? Well I’ve done it and I think you should give it a try too. This cute little game is great for small stints of gaming and has great replay value. Gran Turismo El supremo of racing games comes to life brilliantly on the handheld. With everything you’d expect from its console cousins this game is a fantastic realistic racer. God of War (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta) Either of these two titles bring to life Kratos as we know and love him; despite shorter campaigns there is no let up in blood, guts and gory gameplay. Jak and Daxter: the Lost Frontier Third person platformers do not come any better than this. With some great humour and even better action. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker SNAKE!!! The iconic stealth-’em-up translates perfectly to the handheld and is amongst the best in the series. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Undoubtedly one of the games that sold more PSPs than any other. Hunting giant beasts in this fast-paced unforgiving world will have you hooked for hours. Prinny Can I Really Be The Hero? 999 lives to finish the entire game might sound easy, but I can tell you this hellishly hard platformer will test even the most zen-like player. Socom Fireteam Bravo 3 Created for a console that had no second analogue stick it dealt with the dilemma perfectly and works great on the Vita. This shooter, with a still healthy online community, is well worth a look.

Ys Seven Missing a little bit of JRPG in your life? If you answered yes then you can not get much better than Ys Seven. A great story and terrific actionbased combat will keep you occupied for many a happy hour. The PSP as a console might be slowly winding down but that does not mean the software has to die with it. The list above is a cross-section of some of the great diversity that is on show on the PSN store. There are of course plenty of other great games that deserve a mention that could bring more life to your Vita in between some of the brilliant games that are out and coming for it. The Disgaea series, Final Fantasy Dissidia, Patapon and Everybody’s Golf to name a few. Each of these titles is fantastic and for very reasonable prices. Go check out the store now and start enjoying some of these amazing classics and soon-tobe classics.

MEMBERS OF THE OPC HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ASK CODEMASTERS ABOUT THEIR ‘F1 RACE STARS’ GAME, HERE ARE THEIR ANSWERS. THE BEST QUESTION WON A COPY OF THE GAME!

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CODEMASTERS’ Q&A

F1 RACE STARS F1 RACE STARS IS OUT NOW FOR THE PS3 Firstly, a big thank you to Codemasters for taking the time out to answer the questions posed by the OPC Forum. Thank you as well to all those who submitted questions for Codemasters to answer in regards to F1 Race Stars, we now have the responses from the developers of your questions as well as their choice of the ‘best question’ which will win a signed copy of the game. So let’s start off by announcing who Codemasters decided as their Best Question and of course the answer that goes with it. Congratulations to MKR_Bone who won a signed copy of the game for the following question. Q. THE KART RACING GENRE IS QUITE A CROWDED ONE AT THE MOMENT, WHAT MAKES YOURS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD? (MKR_BONE) The biggest thing for us has always been the strength of the FORMULA ONE™ license itself, and a lot of what makes our game different from the rest comes from that setting. Probably the biggest difference is the way the cars handling - FORMULA ONE isn’t about drifting! Most kart games are about drift, but as a mechanic drifting works across a broad spectrum. Drift can be a realistic rally game like DiRT or a cutesy karting game. The difference in the karting game is that it’s simplified, made more accessible and more immediately rewarding. We wanted to do the same thing but for FORMULA ONE - take something that’s fun in the real world (driving a FORMULA ONE car) and make a simplified, easy to pick-up-and-play version of that everybody could enjoy, even if they weren’t a pro driver. On top of that it’s the F1-themed power-ups like the Safety car and Wet Weather. Or the team racing - playing in pairs, or big teams of 6. Or it’s the fun stuff that generates a bit of rivalry, a bit of smack-talk - gifting between rounds, or the King of the Screen system. Or the locked shortcuts that rewards you exploring the tracks. There’s quite a bit when you add it all up! Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE ENTIRE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS? WHEN DID YOU HAVE THE MOST FUN? (ITSACTUALLYADAM) For me it was any time we got to put the game in front of real players. We did a number of rounds of focus testing during development, starting very early on, and used the feedback to make the game better. Doing that’s always hard, because real players will find the problems with your game very quickly! But the most fun we had in the team was when we got together and played the game in 4-way splitscreen, so seeing real people doing just that and laughing out loud at the fun they were having was always immensely gratifying.

Q. IS THERE A LAN MODE FOR LOCALISED TOURNAMENTS OF MORE THAN 4 PEOPLE? (CHEEKYMCB) Unfortunately not. It’s not that it isn’t a good idea, it’s just that we chose to prioritise multiplayer features that would have the biggest effect for the biggest number of players. Q. WILL THERE BE A DAY ONE PATCH? (I ASK BECAUSE THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF THIS RECENTLY, AND FOR THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET, COULD BE LEFT WITH A BROKEN GAME.) (DOODYLICIOUS) There is a lot of QA time invested in the development. When you add Sony and Microsoft certification onto that for console, the game gets a lot of checking. However, realistically you are never going to cover every single permutation - especially when you add online into the mix. Most modern games will have Title Updates/Patches that fix bugs, iron out balancing issues, and even add new functionality and F1 RACE STARS™ is no different. We have released one patch already and we continue monitor how the game performs out in the wild. If we are to do further patches, we will announce that here. Q. WHEN PLAYING LOCAL MULTIPLAYER, IS IT POSSIBLE FOR PLAYER 2/3/4 TO USE THERE OWN ACCOUNT ON THE PS3 AND HAVE THERE ONLINE STATS UPDATED...OR WOULD IT ONLY UP DATE THE PLAYER THAT IS LOGGED INTO THE PSN. (I’M NOT ACTUALLY SURE IF THIS IS POSSIBLE ON ANY GAME TO BE HONEST, BUT THOUGH I’D ASK ANYWAY) (DOODYLICIOUS) It is possible for other accounts to play as P2/P3/P4, and they will get credit towards trophies. But they’ll need to log in as the lead profile in order to properly receive those trophies. Q. WHEN DECIDING TO MAKE THIS GAME, DID YOU GET YOUR IDEAS FROM MARIO KART OR ANOTHER SIMILAR GAME? (DOODYLICIOUS) It’s always easy to get labelled as ‘just copying Mario Kart’, but the karting genre’s actually pretty well established. We looked at all the big names in karting when we were doing the research for our game. I’m a big fan of Crash Team Racing myself :) Q. DO YOU THINK RACE STARS COULD BE A GOOD WAY TO GET MORE YOUNGER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE SPORT ITSELF? (FETS81) Absolutely - the idea was always that you could play this game even if you knew nothing about FORMULA ONE, but if you did, you’d start to recognise stuff in the real world, like the drivers and circuits. Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR DLC ADD ON PACKS FOR CLASSIC CARS & DRIVERS AS WELL AS CIRCUITS? (FETS81) Not right now, but we’re listening to feedback. Never say never!

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Q&A WITH CODEMASTERS - F1 RACE STARS Q. IS THERE A SAFETY CAR? (FETS81) Yep! It’s a power-up. When you deploy it, it teleports just in front of the driver in first place. It then slows everbody down - the closer you are to it, the more you get slowed down! Q. WHAT’S THE REASON FOR MAKING A CARTOONY F1 GAME? (BOYD45) The best reason of all - because lots of people want it! Not every FORMULA ONE fan is the kind of player who enjoys hardcore driving sims. And even if they do, that’s no guarantee that their friends do! F1 Race Stars is for those people who enjoy the world of FORMULA ONE, but are maybe looking for something a bit more accessible when they switch on their games console. Something they can play with their friends, or their family. That’s why we wanted to make this game. Q. AFTER PLAYING THE DEMO, I HAVE ONE SMALL CRITICISM WHICH IMMEDIATELY STOOD OUT. GO-KARTS ARE CENTRED ROUND A SHORT & TIGHT TRACK, WHEREAS F1 LONG AND FAST. THE GERMAN LEVEL SEEMED TOO LONG AND BORING FOR MY LIKING FOR A GO-KART GAME, WITH ME EITHER BEING WAY OUT IN FRONT ON MY OWN FEELING BORED, OR CHASING SOMEONE ELSE OUT IN FRONT ON THEIR OWN. ARE ALL THE OTHER TRACKS LIKE THIS, IF SO IS THERE ANY WAY TO COMBAT THIS IE SHORTEN THE TRACKS OR MAKE THE KARTS A LITTLE FASTER? (IT REALLY DID PUT ME OFF THE GAME SOMEWHAT). (YTEVO79) The tracks are pretty varied, so there’s a good spread of styles of racing throughout the game. But it sounds like the bigger issue is that when you race, there’s not enough happening around you to keep you interested and excited. My advice on that would be to give it a little more time – the game uses a dynamic difficulty system to match the AI to your level, and with a few more races under your belt the AI should end up giving you a much tighter race. And of course you can play on 3000cc for a bigger challenge. Or even better – get online or get some friends over and play with some real humans! Like most karting games, the game really comes alive in that setting. Q. DID YOU (OR DO YOU) HAVE ANY PLANS TO INCLUDE THE ABILITY FOR USERS TO CREATE THEIR OWN TRACKS? (MATTSIMMO) No - it was really important to us to focus on the real circuits from FORMULA ONE. And more than that – for the kind of social experience we wanted, it was really important to us that there was a degree of consistency. If I’m playing with some casual gamer friends, they might come round one week, then again a few weeks later. You don’t want a situation where you’ve moved on to a bunch of new tracks and they’ve got to start learning again from scratch - you want them to be able to jump in and use what they learned last time. And if they’re playing at home too, we didn’t want them to go round a friend’s house and then have to learn a bunch of new tracks just because they were each playing different sets of user-created circuits. A degree of familiarity is, we think, important to this kind of audience, and this kind of experience.

