OPC Mag - Issue 03

EN OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION COMMUNITY PRESENTS...

OPC

WELCOME TO EDITION #03 - OCT 2012

magazine EXCLUSIVE!

HANDS ON WITH THE UPCOMING FAR CRY 3 & NI NO KUNI

&

MUCH MORE INSIDE...

FEATURES, REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

COMMUNITY.EU.PLAYSTATION.COM

WELCOMECONTENTS

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WELCOME/ CONTENTS OCT 2012 reviews - part I

reviews - part II

06

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

54

Tokyo Jungle

08

Sound Shapes

56

Arkedo Series 001: JUMP!

10

Sleeping Dogs

58

Dead or Alive 5

60

Strong Bad’s Cool game (EP 1)

12 Fahrenheit 16

F1 2012

extras features

20

AC3 - VIP viewing event

24

COVER FEATURE

Hands on with Ni No Kuni

28

Theories on PS4

34

COVER FEATURE

Hands on with Far Cry 3

38

History of Horror games

46

Preview: F1 2012/F1 Race Stars

48

Preview: MGS - Revengeance

52

Battle Royale - Dream DLC Characters

62

The 19th Hole

65

Community Events

MESSAGE FROM THE COMMUNITY TEAM EN COMMUNITY MODERATOR: Serum_Lake

TWITTER: @Serum_Lake

WEB: community.eu.playstation.com

This issue, a message from Serum_Lake...

- EN Community Moderator Welcome to the third bumper issue of the Official PlayStation Forum Magazine!

I’ve got to say that, although we haven’t been going for very long, this is a project that the team are very proud of. This issue is particularly impressive, with previews of two great looking upcoming PS3 titles Far Cry 3 and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, a write up of an exclusive Assassin’s Creed 3 preview event and, of course, a heap of reviews of the latest games.

As this is a magazine for the community by the community we are always looking for new contributors. If you have a burning desire to express your views on a specific game or gaming subject then drop us a line on the Magazine thread on the forum. There’s a very good chance that you will be able to read your own words in the next instalment.

Enjoy!

Serum_Lake

magazine info

opc magazine

Published by the EN OPC Community. Cover Design: CaptainCortez. Design/Layout: mattsimmo

writers SiborgSimoSctlnd ghost recon review litterature sound shapes review ALIJJ sleeping dogs review Alex De-Gruchy fahrenheit review & history of horror genre fets81 f1 2012 review chrisa3211 tokyo jungle review LAClennell ac3 viewing event QuietlyWrong ni no kuni preview & JUMP! review

PhantomOfOpera theories on the ps4 ryannumber3gamer battle royale characters & strong bad review DNAtlantic far cry 3 preview englishgolfer dead or alive 5 review & the 19th hole CaptainCortez metal gear rising (revengeance) preview babaoriley3 codemasters’ formula for success

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.

ADVERT

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ADVERT

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REVIEW

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GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER

REVIEW REVIEWER: SiborgSimoSctlnd

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 25 May 2012

SIBORGSIMOSCTLND takes a look at the latest Tom Clancy release...

The video game market is saturated with modern shooters, so sometimes it can be hard to feel enthusiastic about a third person shooter like ‘Ghost Recon Future Soldier’ where, just like in countless other games, your job is to save the world from the nasty Russian terrorists.

Thankfully there is enough content here to encourage you to forget about the shortcomings of the storyline and instead aim your sights on simply having fun.

where to shoot. They will then do their best to get to a position where they can take out the target silently. If you do this right then you can clear whole sections of the game without a single bullet being fired your way. To help you accomplish this rewarding, synchronised killing are an array of gadgets: you can use a drone to mark enemies from the sky; throw a sensor amongst the enemy to automatically highlight your targets or just go invisible and try to slip by unseen.

It would be easy to shrug off the single player campaign as ‘just another third-person Call of Duty clone’, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Yes, you play as part of a unique special ops team and are tasked with bringing down a terrorist organisation. But that is where the lack of originality begins and ends. Ghost Recon’s focus is on gameplay, and it brings spades of freshness to that department.

Even gamers who would usually run into the fray with a knife between their teeth and an AK-47 blazing at their side will probably find themselves trying to wipe out enemy forces as silently as possible, because not only is it satisfying but it makes the game easier too.

