OPC Magazine - Issue 06

Magazine

Understanding Creativity in its true sense

opcmagazine Nov 2013 - Issue 06

PS4

June / July 2011 Issue 01

THE OPC PRESENTS...

GREATNESS AWAITS! FEATURES

FIRST IMPRESSIONS David Cage

BAFTA Q&A

AND MUCH MORE!

REVIEW

Beyond: Two Souls Do Sony need to change their message on games?

Thoughts on next generation Call of Duty PS HOME: Comic Strip Game Reviews Are Video Games Art? SingStar: History & Evolution The 19th Hole ...and more inside

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Magazine

Understanding Creativity in its true sense June / July 2011 Issue 01

OPC Magazine EDITORS englishgolfer & QuietlyWrong DESIGN mattsimmo CONTRIBUTORS beautifulsillo englishgolfer MissSouthampton Nordlyset87 PermanentlyAngry ProGamerX56 Punk and Lizard QuietlyWrong sigrent soozibags Syph33r A big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue of the OPC Magazine. We couldn’t do it without you!

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 the next issue.

Until the next time, happy gaming and we hope you enjoy reading the magazine.

Introduction The nights are drawing in so it’s time to snuggle up with the latest issue of the OPC Magazine. We’ve gone for a new design, we hope you like it.

In this issue you’ll find reviews of games such as Beyond: Two Souls and Puppeteer, a PlayStation Home comic strip & what you can expect in the next gen Call of Duty game.

As the PlayStation 4 release date closes in, we find out what OPC members thought of the console, DualShock 4 and the games they were lucky enough to play at this year’s Eurogamer Expo.

The PlayStation Forums offer a great place to discuss everything PlayStation, and it would be great to hear your feedback on the magazine too. There are a bunch of talented folk out there giving their time and effort to provide content for the magazine so if you like what you see, let them know and encourage them to keep providing it! If there’s something you see that you don’t agree with, on the other hand, why not start a debate?

CONTENTS Beyond Good & Evil......................................... 04-06 Review

Resident Evil: Revelations.............................. 08-09 Review

Rain........................................................................... 10-12 Review

PlayStation Home............................................. 14-24 Comic Strip

Final Horizon....................................................... 26-27 Interview with David Pollard from Eiconic Games

First Impressions of the PS4......................... 28-29 From the recent Eurogamer Expo

Singstar................................................................... 30-31 The history and evolution page 2

Top 5 Vita Games.............................................. 32-33 From the Industry

Magazine June / July 2011 Issue 01

Understanding Creativity in its true sense

28

PLAYSTATION 4 First Impressions

32

TOP 5 VITA GAMES

14

PLAYSTATION HOME

34

BAFTA Q&A

42

ARE VIDEO GAMES ART?

From the Games Industry

Comic Strip

BAFTA Q&A........................................................... 34 Annual Games Lecture with David Cage

Call of Duty: Ghosts......................................... 36-37 Thoughts on next gen Call of Duty

Sony’s message on games........................... 38-40 Does it need to change?

Are video games art?....................................... 42-43

Annual Games Lecture with David Cage

Why do people persist in asking that question?

Beyond: Two Souls........................................... 44-45 Review

Puppeteer.............................................................. 46 Review

The 19th Hole...................................................... 48-49 Q&A with two OPC forum members

Why do people persist in asking that question?

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Beyond Good & Evil PS2 / PS3 (HD remaster) Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier / Ubisoft Shanghai (HD) Publisher: Ubisoft Release date: Nov 2003 (PS2) / Jun 2011 (PS3) “What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.”

– aphorism 153; Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Writer: QuietlyWrong First off, a confession: it’s difficult for me to look back on this cherished title with any objectivity. Every time I take off one pair of rose-tinted spectacles, I discover that there is another one lying underneath. Trust me, if there were much of a market for pink eye-wear, the share prices would be plummeting about now. When I first bought this game, I got the GameCube version AND the PS2 version, though they were all but identical.

When I first completed it and 100% completed it at that, I immediately went back to the beginning and played it through one more time for good measure, even though there’s nothing much inherently replayable about the game.

When the PS3 HD remaster came out, I bought that too (though I still have the PS2 version to hand) and I’ve completed that two more times. Or maybe three. page 4

And here’s the funny thing: it’s not that great a game. In terms of gameplay,

it was good but never in the running for game of the year, even at the time.

Its fighting and stealth mechanics were both simplistic, secondary to the main focus of exploration and plot advancement (though in truth, that probably suited me). Its set-pieces and the integration of its minigames, the graphical wows have long been surpassed by the PS3’s highlights, not to mention some of the masterpieces from the latter days of BG&E’s own generation. But it’s got an enormous heart and I love it. Let me explain.

multi-coloured wackiness; here was an attempt to create something closer to a political piece, albeit in a safer science fiction setting. Instead of an alien bouncy ball with disconnected hands and feet, we were given a conscientious young woman, Jade, with real character, and for once a female lead who was neither defined primarily by her sexuality nor anonymised.

French video game designer Michel Ancel will be forever associated with his limbless platform creation, Rayman, who first sprang on to the scene in 1995 on PSOne. When Beyond Good & Evil was released in 2003, after a troubled three-year development, it was so magnificently different from Ancel’s previous work and so much else on the shelves of Game and Electronics Boutique, HMV and Virgin Megastore that it stood apart.

Gone was the carefree whimsy, the

She was strong but vulnerable; there were people she loved and places she wanted to protect. She was a real person, making real changes in her world by means of her camera and the pictures she would take rather than by cutting a swathe across a battlefield with an improbable collection of

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munitions. And although that troubled development might have diminished some of what Ancel had intended to achieve, enough of his vision shone through that the game achieved nearuniversal critical acclaim.

But this unusual new IP was released into a Christmas marketplace saturated with high profile sequels (Jak II, Ratchet & Clank 2, Final Fantasy X-2, Max Payne 2, Tony Hawk’s Underground), the news-baiting Manhunt and worst of all, Ubisoft’s own highly-publicised treasure, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which used BG&E’s own ‘JADE’ engine to fabulous effect and even better reviews.

BG&E was a commercial flop and soon found its way into the games stores’ bargain buckets, from where it filtered out and finally gained the cult following it holds today. Start the game up now and you’ll find, on the surface, that it’s very much a game of its era. But the last ten years have been kinder to its looks than they have been to many of its contemporaries, thanks to a distinctive, bold visual style that doesn’t strive too hard for realism, instead recollecting the bande dessinée style which more clearly influenced Rayman.

Sound and music is consistently excellent, Christophe Héral’s wonderful score drawing from all manner of influences in world music to give a multicultural feel to the world of Hillys with its diverse population of many species. After a short introduction, you’re thrown into the thick of the action, controlling Jade with directions and a couple of buttons for dodging and hitting out - Jade is a martial artist skilled with a combat staff, her ‘Daï-jo’. A few presses of X (or square on the HD version) and she’s back-flipping and pirouetting in classic third-person

perspective as she lands blow after blow on her assailants, the evil DomZ. On the one hand, the elegant animation gives the player an immediate sense of the power and grace at the control of the heroine; on the other, it does somewhat undermine the idea of an ordinary, unremarkable protagonist. But hey, the DomZ were trying to steal those poor orphan children for some nefarious purpose...

In later sections, direct confrontation is much more difficult than simply sneaking around, or just plain impossible, thanks to shields and security drones, but Jade will do her fair share of hitting things with a stick.

The fighting mechanic may frustrate anyone expecting a fight, though.

It isn’t the game’s focus and so it offers little in the way of complexity or tactical options. Her point-andclick camera is meant to be Jade’s real weapon, and much of the main plot consists of creeping into army installations looking for clues that all is not what it seems in the war against the wicked DomZ. Stealth naturally becomes the order of the day, and here Jade is blessed with the ability to tiptoe around, flatten herself against walls, crouch and crawl, forward-roll and hang from ledges and blessed also with the Alpha Section’s inexplicable unwillingness to install any security cameras of its own, or to pursue intruders beyond the first doorway. Alpha Section soldiers, with their limited fields of vision helpfully indicated by helmet lights, stand guard or patrol monotonously, presenting numerous puzzles for Jade of the type ‘how do I get from here to there?’

The game offers a solid variety of challenges but rarely are they taxing (beyond a few times when you accidentally bump into the hulk you’re trying to follow unnoticed) and it’s fair to say that by the latter stages of the game’s twelve-hour story, you’ll be running out of patience with all the crouching down behind stupid guards and resenting the later game’s security measures that prevent you from cheating and just taking them down in a moment of swift physicality.

So where do the game’s accolades come from? Why so beloved?

It is, in short, a masterpiece of storytelling and characterisation. The story itself is hackneyed and fairly predictable, a world away from the grand pretensions of the title (though early development screenshots name the game as ‘Between Good & Evil’, which may have been the better title).

Perhaps lost somewhere in the game’s development, any subtlety in the question of whether the occupying army or the resistance forces are on the side of right is quickly swept away as the plot unfolds. The world in which the game is set is a weird mishmash of familiar, science-fiction and fantasy with vending machines and email, hover-vehicles and energy barriers, plus all manner of sapient species of pigs, sharks, rhinos and many others rubbing shoulders in Hillys’ marketplace.

But the magic is all in the telling. To its credit, the game never tries to explain any of this weird concoction of elements, nor does it ever sit you down and try to force you through any lengthy tutorials or explanatory sections to outline the current crisis on the planet. Instead it just drops Jade into the thick of the action and lets the story unfold around her, dripfeeding information in context and allowing you to piece together the truth in your own time. And it’s still a rare enough game that has the guts to trust in the player’s own intelligence.

As the plot proceeds, through your photographs, you become, in a sense, the one uncovering and telling the story, and then the game really hooks you in by using your own efforts – however badly taken (how many times did I wish I could have taken another shot?) – to illustrate the news reports being sent out to the citizens of the planet, and what an effective interactive storytelling technique that is!

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Beyond Good & Evil

Most recognition must go to the characterisation, though – both in the protagonist and her companions and in the world of Hillys itself – for it is this that plays the biggest role in drawing the player in and making an emotional connection to the story. So much of a story can be told through the details in the way the characters interact, or in a child’s drawing on a bedroom wall, in a way that is unique to the interactive medium of videogames as you explore an environment through the eyes and ears of the exploring heroine. BG&E, most notably in the introductory sections at the Lighthouse Shelter, pulls this off with exemplary skill, first endangering Jade’s home and adopted family and giving you the opportunity and means to protect them. Before you know it, you’re almost as engaged in the plight of her friends as Jade is.