Q. IF YOU COULD PICK 2 LEGENDARY F1 DRIVERS TO INCLUDE IN THE GAME WHO WOULD THEY BE AND WHICH TEAM WOULD THEY RACE FOR? BY THE WAY, I’VE ALREADY HAD ALOT OF FUN ON THE DEMO AND CAN’T WAIT FOR THE FULL GAME! (GLENHOMER22) If I could, it’d have to be Ayrton Senna, wouldn’t it? And for my second one... Nigel Mansell! Mainly because he’s the famous face I remember from my own childhood. And because his ‘tache would look amazing on one of our caricatures! As for team, I’d have to say Red Bull... Q. DID YOU FEEL THIS WAS A GAME DEVELOPED FOR THE YOUNGER F1 FANS FOR THEM TO PLAY INSTEAD OF CURRENT F1 GAMES OR AS A WAY FOR THEM TO PLAY F1 RACE STARS THEN STEP UP AND ALSO PLAY YOUR MAIN F1 GAMES? WOULD BE GREAT TO PLAY F1 RACE STARS ON VITA. (AGAMER2006) Not just for younger gamers – I’m 34 and I still love kart games :BigGrin: But yeah, we were thinking about kids as well during development. I wouldn’t say that Race Stars is designed specifically as an intro to the real FORMULA ONE game – it’s perfectly fun in its own right! But it does convey some of the basic concepts in a way that some younger gamers will hopefully remember when they get a bit older and get into the sport of FORMULA ONE. Q. WHAT ONE THING DID YOU REALLY WANT TO INCLUDE IN THE GAME BUT COULDN’T FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER? (THE_FORCE) We had a really good idea for an upgraded Time Trial/Challenges mode that we couldn’t quite cram in - as with all games development, ultimately you always have to sacrifice some ideas unfortunately. Q. F1 RACE STARS IS A HUGE CHANGE IN STYLE FROM THE NORMAL LICENSED F1 GAMES SO HOW WELL WAS THE IDEA INITIALLY RECEIVED AMONGST THE LICENSE HOLDERS AND THE STARS/TEAMS WITHIN THE SPORT? (OPT1MUS76) They loved it! FORMULA ONE management and the teams have all been very supportive of the game from the outset. They are the games biggest fans! Q. WERE YOU REQUIRED TO ADJUST THE PERFORMANCE OF THE TEAMS IN LINE WITH THEIR REAL-LIFE COUNTERPARTS AS IN THE NORMAL LICENSED TITLE OR ARE THE LOWER LEVEL TEAMS ON EQUAL PERFORMANCE IN F1 RACE STARS? (OPT1MUS76) We always said that this was the game anyone could play, even if they didn’t know anything about F1. So we knew we couldn’t give any of the teams a distinct advantage over the others, otherwise rookie players might end up losing, not knowing that they were picking a car with weaker performance. Plus it means that players can pick the team they like, without everyone thinking they have to race to get to the powerful cars. Q. HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF DOING ADVERTISING BY GETTING THE F1 STARS TO WEAR HELMETS WHICH LOOK JUST LIKE THE HEAD DESIGNS IN THE GAME! (ZEDMAYER) Awesome idea! I’ll ask our brand guys Q. HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO HAVE THE GAME RUNNING AT 60 FRAMES PER SECOND? (LLLL-DAN-LLLL) Very. It was one of the first things we decided on, which informed the way the rest of the game was developed. It makes such a massive difference in this style of game!

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Q&A WITH CODEMASTERS - F1 RACE STARS Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE POWER-UP IN THE GAME? (LLLL-DAN-LLLL) I love the Wet Weather, but the Piercing Seeker Bubble bonus is probably my favourite. If you time it right, seeing the front 3 drivers go P-PPOP! In turn is pretty funny... Especially if they’re sat next to you! Q. APART FROM THE STANDARD RACE MODE WHAT OTHER MODES ARE IN THE GAME? (LLLL-DAN-LLLL) We have Pole Position, Elimination, Slalom, Refuel, Sector Snatch, Trophy Chase and Exhibition. Would take too long to describe them all, but Refuel’s my favourite. Your fuel runs down slowly, and you have to pick up cans of fuel from the track to keep going... But the less fuel you have, the lighter you are and so the faster you go! Can be quite tactical.

Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY PRO TIPS FOR MASTERING THE GAME? (LLLL-DAN-LLLL) Master the jump boost. Whenever you leave the ground, let go of the accelerator, then jam it back on the instant you touch the ground again. Time it right and you’ll get a short blue boost. But! If you’re already boosting, it’ll extend your existing boost, so they’re great for keeping a powerful red boost going longer! After a while you’ll start seeing more places you can get little jumps - try it, it’ll make a big difference to your time trial times! Q. WHAT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING THING ABOUT DESIGNING THE GAME? (LLLL-DAN-LLLL) Remembering that the people we were making this game for weren’t necessarily hardcore gamers OR hardcore F1 fans. How to keep it fun and accessible was an almost daily conversation.

ALEX DE-GRUCHY MAKES SPACE ON THE SOFA FOR SOME CO-OP FUN. ON PS3, WE MEAN. OH GROW UP!

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2 PLAYER LOCAL

CO-OP WRITER: Alex De-Gruchy

TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME To many gamers today, the concept of multiplayer is synonymous with online gaming, which has exploded in popularity since its inception. But not everyone enjoys having their sexual preferences or their mother’s virtue questioned by an ignorant, loudmouthed 13-year-old boy in Chicago as he kills you – again – from halfway across the map. No, some of us remember the days when to play against – or with – someone else, you had to actually be in the same general physical space together. (Preferably close enough that, if they were annoying you, you could unplug their controller when they went to the toilet). And although looking at the video game industry as it is today it may seem like online multiplayer has almost stamped out local multiplayer, this simply isn’t the case. Look a little closer and you’ll see there are numerous games available which feature local multiplayer in one form or another, often implemented in exciting and enjoyable ways. This article isn’t about competitive multiplayer, so you won’t find FIFA or Street Fighter here. Instead, this article is all about games that offer local co-operative play, promoting teamwork and camaraderie rather than competition. Because as much fun as it is to battle your way to glorious victory single-handed, sometimes it’s even more fun to do it with someone else fighting at your side. Bear in mind that this isn’t meant to be a ‘Top 8’ or any kind of comprehensive list – ‘Where’s LittleBigPlanet? Why the hell have you left out Portal 2? HAVE YOU THE BRAINWORMS?!’ I hear you cry – so don’t take it as such. The following are simply a selection of games which might be of interest to those looking for co-op experiences on their PlayStation 3.

So grab a second controller, get comfortable next to your friend / loved one / relative / trained chimp of choice on the couch, make sure all snacks and beverages are within reach, and get your co-op on.

Army of Two / Army of Two: The 40th Day So let’s kick things off with a game series where co-operative play isn’t just an option but an absolute requirement: Army of Two. Developed by Electronic Arts, Army of Two and its sequel Army of Two: The 40th Day (the third game, Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, is scheduled for release in March) are third-person shooters which see you and a friend – or an AI partner – take on the roles of Salem and Rios, two mercenaries who must work together as a team to survive and accomplish mission objectives as they fight through wars, terrorist attacks, and various other explosion-filled situations. Although the AI makes for a decent enough partner in single-player mode, it’s when you’re fighting alongside a friend in two-player co-op that the game really comes to life and you’re able to more fully implement moves and tactics which are sometimes underutilised in singleplayer. The co-op gameplay allows for some interesting features, such as the ‘Aggro’ system, where one player can draw enemy fire towards them while the other player sneaks around and attacks the enemy from their flank. Also, you can revive a fallen partner, encourage or insult them, help them clamber over obstacles, etc. Army of Two: The 40th Day also presents players with a number of moral choices throughout the game, adding more depth to the co-op experience as teammates will have to decide what course of action to take. ‘Gritty’ military shooters in various shades of brown and grey are ten-a-penny these days, but the Army of Two games have a definite advantage over many of their competitors in the shape of their co-opfocused gameplay, making them of definite interest to anyone looking for an action-packed co-op game, even if you’re not a fan of the genre.

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Castle Crashers The Behemoth, the developer behind Castle Crashers, displayed a talent at mixing old-school gameplay with a modern twist and presentation right from their first console game, Alien Hominid. A side-scrolling shooter (which also featured co-op play), the game combined a colourful and quirky art style with a high level of difficulty and classic gameplay. The developer’s digital follow-up, Castle Crashers, was more proof of its successful formula, as once again The Behemoth created a game that offered co-op play (up to four players simultaneously this time), the same great art style, and a similarly old-school style of gameplay. A side-scrolling beat-’em-up, on a basic level Castle Crashers is reminiscent of games such as Golden Axe but with modern enhancements such as a levelling system, a wide range of weapons (including a lobster), replayability, and a large cast of characters to choose from – although the four knights are the ‘face’ of the game, there are literally dozens of other playable characters to unlock, so even if there are four of you playing, you’ll never be short of characters to choose from. Castle Crashers is simply a lot of fun to play, even in single-player, but the game is even more enjoyable when playing with a partner (or three). As a co-op experience and one of the best digital titles available for the PS3, Castle Crashers is a must-buy.

keep all those zombies to yourself when you can bring a second player along for the action-packed, gore-strewn ride? Set sometime after a zombie outbreak has devastated the world, you make your way through rain-soaked city streets, an abandoned amusement park (filled with zombie clowns – the stuff of nightmares for many, surely), a graveyard (‘They’re coming to get you, Barbara!’), and other grim locations filled with the undead. A wide range of upgradeable weapons is made available to players as they progress through the game, adding to the fun of co-op play as each player can focus on a different type of weapon as an aid to teamwork – a flamethrower for close-up work, combined with a rocket launcher as a ranged attack, for example. The camera position for this top-down shooter is close enough to the action and characters that you see the impressive graphics in detail, while simultaneously being far enough away to allow for easy co-op play, since the two players always share the same screen – there is no split-screen in Dead Nation. You’ll find that the available play area is always large enough to comfortably accommodate both players, even with dozens of zombies swarming onto the screen. The rise in popularity of the zombie over the past several years has certainly been reflected in the video game medium, which has led to the release of some good games and some bad ones. Dead Nation is a very, very good game, so if you’re looking for a co-op experience filled with intense action, great atmosphere, a good level of depth and customisation, excellent graphics, and more zombies than you can shake a severed, rotting limb at, then this game fits the bill.