For most of the campaign you will be fighting alongside three other soldiers (Ghosts) and you have the ability to tell them what to do; you will not be able to tell them where to move to but you can give orders

That said though, you will undoubtedly find yourself pinned down in cover with all kinds of nasty so-and-sos trying to kill you, the balance of these two manners of gameplay is balanced throughout the entire campaign which helps keep the boredom at bay and thankfully the cover-based shooting is nearly as fine-tuned as the sneaking.

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‘...just ten minutes into the campaign with three other friends and you will feel like an honest-to-God soldier.’

GHOSTRECON Enemy AI will try to flank you and if your squad are not laying down enough fire then they will succeed. You have to keep moving, shooting and watching your back - and sometimes other peoples’.

In a few missions you will find yourself in an on-rails hostage protection moment where you can look around and shoot but you cannot choose where you move to. They provide some good set-pieces to the game but they do not work as well in cooperative play. Which is something I would recommend trying out, as most games are made better with co-operative play and Ghost Recon Future Soldier is no exception.

The level of communication you will find yourself upholding is mind-blowing, just ten minutes into the campaign with three other friends and you will feel like an honest-to-God soldier. It helps that the game is great visually; apart from open areas where antialiasing is in need of an upgrade, the environments’ realism will help add to your immersion. As will the stellar ambient audio. Play with headphones and you will feel like you can hear every drop

of rain hit. The detail in the sound department is jaw-dropping.

Unfortunately no game is perfect and the single-player alone has its drawbacks. Perhaps the largest of all is that the game tells you when all the enemies in an area are dead. Any suspense that was built up in the gunfight is immediately dissipated when you no longer feel that you have to search the rooms of a house, or the corners of a forest. It is a shame because the environments are just about large enough to make you feel like you can explore but any need to is taken away at the end of every battle.

Similarly, the weapon customisation options do not live up to their potential; at first you may be impressed by the 20 million unique combinations, but then you will realise that attachments make little difference to your effectiveness in combat. Even in the harder difficulties you will be able to succeed with any weapon.

The only option you will need to double check before the start of a mission is what trigger your gun has. For some reason, future gun technology has gone backwards.

You cannot take off silencers in

battle or change fire mode on your gun. If you choose a single shot trigger for your assault rifle then you will be stuck like that until the next mission or until you pick up another gun. Forgive me if I say this is ridiculously short sighted, especially in a game set in the future.

Naturally, like most other games from this generation of consoles, there are a couple of different modes to add to the longevity of the title. Guerrilla mode will see you fighting up to 50 waves of increasingly difficult adversaries with up to four co-operative partners, and multiplayer will allow twelve players to play competitively on ten maps. The multiplayer does nothing ground-breaking but there are enough game modes to keep the average player occupied for a good few hours and there is even one mode where respawns are turned off. It is no SOCOM though and most games just turn into a camping competition, so bring a tent.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier is full to the rim with content and none of it is inherently bad. Most will buy it for the single player campaign though, and it is certainly

worth your time if you can see past the less-than-gripping story - especially if you have the opportunity to share the experience with three of your friends. If you are in the market for a great co-operative game and a very satisfying gameplay experience then this might be the perfect opportunity to see a new take on the modern shooter genre.

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SOUND SHAPES

REVIEW REVIEWER: litterature

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3/PS Vita

RELEASE DATE: 15 Aug 2012

LITTERATURE TAKES US THROUGH SOUND SHAPES...

Music games can generally be divided into two broad categories: games that ask you to take part in making the music, and games where the music drives the gameplay. Sound Shapes straddles the line between those two types of games whilst also layering an incredibly satisfying, abstract take on 2D platform games on top.

Sound Shapes turns you into nothing more than a small, sticky circle, caught in a world full of simple, abstract shapes rendered primarily in stark, solid colours. The goal is to roll and hop around to collect floating coins dotted around the game’s rooms while avoiding enemies and their attacks, which are helpfully highlighted in a deadly red.

It sounds simple, and it is, as far as the gameplay is concerned though the designers do a good job of stretching the simple concept as far as it can go, with levels that force you to make smart use of the jumping and sticking mechanics. But what makes the game really stand out is the way that each coin you collect activates a note that gets layered into a constantly evolving, mesmerizing backbeat that fol-

lows you from room to room.

The position of each coin corresponds to the pitch and beat of the note, turning each room into a sort of visual representation of the beats you’re building. The enemies make noise and fire projectiles in time with the music too, helping you time some tricky jumps and making each room feel like it’s pulsating to the beat. It’s a mesmerizing effect that has a way of making the world around you seem to fade away, especially if you play with a good set of headphones.