This brings us back to Jade herself: an acrobatic elfin figure with an all-green wardrobe that at once evokes both the natural world and also the camouflage gear appropriate to her role as a war reporter.

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When it comes to the crunch, she’s smart, strong, confident and efficient, but she also possesses a powerful empathy for those around her – she acts as a mother figure for the orphan children at the Lighthouse Shelter though she is only about 20 years old herself – and this informs all of her relationships. Jade’s personality is filled out perfectly by Jacques Exertier’s wonderfully warm and witty dialogue, her banter with her colourful porcine guardian ‘Uncle’ Pey’j and the strait-laced, by-the-book

field-agent ‘Double-H’ adding greatly to the experience, and beautifully pitched by the vocal talent of Jodie Forrest and an excellent cast (for the English language version). It is little wonder that in every list of top female videogame characters that I’ve been able to lay my hands on, Jade is a prominent inclusion, despite the relative lack of renown for this game.

By the revelatory climax of the game, Jade has run and jumped and fought through a variety of platform sections, dodged through set-piece chases, entered races, played games of skill and indulged in plenty of photography; she’s sneaked through enemy bases, taken on huge monsters in vehicular shoot-’em-up sequences and finally taken the fight to the enemy HQ. Unless you’re purely in it for the trophy counting, it’s hard not to feel some emotional involvement in Jade’s journey. A confession: the first time I ever played, when Jade’s story took its hardest, darkest turns, after terrible revelations, I found myself deliberately slowing Jade’s pace from a run to a dazed walk, so involved had I become with the narrative; when things seemed worst for our heroine, instead of proceeding to the next challenge, I stopped Jade and crouched down for a

while to give her and me time to shed a tear. This game actually brought out the method actor in me! Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it. Now, if you’ll just give me a moment to pull myself together again...

All-in-all, Beyond Good & Evil is an experience most to be recommended for the polish of its world and characters, for the way it presents its tale and allows it to unfold as you progress.

Games can still learn a lot from the way it achieves its background exposition and the trust it has in the player to piece things together. The gameplay is, though not of the same excellent standard, still good enough to hold the whole together and often gives you options in how to approach tasks and what to do next. If you’re willing to open your heart to Jade and her ragtag crew of companions, they will repay you with pearls.

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3D to HD-action then back to survival horror? Is Capcom’s beloved franchise returning to its roots in this ported 3DS Resident Evil? Find out in this review.

Story Resident Evil: Revelations tells the story of a bioterrorist group called ‘Veltro’ who have created a new kind of virus called the T-Abyss virus. Much like the well known

Review

Resident Evil: Revelations Writer: Sigrent T-Virus the T-Abyss virus is injected into the body or into the seas. Like the T-virus, it sends parasitic structures into the body, turning any human or animal into a terrible human flesh devouring manifestation known as Oozes.

The main settlement is RE:R a ship called The Queen Zenobia placed in the middle of the ocean, once used by Veltro as one of the main bases responsible for creating the new virus. Now abandoned, it must be investigated and here you step into the shoes of everyone’s favourite Resident Evil heroine Jill Valentine accompanied by a new RE character Parker Luciani to learn more about the new virus.

The Queen Zenobia is probably the best area in the whole Revelations story, with dark, very eerie cabins, small, narrow hallways which provide heart pounding anticipation where the enemies burst out of vents or turn into disgusting gooey substance to slide into the vents.

This does a good job of offering a few jump scares, it’s just a shame that most of the enemies aren’t actually that scary; they are so laughable that they look like they should be in an episode of Ben 10 or Doctor Who. Although The Queen Zenobia is the area you will spend most of the campaign in, there are other areas in the game and you do play as other characters such as Chris Redfield and Jill’s partner Parker.

These missions are not very exciting and at times feel that they are tacked on to make the story longer. The acting in the story is good but can be very cheesy and cringworthy most of the time with awful quotes that will make you say “My God did he or she really say that?” And the overall story is rather confusing having flashbacks that make you feel the developers think you should know what on earth is going on.

Gameplay The gameplay in Revelations is very much the same as Resident Evil 4-6 with the over the shoulder view, slow moving and gun rotating which does bring fear but more a sense of frustration when an enemy is about to hit you but your character moves far too slowly to stop it. Fortunately you can move whilst you shoot and reload instead of standing in the one spot. Sadly you cannot run which was a good addition to RE 6.

The AI in the game can either be very helpful or the worst friend you could have during an outbreak. It will either take out enemies with 2 or 3 shots or most of the time stand in the corner hammering bullets into the shoulder of an enemy.

It makes you relieved that the campaign is not co-op similar to RE:5 or you would be shouting at the AI like a raving lunatic as they waste all that hardearned ammunition.

Healing in the game is still done by using herbs but there are no red or yellow ones.

This is both good and bad depending on how you look at it, as you can simply heal yourself to full by using a standard green herb alone but it removes the fear of trying to find that red or yellow herb to mix with the green to make a large herb case.

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Raid Mode Revelations has no competitive multiplayer modes like RE 4 Versus mode but has a cooperative mode known as Raid Mode. This is probably my favourite game mode to come to an RE game since the original Mercenaries mode.

Raid Mode has a variety of stages taken from the story mode and you have to get from one area to another in a certain time or eliminate all the enemies in a certain place.

Bonuses can be earned in this mode commonly known as BP (Bonus Points) by either successfully completing the level without getting hit or achieving 100% accuracy.

All the characters in the story can be played in Raid Mode and each has their own masteries with certain weapon types which makes each character worth playing.

The game can be played with a friend strictly online and has 3 difficulties that are unlocked by going through the stages and the story. The difficulties are Chasm (easy), Trench (normal) and Abyss (Hard).

Graphics Considering Revelations is a 3DS port the graphics do well on the big screen offering crisp HD visuals. If compared with other PS3 games the game looks very dated but that doesn’t really take anything away from the experience.

Verdict Revelations is a good game and survival horror does make a small return to the franchise. It’s just a shame the enemies are very gimmicky-looking and not at all scary. If you’re a huge fan of Resident Evil then you should definitely pick it up, but if you’re not then it could be a pick up in the bargain bin.

I give Resident evil: Revelations a 7.2/10 Pros: Survival horror is back; Raid Mode; NG+ Cons: Rather dull story with tacked-on missions; cheesy acting page 9

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rain PS3 Developer: PlayStation C.A.M.P Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Release date: Oct 2013 Rain is developed by PlayStation C.A.M.P! They are the creative minds behind Tokyo Jungle and Echochrome. rain is exclusive to PSN.

Writer: MissSouthampton Introduction rain is an enchanting tale of a boy who chases after a girl who is being haunted by ghostly creatures, he embarks on a journey to save her. Upon entering the rainy world he discovers that they are both invisible and must use the rain to aid and protect them.

Some of us think of rain, the wet stuff, as depressive.

Children love it, jumping in puddles carefree. Others find it relaxing, listening to the pitter patter of raindrops in a meditative fashion. So with a game entitled simply ‘rain’ it could play on many senses, and it does. It is a somewhat short experience but a feast for the eyes and the heart.

The Boy You are a translucent lost boy who is experiencing a rainy nightmare. The boy is trapped in the darkness with only the rain as comfort. The boy’s rainy nightmare leaves him with only a keen eye for staying dry because when the boy stays dry, under rooftops or within tunnels; he becomes invisible and in turn can hide from the enemies that pursue him in the darkness.

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One enemy in particular will be hot on your heels throughout the game: simply called The Unknown, this tall, devilish figure with a huge sword-like weapon will want to stop you from breaking out of the darkness. It is these times that The Unknown appears, when you will need to hide or run away, which evoke some panic in the

player as you need to find the nearest safe dry spot to hide in. These dry places will make you invisible to the enemies and the player as you can only see footsteps or ripples within puddles.

Finding these dry spots is the idea for most of the game - they are as shadows to a sneak-thief - and this lends itself to stealth-like gameplay; you cannot attack any enemies, you simply need to find ways of getting past or away from them. There is some variety in the way you can do this but it tends not to be too hard to figure out. Most of the time it is a case of running away or hiding.

The first couple of chapters will introduce you to this stealthy gameplay where you are a lonely soul avoiding enemies and trying to figure out why you are trapped in this world. The boy will then catch a glimpse of another lonely soul who is the girl. The two remain un-named, the game referencing them as boy and girl.

The Girl The mysterious boy and girl find each other as they are experiencing the same nightmare and are both looking for a way out of it. Luckily for the boy, the girl seems to have more knowledge of why they are trapped in the dull rainy town. She will lead the way and the boy and girl will work together to get through the town, past enemies and away from The Unknown.

The girl will be by your side and help you out by lowering ladders, climbing on your back to get to higher platforms

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and helping you to push blocks to progress further or crush an enemy. The boy and girl will also become separated several times and it is your job to work out how to get them back together by guiding the boy in the right direction. Most of the time getting the boy and girl back together will involve a simple puzzle and even if you are stuck for a few minutes the game will provide you with hints fairly quickly to help you proceed. These times when the boy and girl become separated makes you feel somewhat emotional about the perils that these two children face and their loneliness and desperation to help each other so they can get back home.

the game add to the variety of gameplay.

The rain being your best friend and your worst enemy all rolled into one means it could help or hinder you. It may help you to create a diversion by revealing your outline and luring the enemy into a trap or run too loudly through a puddle near an enemy and they will be aware of your presence.

Figuring out how to use the rain and surrounding to help you proceed are the main puzzles throughout the game. They tend not to be difficult as the game is pretty straightforward. There is not a lot of exploration and this in turn means that you will not get lost. You can either go one way or the other so it is not too hard to figure out your next move and areas will glow that you need to interact with.

I didn’t find this too easy, mind. I enjoyed the pace of the game and there are moments where open spaces are there just to be admired and jump around in the puddles, which I did.

Guided By The Light Like moths, the children are drawn to the light in the distance, not knowing why they have to go there but they know that within all the darkness the light can only be a positive thing.

The lit areas or houses are your goals and without that much freedom to roam it is fairly easy to navigate to them but it may lead to an unfortunate occurrence. Therefore the adventure continues and The Unknown will continue to haunt you.

Raindrops Keep Falling On Their Heads The rain sounds just as it would on a relaxation CD though unrelenting. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught in this unforgiving rainstorm without an umbrella. I found the rain quite beautiful amongst the gloomy colours of the game apart from key parts of the story where vibrant colours are seen. Reflective scenery, raindrops and footprints all add to the ambience of the game.