Double Dragon Neon The original Double Dragon was released in 1987 and although it wasn’t the first side-scrolling beat-’em-up, it was one of the most successful, adding some innovations to a fairly new genre. In fact, the game was popular enough that it spawned numerous sequels across a wide variety of home consoles and computers, not to mention an animated series and a live-action movie (both of dubious quality).

Dead Nation In Dead Nation, you shoot zombies. A lot of zombies. Like, loads. Seriously.

Double Dragon Neon is the latest release in the series and is intended as a reboot, although this hardly matters one way or another, since plot and continuity haven’t exactly been hallmarks of the series. This reboot mentality has worked in favour of Double Dragon Neon, however, as the game features a likeable and fun, neon-drenched 1980s aesthetic, complete with cheesy songs, dialogue filled with 80s slang terms, and power-ups in the form of musical cassette tapes. The core gameplay remains the same: move across the screen, beat up enemies, repeat. It’s a timeless formula, after all. Modern enhancements have been made in terms of combat and character upgrades, while a few moves and techniques have also been added which are specific to the co-op mode.

In the beginning you’ll be dealing with lone zombies or small groups, but the game soon shows its hand and starts throwing hordes of undead at you, leaving you backing up as rapidly as possible, blasting away and hurling grenades (and possibly expletives). The number of zombies which can appear on-screen simultaneously is impressive and adds to the tension, as you never know when you’ll be suddenly swamped by flesh-eating enemies. Housemarque’s Dead Nation is playable in single-player, but why

Double Dragon Neon may make fun of the 1980s, but it also honours its side-scrolling beat-’em-up heritage at the same time and shows that there is still plenty of life left in the genre, especially when playing with a friend, as was the case with so many classic two-player beat-’em-ups such as Golden Axe, Final Fight, and Streets of Rage. Special mention should also be made of the fact that Double Dragon Neon features one of the best musical credits sequences outside of Portal, so be sure not to miss it should you complete the game.

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Hunted: The Demon’s Forge Developed by inXile Entertainment, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a third-person fantasy/action game laced with RPG elements, and also a game that may have slipped beneath the radar of a lot of PS3 owners. Or, if you have heard of it, you may be aware that critical reception to the title was mixed at best, with some reviews being particularly scathing. But whilst it’s true that this game has some faults, it also boasts a number of positive aspects: detailed graphics, atmospheric and impressive environments, a feature allowing you to create your own dungeon, and a well-written pair of protagonists whose characterisation outshines their rather stereotypical design. But perhaps the strongest feature of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is one which seems to have been overlooked by some critics: the combat. While it may not offer a lot of variety or depth, the combat is challenging and brutal, forcing you to use your head and fight smart – wading in blind, swinging your weapon and hoping for the best will get you killed very quickly. Knowing that death is never far away and that you need to take every fight seriously adds tension and excitement to the battles.

in the Tomb Raider franchise, despite its differences to previous games. As mentioned, the focus of the game is co-op (although there is a single-player mode which differs slightly in terms of player abilities and level design), with one player controlling Lara while the other controls a Mayan warrior named Totec. The core gameplay is the usual mixture of combat, platforming, and puzzles which people expect from a Tomb Raider game, but the co-op aspect puts a new and interesting spin on things. Lara and Totec each possess a unique set of weapons and abilities, and as each character has skills which the other does not, co-op players will find that only by successfully combining these skills can they progress through the game. For example, Lara is equipped with a grappling hook which Totec can use as a tightrope, while Totec is armed with spears and a shield, both of which Lara can climb onto to help her reach platforms or ledges which are otherwise too high for her. With great level design, impressive graphics, unlockable weapons and upgrades, and a well-implemented co-op system, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an entertaining and lengthy adventure that’s easy to enjoy whether you’re a Tomb Raider fan or not.

The combat is strengthened further by the game’s focus on co-op play, as Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a co-op game at its core, having been intended to be played this way. Although the single-player mode is functional, an AI partner simply cannot match up to having a human player fighting alongside you, especially when the game gives you the ability to coordinate spells and attacks as a team, enhancing the co-op experience and the combat itself. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge isn’t perfect and won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but as a combat-focused co-op experience it works very well, thrusting you and a friend into a dark fantasy world and forcing you to really fight and struggle and cooperate to survive and overcome the odds. Don’t let the negative reviews put you off – if the game piques your interest as a co-op experience then give it a shot.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Flight? Superstrength? The power to teleport ducks? Well, you’re spoilt for choice in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (apart from the duck thing), as the game allows you to choose from a wide range of Marvel Universe superheroes, putting all of their respective powers at your fingertips, ready to be unleashed upon faceless goons and well-known supervillains alike. You can control fire as the Human Torch, slash enemies with Wolverine’s adamantium claws, sling your shield as Captain America, or webswing as Spider-Man. The game sees you (and up to three other co-op players) choosing a team of four superheroes with which to tackle each level, and you can choose between team members on the fly as you play, making it easy and convenient to mix up combat styles and try out new characters. Your roster of selectable characters is also continually expanding, and there is enough variety in how different characters play that you and your co-op partner (or partners) should never find yourselves arguing over who gets to play as who. Besides, you can swap between team members whenever you want.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light At first glance, it would be easy to write off Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light as a cheap spin-off which strays too far from the classic Tomb Raider formula: it doesn’t have ‘Tomb Raider’ in the title for a start, there is very little in the way of story, its focus is on co-op gameplay, and the game features a fixed isometric camera. However, writing off this game would be doing it a huge disservice, as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is actually an impressive adventure and a more than worthy entry

A new feature introduced in this sequel is the ‘fusion’ power, which is a particularly fun feature when it comes to co-op play, as the fusion in question is the ‘fusing together’ of the powers of two separate heroes to create a very powerful combined attack. For example, you might use Spider-Man to snare Wolverine with a web and swing him around and into enemies, or use Captain America to reflect Storm’s lightning bolts off his shield. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a significant improvement over the lacklustre first game and provides the player with a fantastic superhero experience, particularly in co-op mode. Simply put, if you and your co-op partner are fans of both Marvel (or superheroes in general) and action/adventure games then this game is ideal.

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Trine / Trine 2 With many modern video games taking themselves far too seriously in the pursuit of being ‘gritty’, ‘dark’, ‘edgy’, or any other shallow buzzword, games like Trine and sequel Trine 2 are a breath of fresh air, displaying a quality which many mainstream games lack: charm. The two games involve the adventures of a professional thief, an aleloving knight, and an inept wizard, unlikely allies bonded together and forced into saving their kingdom from evil. These three central characters are likeable and well-written in both games, and this characterisation helps keep you interested in the plots, which are admittedly fairly basic. Further charm is added to the two games by the presence of a narrator who tells of the heroes’ adventures between levels as if reading from a fairytale storybook. But arguably what will really capture your attention about Trine and Trine 2 are the graphics, which are simply stunning. The fantasy world through which the protagonists move is brought to life with an amazing level of detail, creating visuals which are colourful, lush, and beautiful: crystals sparkle in deep caves, forests are filled with vibrant foliage, flames illuminate darkened dungeons, waterfalls create hazy rainbows... the list goes on. In terms of gameplay, the games allow players to switch between the thief, knight, and wizard at any time and use their respective skills to advance through the levels: the wizard can create platforms and levitate items, the knight is armed with a sword and shield for combat, and the thief can traverse wide gaps with her grappling hook. Players will have to use the abilities of all three characters to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and make their way through the well-designed and often trap-filled levels. Co-op play allows two to three players to combine the three heroes’ skills in a number of fun and on-the-fly ways, especially when it comes to the wizard, whose ability to create platforms and levitate items (and enemies) can be very useful – and amusing – in various situations. There are also character upgrades to be unlocked and items to be found by thoroughly searching the nooks and crannies of the levels – something you won’t mind doing given how fantastic the levels look and how much fun they are to explore.

Honourable Mentions: Borderlands / Borderlands 2 – Gearbox Software’s main aim with the Borderlands games may seem to be to find out how much gun-based loot the developer can cram into a game before the disc melts, but there’s more to these first-person shooters than that. One excellent feature present in both games is a split-screen two-player co-op mode which allows two players to make their way through the entire game together. Needless to say, there are plenty of guns to go around. F.E.A.R. 3 – Like the two Borderlands games, F.E.A.R. 3 (the third entry in the F.E.A.R. series, in case you couldn’t tell) is a first-person shooter that allows two players to play through the entire game in split-screen co-op. Although it does contain guns, F.E.A.R. 3 also features a more supernatural angle which sees one player use guns as their main weapon while the second player has access to powers such as telekinesis and human possession. Final Fight: Double Impact / Golden Axe / Streets of Rage – Final Fight: Double Impact, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage are all available as downloads on the PlayStation Store, and each game is a classic sidescrolling multiplayer beat-’em-up featuring gameplay which has stood the test of time amazingly well. The main draw of playing a game with someone else is the fun factor, right? Well, these retro classics provide that in spades whilst remaining important titles in the general history of video games. House of The Dead 3 / House of The Dead 4 / House of The Dead: Overkill – Sometimes you just want to shoot zombies and assorted monsters in the face, and the House of The Dead games have been scratching that itch for gamers for a number of years now. Although the games may be short in length (and spectacularly awful in terms of writing and voice acting), ultimately they deliver what you expect, and you can’t fault them for that. To get the most out of the PS3 versions, just make sure both players have a Move controller, as using a DualShock to play a lightgun-based game just isn’t the same. Lego Batman / Lego Harry Potter / Lego Indiana Jones / Lego Star Wars / Lego The Exorcist (okay, so I made up that one), etc. – The licensed LEGO video games have been entertaining gamers of all ages for several years now with their bold and colourful graphics, humorous but affectionate takes on their respective source material, and their easy accessibility. A perfect example of the latter is the drop-in/drop-out co-op mode present in these games, allowing two players to team up and take on Stormtroopers or Gotham City’s worst villains or whatever other LEGO enemies they desire. Renegade Ops – Gamers old enough to remember the Strike series of games – Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, and Urban Strike on 16-bit consoles, Soviet Strike and Nuclear Strike on later-generation consoles – should check out Avalanche Studios’ Renegade Ops, as this digital title features a free-roaming style of vehicle-based combat very reminiscent of the Strike games. One advantage Renegade Ops has over those games, however, is the inclusion of a split-screen co-op mode. Alongside the constant action, the game also allows both players to upgrade their vehicles, adding some depth.