The general concept is done a great service by the visual artists and experienced music makers who have bent that concept to their will, making each built-in stage in the game into a work of art. I was especially impressed with the levels from Canadian singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie who created a playable world of corporate drudgery and automation run amok. Other levels manage to convey a sense of unsettling urban alienation or twisted gaming nostalgia just as well, with the help of musical artists like Beck and Deadmau5.

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‘Sound Shapes turns you into nothing more than a small, sticky circle, caught in a world full of simple, abstract shapes rendered primarily in stark, solid colours.’

The game is littered with frequent checkpoints, and there’s no set number of lives, a forgiving design that makes it pretty easy to blaze through each multi-room stage in turn.

You’ll likely come back, though, as an excuse to see and hear those rhythms again, and to perfect your speed runs for the leaderboards. For those seeking more of a challenge, a series of unlockable, single room ‘death mode’ coin-collecting tasks will keep you struggling to their hypnotic beat for hours.

Sound Shapes isn’t all about consuming these platforming works of art, though. The game integrates a wonderfully intuitive level editor that makes great use of the Vita’s touchscreen and rear panel for easy positioning, scaling, and rotation of a great variety of platforms, springboards, hazards and enemies (editing levels using the PS3 controller is functional, but much less intuitive).

The editor is also, by necessity, a pretty decent music sequencer, allowing for some incredibly complex, layered soundscapes. Even musical novices (like me) can cre-

ate backgrounds that don’t sound half bad within minutes.

SOUNDSHAPES

The real proof of the level editor’s success is in the wide variety of inspired user-created levels that are already populating the game’s servers. Alongside the obvious entries of simple off-key versions of the Mario or Zelda themes, are a surprising number of multi-room creations that show some real ingenuity in both platforming and musical design.

The creators at Queasy Games are also continuing to throw together and add some free levels of their own to the community showcase, which is a welcome development in a world dominated by overpriced DLC level packs.

This kind of continuing community support is what has me most excited about coming back to Sound Shapes, hopefully for a long time to come.

‘THE GAME INTEGRATES A WONDERFULLY INTUITIVE LEVEL EDITOR THAT MAKES GREAT USE OF THE VITA’S TOUCHSCREEN’ LITTERATURE

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SLEEPING DOGS

REVIEW REVIEWER: ALIJJ

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 17 August 2012

ALIJJ takes on the Triads in Hong Kong...

Developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London, Sleeping Dogs is the spiritual successor to the True Crime games and in my opinion, a worthy one.

True Crime was an original IP from Activision which gave rise to a sequel, but underwhelming sales meant that a third game was out of the question. In 2009 Activision announced True Crime: Hong Kong, a reboot of the True Crime series. Once again however they decided that between delays and production costs the game was not viable and in February 2011 sent it into game limbo. It wasn’t there long as Square Enix, in a surprising move, bought the game several months later and relaunched it as ‘Sleeping Dogs’ as the ‘True Crime’ IP wasn’t aquired.

I will say that Activision, in my opinion, made a huge mistake in dropping the project as you will hopefully see from my review, but why take my word for it? Play it for yourself - trust me you won’t be disappointed.

From the opening cut-scene to the first few minutes in-game my first thought was ‘Wow! Beautiful’. And it is, the first mission has you walking the streets alongside an old friend and you immediately notice that the city is ALIVE or at least feels like it. People are having conversa-

tions around you and react to you in different ways; you push them aside & they are going to rebuke you either politely (from a business woman) or swear if it’s a gang member. The city and the people in it respond to your every action.

Not only that but visually the city is amazing, being at its most beautiful at night when all the buildings light up and stores have neon lights making it a true joy to drive around. The varied weather cycles only enhance the experience no matter what events are happening.

You play Wei Shen, a cop from San Francisco who is chosen for a special operation in his birth city of Hong Kong to help take down the Triads. Controlling Wei Shen is extremely easy, with free running assigned to one button you don’t have to do all that much to be running and jumping over walls and rooftops like a pro.

The one problem I found was that because of this you could occasionally miss jumps as you have to let go and press the button at the right time to avoid losing speed, though practice will probably solve this.

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If I was asked to score it I would give it a 9/10 and would happily recommend it to anyone reading.