The game itself is fairly linear and you could think on your first play through that there would be no reason to play it again. Well fear not, collectibles unlock once you complete the game allowing you to playthrough the game again collecting story snippets in the form of artwork.

The girl and boy do not speak but you do feel they have a connection, in this way it was similar to Journey but the girl is an AI character only.

The game will take you 5 hours max to complete as it is straightforward and linear but there is an option to replay the game to gather collectibles, which I found due to a lack of exploration were too easy to find. This would be my only negative and it does mean that it will appeal to a younger audience also (the age rating is 12+).

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. Walk, run, splash and find the light in this atmospheric and eerie game. A game experience not to be missed.

Pros: The rain animations and reflections in the water are spot on. The rain can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

Controlling the boy and using the girl to aid you. Great ambience created by sound effects and music Cons: Short game for the launch price. Lack of exploration makes collectibles and puzzles too easy.

I found the setting very 1920-1940’s Europe and the game maintains this classy theme throughout, with very artistic intro and outro, resembling a classic painting, and Claude Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’ as its main theme (with vocals from Connie Talbot, the Britain’s Got Talent finalist).

Conclusion The unique concept of using the rain to aid you works well, similar concepts involving shadows and crowd blending means this game will fall into this genre of stealth. It is quite thrilling. Tense moments and beautiful moments in

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Second Opinion: englishgolfer I’ve always been a fan of Japan Studio’s work since I was introduced to their wonderful ICO back on the PS2. In one way, both of these games are similar with a young boy helping a girl caught in a world she doesn’t want to be in as they are chased by shadowy creatures threatening to enclose them in darkness.

What is most striking for me about rain is how atmospheric it is. From the painted watercolour opening scenes, through the exploration of the bleak, wet city, and back to the closing scenes (again done with watercolours) the game radiates a wonderful charm. Even the wonderful soundtrack and the sound effects add to the overall feeling of a dream-like world. I never found the sound of the rain overbearing, in fact the opposite is more true as it was a strangely comforting as I tried to steer the boy through the levels.

The idea of being visible only in the rain works really well.

The rain is your friend but also your enemy as it makes you visible to the in-game monsters that haunt your nightmare world. Run under any shelter and you become invisible to both you as the player and more importantly the monsters.

It’s not hard to see where you are as you kick up little balls of dust as you walk and if you stumble into objects you’ll knock them over allowing you to know where on the screen your character is. The physics in these situations work very well and I would find myself experimenting to see how much I could knock over as an invisible boy. Later on in the game you’ll have to walk through muddy puddles, leaving your bottom half of your legs visible to the creatures even if you are under shelter. This adds a little twist to the puzzle solving.

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I must stop and say that I found the main monster, simply called the Unknown, frighteningly evil. It really is the stuff children’s nightmares are made of. The way he hunts you down, searching, looking for you it seems with his elongated left hand he’ll stop at nothing to destroy you. Which he, and the other creatures, do with effective ruthlessness. One strike and you’re dead, swallowed into the darkness. Luckily when you do die you will restart at a point not too far back in the game.

The game does have a few niggling issues for me. I found it very linear, that there was never a chance to explore as the level designs kept pushing you in only one direction. It was also I found a bit too easy, that none of the puzzles were taxing. Finally, the A.I. of the creatures was set in a solid pattern making it very easy to circumnavigate them after watching them for a short time.

In all, this game is a delight. rain reminds me of the time I was a child, having nightmares of unearthly creatures chasing me in strange locations. It’s not long at all and could be played in one sitting - perhaps on a rainy afternoon? No matter when it is played, sit back and soak up the character and the charm that is rain.

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PlayStation Home comic strip Nordlyset87 presents ‘Paradise Casino The Reward’...

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Interview – David Pollard from Eiconic Games

PS4 and remote gaming is the most exciting news to hit the Vita.

Lizard and Punk are super pumped about having the opportunity to play PS4 games on the handheld.

They’re going to be covering as many of these games as possible, so when they heard about Eiconic Games moving into PS4 gaming they had to know more.

Eiconic Games released the stunning gun blazing budget hit Total Recoil early this year. Total Recoil was a riot and made it to No.2 in July’s EU download chart.

Final Horizon is their next project and comes to both PS4 and PS Vita. David Pollard, CEO of Eiconic Games took time out and kindly gave us the full low down on everything Final Horizon, PS4 gaming and his thoughts on VitaTV. Can you tell us about Final Horizon and what we can expect? At its core Final Horizon is a story driven Sci-Fi tower defence game where you’re tasked with defending human colonists in a far distant corner of the galaxy against the Insectors, a race of insect-like aliens with highly advanced and diverse weapons and technology.

On top of that, we’re throwing in all sorts of extra cool features and ways to play the game that will mix things up a lot as you progress through the story. For example, in one level you might be frantically defending escape pods while you wait for them to launch, and the next you’ll be manning an orbiting weapons platform, raining down destruction on the robotic insectors. It’s gonna be a blast!

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It’s been announced that as well as its release on the Vita, Final Horizon will also be Eiconic’s first PS4 release. Did you know about the PS4 before its announcement and have to start working on Final Horizon in secret or was the PS4 version a recent development? Well the game is still in the early stages so really the whole game is quite a recent development, not just the PS4 version. While we were working on the Vita version of Total Recoil we’d been talking to Sony about

bringing a brand new IP to the Vita as a follow up and someone floated the idea of bringing it to PS4 as well until then we’d sort of assumed the PS4 was something only the big publishers would have access to early on, but as is becoming more and more apparent, that’s just not the case with this generation. It’s an exciting time!

Was entering PS4 gaming a big decision to make? Not at all in fact we jumped at the chance as soon as we realised it might be a possibilty. We have a history of working on consoles and actually feel more comfortable making console games rather than, say, mobile, so it was an easy decision for us.

What are your thoughts on Sony’s VitaTV from a developer’s perspective? Do you think using Vita touch controls will become less important now? I think VitaTV is a great idea, completely unexpected, but a very smart and bold move from Sony. As a developer it makes the Vita an even more attractive platform as it will hopefully bring in a whole new audience of gamers. As for touch controls, it does of course mean that anyone now developing a Vita game will have to think about providing additional control schemes that do not require touch, and that will inevitably have some impact on support of the touch interface overall. But there’s no reason you can’t have both for Final Horizon; we’ve already been designing control schemes to work just as well with either joypad or touch input because we’re targetting both Vita and PS4, and we’re not about to drop support for the Vita’s touch controls any time soon.

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From the designs we have seen of Final Horizon it looks like a Sci-Fi dream. Being released on the PS4, do you feel the possibilities are endless? There’s a huge amount of potential for doing some very cool stuff with the power at hand on the PS4. To be honest I think we’re going to be more constrained by not having enough time to implement all the outlandish ideas of what we can do with that power. Plus the game is still going to need to run on the Vita so a lot of what we have planned for PS4 is in the visuals.

We were really proud to be the first to review your previous game on the Vita, Total Recoil. We loved it, and the game has got a reputation for being a great value for money game. Is this something we can expect with Final Horizon? Definitely! We’re going to cram in a lot of content, and add in a massive amount of replay value to Final Horizon. We’re also looking to add a fair bit of variety in how you play the game from one level to the next. That said, we do plan to sell it a little bit higher than 79p!

At this early stage do you know if the Vita and PS4 versions are going to be the same? At this stage we’re not 100% sure what the differences will be in the PS4 version - the initial plan is to have similar content in terms of levels, story, etc, with the PS4 version having a load of extra attention lavished onto it on the visual side. But we may well get carried away and add a bunch of extra, much bigger, epic levels to the PS4 just to see how far we can push the hardware. There’s also some potentially cool things you can do pairing the Vita to the PS4, which we’re going to look into as well (if we have time!).

When do you expect to have working, playable levels on Final Horizon? We’re actually not far off having a proper playable level, but we’re still very much in the ‘prototyping’ stage, so it’s not quite ready to show off yet! I’d say give it another month or two and we’ll be there.

Has the idea of remote play put more pressure on Vita games developers to expand their releases to PS4? I don’t think so, but we never really felt pressured to move to PS4 as such we just saw it as a great opportunity, so it’s certainly not something that affected our decision.

Any pressure we feel is entirely from our own ambition to do the best we possibly can, and make a game we can really be proud of.

A real big thanks to David Pollard and everyone at Eiconic Games. Be sure to check out Eiconic Games and their Total Recoil Facebook and tell’em Punk and Lizard sent you.

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PS4 FIRST

IMPRESSIONS We asked the community what they played at this year’s Eurogamer Expo and what their first impressions of the PS4 and DualShock 4 were.

Stevetigersix: Basically, I played DriveClub most of all and queued for Killzone Shadowfall for a long time and had a quick blast on that. I must say the PS4 DualShock 4 is a much better improvement on the DS3 - it sits in the hand a lot nicer. The thumbsticks much more accessible and thumbs don’t slip off. The triggers are a lot more sensitive which is great. I really liked the look of Battlefield 4 although I didn’t get the chance to get hands-on with it but it looked fantastic.

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Sonicdbs: The PS4 looks good, for a mature gamer such as myself that’s one of the most important things (that

it looks good sat next to the TV) and it played really, really well. I played DriveClub which I thought was excellent, a mixture of arcade and simulation, easy just to pick up and play. I also had a quick go on Warframe which was quite good to play. The graphics were excellent and very impressive considering it’s a free-to-play title.

I found the DualShock 4 a lot more comfortable and vaguely familiar which is a good thing, I like that. I don’t want to pick up something that is completely different. It felt right in terms of its weight and was quite interesting to use the touchpad.

Most importantly the triggers felt right.

ShanieTX: Today I got my hands on DriveClub.

I found the graphics incredibly good and the controller itself was fantastic, not too heavy and not too light. It feels nice in your hands, a lot better than the DualShock 3. They have improved it a lot and I felt there wasn’t much room for improvement!

The analogue sticks were a lot more sensitive.

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Spacysam and CarpeDiem: We played Killzone today which was absolutely fantastic. In comparison to the last PS3 outing, it felt incredibly smooth, you can sight up incredibly fast. The overall performance of the guns is a huge improvement. As for the DualShock 4, we absolutely loved it as it fits in your hand really well.

The grips on the (analogue) sticks were so good, no matter where you moved your thumbs on them they stuck to them like glue making the game really easy to control. The redesign of the DS4 also made it easier to use functionality on either L3 or R3 such as running and melee.

ChrisD I only got the chance to get my hands on DriveClub. It was really good, a lot better than I thought it would be.