Trine and Trine 2 are games that deserve to be exposed to and played by more people, so teaming up with another player (or two) to experience the games together is a no-brainer. The puzzles are interesting and occasionally challenging (but never frustrating), the graphics are amazing, co-op play offers plenty of fun moments, and both games are infused with a magical and captivating fairytale charm.

Shank – Shank’s side-scrolling beat-’em-up gameplay may be straightforward, offering little in the way of variation throughout the game, but its bold art style and enjoyable (and bloody) combat make it an action game worth playing. The game’s story of revenge is bolstered by a separate two-player co-op campaign which acts as a prequel to the single-player game and sees one player controlling Shank while the second player controls his partner Falcone, with players being able to combine attacks to perform special moves.

OPC MODERATOR ‘SERUM_LAKE’ HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO INTERVIEW BRYCE YANG ABOUT THE LATEST WWE GAME. HERE’S WHAT HE HAD TO SAY...

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WWE Q&A WITH BRYCE YANG

WWE 13

SENIOR GLOBAL BRAND MANAGER WWE GAMES, THQ

Q. AS THE WWE SERIES COMES OUT EVERY YEAR THERE MUST BE SOME REALLY TIGHT DEADLINES. WHAT SACRIFICES HAVE TO BE MADE IN ORDER TO GET A NEW GAME OUT EVERY YEAR? Our development team puts out a game every single year. We always wish we could put more in and keep things as updated as we possibly can, but every year there’re things that, unfortunately, we have to cut. However we do get to add them into the following year’s product. There’s some stuff that you’ll see this year that had been in development for more than just the past year. THIS YEAR THE ROSTER INCLUDES LEGENDARY WRESTLERS SUCH AS STEVE AUSTIN AND THE ROCK. ARE THERE ANY WRESTLERS FROM THE PAST THAT YOU REALLY WANTED TO INCLUDE BUT COULDN’T? Oh yeah, if you look at the history of WWE there’s so many Superstars and Legends that we’d love to include but we didn’t get to this year. The same thing happened last year, and some guys that we featured last year aren’t in it this year. However, if you look to future products I think you’ll see a lot of those guys turning up. THE WWE WORLD CHANGES PRETTY QUICKLY, SOMETIMES THE ENTIRE ROSTER CAN CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF A WEEK DUE TO INJURIES, SUSPENSIONS, FIRINGS, ETC. HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT THE ROSTER DOESN’T FEEL OUT OF DATE? It’s something that we work with every year, but we aspire to make the roster as up to date as possible. For example, last year Sin Cara debuted the night after Wrestlemania (in April) and we rushed to get him in just so fans could play as him. This year you’ll see some new faces; we recently announced some DLC, which includes Ryback, a guy that we are able to add in after the fact because we knew that fans would want him as he is likely to be a significant player in the WWE. HOW MUCH INPUT DO THE WWE WRITERS HAVE IN THE GAME’S STORYLINE? The storylines are a partnership with WWE. Guys on our development team, the producers, will come up with concepts and then work with WWE to bring them to completion. WWE ultimately has creative control over what we release to the public, but it’s a very collaborative process, and ultimately, most of the things that we would like to put out there get through.

WHAT’S IT LIKE WORKING WITH THE WRESTLERS? IT’S WELL DOCU MENTED THAT THEY HAVE BUSY SCHEDULES, IS IT HARD TO GET THEM TO SIT DOWN AND RECORD THEIR LINES? The process that we go through to get new content for the game every year is very long. We have someone that’s on the road with WWE a lot of the year, and he’ll attend the shows – Raw and Smackdown - and he’ll grab the talent, Superstars, Divas, whoever we need, and he will take pictures of them so that we can model the characters uniquely every year. Every one of those characters is redone every single year. So photos are taken each year, V/O (voice over) for the storylines in the game are done in booth near the arena, we grab the talent, take them, record the lines, and then take them back to the show. Commentary – there’re thousands and thousands of lines in the game requires a lot of sessions with Michael Cole, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. WWE ’13 SEES THE RETURN OF THE I QUIT MATCH. ARE THERE ANY OTHER MORE OBSCURE MATCH TYPES THAT YOU’D CONSIDER BRINGING TO THE NEXT GAME, SUCH AS THE TEXAS BULL ROPE OR BIKER CHAIN MATCHES? Well, we’re always looking to our community for feedback. In the past this was done through forums, but now the quickest way that we get feedback from fans is through social media - Twitter and Facebook – our fans are constantly telling us what they want. So the two modes that people really wanted were I Quit, Special Referee and the King of the Ring tournament, and those have all been brought back. In future years, if people wanted more obscure match types, if there’s enough demand from our consumers then we’d definitely consider it.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT CREATING A BRAND NEW ORIGINAL MATCH TYPE FOR THE GAMES? In the game there’s actually a feature called Match Creator which allows you to completely customise the matches that you’re having. So you can adjust the stipulations, whether it’s disqualifications, rope breaks, whatever it is, allowing you to basically create your own match. There are hundreds of different combinations that you can make from the match creator.

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Q&A WITH BRYCE YANG - WWE 13 WE HAVE A FANTASY SCENARIO FOR YOU: YOU HAVE BEEN DRAFTED AS A WWE WRESTLER AND YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT YOU CAN FORM A TAG TEAM WITH ANY WRESTLER ON THE ROSTER. WHO DO YOU PICK? I think that these days you can’t deny the ability of CM Punk, right? He’s just a great wrestler and a great character – also he’s our cover Superstar this year – so it’s hard to top CM Punk. Obviously the Undertaker is unmatched when it comes to character in WWE, so those are two solid options. My personal favourite would be Brock Lesnar. He’s currently unstoppable in the WWE. AND IF YOU COULD PICK FROM ANY WWE SUPERSTAR FROM THE PAST? My favourite wrestler throughout all of the 20 – 25 years of being a fan is Shawn Michaels. As an in-ring competitor he is just unmatched. SO WHAT DOES THE TEAM DO ONCE THE GAME IS COMPLETE? DO YOU GET ANY TIME OFF OR IS IT STRAIGHT BACK TO WORK ON THE NEXT WWE GAME? The development team have to collaboratively put out a game every year, so before WWE ’13 is even on the shelf we’re already working on ’14. From a business side of things we’re always working with WWE throughout the year to develop next year’s projects and look at new getting products in to development. FINALLY, WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE HOW DO YOU UNWIND? ARE THERE ANY OTHER GAMES THAT YOU PLAY THAT AREN’T WWE RELATED? Well, my free time these days… I don’t have much free time to be honest. I’m a big exercise guy, so that’s a big part of my daily life. But, even though I work on the project I still enjoy the game itself. For me, when the game hits the shelf, it’s actually something that my friends and I grew up with, playing the WWE games together, so we’ll pop it in and play against each other, just like we used to. So I still enjoy the WWE games a lot.

AS WE NOW ENTER 2013, WHAT ARE YOUR GAMING RESOLUTIONS? AND WILL YOU STICK TO THEM!

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WHAT ARE YOUR GAMING

RESOLUTIONS? SERUM_LAKE ASKED THE OPC FORUM

NIKCOX “I am going to start completing games I start. And get my first platinum. Had a ps3 since launch and still not got a platinum. Lol. That’s bad. Considering I used to do games to death in the eighties I have been very lax lately. I suppose that’s what a mortgage and three kids does for ya tho.” YASTER “For me, getting Platinums was last years resolution and I managed to get a couple. Sure I’d like to get a couple more this year, I’d also like to prestige at least 2 more times in Black ops 2, shouldn’t be too hard. I also want to play online with my buddies a lot more than I did last year so that’s something to work towards.” EW_TUX “Play xcom enemy unknown, lots of it !” TALLLPAUL “Complete every PS+ game I get !” BCFC545 “Mine is to start the games I have on PSN still unused as I know they are brilliant but I want to able to sit down and play them in one sitting to enjoy the full experinece of each of them - Journey, Unfinished Swan & Walking Dead.” SBI-7 “To actually start those 12 games I bought and to stop buying any old rubbish that comes out.” LACLENNELL “Reach Rank SR 130 (Specialzation Master) on Halo 4 (tho that might be done before the 31st). Actually have motivation to finish off and plat my games (I’m looking at you Ghost Recon Future Soldier). Start games I haven’t started yet (Castlevania LoS has been sitting on my shelf for 2 years). Oh and more Platinum trophies and full 1000G’s!” MOLTENARMOUR “Finishing my huge back log before I buy any more games. well I might pick up a few must haves but other than that no more games till the great back log of 2012 is clear. Maybe one or two games, twist my arm why dont ya....”

AAAAAAAARRGH “Finish Mass Effect 2 and Siren Blood Curse. I’ve had both for over a year and still ain’t finished. Clear backlog. Also gonna aim to double my plat tally.” ILICITE “I too have to finish a lot of games. But well that is not the most important. I don’t think i will have much more time than this year to play ps3. So my resolution would be to stop buying so much games xD. BABAORILEY3 “Finish a few games, at least 1 prestige on each CoD I own (could be fun) and clear out some of the PS2 games, I just need to let them go.” STRANGEPLAICE “I plan to run around barking in my Amaterasu hoodie and scaring elderly people! I intend on actually completing Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, as well as keeping on at All Stars Battle Royale and nabbing everything in it before I’m overwhelmed by DLC!” REIDZER-1314 “Hmm I think mine would be to play more PS3 than I have in 2012.” CIMBRER “I’ve built up a backlog during the past year or two. No doubt that deserves some attention.” STME “Try play online a bit more. Becoming very unsocial again.” COMRADE-BOZZEY “Hmm just finish game really. though I have set myself a task of doing the entire AC series by end of the year. Started with AC 1 today plan to go threw every 1 right up to AC III by end of this year with all DLC done too. That and just run threw my collection I have a backlog and I want to push threw them as much as possible while doing the AC games. Also to be a little bit more of a social player. I tend to shy away from online gaming due to the fact I find single player games alot more engaging story and gameplay wise. Deus Ex HR being a prime example to say umm .. COD haha.