The car handling was nice, like they had a nice bit of weight to them so it actually felt like you were driving a proper car, not like it was on rails. A really nice handling game and can’t wait to get my hands on the final version. My first impressions of the DualShock 4 were mixed. Initially I wasn’t sure what to think about it after being so used to the DS3, but once I got it in my hands I was happy. It has a good weight to it, feels really nice on your hands. It just feels right, the way the DS3 should have been. Overall, the DS4 is a massive improvement on its predecessors.

EdgeFusion: I didn’t get to take a good look at the PS4 as they were all set back inside cases, but from what I did see it’s ever much a babe in person as it is in photos. The controller is GREAT! The textured handles are a nice touch and make it feel good to grip. The shoulder buttons are much improved from the DS3, and don’t feel slippery or spongy... They’re certainly far nicer than the horrible clicky shoulder buttons of the Xbox One. I played a few laps of DriveClub. To be honest I wasn’t terribly impressed with the track graphics but the cars looked fantastic. I played some other game....

Warframe maybe or Resogun? It was a bit like Super Stardust. The special effects all looked phenomenal and

marked improvement over current gen. I wasn’t really digging the gameplay overall though, felt like a throwaway PSN title. Assassins Creed Black Flag is essentially more Assassins Creed. For me I’m very happy about that, but it’s certainly no new experience for a new console. I didn’t get to see any of the PS4’s dynamic menu or sharing features which was a shame, but what I did see all got me really excited. Call me weird but my favourite thing is that DS4, it just felt so good! Gonna have to start scrimping and saving my pennies!

Tjlskillz88: I played Warframe which was quite a good little game and I also played on Knack which was quite a fun addictive game. The DualShock 4 was comfortable; it reminded me of the first PlayStation controller only smaller and thinner. I don’t know how many games will use the touchpad yet but I can see the functionality of it.

The shoulder buttons were definitely comfortable to use. I think the PS4 is honestly a really good piece of kit, I mean compared to the other things out at the moment and I played everything at Eurogamer Expo, the only thing in there and the only thing that interested me most was the PS4.

The Xbox didn’t move forward too much for me. I watched Killzone for a really long time and it looks really good. I heard PlayStation will bring out a bundle including Killzone and the eye [PlayStation Camera] with another controller which sounds good. The camera looked quite clever, I watched someone play with the little robot things in Playroom with the camera and it looked really funny.

Unfortunately I did not get to try the touch pad feature in game but I think the concept is very intuitive for navigating menus. I liked that Knack allowed the character to actually grow as you progressed and rewarded you for being a good gamer so it gave another goal to achieve other than just completing the game. The gameplay was smooth and I didn’t experience any lag but I thought the graphics could have been better. I thought, for a free-to-play game, Warframe was fun and could be an addictive title to play with your friends on multiplayer. I liked the fact that you have hand-to-hand weapons like swords as well as the standard guns. I thought the graphics were on par with an AAA title and were very smooth as well. I didn’t experience any drops in framerate. Hopefully this experience will be the same when replicated over the internet. Also I experienced heavy lag while playing Ryse. I don’t think the Xbox is close to being as polished as the PS4.

edervis: I found the controller more comfortable and more suited to larger hands than the previous one.

It managed to achieve this without becoming bulky and heavy. I liked the wider shape of the controller as it prevented my thumbs touching each other which was an issue I had with the DualShock 3. The triggers were responsive and provided the right amount of resistance. page 29

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Inside everyone there’s a SingStar

Soozibags - avid SingStar fan since 2008, first to obtain the platinum SingStar trophy, and winner of the ‘Crystal Mics’ SingStar competition.

If you had any doubts about the popularity of SingStar, a quick trawl of social media should firmly remove them. The official Twitter account @SingStarHQ has nearly twice as many followers as Fox’s biscuits, whilst the official Facebook page has close to 10,000 ‘likes’; significantly more than Chesney Hawkes. The game is a staple at New Year’s Eve house parties, and has celebrity fans including Kate Moss and Rachel from S Club 7. In fact, as far as guilty pleasures go, it’s right up there with eating a packet of Fox’s Cream Crunch whilst listening to The One and Only.

Celebrating its 10th birthday next year, the franchise has sold more than 70 SKUs worldwide, and the move from disc to digital free-to-play model a year ago has seen the addition of 1.5 million new user accounts. The game boasts a Guinness world record holder in Julian Hill who completed a non-stop 24 hour sing-a-thon in April 2012, and has been directly responsible for several romantic relationships, thousands of friendships and even performances at the Glastonbury music festival.

For the uninitiated, SingStar may appear to be merely a simple singing game, however to its users it is so much more. Superficially, yes, you boot up the game, select a song, sing into your mic and rack up a score according to the accuracy of your pitch and timing. You can play to improve your own score, to beat a friend, or to beat the preset ‘high scores’.

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However, SingStar was never truly about the game. The career mode which was a feature of the original PS2 incarnation has long since been removed and the SingStar website doesn’t refer to it as a game, but rather an experience.

My strong suspicion is that most people switch on SingStar for the sheer unadulterated (often alcohol-fueled) experience of being a pop star, without the inconvenience of selling their soul to Simon Cowell. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the birth of the game came hot on the heels of the rebirth of the TV talent show. SingStar allows you to live out that dream, safe in the knowledge that you aren’t humiliating yourself in front of an audience of millions.

There’s also something very liberating about standing in front of your telly belting out a power ballad in front of your mates. It’s a bit like being in a karaoke bar but with the added benefit of cheap booze, comfy sofas, and no closing time. With a plethora of themed discs, and over 3,000 songs available for digital download, it’s easy to find something to suit your taste, mood and ability.

Almost every genre is represented, from pop to rock, grime to opera, hip-hop to Bollywood.

The demographic of the player base is equally diverse, with community contributors representing every generation, gender and social background. The idea that SingStar players are mostly children, women and gay men is quickly disabused when you browse the online media.

96 of my 100-strong friend list are SingStar players. Some regular to the point of obsession, others much more casual. What unites them is that other games come and go, but they always come back to SingStar.

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Although the game has proved to be hugely popular and one of Sony’s most successful franchises, it isn’t without its controversies. The implementation of community features including player ratings, leaderboards, competitions and trophies, inevitably led to exploitation, vote manipulation, rivalry and all out SingStar Wars.

As with any user-generated content, uploaded media can occasionally be of the adult variety, and certainly not appropriate to a family audience! More recently, the addition of the digital free-to-play app and its immovable icon on the XMB has caused a wave of outrage, which shows no sign of abating.

Despite its negative aspects, the online community is without doubt the jewel in SingStar’s crown. Hundreds of thousands of videos have been uploaded, showcasing the talent and creativity of the player base. The sublime and the ridiculous rub shoulders with the mundane and the mediocre.

There are performances that rival those on any TV talent show; costumes, ingenious editing, humour and eye candy, and some of the top-rated videos have had more than 200,000 views. The thrill of uploading a video that makes it into the weekly chart or maybe even the hall of fame can be exhilarating, addictive, and what motivates many to keep playing year after year.

So what’s next? As we all know, PS4 is just a few short weeks away and although there has been no official announcement about SingStar it seems almost inconceivable that it won’t make the jump to next gen.

What will PS4 SingStar look like? Who knows? As a formula that works, I think we’re unlikely to see massive changes in gameplay and community features. What I can say with absolute certainty is I’ll be there with my Chesney wig, inflatable guitar, mic and PlayStation Camera, making a fool of myself, making music and making friends.

Come and join me! You never know, I may even share my Crunch Creams.

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Gaming Industry Top 5 Vita games Have you ever wondered what PS Vita games developers like DrinkBox, Frima and Ripstone love to play? Here at Punk and Lizard we went on a mammoth quest to find out what game developers’ favourite Vita games have been so far. At first we thought perhaps a friendly rivalry would exist amongst the gaming developers elite and maybe talking about other games companies was a no no. How wrong we were.

Every games developer, publisher and their respective PR companies have bent over backwards in helping us.

It really has been fantastic speaking with everyone who took part and we’re really grateful to all of them for being so cool. So the next time you play a Vita game, remember the people that made it really are super nice. Another reason to love the Vita!

We also wanted to include Vita websites and gamers we respect from around the globe, which you can see in the list too. So without further ado, here is Punk and Lizard’s Gaming Industry Top 5 PS Vita Games…

Who better to start the ball rolling than Co-Founder of DrinkBox Studios, Graham Smith. DrinkBox Studios gave us Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee. Over to Graham for his top 5 Vita games that he loves to play:

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Next up is Frima. Martin Brouard, executive producer at Frima and a huge fan of the Vita lets us into his top 5 list: 01

Persona 4 Golden

02

Guacamelee!

03

Thomas Was Alone

04

Virtue’s Last Reward

05

Gravity Rush

Men’s Room Mayhem completely won us over here at Punk and Lizard, so next up is Phil Gaskell from Ripstone with his list of top 5 Vita games: 01

Frobisher Says

02

Super Stardust Delta

03

Thomas Was Alone

04

Knytt Underground

05

LittleBigPlanet

Ross Brierley from Laughing Jackal tells us his fave 5: 01

Persona 4: The Golden

02

Everybody’s Golf

Knytt Underground

03

Velocity Ultra

04

Retro City Rampage

04

Gravity Rush

05

Castlevania: SOTN

05

Final Fantasy IX

01

Persona 4 Golden

02

Sound Shapes

03

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The Game Atelier, who are famous for Android and iPhone games, have recently brought Flying Hamster HD to the PS Vita. Fabien from The Games Atelier tells us his top 5: 01

Persona 4 Golden

02

Guacamelee!

03

Gravity Rush

04

Blazblue Continuum

05

Earth Defense Force

Bringing critically celebrated games like Velocity Ultra, Coconut Dodge and Surge to the Vita, this can only mean one thing – next on our list is James Marsden from FuturLab. James tells us what games he plays and loves: 01

Velocity Ultra

02

MotorStorm: RC

03

Guacamelee!

04

Uncharted G Abyss

05

Surge

Zen Studios brought us Zen Pinball to the Vita. Their new Vita release KickBeat comes out later this year, but for now we caught up with Bobby Loertscher from Zen to tell us her perfect 5: 01

Zen Pinball 2

02

Guacamelee!

03

LEGO Harry Potter 2

04

Mortal Kombat

05

Sine Mora

Beatshapers are located in the heart of East Europe, Kiev, Ukraine. Alex from Beatshapers lets loose on his top 5: 01

Uncharted G Abyss

02

StarDrone Extreme

03

Super Stardust Delta

04

Lumines

05

Little Deviants

Many Japanese classic games needed exposure in the West, a risk some Japanese publishers weren’t willing to take. So we’re excited to welcome Monkey Paw Games to our Top 5 Vita games list: 01

Class of Heroes II

02

Uncharted: G Abyss

03

Gravity Rush

04

Call of Duty: Black Ops

05

Persona 4 Golden

Cut, slice, snip, sever, chop, shear and trim hordes of Pirate Monkey Zombies? Must be Mass Creation’s Draw Slasher! We spoke to Artur, the main man at Mass Creation for his top 5: 01

Rayman Origins

02

FIFA Football

03

Thomas Was Alone

04

Mortal Kombat

05

Wipeout 2048

Grip Games first gave us Foosball 2012. Their next release, Atomic Ninjas, is on its way to the PS Vita soon.

We get the low down from Jakub Mikyska from Grip Games: 01

Uncharted: G Abyss

02

WipeOut 2048

03

Mutant Blobs Attack

04

Uncharted: Fight fortune

05

Metal Gear Solid HD

To read more top5’s (including Punk & Lizards’ own list), you can view the full article here: http://punkandlizard.com/gamingindustry-top-5-vita-games/ page 33

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BAFTA Annual Games Lecture with David Cage

On Tuesday 3rd of September I was fortunate enough to attend the BAFTA Annual Games Lecture which was delivered by David Cage. For those that do not know, David Cage is the man behind the critically acclaimed title Heavy Rain and the recently released Beyond: Two Souls.

As someone that doesn’t really identify themselves as a gamer – although I did really enjoy Heavy Rain and was already interested in Beyond: Two Souls – I was keen to hear what the man had to say.

Before the event started there was a Champagne Reception, where games enthusiasts, members of the press and industry figures mingled. There were a number of demo stations on hand as well, allowing guests to go hands on with Beyond: Two Souls. The anticipation and excitement that filled the air was palpable.

Upon entering the packed auditorium we were informed that the presentation would consist of two sections.

Firstly David would deliver his presentation and then this would be followed by a Q&A session chaired by Guy Cocker, formerly of Gamespot UK. We were asked to refrain from using our phones during David’s initial talk as the whole thing was being recorded

by BAFTA and is now available on their website: http://guru.bafta.org/david-cage-annual-games-lecture2013-audio

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The thing that struck me the most about David Cage is that he is clearly a very passionate man that has a clear idea of what video games can be.

Yes, violent games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are all well and good, but the interactive nature of games has so much potential for storytelling. He quoted an interesting statistic that only 30% of players finish the average game, while 75% of players finished Heavy Rain.

David suggested that this is entirely down to the interactive nature of the game’s narrative, which drew players in compelling them to keep playing. I have to agree with him, as that’s certainly what happened with me.

David’s talk convinced me that video games can create meaningful emotional experiences and can be art. I really encourage you all to listen to his talk at the link above and hopefully you’ll be as inspired by him as I have been.

- beautifulsillo

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Call of Duty: Ghosts With the latest installment of Call of Duty on the horizon, what can we expect and see in the Call of Duty: Ghost game. ‘ProGamerX56’ takes a look at three different CoD trailers and casts his expert eye over the small details that could easily be missed. *Note all pics are from YouTube as the livestream has been taken down*

1. Multi-play trailer You’ll start by seeing trusty Riley with the player wearing a Ghost mask, similar to the one above, which is available I believe to Season Pass owners only. Anyway, straight away you see the new sliding feature in action, plus a weapon returning from MW2, the .44 Magnum. What you maybe didn’t notice, is that the medal feature is back! Look in the left side of this picture.

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“Blitzer: Triple Kill” Whether these awards pay the player XP or are just like MW3 and are just for show, is unknown at this time.

The trailer only covers this briefly, but there is an option to modify the soldier to your liking. Not as in depth

as games such as Fallout, but not as vague as Black Ops, you can obtain DLC items, one example is that if you buy the Season Pass you get an exclusive mask, as mentioned earlier.

Then into some gameplay with the Honey Badger, you are able to lean out of cover, I can see this being abused for out of map glitches and noob tubing etc. Oh, and the dreaded grenade launcher, the 4 year olds screaming, will return, unfortunately.

Another interesting feature is that all scopes are dual render, with no option to use original scopes. There will most likely be a killstreak that’ll allow you to ride a helicopter while shooting as say… a sniper.

Activision are confusing again, quickly mentioning you can build a squad of soldiers to toggle between. These seem just substitutes for custom classes but you can find them in Squad mode, the third trailer. Quickly demonstrated is dynamic map destruction, but the question is, how will this be used, will it be exploited or only used on a few maps? We’ll just have to find out.

The most interesting point is that the modes are briefly showcased, from here I have managed to spot…

- Free For All - Team Deathmatch - Domination - Search and Destroy - Kill Confirmed - Search and Rescue – I believe this is a mode similar to search and destroy, but you can collect your team-mates tags to revive them instantly - Grind – No info is revealed for this mode, most likely a take on Grinder, a cancelled MW3 mode - Blitz – An interesting one, in order to score you need to reach the enemies spawn, while protecting your own - Infected – Same as MW3

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- Hunted – No info, I thought some mode involving attack dogs was involved, must be my imagination - Cranked – Basically TDM with a twist, once 1 kill has been obtained, you have 30 seconds to get another, or you’ll die.

During the trailer showcase of Search and Rescue, which looks more like kill confirmed, this image appears:

“Helo Pilot” This seems to be another medal but it’s unknown what it is. Remember the heli sniper in the previous image?

Well this is what it looks like when you earn it...

13 kills, so that’s the equivalent of an AC-130, give or take a few kills, seems quite underpowered. It quickly displays another chopper gunner killstreak, which is identical to AC-130.

Another killstreak is the dragon-fire, with explosive guns. Yeah, noobtubing ahoy.

The Juggernaut returns, more overpowered than ever, it’s essentially MW3 Juggernaut with the Black Ops 2

minigun, with more ammo. Also see that anything called in is marked in the corner in the form of a medal.

2. Campaign trailer For the campaign the trailer starts off unrealistically with guns in space, scientifically impossible. It seems they decided to bring back the MW2 cut level that ended up a cut-scene.

So it’s based in a post-apocalyptic backdrop, it seems that terrorists have blown the world up, a cliché if there was ever one… A nice little easter egg, though, is “Odin” on the shuttle, as in Odin strike.

And hay-ho IW have a new logo, or just a different font, anyway, the protagonist/narrator, showcases a world that is on the verge of a breakdown, it demonstrates a sweet skyscraper dynamic level. I hope there’s stealth, as Black Ops 2 didn’t have anything. Briefly you see the antagonist and then, Makarov?

No it can’t be, but this is the protagonist in all his glory. Some exciting action to be had in the campaign, Activision ruins the

moment by having a promo for the Xbox version at the end. Grrr….

3. Squads Trailer Finally on my list is the communication heavy squads mode, where you can pit your squad against a friend’s squad or someone worldwide in Operations.

If you are lucky enough to have won the Ghosts: Be In The Game sweepstakes, your username will appear as in-game soldiers. I envy you! This trailer showcases the main menu, and that you can create soldiers, rank them up, etc. In squads there are these modes: Squad Assault; Squad v Squad; Safeguard; Safeguard Extended; Safeguard Infinite; Wargame.

Squad Assault is where you assault another player’s squad in their own turf, you can work with friends or betray them. In Squad v Squad you’ll be thrown in against another squad, a pretty simple concept. Safeguard is a limited version of Survival, you will be pitted against AI and you will have to finish 20 waves to win. Safeguard Extended is the same but has 40 rounds, whereas Safeguard Infinite has an unlimited number. Wargames you can fight with your squad against bots in multiple game modes. The mode has promised to have realistic AI. So what is my opinion? The Multiplayer has much developed from Black Ops 2, displaying dynamic map elements, better feeling guns. [More overpowered scorestreaks *ahem*, but you’d deserve it], and is way better looking. It’s sad that no-one bothers about Campaign anymore, as this one really looks promising. It’s also a shame Activision never offer playable demos. Squads is kind of disappointing - awesome content though - but I don’t really like the lack of an Operations mode with varied objective, other than that, it’s good.

We are in for a treat!

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Writer: PermanentlyAngry At a press event in New York, on 20th February 2013, Sony dropped a fairly large bombshell on the games industry. One that resonated with many gamers and developers alike. Everyone noticed it. It was hard to miss.

It was lauded as a brave and exciting move… but no, I’m not talking about announcing the PS4, although I guess now I think about it that was a pretty big event too.

No, I’m talking about placing Jonathan Blow, the sometimes reluctant, and often mercurial poster boy for the indie development movement, front and centre stage, along with his game The Witness, as an important part of what is arguably Sony Computer Entertainment’s most important launch. It wasn’t out of place, and nor was it pointed at as being anything ‘different’; it was just part of their presentation.

‘Bold’ doesn’t really seem an adequate descriptor for what this move signified. This was Sony, the console manufacturer, saying we take all games seriously no matter their origin. This was Sony acknowledging that there has been a monumental shift in the industry…

This was Sony with their finger on the pulse of gaming.

This was a Sony for gamers by gamers, and it clearly signified to hardcore fans that Sony has ‘got’ us. The indie development scene has been often called the ‘silent’ revolution in gaming; although I think you’d have to have been deaf over the last few years to have not heard the reverberations games like Minecraft and Jonathan Blow’s own Braid have had on gaming. Not only are many indie games becoming critically acclaimed successes, many are becoming runaway commercial hits too.

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Like most things in computing though, this ‘indie revolution’ started out on the PC, where there is a little bit more freedom to develop, and a hell of a lot fewer hoops to jump through when compared to console development.

But with the dawn of the current generation it was Microsoft with their Xbox Live Marketplace and Arcade that seemingly understood that a good game is a good game no matter who has developed it. Sony seemed to be behind the times on this initially with the PS3 and PSN. Somehow though, during the PS360 era, Microsoft have become the bête noire of the indie darlings, and Sony their champions. It wasn’t any one thing really, more a slow but steady shift in attitudes and policies from the two firms.

Looking back over the last generation I guess Sony’s ‘PlayStation loves devs’ message was as predictable as it was welcome.

But nevertheless, the console side of the industry has

always resembled the big budgets and the creatively restrictive practices of Hollywood blockbuster movie industry more than the small-time art-house movie scene found in Eastern Europe shall we say. Regardless of whether the move to show off not just one, but many indie games at the reveal of the PS4 was ultimately predictable, it was a very brave thing to do in the context of the console industry. Small developers given as much airtime, and therefore put on a par with the likes of Guerilla Games, Evolution and Sucker Punch, showed Sony meant business in this sector. They wanted the PS4 to be the one-stop shop, and home for all games, everywhere, now.