DEVASTATOR9 “Wow... easy one for me!! Finish these games that i bought and started but as yet have not finished: Batman Arkham City, Kingdoms of Armular, Sleeping dogs & The Saboteur. Also to make sure i keep working on Farcry 3 (do not want that game to be in the above list next year!!), and get round to doing the campaign on Black Ops 2! As for new stuff.... buy GTA 5 and make up my mind between buying a Nintendo wwi u or a gaming pc!”

LIVFOOTY “Fix my PS3! so i can at least play downloaded games or open the PS Store.”

SK_ONLINE “Really want to finish Red Dead Redemption (which ive had since release) and Infamous which I got through Sony’s ‘We’re Sorry’ programme. Im just getting lazy now.”

KUSHMONKEY “To play the games i’ve bought but haven’t played yet. Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, Res Evil 6 & Borderlands 2 to name a few.”

H0P5 “I absolutely need to clear out my backlog. I’m sort of hoping PS4 comes out.. I might not buy one initially and work through some of my incompletes.”

CASSIOPAEA AND BIOS_FAN WERE RECENTLY GRANTED THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND A MEDIA EVENT TO TRY OUT THE UPCOMING PS3 SHOOTER ‘DEFIANCE’.

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ROBERT HILL Q&A

DEFIANCE

ROBERT HILL, SENIOR PRODUCER ON DEFIANCE

As mentioned previously in other places on the OPC forum, we were recently granted the opportunity to attend a media event to try out the upcoming PS3 Shooter Defiance. While there Cassiopaea and Bios_ Fan had the chance to sit down and speak to Robert Hill, Defiance’s Senior Producer.

COMMUNITY TEAM: HI ROBERT. THANK YOU FOR GIVING PLAYSTATION COMMUNITY AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ON THIS PROJECT You are most welcome. CT: ALSO, THIS IS A FANTASTIC VENUE. WE GUESS YOU AND YOUR TEAM DID NOT SLEEP A WINK FOR THE PAST DAYS Yes, it is being pretty hectic. We have been working around the clock to polish the Event. CT: AS YOU KNOW, PLAYSTATION COMMUNITY IS REALLY KEEN TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT. SO, HERE IS A FEW QUESTIONS FROM OUR DEDICATED FANS. ARE YOU STILL ON SCHEDULE WITH THE RELEASE DATE? Yes. CT: BRILLIANT. HOW ABOUT THE SERIES ‘DEFIANCE’ ITSELF? I know that the series has already finished shooting. We finished shooting last month, so now we are in post-production, editing special effects, colour crashing, so, yes, we are on time. We were not sure about the series, but they have managed to made it. *smiles proudly* CT: WE HAD A CHANCE TO TRY OUT THE GAME BEFORE THE INTERVIEW. YOU DEFINITELY PREPARED WELL. THE GAME IS REALLY STABLE, AND THE SERVERS WORK BRILLIANTLY (MINOR BUGS ONLY) As you can see we have these 32 stations combined together (Robert is looking around the hall with 32 platforms across the room) and they

are all playing in the same world, on the same server. As you can imagine, the primary focus of this project for us is a Cooperative Environment, so, I do not know if you had a chance for closer look, but people were naturally helping each other while they were in the game, and, in a cooperative cross-battle, if you looked at the radar, you could see purple dots all of the place. In this particular map we had about 40 - 45 players (The QA Team from USA has also managed to join us despite huge time difference) fighting all together, this is pure reinforcement of the social experience. When most of the shooters are portraying one team against the other, and we just think about killing each other. So, we really wanted to bring social experience within it, which a lot of people do not have, particularly on the scale we are implementing.

CT: THANK YOU. IT DOES REALLY DESCRIBE UNITY. ON THIS NOTE, HOW STABLE IS THE MULTIPLAYER? PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT THE GAME The game entirely server based. If the server goes down, so does the game. And this is what we would like to implement for this game. So there will be no cheating during the sessions. We can customarily check, if the person cheats. There will be a constant server check for all maps played with 100 people or more. CT: SO, DOES IT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE A SEPARATE REPORTING STRUCTURE FOR BUGS? Yes, we do have a reporting structure for bugs, for the feedback and, of course, for any kind of online abuse or cheating. We make sure it is all available in the game, specifically, if they see something, and it is in their head, and they would like to report it, so they can do it in the game. Also, with the bug reporting what does it allow us to do, is to automatically collect the data: what kind of weapon is used, did they just throw a grenade, is something or someone shooting at them? So we can automatically drag this into the system for the future development.

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Q&A WITH ROBERT HILL CT: OUR GERMAN AND PORTUGUESE COMMUNITIES ARE INTERESTED TO FIND OUT HOW MANY USERS YOU CAN HAVE ON ONE MAP? Technically, we can have thousands and thousands, but we really want to make sure that the Community can have some fun, so, we are still working on that exact number for one single world, but we expecting about a 1000, but not higher, so users can still have some fun. To us it is important, you see? CT: OUR GERMAN AND PORTUGUESE COMMUNITIES ARE INTERESTED TO FIND OUT HOW MANY USERS YOU CAN HAVE ON ONE MAP? Technically, we can have thousands and thousands, but we really want to make sure that the Community can have some fun, so, we are still working on that exact number for one single world, but we expecting about a 1000, but not higher, so users can still have some fun. To us it is important, you see?

CT: HERE IS MORE SPECIFIC QUESTION FROM OUR SPANISH COMMUNITY WHO WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE AN OPEN BETA 2013? This is actually a marketing question. *Robert laughs out loud*. At the moment I can only say that at some point before the release of the game we are thinking to open a beta for marketing reasons.

CT: WHEN WILL YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THAT QUESTION? The beginning on the next year. It has to be before April 2013, though. CT: ROBERT, PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT THE EQUIPMENT IN THE GAME, IF YOU CAN. FOR EXAMPLE, ENGLISH COMMUNITY IS REALLY KEEN TO KNOW IF THERE ARE MORE THAN 3 VEHICLES IN THE GAME? There are more vehicles in the game; we just have not announced them yet. Mainly, you would be able to personalise them. Basically, what we found out is that we built a few vehicles as probs, and we thought: ‘Yes, they really can be transferred to the real once’. CT: SO, BASICALLY, YOU CAN SHOW OFF THE STUFF YOU HAVE? Absolutely, this is what it’s all about. CT: UH, THERE IS ANOTHER QUITE INTERESTING QUESTION FROM THE IMMATURE AUDITORY. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS PVP, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM? Yes, of course. We call it competitive multiplayer, and this is the terminology we use. So, we use it with the shooter crowd, and they understand exactly what we mean. But, it is essentially, one team vs. the other one fighting over objectives. Right now I am talking about the very heavy competitive multiplayer. At the moment we have 2 Teams. But, it is all optional, of course. This is why we created specific maps where you can actually choose, where you would like to be shot at, or not. You need to say: ‘Yes, I would like to be a part of it’. And then the choice is all yours! *Robert is really open about the objectives of the game* CT: THERE IS ALSO ONE QUESTION FROM THE RUSSIAN COMMUNITY: CAN YOU PLEASE TELL AT LEAST 3 MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRYSIS 2 AND THE DEFIANCE? I MUST SAY, IT INTERESTS THEM A LOT 1) We are cooperative game. I believe the only multiplayer in Crysis 2 is a competitive mode. 2) We are on a mass scale. 3) Importance of customising.

CT: WHAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC IS IF WE COULD ARRANGE A GAME MATCH WITH THE DEVELOPERS DURING BETA. DO YOU THINK IT IS POSSIBLE? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? *CASSIOPAEA SMILES* Oh, yes. We would love to do it! I think that they would probably kill us all, but still better to try out all the servers. *laughs* CT: IS IN WHAT THE COMMUNITY REALLY LIKES? I know - killing the developers is always fun. *Robert laughs again* And now, on the serious side, I have already talked about the open competitive world, even after the launch, to have sessions with the developers. CT: DO NOT FORGET THAT IT WILL BE EUROPEAN I am already looking forward to it! Imagine the group of 50 people fighting? It will be fantastic! CT: ON THIS NOTE, DO YOU KNOW IF SYFY SERIES WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ALL THE CHANNELS ACROSS EUROPE? YES, IT WAS A QUESTION FROM THE POLISH COMMUNITY We are not sure which locales will be covered to this moment. Syfy is really trying, but they have to negotiate locally. I only know that they are working day and night to make sure it will be available. So, yes, at the moment, I do not have any more information on that.

CT: THANK YOU. AND, FOLLOWING THE PREVIOUS QUESTION, WHAT IS THE MOST FAVOURITE PART OF THE GAME FOR YOU? I am really enjoying the Shadow at the moment. You just have to do the missions there, again, you choice who you play for, and who to kill. It’s us vs. them, plus the Environment. There are a lot of decisions to be made. That turned out to be a lot of fun. We did not know that having this creature environment would be so enjoyable. It changed humble opinion on the competitive side.

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Q&A WITH ROBERT HILL CT: IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD? My favourite part is still cooperative, you need to remember that I have been playing 2.5 years in this mode, and when we are moving into the Alfa, I can see that more people entering this world, and I am really enjoying meeting them, adding them to the list of my Friends and interact with them. CT: INDEED. WE CAN SEE HOW OPEN YOUR TEAM IS TOWARDS COMMUNITY AND IT IS A REALLY POSITIVE SPIN FOR US. AND HOW ABOUT SUPPORTING LANGUAGES? At the moment we are supporting English, French and German. For the rest, this is only the matter of time. CT: AREN’T YOU AFRAID THAT THE TITLE WILL END UP LIKE M.A.G.? No, not at all. M.A.G. offered you only the competitive side (one side plays with the other, fighting each other), and we offer you Coop.