So why should Sony change if the message was so well received? It’s a good question, and one that I think requires some analysis of the PS4 story so far. There is no question that right now Sony have done a bang up job of getting their PS4 ‘message’ across. Record preorders and pretty much universal praise for how they’ve handled things so far tells me that they’ve done ‘all right’.

But here’s the problem: I’ve been on what I’d guess you’d call ‘marketing’ campaigns where the initial message was so popular you think you’d cracked it. You’ve got yourself one clear message, a couple of witty slogans and soundbites, and away you go. You’re sorted. You’re wrong!

No message – no matter how popular – if repeated ad nauseam will fail to become stale.

After E3, Gamescom and most recently Sony Asia’s pre-TGS press conference there is a serious risk that this continued reliance on showing the same AAA games over and over again, and this focus on indies could be starting to actively hurt Sony and the PS4. Don’t get me wrong, I like my indie games, my HDD on my PS3, my PC and even my 360 have more than their fair share of indie games.

Some like Fez, Thomas Was Alone and The Binding of Isaac are some of my favourite gaming experiences from the last few years. Not Gears of War 3 or Bioshock Infinite. So I’m not averse to indies at all… but enough already. To put it bluntly I’m not going to drop £350 on a new games console to play £4.99 games I can play on my iPad, mobile phone and PS3. I have many other devices that can give me those experiences, so why get a PS4 to play them?

That’s a question Sony hasn’t really answered in any of their messaging so far.

Traditionally indie developers have funded their games without the aid of a typical publishing firm like EA or Activision. But in recent times the differentiation of funding has become blurred, and along with the improvement in graphics,

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indie games are starting to be more on-par with traditional AAA releases. This ‘flattening’ of game development is an intriguing prospect for the industry, and one that will no doubt be interesting to watch over the coming years. However, despite some indie games going ‘big’ on production values, the majority still reside in the positively ‘cheap-to-make’ camp. That’s not to say they are without merit, but as a rule of thumb many indie games need to be ‘basic’ enough to run on multiple types of hardware so as to reach as wide an audience as possible for their developers to recoup and indeed make a return on their investment. They aren’t therefore really going to necessarily be pushing the PS4 to its limits… or at all. So the question is how many of these indie games Sony have shown are: 1. Truly exclusive to the PS4 2. Will remain exclusive to the PS4 3. Will be a good demonstration of what the PS4 can do 4. Could be played on my smart phone That last point might seem harsh. But Sony are running the risk, certainly at E3, that they were pushing and giving airtime to games you’ll be able to pick up from the iStore, or other eShops for your phone. Is that what we’re all spending £349 / $399 / €399 on a PS4 for?

There’s an argument to be made that after E3, Microsoft had done such a bad job with their Xbox One reveal, and subsequent information rollout that Sony just had to say ‘hey, at least we’re not them’, and they’d have been fine, that it didn’t matter what else they’d shown on stage. It was inevitable that Microsoft would have to scramble around to change some of their unpopular policies, and reposition the Xbox One as a product. The problem is they’ve done that now, and fairly effectively.

Whether the changes were forced on them or not is a moot point, they’ve made them. So as a message now they are seemingly on the right track with the Xbox One. It’s not been a total rehabilitation for sure, and the price differential and stubborn refusal to accept that the Kinect isn’t wanted by many gamers still hurts them, but it’s certainly a damn sight better than it was in the initial aftermath of E3.

Coupled with this volte-face is the fact that actually, Microsoft have shown more exclusive AAA games than Sony have to-date. They have outlined their year one road map clearly to consumers and it doesn’t look like the Xbox One will be suffering a drought of AAA games any time soon. This is odd. The one area where most independent commentators would have said Sony had the clear advantage over Microsoft would have been in exclusive AAA development studios prior to the next-gen reveals.

Sony Worldwide Studios are a power-house of creativity, but so far we’ve only seen Knack, Killzone: Shadowfall, DriveClub, inFAMOUS Second Son and a brief video of The Order 1886 as far as exclusive AAA content goes. Even the most ardent Sony fan must acknowledge that on their big budget games, Microsoft is currently ‘killing it’ as the kids say. I guess that’s where Microsoft’s $1bn spend on games has bridged that gap, and may be caught Sony with their pants down.

Maybe you prefer the line-up of games from Sony, and maybe that’s your personal choice. I’d certainly say over the last generation the PS3 has provided me with far more memorable exclusive experiences than my 360 has… but still, on AAA games revealed so far Microsoft have the stronger overall line-up. If only by sheer weight of numbers alone. Microsoft also have the stand out AAA exclusive that is garnering all the attention and awards, Titanfall. I’m not going to get into the debate as to whether it’s a timed exclusive or not; the fact is it is currently slated for Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC only, anything else is pure speculation at this point. You could argue that Sony has yet to bring their big development studios such as Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica and Studio London to bear, but I’d ask why haven’t they?

It does seem baffling we haven’t seen glimpses yet of what at least one or two more studios are up to on PS4.

Especially given the fact that the console’s lead architect, Mark Cerny is convinced the system is easier to develop for.

When I think about the talent contained within Sony’s Worldwide Studios and second-party development teams it is mind boggling that Sony haven’t teased more of their own products at this stage. Given the drought suffered by the PS2 and PS3 after launch and indeed most recently the PS Vita I would have thought Sony’s first priority would have been convincing consumers the PS4 wouldn’t suffer the same drought. Clearly Shuhei Yoshida is aware of the issue, but that he thinks that indie games will provide Sony with the ‘steady flow’ is a concern to me. It actually sounds more like Sony are holding back some of their internal teams until the installed user base of the PS4 is deemed big enough for them to launch their own games on the system. That is disconcerting.

Console manufacturers historically are the ones that have produced the software to drive hardware sales. Now I’m not saying Killzone: Shadowfall, DriveClub, Knack and inFAMOUS Second Son won’t be good games, and won’t drive sales… but two are new untested franchises and the others aren’t exactly system sellers. No Killzone game has reached the heights in sales the original Resistance: Fall of Man did at PS3 launch, and while I personally love the inFAMOUS games they do appear to be an acquired taste.

So when Sony used Gamescom, to yet again highlight indie games and free-to-play games there were some concerns raised within the media that maybe, just maybe, Sony’s PS4 had the hardware, but it was Microsoft’s Xbox One that had the software.

Aye you could argue that Microsoft need to pick things up on the indie side of things and get more free-to-play games on their system. You’d certainly be right in most cases, and that’s exactly why they have reversed many of their restrictive policies.

Obviously we are yet to see the fruits of such a switch, a point that Microsoft’s Phil Harrison is only too aware of, but they will come, because indie devs need to cast their net as far and wide as possible.

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What this also demonstrates is the relative importance, however, of indie, free-to-play and AAA games. On the first two there is currently a clear winner in the shape of Sony. No question about it. On the final one though most impartial observers would acknowledge that Microsoft have had the stronger showing… it is interesting therefore that it is the AAA games that the gaming press are so interested in.

After the rather ‘muted’ response to Sony’s showing at Gamescom I think the bigwigs finally started to realise that maybe, just maybe they needed to show a bit more ankle. Sony were in the position they were in going into Gamescom not because they’d got everything right (they haven’t) but because Microsoft had got everything wrong!

But on the eve of Gamescom Sony knew Microsoft had changed tack, they knew the message had changed and they stuck to the same old lines.

Sony will have known that fans wanted more than just indie games at Gamescom, and we didn’t get it. This has forced Sony employees like Michael Denny to comment that these games ‘will come a little later’. I get the distinct impression that Sony may themselves be starting to realise they haven’t shown enough AAA exclusives, and having a strategy relying on Microsoft continually messing up isn’t a winning formula.

In conclusion I’m not saying Sony should stop talking about indies, or even cut off the airtime they’ve been giving to them. No, that’d be a step backwards, and one I wouldn’t welcome. Many indies struggle to get their products noticed and Sony picking some games out of obscurity and holding them up for all the world to see is a good thing. In fact there’s an argument to be made that games from the likes of Naughty Dog don’t need the stage time to generate interest in them, they generate it themselves just by existing.

But, what I am saying is it is time for Sony to start baring some of those AAA teeth that we all know they have.

Bring out the big guns and cement this lead that they have seemingly amassed over the competition.

Sure, the PS4 will sell out at launch, probably no matter how many consoles they produce, but what happens afterwards? Well that’s normally down to the AAA exclusives, and so far they haven’t shown enough.

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Writer: QuietlyWrong As David Cage releases the highly anticipated Beyond: Two Souls and addresses BAFTA on the subject of Art and Emotion in games, QuietlyWrong expresses his own views on the perennial question of...

Are video games art?

No. Don’t be absurd.

Why do people persist in asking that question?

Is a roll of celluloid art? Is a collection of paints and brushes and canvas? A block of marble and some cutting tools? A piano?

Video games are a medium. Arguably, they’re a metamedium – one that encapsulates other media – but I’m just messing with words.

So perhaps the pertinent question here should be: ‘Is it possible to create a work of art in the medium of video games’? To which I would say: Duh! Of course!

Put a pencil and a piece of paper into the hands of a small child and they might draw a stick figure meant to represent mummy. In the hands of a poet, you might get back a sonnet. A draughtsman might give you a sketch for a beach house, an accountant might make some of your money disappear. That piece of paper could come back to you as an origami swan, a still-life, a shopping list, a game of hangman, a filthy limerick or some shredded bedding for your hamster. Hey, who took my pencil?

You see what I’m getting at. An artist skilled in the use of the medium can create a work of art in that medium. The problem is really one of recognition. If there’s a question to be answered here, it’s not the one in the title of the article. So what is the question?

Well, some people like to ask: is this game art, or is that game art…? Such weighty – or perhaps flighty – ponderances have been levelled at a relatively minuscule proportion of the software on offer, and the reason that so few games have been ‘deserving’ of the question comes down to that word itself – ‘game’ – and the verb that so happily hangs off it: ‘play’.

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To ‘play’, society still tells itself, far too often (and frankly erroneously) is to indulge in childlike behaviour. It is ‘practice’ for the real world of adulthood. Certainly if you ever see ‘play’ described for any species other than

our own, in a wildlife documentary, you can be sure it is only being applied to juvenile animals. How could anything of ‘art’ be associated with anything related to immaturity? Likewise, critics with little or no familiarity with the medium often get hung up on the word ‘game’.