CT: THANK YOU. LET’S HOPE THAT THIS GAME BRINGS BEST OUT OF ALL FANS, AND THEY CAN ENJOY IT TO THE FULL. TO ADD, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT THE TEAM YOU WORK WITH? As you might know, our Team is very skilled. A lot of us worked on the different project before, for example: Call of Duty, Read Dead Redemption, M.A.G., World of Warcraft; so we have all this Massive Online Site and a lot of people from the Shooter Site. Again, no one has done it before. So, we always asked ourselves questions: How do you build the space? Where you build it for one person to go through, and then suddenly, 20 shows up? And when what next? So, the experience of our Team has really helped out. CT: SO, THE IDEA ABOUT THE SHOW CAME FROM THE BEGINNING? No, the idea on the game and a show was there before we even started working on the game itself. So, this is one of the most important things about the cross over to the show. We went to speak to Syfy, and they told us straight away: “We do not know anything about the games”, *Robert laughs so, we replied: “And we do not know anything about the series either”, *Chiara joins us, so we managed to get the most important key points of what you need for the game show and what you need for the interaction with both. Let’s build the Universe together! We had to sacrifice a few things for the game and the show. It was important to us, specifically, because it was never done before.

CT: LOOKING BACK AT WHERE YOU WERE WHEN YOU STARTED THIS JOURNEY, WHERE DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO LEAD YOU? It was a lot of fun, as well as I am really looking forward to the future. We are really excited! Learning curve for us.

CT: THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. *CT IS STILL DAZZLED BY THE WAY THE PRODUCERS AND DEVELOPERS INTERACT OPENLY WITH THE COMMUNITY* Yes, it was a lot of fun for us too.

CONCEPT ART:

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DERRICK THE DEATHFIN

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REVIEWER: englishgolfer PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 10 October 2012

ENGLISHGOLFER GOES FOR A DIP WITH DERRICK... In the day and age when first-person shooters and huge 3D sandbox worlds are the norm, it’s nice to see a game company, in this case indie developer Different Tuna, tipping its hat to the classic old school 2D side-scrolling genre. The first thing you’ll notice about Derrick the Deathfin (apart from the humorous quotes on the loading screens) is the papercraft style of graphics. Everything looks like it has been cut out of paper, folded meticulously and then dropped into a vibrant underwater environment. The game is bright, colourful and delightful from the start. What’s more amazing is this game was developed by only two people. My eleven year old niece, whom I invited to help me play, asked straight away if this game was made by the same people who made LittleBigPlanet. I suppose that is a huge compliment, being compared to one of the best games produced this generation.

Controlling Derrick couldn’t be easier, my niece picked up the controls within seconds. The left analog stick is used to manoeuvre Derrick around the level, R2 to make him swim faster, X to eat and circle to lunge-attack. I found that I didn’t need to use X at all as the lungeattack was more than useful for eating. The game idea is very simple – swim from one side of the level to the other – but not so easy in accomplishing. You see Derrick is a hungry shark, orphaned when his parents were turned into fin soup by the nasty company called ‘M.E.A.N.’. Like any young individual Derrick needs to eat, and eat a lot. Your life is measured on the health bar at the top of the screen and it decreases at an alarming rate. By eating all sorts of ocean life you keep topping up your health. Strangely you can also eat broccoli which restores your health 100%. Perhaps this was a knowing nod to parents out there, allowing them to use Derrick as a perfect example around the dinner table: ‘Now then Johnny, eat your greens so you can be big and strong like the great white, Derrick’.

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The challenge of the game then is to balance trying to jump through flaming tyres like Flipper the dolphin, collecting pink diamonds and finding food spread out in the ocean that will give you enough health to get you to the finish line alive. You need to jump through tyres and collect diamonds to be able to unlock further continents and their levels so you can’t just make a mad dash to the finish line. There is a total of 32 levels in the game, spread over 4 continents, with some being simple puzzle levels, others being tricky time-trials. Throw in the odd boss to defeat and you have a fun PSN game that the whole family will enjoy.

There are a few niggling issues with the game. Trying to time your swim to jump through a tyre can be a very precise issue, and with your health bar rapidly depleting you might only get a few goes at doing it before ending belly up. My niece and I also found the levels with crocodiles a little frustrating as Derrick could get himself stuck on top of or in between crocodiles. Luckily Derrick’s health disappears quickly, allowing us to re-start the level again. Finally, though not an issue, the game plays at a frantic pace meaning that it is easy to miss the wonderful graphics that the developers created. I found myself more than once swimming at a life-threatening slower pace just to take in the vivacious details on the screen.

Derrick the Deathfin is delightfully different with its papercraft graphics, and yet refreshingly familiar with its 2D side-scrolling set-up. Indie developers Different Tuna have produced a wonderful game that can be found on the PSN store for £5.49/€6.99. A great game that should be snapped up by all hungry gaming sharks out there.

EXPLORE THE HAUNTING WORLD OF DATURA AND EMBARK ON A VOYAGE OF MYSTERY.

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DATURA

REVIEW REVIEWER: Alex De-Gruchy PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 9 May 2012

IN DATURA, YOU CAN EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED Not many games give you the opportunity to throw potatoes at a lazy pig, I’ll give it that. Datura is a digital game available on the PlayStation Store and comes from developer Plastic Studios, who have already proven that their interests lay outside the mainstream with their ‘interactive art demo’ Linger In Shadows. Their PSN follow-up Datura is more of a fullyfledged game while at the same time being another experimental and quite original project.

mess around with a length of string hanging from a banner, watching how the string moved between individual fingers and how the movements of the hand affected it. A large part of the driving force behind motion controls in video games is added immersion for the player, and Datura delivers on that front on more than one occasion.

Datura is playable with a Move controller or a standard DualShock, although the Move is certainly the intended control method, with the game’s interface being built around it. Using the DualShock feels awkward and imprecise compared to the Move, which fares much better. You experience the whole of Datura in first-person, with your controller of choice allowing your unseen character to walk, run, turn, and look around. A disembodied hand – your hand – floats before you, and you move this hand around the screen and use it to interact with on-screen objects. Although it looks a little strange being totally disembodied, the actual physics of the hand and the methods in which you can manipulate it are quite impressive. Controlled either with the Move or the DualShock’s right stick, the hand features full three-dimensional movement, allowing you to not only move it around the screen but also closer to you or further away, giving you more depth of interaction.

As for what the game is actually about, there is precious little here in terms of narrative. The game’s title comes from the plant of the same name, which is known for its toxic and hallucinogenic properties and which has long been associated with being used to cause delirium and death. These concepts of hallucinations and delirium were clearly major inspirations for the developer, as an ethereal feeling of strangeness and unreality permeates the whole game. The game begins in the back of an ambulance, where you are being treated by a paramedic. As you struggle to rise, your heart stops and the paramedic zaps you with a defibrillator. After losing consciousness – and being presented with a fitting quote from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, the epic poem concerning a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven – you wake up in a wooded area, with your overall goal being to explore and perhaps find a way out.

The fingers of the hand regularly clench and unclench in a casual manner, and you can rotate the hand as well as use it to interact with a variety of objects. During the course of the game, some of the actions you’ll perform include picking locks, pulling an embedded pen out of a tree, shooting a pellet gun, sawing through handcuffs, pouring liquid from a jar, and the previously mentioned throwing potatoes at a pig. At one point, I stopped and spent a few minutes just using the hand to

Your character has no name or voice, and neither do the handful of other people you briefly interact with during the course of the game. As you explore you’ll unlock new areas and solve some light puzzles, and occasionally you’re forced into situations where you have to make a moral choice. For example, at one point you’ll be on a battlefield and will be presented with the choice of either manning a mounted machine gun or rescuing an injured soldier. The choices you make during these situations are recorded by the game and have a subtle but noticeable effect on the ending. The trouble is, it’s not always made clear that you’re in one of these situations, or what choice – good or bad – you’re actually making at the time. Late in the game, I saw that I had made several negative choices without even realising it.

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Plot and meaning remain vague throughout the game, but while a clear and coherent plot is certainly not always a requirement for a game to be enjoyed, the disjointedness present in Datura stops you from becoming invested to any significant degree and makes the game feel more like a series of unconnected vignettes: you chase a pig (again with that damn pig...) into a hollow log only to be suddenly in control of a moving car; you walk into a stall in the woods only to find yourself in the back of a police van, chained to a cop; you jump into a hole in the ground and suddenly you’re chasing a child around an indoor swimming pool. As a result, Datura often feels more like a tech demo than an actual game, giving you the impression that the developers were more concerned with showing off what they had achieved in terms of motion controls than delivering an effective overall package. Although Datura may not deliver in terms of story, it does at least present an often haunting and impressive atmosphere. You spend most of your time in the woods, and this area has been brought to life with a nice amount of detail – the ground is blanketed with leaves, butterflies flutter through the air, and distant scenery is shrouded in mist. The music and sound design also help in this regard, as the varied soundtrack is alternately soothing, slightly sinister, and rousing, depending on the scene, and as you progress through the woods you occasionally hear whispered voices, adding to the atmosphere.

On the whole, Datura is an interesting experiment that does some innovative and impressive things in regards to motion controls, which is a positive since such controls often fail to live up to their potential when implemented in video games. Although the length of the game is quite brief – you could probably breeze through a second playthrough within an hour – this does at least mean that its slow pace, disjointed structure and lack of narrative don’t outstay their welcome. Datura is harder to recommend if you intend to play it using only DualShock controls, as this method is definitely inferior to using the Move. Either way, it’s a game that won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s also one that deserves credit for showing innovation and is worth a look if you have even a vague interest in games which fall outside of the mainstream. Just get ready to hone your potato-throwing skills – that lazy pig isn’t going to move itself. Score: 6/10

On the downside, however, despite some impressive and interesting moments and locations, some of the imagery in the game simply isn’t surreal or captivating enough to really hold your attention, which is a problem when what little plot there is doesn’t do that job either. Since the developers obviously intended to experiment anyway in terms of what scenes the game threw at you, it seems a shame that they didn’t let their imaginations run a little wilder.

Also, although you have the ability to run (at least for brief periods), the pace can often feel plodding as you slowly wander around the environments. Although the game is certainly not meant to be rushed through, at times you still wish you could just get around a little quicker. The controls themselves also feel sluggish on occasion, and sometimes you’re not sure whether or not you’re still in control of your on-screen hand as the game runs through a seemingly pre-programmed sequence, leading to confusion and disrupting the otherwise smooth control of the hand.

CAPTAINCORTEZ GIVES US HIS THOUGHTS ON THE DMC: DEVIL MAY CRY DEMO

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DMC: DEVIL MAY CRY

PREVIEW REVIEWER: CaptainCortez

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 RELEASE DATE: 15 January 2013

DMC: DEVIL MAY CRY IS OUT NOW With the release of the demo gamers around the globe have finally been able to get a hands-on with the preview of the latest edition to the Devil May Cry series. After having countless goes on the admittedly enjoyable demo, DmC appears to be a very fun, pleasing and addictive game. The art style is flashy and striking to the eye, the scenery varies from gothic to urban street art. Dante feels a lot like the old Dante with how he moves and handles, and the game itself feels like a true Devil May Cry game. However, there are still some issues that will bother fans of the previous titles, and with DmC releasing the 15th January, this doesn’t bode well. So, what’s changed? Well, the lock-on function of previous titles has been removed, in favour of a ‘Soft-Lock’. This new targeting system tries to balance two very different play styles, one of which is focusing on single, individual opponents, while the other is more for your typical hack-and-slash adventure, where you take on hordes of enemies at once. The lockon mechanism of the Soft-Lock itself is relatively intelligent. This is because it seems, for the most part, to know which creature you’re holding a personal grudge against. But without a ‘Hard-Lock’, it can often be a challenge targeting a flying creature in amongst a swarm of grounded enemies. This is mainly apparent when all opponents are in front of you. The problem is, you can’t remain untouchable with perfect timing due to your inability to single out and interrupt a specific opponent’s attack, because the Soft-Lock just doesn’t quite hold up against the opposition, unlike in previous instalments.

Due to this, what I’d like to see in the future is a little bit of fan-service from Capcom or Ninja Theory in the form of a free update that would allow you to assign a Hard-Lock to a particular button on the controller. This way, the more advanced players could re-map their button layout to a style that suits them. Once more, we could make use of the targeting system we all loved so much within the previous titles. Moving along to the frame rate issues now, a lot of you will be aware that DmC is running solidly at 30 frames per second, which is only half the frame rate of previous instalments. This is mostly because DmC runs on the Unreal Engine, whereas before, the series ran on Capcom’s own in-house engine (MT Frameworks). So, why the change in engines? It’s simple really. Capcom outsourced Ninja Theory to develop the latest DmC because they wanted a game with a western feel. Unfortunately, Ninja Theory only has experience with the Unreal Engine. Due to the amount of time it would have taken for the small Cambridge Studio to fully learn and understand the workings of MT Frameworks, Capcom decided that it would be better financially to allow Ninja Theory to use the engine which they’re most familiar with. Of course, Capcom still had to look after their IP, with regular visits to the offices of Ninja Theory, where they would relentlessly work alongside the company, to ensure this new DmC remains true to the series with regards to how it feels and responds. Now, I guess you’re wondering exactly how responsive the title is because Unreal is hardly a great choice for fast and precise action and adventure games. What it was originally made for is the Unreal series of games, as it suggests in the name. Still, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City were made on Unreal and although not as responsive as Devil May Cry 4, Rocksteady did a fantastic job in smoothing the game out in regard to where the combat is concerned. How does DmC fare? I’d say it’s pretty good. The in-game animations are very closely synchronised to your input commands on the controller, making jump cancelling an easy enough task to accomplish, along with granting you the ability to dodge an enemy’s attack at the very last second. Standard Devil May Cry stuff then, but what about Dante’s new, dislikeable personality? What about his move set? His animations?

Now, to ensure both new and old fans of the series can get to grips with the controls, Ninja Theory and Capcom decided to include two dodge buttons, simply for the fact it makes dodging a lot easier when switching between Angel and Demon stances. What this now means is that we have two buttons which perform exactly the same function.

Whoa, slow down there a second! This new Dante isn’t too dissimilar from our all time favourite protagonist of DMC3. He may be a bit of a douche now, even an uncompassionate and selfish individual, but this is a fairly realistic take on the series and with a past like his (having his Mother, Eva, killed in front of him and having his Father, Sparda, imprisoned in the smouldering, fiery pits of Hell) it’s bound to leave a mark.

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Also, his hair…. Yes, I’m well aware of this issue, being an absolutely massive fan of the original Devil May Cry, but if you gave him the same length and styled haircut as his DMC3 counterpart, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to say he’s still the same guy… Only darker, slightly more depressed and rougher around the edges. Capcom and Ninja Theory tried to amend this issue by having Dante’s trademarks show themselves in his Devil Trigger form, but it feels a little tacked on and did nobody in the development offices question how, for such a realistic take on the series, Dante can turn his Jacket inside out so fast? I guess not.

The second level is called ‘The Secret Ingredient’, which features a massive slug-type enemy who goes by the name of Poison. She’s the boss of the demo and also the secret ingredient to Limbo’s much loved energy drink, Virility. If you want to get good at DmC, fighting this ugly sack of pus is the way to go. All enemies in DmC can be parried and when you have this mastered, eradicating all demonic life while avoiding all incoming hits becomes the aim of the game and truly looks stylish.

Jokes aside, Dante still runs like he’s underwater. He’s still incredibly stylish and most of his signature moves have been carried over from combat styles of previous instalments. Drive is still there, Sky Star from Trickster is still there (although in a lesser form in the sense that it doesn’t allow you to teleport towards an enemy, but more phase through enemy attacks with the Angel stance). Other combat moves that have survived are Prop Shredder, Million Stab (now renamed to Trillion Stab) and High Time. In homage to the older games, Red Orbs are still here along with Gold Orbs, Vital Stars and Devil Stars. Unlike in previous titles however, when you upgrade moves (not available in the demo, so I’m yet to try this myself) you have to spend your upgrade points which are acquired through combat and completed missions as you progress through the game. Red Orbs are now your currency for items, while upgrade points are what you’ll be using to upgrade all weapons you unlock over the course of the game. What’s new to this though, is that when you upgrade weapons to acquire new moves, you’re not indefinitely stuck with your unlocked abilities because you can take those upgrade points off at any time and re-apply them to different moves freely, at any point you desire. The ranking system is still here and appears somewhat easier to reach the once elusive SSS rank, but you still need to be able to dodge and vary your attacks in order to reach SSS status. As ever, taking a hit knocks you straight back down several ranks, so the idea is to be as stylish as possible whilst taking as little damage as you hopefully can.

My overall impression of DmC right now is good. The title feels like a Devil May Cry game. The style is reminiscent of DMC3 and 4, with backdrops closely resembling themes of Kamiya’s original Devil May Cry and the style, flair and character of our favourite Dante of past, is still hanging in there. DmC is a responsive, fast paced bundle of fun that exhumes a great deal of potential and although not as difficult as DMC1 or 3, still manages to offer a challenge to both casual and hardcore gamers. One thing I would like to point out is that the skipping of cutscenes has a bit of an issue, sometimes allowing you to skip and sometimes not, but hopefully this will be fixed by the time you’re reading this. The finished product of DmC will contain seven different difficulty settings which you can unlock after finishing the play-through once. Each one offers a different experience in the form of stronger, faster and more intelligent enemies, some with Devil Trigger and others with better defensive capabilities. To me this is good because it should give the title some extra replayability and encourage newcomers to enhance their skills enough to take on the challenges of the harder settings. Another plus for the game is this is the first DMC to feature custom soundtrack abilities. DmC: Devil May Cry looks to be a great game and offers enough weapons and move combinations to satisfy the needs of most fans of the action and adventure genre. Plus, depending on how well this sells, who knows what this could mean for the future of Capcom, Ninja Theory and Devil May Cry? It paves the way for a great deal of possibilities, opening new doors for everyone and everything. Would you be happy if Capcom decided to carry on with the original canon while simultaneously creating more games for this new, alternate Devil May Cry, making way for a DMC ‘multiverse’?

In the demo, you have two choices. One is to play one of the game’s early levels, titled ‘Under Watch’. Here, you have a number of different enemies, giving you a taster of what to expect from the final product. On ‘Devil Hunter’ difficulty, creatures can hit hard but don’t pose too much of a threat. Whilst on ‘Son of Sparda’ you get a bigger variation of enemies with higher intelligence and a higher level of aggression, although they’re still not as challenging or intimidating as Devil May Cry 1’s Marionettes and Bloody Puppets.

Let me know in the Official PlayStation Community Magazine feedback thread and if you’re a fan of Devil May Cry, be sure to check out my event thread in the Action & Adventure sub-forum, titled ‘Sparda’s Challenge’, as I’ll be updating the challenges every fortnight! http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Action-AdventureGeneral/CaptainCortez-Presents-Sparda-s-Challenge/mp/17614536#U17614536

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ENGLISHGOLFER PRESENTS...

THE 19TH HOLE It’s time for another round on the 19th hole - a chance to get to know two other forum regulars. This time round I’m delighted to interview RenegadeXtreme and MissSouthampton, to ask them about their gaming history and possibly to see if they have any hidden skeletons in their gaming closets. First up, RenegadeXtreme.