If the thing is a game, surely it must have an objective, a target, some means of keeping score… Surely such things are anathema to artistic expression – just as much as commercial enterprise is supposed to be (another hurdle that games often have to overcome).

Maybe the real question should be, ‘Can art be a video game?’

Here’s another problem. For my own whimsical convenience, I’ve been talking about video games as a medium. A means of conveying information and ideas.

But for most people, they’re more than that. They’re a coherent collection of information and ideas that convey entertainment, escape, wish fulfilment, maybe even social interaction. Is that too much of a burden for a work of art to have to carry?

Consider the aforementioned ‘work of art’ created within the medium of a ‘game’, i.e. code that would run on a games console. Some magnificent triptych manifesting the symmetric beauty and horror of modern life. Perhaps the ‘game’ allows you to view it from any angle. Maybe as you tilt the controller, the lighting changes in subtle ways to bring out different contrasting elements in the background of the painting. It’s an amazing work (as I imagine it). But it’s not much fun, is it?

The truth is, such a work would not be playing to the strength of the medium. It might make for an interesting installation in a gallery. But it’s not going to engage a player very much. A video taken when someone else was playing with the controller could achieve almost the same effect.

The real power of ‘games’, what they offer beyond any other expressive medium, is the experience of interactivity – and not just the weak excuse of ‘interpretation’ that the art world passes off for interactivity. Much of the time, our interaction is limited to variations on the theme of ‘if I shoot that guy in the head, he’ll drop; if I miss, he will damage my health bar’ and therefore it’s not hard to see why the word ‘art’ rarely enters our conversations.

But this interactivity is, in the right hands, incredibly powerful, something unique to this particular artform – if I’m allowed to call it that. Interactive theatre and ‘chooseyour-own-adventure’ books are the only things that come anywhere near.

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By giving the ‘player’ the ability to interact with a work, to poke it and see it react, it is possible to forge an emotional connection with the material in question in a way that is simply not available in other media. For example: in what other medium can you literally get lost in a maze of caverns and then experience that moment of relief when you recognise a familiar landmark in the distance? And then there’s the matter of choice. In books and films, we read or view stories in which characters are forced to make horrible, soul-wrenching choices between evils.

We might ask ourselves how we might react in the same position. We may even fool ourselves as to what we might do. In games, we are put in those positions and made to experience the dire outcomes of our selections.

Despite the extraordinary potential that games possess, the ‘games as art’ arguments will continue to rage.

Various focal points are the question of ‘what is art?’ in the first place (how many movies are considered to be works of art, after all?), ‘what is a game?’ and whether it is even possible for a creative team of dozens or hundreds of people to contribute towards a single work of art (though some arty games are still produced by the archetypal bedroom coder, just to muddy that argument).

making games, not criticising them.)

Never forget that this is a very young medium, though its effect on our culture expands rapidly. As it continues to mature and grow, so will the tastes of its audience. The market will always be dominated by the commercially successful output, the FIFAs, Call of Dutys, Skylanders and Just Dances, but an increasingly diverse and informed consumer-base holds a curious and adventurous set of players who will seek out and appreciate experiences that use the same medium to move them, to connect them to the artist.

It is only a matter of time before the original question is completely forgotten, just as it has been for countless art movements that have been born, been questioned, been accepted and finally passed into genre. Until then, there are doubtless some extraordinary examples of creative expression to be found on computers and consoles, whether the games themselves or aspects of games.

Seek them out and revel in them. You are part of the generation that will help to define this artform.

To salt up the mix, the medium itself has thrown up an extraordinary diversity of examples to pick over, with particularly artistic commercial releases such as Rez, ICO, Limbo or Beyond: Two Souls rubbing shoulders with artistically-provocative releases such as Braid, Journey, Proteus, Gone Home or Passage. Then there are numerous noncommercial ‘games’ that are created as artworks and an underworld of hacks where existing games are subverted for artistic purposes. Finally, what about machinima, the creation of animated films within video game constructs, and the use of in-game editing tools, such as LittleBigPlanet’s level editors, to create other works?

To my mind, the biggest issue for video gaming as a potential artform is that too much of the vocal criticism is being heard from outside its domain. How can we give any credibility to the opinions of critics of modern art or cinema, any more than a theatre director would accept criticism from a ceramics expert? Video games will only validly be seen as art from within video gaming culture itself. The art critics must come from inside. In order for that to happen, a culture of art criticism and academic appreciation must be nurtured and grown and taken seriously foremostly within the gaming microcosm.

There are signs of growth, with games taking small but increasing prominence at art galleries and exhibitions, and not just those associated with gaming events (for example the installation of games at MoMA and the Barbican’s Game On and Game On 2.0 exhibitions).

Presumably artistic appreciation for video games as an academic discipline must come next – though I can already imagine the sharp intakes of breath from the cynical types. (‘You can do a course in playing games now?’

Well too late: there are already university degrees in such topics as ‘Games Cultures’, though for now courses are predominantly geared up to propel students towards jobs

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Beyond: Two Souls PS3 Developer: Quantic Dream Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Release date: Oct 2013

Writer: Syph33r In 2010 David Cage brought us his seminal work Heavy Rain to the PlayStation 3 which paved the way for titles such as the 2012 Game Of The Year candidate The Walking Dead. Now 3 years later he builds upon that foundation.

Beyond: Two Souls follows the life of Jodie Holmes (Ellen Page). Spanning over 15 years we get to experience her journey through adolescence. For as long as she has known, Jodie has been connected to a mysterious entity known only as ‘Aiden’.

On the announcement of Beyond: Two Souls’ cast, I was worried. Simply because real life actors playing in-game characters tends not to translate well. Beyond: Two Souls proved otherwise.

The first thing that will hit you when playing Beyond: Two Souls is the incredible visuals. Not only are the textures of impressive quality and extremely life-like, but with the added benefit of motion capturing all their real life counterparts, it creates something mind blowing. In fact, I would say this is the most technically impressive game I have played. Many times throughout the game you will be left stunned, as the game continuously transcends the uncanny valley. You will be perplexed how such an old piece of hardware that the PlayStation 3 is can pull off such a feat. With that added visual fidelity it creates exactly what beautiful graphics are designed for - immersion. page 44

David Cage has made it his life’s work to create games that emotionally connect with the player. The first step on this

path is immersion and it is handled with grace. The large varied set pieces and expansive vistas really show off the extreme polish this game has received. Showing just how much work goes into creating a Quantic Dream game truly leaves competing titles in the dust.

The story is told through a nonlinear narrative providing disjointed sequences made popular by such films as Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction and Memento. Thus the story is able to be told in a unique perspective, as choices you make in game have yet to be based on your past experiences.

You may like a character in the current sequence you are playing, only to find more about that person in an earlier sequence that changes your opinion.

This narrative also creates a much better pacing than would be attainable in chronological order. Breaking up intense action packed sequences with much slower, character developed scenes gives you a chance to catch your breath.

This unique perspective also applies to controlling Aiden - being able to free roam with a simple touch of the triangle button - allowing you to pass through walls and gain extra information on the situation by listening to the conversations of others. Because you are viewing this information only through Aiden, it creates an interesting dilemma due to Jodie not being privy to all the facts. All of this is entirely optional of course, and it is all designed to empower the gamer with choices.

And ultimately that is what this game is about. Choice.

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As the game unfolds those choices become more apparent.

And the consequences of them are clear. Some are purely superfluous but be aware like Heavy Rain before it there are choices you make which can affect your ending.

Some will say this game tried to do too much. Action, horror, love and science-fiction are all prevalent tones throughout the game, but they all fit into the context created. David Cage has managed to create a universe and stick to its own rules. Some things that may seem strikingly odd at first glance eventually fit into the bigger whole.

If you liked games such as Heavy Rain, Telltale’s The Walking Dead or even recently The Wolf Among Us, then this will be right up your alley. It is an evolution of all those concepts wrapped up in a high budget bow, an experience. One you are unlikely to forget.

Second Opinion: spacysam Having finished my first play through of the game I can say I am very impressed, and Quantic Dream did not disappoint.

Players of their previous game Heavy Rain will be familiar with their smooth, almost filmlike quality to their appearance, but fear not as the button-prompt-led control scheme in this Quantic Dream game is not as complicated as the last.

You play as Jodie Holmes (played by Ellen Page). She was born with a ‘gift’, an entity that has been attached to her since she was born. This entity is called Aiden, and the two come as a pair. As you can imagine having an entity attached to you does not make you normal, and Jodie has a very strange, detached upbringing from the rest of the world.

tapestry the game weaves through time, building on the small fragments you experience until you have a complete picture of what happened. Just like Heavy Rain you have choices during the game like what to say, what to wear or what actions you take in everyday life, and when you are in danger. All your responses will affect how Jodie behaves or is treated in the game, and this connects you to the game, although sometimes it doesn’t matter what response you give the outcome will still be the same, as this is a key part of the story and would happen anyway.

The multi-press button-prompt fiasco in Heavy Rain has been replaced with a few easy button presses, or key swipes with the joysticks when needed. Most of the game you move around with the left joystick, and can interact with the environment with the right joystick when a white dot appears. There have been a couple of times where you see the on-screen prompter, a white dot, but when you go to interact with it, it doesn’t register the first time… so I found myself going back and forth a few times till it did.

That’s really the only negative thing I experienced in the game, even when I got a bit lost Jodie just turned around and faced the right direction.

I also tried the game in Duo mode which was extremely exciting, and maybe a taste of what’s to come. My friend played as Jodie using the PS3 controller, and I controlled Aiden using the app on my iPhone! I just used the touch screen to move around and then either held a spot or dragged on the screen. To think this might be a glimpse into what the touchpad on the new PS4 controller will be like: exciting times!

So to sum up Beyond: Two Souls – if you like Heavy Rain this game will not disappoint! If you never played Heavy Rain I would still urge you to play Beyond: Two Souls, as you will connect with it and go on a wonderful journey through a special girl’s life. If your main games are FPS then maybe this isn’t for you, as there are just as many cut scenes as there is gameplay.

Beyond: Two Souls isn’t a game that you just play, it’s an experience that you would want to go over again and again. Trust me you will want to play it again, even if it’s to see every different ending.

When you first start the game there is a filmlike cut scene which sets the theme, as you go on there are plenty of cut scenes with gameplay spliced in between. You start actually playing the game as a young Jodie in an institute where they can study her ‘gift’. This is where you learn how to control her and Aiden – you can easily jump to playing as Aiden with a quick press of the triangle button.

As you progress through the game you find the periods of time in Jodie’s life are marked out on a timeline. I thought this game was going to be short, as I had only been playing for a few hours and I was already half way through the timeline, but to my surprise we jumped backwards into the past and continued to build on Jodie’s life. Like a rich

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I remember as a child being taken to pantomimes, or at birthday parties where there would be a ‘Punch and Judy’ show. Sitting on a chair I would join in with the other children (and adults!), mesmerised at the fairy tale story unfolding before me. It was a charming, innocent time – and one that Puppeteer excels at recapturing.

The strongest point of the game is its presentation, as the whole game is staged as a puppet show, complete with red curtains, spotlights, clever scene changes, delicious narration and an off-screen audience that engages in the story with cheers, whoops and gasps.

Review

Puppeteer Writer: englishgolfer There are seven main stages each divided into three sections. Not surprisingly these are called Acts and Curtains respectively. It’s delightful, enthralling and a pleasant, colourful distraction from life.

The story is simple. Kutaro, the young protagonist, is kidnapped by the evil Moon Bear King who entraps him in a wooden body and eats his head. Along with other children the Moon Bear King uses them as slaves to do his bidding. However, the Moon Bear King isn’t the rightful ruler of the moon having dethroned the Moon Goddess. Your role in the tale is to defeat the Moon Bear King and his animal generals, reclaim the Moonstone shards and return yourself to earth. To do this Kutaro

steals Calibrus, a magical pair of scissors, and is aided by a flying, talking cat called Ying-Yang (replaced later in the game by Pikarina the Sun Princess).

Even if Kutaro has had his head eaten he can use, and swap, different heads that he will find during the game.

The heads are like lives. You can have three at one given time, swapping between them when you will. Lose all of them – and you will – and you start back at the last save point. There are 100 heads to collect during the game, with each head acting as a key unlocking bonus levels or alternative paths through stages. To give the game replay value some heads are found on different levels to those they should be used on. So if you’re a trophy hunter there is plenty to do as you’ll be constantly going backwards and forwards through completed levels just to unlock that last bonus level.

The gameplay is solid and harks back to an older generation of platform gaming. You can jump and you have one main attack, the scissors. These scissors come in handy when cutting through fabrics or greenery as every cut will propel you slightly forward across the level. When confronting bosses this is the basic staple of fighting, cutting fabrics. Surprisingly, even if it sounds repetitive, it never is. Later in the game you gain new skills that will help you in defeating enemies.

One little frustration for me was the control of your companion – Ying-Yang or Pikarina. This is done by using the right analogue stick. You move them around the screen like a cursor and explore items by pressing the R2 button. All well and good when not much is happening on screen but a few times when I was controlling Kutaro, and there was a lot happening in the background, I could easily lose track of my companion when I needed them the most to explore objects before they disappeared. However, start another controller or even the PS Move and a second player can control your companion for you. I allowed one of my younger nieces to control Ying-Yang via the PS Move and it worked a charm. A wonderful way to introduce young children to gaming as it isn’t too hard to control and they don’t have the responsibility of looking after the main character.

The game also supports 3D but I wasn’t able to use that but it’s nice to see Sony still supporting this technology.

Puppeteer oozes charm and character.

The dialogue is spot on, the voice acting superb, the settings and gameplay are stunning.

It’s just a shame that it was released in the shadow of GTA IV and the soon-tobe released PS4 as it might get overlooked for these admittedly wonderful distractions. This game deserves a standing ovation. Then an encore or two.

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It’s time for another 19th hole to round up the latest forum magazine. This time we’ve gone Down Under to interview one of our regular Australian posters, qwerty6455; and then we go to Eastbourne - God’s waiting room as THE_FORCE describes it - to get to know him better. First up, qwerty.

qwerty6455 1. Where does your username come from?

My username doesn’t really come from anywhere, I just wanted something easy to type on a keyboard so that I didn’t have to waste much time typing. qwerty was the first thing that popped into my mind, so then I added a few numbers and I got qwerty6455!

2. What was your first post on this forum (if you can remember!) and how did you find these forums?

My first post on the forums was over here actually, I was looking for game suggestions on the PS Store. Then I was redirected to the ANZ boards, and I posted the same thing over there along with a request for the PS1 Spyro games to be put back onto the store. I found the forums after going onto the PlayStation website, I explored a little and thought that the forums seemed interesting, so I just posted.

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3. Briefly describe your gaming history.

My gaming history dates back to 2001, so not as long ago as other people. I started gaming on the PS1 when I was 2 years old, then upgraded to a PS2 when I was 6 in 2005.

Then I got the PS3 about 2 years ago, a little behind each time but that’s OK. I’ve been growing up with PlayStation, but I’ve played other consoles too. They aren’t as good as PlayStation though.

I keep forgetting that you’re quite young but very mature for your age. With that in mind what is your take on younger teenagers playing mature games?

Yeah, I’ve only just turned 14! Nobody likes having 12 year old kids screaming into a microphone when playing online, so as long as the children playing are mature enough I think that there isn’t a problem. However, most kids aren’t mature enough. I can’t say that all underage gamers shouldn’t play games above their age restriction, because I’m an underage gamer too, but there are definitely games that kids shouldn’t play at a young age (MK9 for example).

In the end I think it is all up to the parents, not only to teach their kids from right and wrong, but to restrict them on what they can and can’t play.

4. What is your favourite game and why?

My favourite game would have to be The Jak and Daxter Trilogy. Why? Because Jak 3 was the first game I played on the PS2, and it was the first game I actually understood when I was that young! Because of the HD release, I’m able to play all 3 of them again on one disc, which is not only good value for money, but they are just so much fun to play! But if I had to choose a favourite from those three, it would have to be Jak 3.

5. If you were in charge of the forums for a day, what would you change?

I wouldn’t really change too much here to be honest, I think that the forums are pretty cool as they are. But if I did change anything about the forums, it would probably have something to do with the NA forums. Their forums are absolutely terrible, it looks bad, their MVP system is corrupt, their mods are no fun, and their swear filter is stupid. I would change their forums to fit with our ones.

6. What are you looking forward to the most with the PS4?

I’m looking forward to the games the most. Yeah, all the other features are impressive, but in the end all I want are the games. Infamous: SS, AC4, and The Witness are the ones I’m really looking forward to!

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7. Picture this: You’re in a shop on the release day of the PS4. There is only one system left but Envisager and LordRoss also want to buy it. What happens next?

Hmmm, I think I would let them fight over it. A PS4 can wait for me, I’ve still got a tonne of catching up to do with PS3 games! Although, if I had the money to buy it I would probably charge at them and try to tackle them down, or zip past them while they fight each other for it.

8. Finally, I invite you to play a round of golf with me.

Which real life person and gaming character would you invite to join us and why?

This might sound a bit boring, but I’d probably invite my Dad along. I can’t play golf very well, plus I’d need someone to accompany me anyway. As for a gaming character, I’d want someone of a similar age to me. Sora from Kingdom Hearts or Ellie from The Last of Us keep coming into mind, but I’d probably end up inviting Daxter.

He’s a funny little ottsel that isn’t even tall enough to hold a golf club. Just imagine watching him even try to play golf!

Cheers qwerty, I only wish more 14 year olds were like you!

Can I say that without people thinking I’m grooming you?

Best move on to one of my favourite posters on the forum, THE_FORCE.

THE_FORCE 1. Where does your username come from?

My username comes from my love of all things Star Wars - simple as. It does tickle me when I get asked if I’m the old bill!

2. What was your first post on this forum (if you can remember!) and how did you find these forums?

I joined back in March of 2007 (just before the UK PS3 release) and it was probably one of those posts in an ‘introduce yourself’ thread, like “Yea hi I’m called THE_ FORCE... add me - even though I never play online and I’ll never probably speak to you ever again!”

3. Briefly describe your gaming history.

Okay it’s impossible to be brief when you’re nearly 40 :/ But.... in a nutshell: Binatone TV Master> Atari VCS> Intellivison> ZX80/81> Spectrum 48K/128+2/+3> Atari Mega 4> Sega Master System> Snes> N64> PS1/2/3, Wii and almost every handheld ever released lol.

Too many others to mention such as Grandstand, Game & Watch, Vectrex etc., but I’m sure most of my age group and above experienced the same. I consider myself lucky to have been born in the era that really witnessed the birth of gaming.

4. What is your favourite game and why?

Aaaaargggh! Difficult question to answer. I put more hours in to Burnout Paradise than I care to mention, and for some odd reason I seem to be okay at arcade racers -

so I’d probably consider that as my favourite game.

However, ‘The Last Of Us’ is most certainly the only game that has made me feel depressed upon completion merely because I became emotionally involved with it on a level that I’ve never experienced previously with any other game. Ever. When it ended I felt as though I’d lost a friend... as pretentious as that sounds. :/ Big respect to Singstar too.

5. If you were in charge of the forums for a day, what would you change?

If I were in charge of the forums for the day, I’d probably deny access to all moderators and see how things naturally ran their course. Hopefully it would end up in a massacre of spam threads, bad language, comical GIFs and alcoholic remorse. I love mayhem, thread derailment, and hilarity. It brings people together.

Oh and I’d make myself Level 16.

6. What are you looking forward to the most with the PS4?

Apart from the obvious, which is the whole unboxing/ sniffing the newness of the console on the midnight launch thing, I’m mostly looking forward to what my favourite developers have in store for us - namely Level 5, TGC, Criterion, Quantic Dream, Crystal Dynamics, Avalanche Studios and of course....Naughty Dog! 7. Picture this: You’re in a shop on the release day of the PS4. There is only one system left but Envisager and LordRoss also want to buy it. What happens next?

I’d do the most honourable thing - I’d spray Vissy and Ross with CS gas and take the PS4 for myself.

8. Finally, I invite you to play a round of golf with me.

Which real life person and gaming character would you invite to join us and why?

Well seeing as you don’t drink EG, I’d ask Megan Mullally to join us, playing the role of Karen Walker from Will & Grace, for the alcohol and one-liners. I’d also ask Kratos to come along as he could double as both a caddy and drinks server. Also, in the eventuality that we make it to the 19th and are legless, he could carry us all home!

Well I do drink but not the amount that you can consume! I do like the idea of having Kratos as a caddy - could get used to that as he’s very imposing. Might help me win the odd game now and then.

A big thank you to you both. If anyone else would like to be interviewed for the next 19th hole then drop me a line on the forum.

Until then, swing easy and enjoy the PS4!

- englishgolfer

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Understanding Creativity in its true sense June / July 2011 Issue 01

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