RenegadeXtreme

Q. WHERE DOES YOUR USERNAME COME FROM? I guess it all stems from my surname, Rennie, and that I was a bit of a rebel as a kid. Friends used to call me the Renegade Master. As with most kids I was a little nuts, doing crazy stunts and stuff - a bit ‘Xtreme’. So that, alongside my surname is where I got my name from. I have always been called ‘Ren’ for short. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST POST ON THESE FORUMS, IF YOU CAN REMEMBER? My memory tells me it was a post during the beginnings of Xi, in

PlayStation Home. Everyone was trying to work out what all the mysterious clues meant. But I cheated, and checked my posts. Turns out that was my second post. My first post was PlayStation Home related. But a prediction of what I expected to come in the next update. Q. BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR GAMING HISTORY Eak! This is gonna show my age a bit. My first taste of gaming came in the form of ZX Spectrum +2. Think the first game I ever played on it was Daley Thompson’s Decathlon. That machine and game probably caused a lot of seizures and sore thumbs. I then moved onto the Atari 2600, ‘Jr.’ model. I played Defender a lot, when my mum wasn’t hogging the thing to play Q’Bert. Along came a SEGA Master, Mega Drive 2, Mega CD, Game Gear (my only ever handheld), and a SNES. I played the usual classics on them.

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The original PlayStation came into my possession, and we all fell in love with Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. But I actually liked ‘Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver’ more. It was the real game-changer for me. Of course, I was playing Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, and Gran Turismo. But I left Sony behind and bought a SEGA Dreamcast, which I absolutely loved. I wish I never sold it (along with over 100 games). Shenmue may still be my favourite game of all time. I’ve been screaming for that game to be brought out on PSN. I also loved Omikron on that. A massive open world, great story and awesome soundtrack. Then I got tempted away when the PlayStation 2 came out. I was constantly playing Tomb Raider still, along with the rest. I also remember some good memories of Freedom Fighters and Splinter Cell. Now I’m a proud owner of a PlayStation 3 since release. There are too many good games on to list that I love. I’ll just throw Red Dead Redemption, Gran Turismo 5, Grand Theft Auto 4, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, and Heavy Rain out there. Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE GAME, AND WHY? My favourite game is still probably Shenmue on the Dreamcast. It’s all about the story for me. It also looked amazing at the time and wouldn’t look too out of place now. It was the birth of QTE (Quick Time Event), which you all hate now but I love. The only other game that has ever drawn me in like Shenmue did would have to be Heavy Rain. For a more modern game, Red Dead Redemption stands out as my favourite. Q. WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN ON THESE FORUMS? At the moment, I have been hanging around the PlayStation Home boards, posting here and there. Also I’ve been helping to host the Poker Rangers League. I’ve also been helping out LordRoss in the background, with events on the Racing boards, coming up with ideas for events and stuff. I’ve been taking part in as much of them as I can during Racing Month. Q. AS YOU’RE INVOLVED A LOT ON HOME WHAT ARE THE MAJOR CHANGES YOU’VE SEEN THERE IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS AND WHERE DO YOU THINK HOME WILL BE IN FOUR YEARS TIME? PlayStation Home is constantly evolving. Back in the early days there were only a few public spaces with some games in the Bowling Alley including bowling, of course, pool and some arcade machines. We weren’t sure what to do with it at the time. Then nDreams came along with the ARG known as Xi. It really put Home on the map. It gave everyone a purpose, bringing the community together in ways nobody could imagine. As Home has moved along through the years more technical things have become possible. It’s more targeted towards gaming now. We have our Gaming Districts for different gaming genres. So it’s easy to find like-minded people and start up a conversation, maybe gamelaunch together into a PS3 game (a great feature that is not used so much). I like the direction it’s going. I would just like to see more community involvement though with regards to events and such. Q. IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE FORUMS FOR A DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Hmmmm, tough question. This might be reviewed in any future interview if I ever wanted to be a moderator. So I better be careful what I say. I think I would give the Home forums a bit of a spring clean. Give it a new structure, and shiny background. Try and respond to people’s feedback and help out as much as I can. Get some community events going; I’d basically just listen, and take everything on board. Oh, I would also ask Vissy to not give me a ban button.

PICTURE THIS: YOU, ENVISAGER AND LORDROSS ARE ALL IN A GAME SHOP WANTING TO BUY A COPY OF THE LATEST AAA TITLE ‘GRAND THEFT HAWKY’ BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE COPY LEFT. YOU DECIDE TO FIGHT OVER IT, WHO WINS AND HOW DO THEY WIN? Well for such an awesome game like ‘Grand Theft Hawky’, I would have already pre-ordered it months in advance of course thus defeating the above scenario. But if it came to a fight I would probably call up Derren Brown to put the two of them is some controllable state. Freak them out a bit. Then control them with my Move Controllers, making them fight each other to the death thus making me the winner. FINALLY, I INVITE YOU OUT TO PLAY GOLF WITH ME, NAME A REALLIFE PERSON AND A GAME CHARACTER YOU’D LIKE TO PLAY WITH US AND WHY? I’d bring my closest friend Lucy as she always makes me laugh. Just cracks me up all the time! She would be there for a hug when I lose because I suck at golf. I would also bring Claptrap from Borderlands. We would recreate that musical scene on the golf course from Caddyshack, ‘I’m dancing! I’m dancing!’

I’d love to see you do that! I must say, to the readers, that if you haven’t gotten to know RenegadeXtreme you should. He’s always got a joke to tell and will have us in stitches on our Wednesday poker meet up. Moving on we have MissSouthampton - don’t let her beauty queen looks deceive you as she’s quiet deadly on the battlefield. I should know as she’s gotten me a few times on Assassin’s creed and Uncharted 3.

MissSouthampton

Q. WHERE DOES YOUR USERNAME COME FROM? I dislike my username now as it sounds beauty queen-ish and that was never my intention. 5 years ago when I first went online I thought it would be cool to be gender specific and to be patriotic. So this was the reasoning behind it but it’s quite long lol. I was kind of naive to it to be honest and it did prove to be a disadvantage in the beginning. I would change it but it has too much history and well being a beauty queen can’t be so bad, even a virtual one :D Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST POST ON THESE FORUMS, IF YOU CAN REMEMBER? It may have been something to do with PS Home. I was in the beta waaaaayyy back when it first came out and I would run around talking to peeps. Well run around lol. They would mention the forums and voila here I am. My registration date is 26-09-2008 11:17am. I think I would have been at university then, studying obviously :D Q. BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR GAMING HISTORY. Well I have been gaming since the Amiga 600 days. Yes I am that old lol. Floppy discs were the coolest thing back then even when they became corrupted. I would just replay up to a certain point. I think I was about ten years old, maybe younger. Since then I fell in love with Tetris on the Gameboy, obviously the green and black pixelated screen was the best thing for me. I then became a bit of a PlayStation fan girl. Having PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP and PS Vita.

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Q. IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE FORUMS FOR A DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? I would move Assassin’s Creed to the top. :D lol. No I would encourage more ladies to join. Just to even it out a bit. I am not entirely sure how I would go about this though. Perhaps clone Desmond and give him away to each and everyone lol. Q. PICTURE THIS: YOU, ENVISAGER AND LORDROSS ARE ALL IN A GAME SHOP WANTING TO BUY A COPY OF THE LATEST AAA TITLE ‘GRAND THEFT HAWKY’ BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE COPY LEFT. YOU DECIDE TO FIGHT OVER IT, WHO WINS AND HOW DO THEY WIN? Seeing as I know all about hiding and blending (from Assassin’s Creed) I would sneakily back away, leaving Envisager and LordRoss to engage in fisticuffs. Then jump over a few stands, grab the title and leg it up a building. I win. Sneaky. Sneaky. Q. I INVITE YOU OUT TO PLAY GOLF WITH ME, NAME A REAL-LIFE PERSON AND A GAME CHARACTER YOU’D LIKE TO PLAY WITH US AND WHY. A real life person would be Tom Hardy, he’s a bit strange, I don’t know what to make of him but he intrigues me, I would like to see if he is as mental in real life. He seems to have good ethics though. I like this in him. A game character would be Corvo (out of Dishonored) I want to see his face up close. It would be cool to make decisions with him too. He could help me pitch and putt by slowing down time and moving the ball to the correct position. Moi? A cheat :D Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE GAME, AND WHY? Hmm my favourite genre is action and adventure I would say, but I do love puzzle games and I like the quirkiness of PixelJunk especially PixelJunk Racers was my least favourite but since I played Eden, I would spend hours getting to the top of the garden and it took some dedication as you would need to start all over if the time ran out. This led me on to games like those from ThatGameCompany. You may know them for Journey most recently. I also like ‘bigger games’ so the Borderlands, Bioshocks and Resident Evils are a few name-droppers. But currently I am playing Assassin’s Creed 3 and I love the series having played them all to date. I will also be getting Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation for the Vita. I hope to have the full set of platinums :D Q. WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN ON THESE FORUMS? I flit around most of the forums but my main activities are found within Trophy Hoarders and Action & Adventure. As I mentioned I am particularly fond of the Assassin’s Creed series and currently run (with my co-host WinnieP) an Assassin’s Creed 3 night on Thurs at 7pm. We have a clan as well on the Assassin’s Creed Network.

Q. WHAT ADVANTAGES DO YOU SEE YOU HAVE AS A GIRL GAMER? The term girl gamer I have grown to hate a little because it is used by some to get views on YouTube and kind of play up to the fact they’re girls but it makes no difference! When I played Bioshock 2 online people asked me ‘if I was a real girl?’ hmm...yes. One guy said you don’t see many playing this lol. I think there is a slight stigma about it but this has changed in the few years I have been on PlayStation as it seems it is more ‘accepted’ nowadays. I co-own a female gaming community called HoPE Gaming and we won best clan of the year in 2011 on these forums. We just like to stick together I think more than anything and talk about girly stuff. We have been told to be quiet by opposing team mates on occasions. We obviously have our own clan and play CoD / Battlefield 3. So if you’re up for a challenge? :D

Well there we have it! Two forum users have now survived a round with me. Make sure you watch out for these two online! Till next time - swing easy! - englishgolfer

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