SLEEPINGDOGS

The combat in Sleeping Dogs is extremely enjoyable and the system is very similar to Batman Arkham Asylum/City with the standard light, heavy and counter attacks. The many different types of environment kills do a good job of keeping combat fresh and most importantly fun. Firearms are just as easy to use with gun combat using a similar system to the Uncharted series and John Woo’s Stranglehold. Moving from cover to cover is as simple as pressing the free-running button to jump over your current cover and moving to the next. If you jump over obstacles whilst holding the aim button you enter a slow motion mode for a couple of seconds where you can take out a group of enemies easily or line up a headshot. Though the camera is twitchy at times when you have your gun equipped, all these systems come together to make you feel like the gun wielding kung fu copper you really are.

Character customisation is available both in the form of new abilities and different clothing. Experience is split into two types: Triad and Police. The Triad experience tree will see to advancing your hand-tohand fighting skills, the amount of damage that you do to others and the amount of damage you take from others. The Police experience tree has abilities that increase firearm effectiveness and the ease with which you are able to disarm gun wielding enemies and ironically enough, how easily you can break into vehicles and lose chasing police. Also clothing does more than make your character look different; if you complete a set of clothes you influence certain stat bonuses. For example, the thug set increases the physical damage by 5%.

The game’s driving is also a delight, you can zoom around the city on a bike with no effort and driving the cars can be compared to the handling from the Need for Speed games; you will have no problems to do what you want with these vehicles. I wasn’t very impressed with the handling of the watercraft but luckily these sections are few and far between. The camera control while in a vehicle is also problematic, reversing or firing behind you isn’t very easy due to the camera controls and you may occasionally find yourself reversing into something you didn’t see.

It’s a good thing too that the driving is so enjoyable because you will spend most of your time driving around the world to wherever you want to go because the world is a fair size and the only quick travel available to you are taxis and there are far too few of them. The world thankfully is not as big as GTA IV, otherwise the size would become an issue, even at its current size I frequently found myself wishing for a taxi because occasionally you will be on one side of the map and a mission start will be on the other. Thankfully a side mission is never too far if you want a break from the main story and they are always enjoyable and often funny. There are also many collectables to be found throughout the world like health-shrines, lockboxes and Jade Statues that, when taken to your old martial arts master, will encourage him to teach you a new combat move; this will allow you to take down enemies more easily. As you can see there is plenty to do in Sleeping Dogs should you decide to stray from the main story and the game actively encourages you to do so.

The characters and story are the real achievement of the game as they have done a masterful job in either making you love or hate those you come across. There’s not much I can say without giving a spoiler but throughout the game you will find that the bad guys aren’t necessarily who you think they are and that you really do end up caring about the people you meet in the game and wanting to progress the story.

One of my biggest criticisms is with the main story, it’s far too short and I’m not saying this because it’s so good and I want to see more (though it certainly is that) but the entire series of main story missions will only take you a few hours to complete without any side missions or exploration. Square Enix did ask in their members’ blogs what they would like to see added to the game, so it’s hopefull we’ll be seeing some DLC soon; we‘ll have to wait and see. Sleeping Dogs is a brilliant game with beautiful visuals and intuitive controls and while it may take gameplay designs from other games, it has managed to fit them all together in a way that is entirely original and easy to learn. With the game’s only downfalls being the camera controls and how short the main story is there is not much to hate about it. If I was asked to score it I would give it a 9/10 and would happily recommend it to anyone.

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FAHRENHEIT Fahrenheit is set in New York City and tells the story of Lucas Kane, who one night murders a complete stranger in the bathroom of a diner.

ALEX DE-GRUCHY TAKES US THROUGH QUANTIC DREAM’S FIRST ATTEMPT AT THE ‘INTERACTIVE MOVIE’ GENRE.

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FAHRENHEIT

REVIEW REVIEWER: Alex De-Gruchy

PLATFORM: PlayStation 2

RELEASE DATE: 16 Sept 2005

QUANTIC DREAM’S CINEMATIC ADVENTURE With the upcoming release of the highly anticipated Beyond: Two Souls from renowned video game designer David Cage and his development studio Quantic Dream, I decided to take a look at Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in the USA) on the PlayStation 2, the developer’s first attempt at the ‘interactive movie’ genre, the following being the critically-acclaimed Heavy Rain on the PS3.

Gameplay is split into two distinct types: the first, which makes up the majority of the game, sees you directly in control of your character, with the ability to move freely around your surrounding environment and interact with objects and people in an effort to advance the story. Camera control is simple and offers a lot of freedom, and a first-person view is also available, although you can’t move your character while using it.

The game certainly wears its cinematic aspirations on its sleeve – before you even begin playing, you see that the title screen offers you the choice of ‘New Movie’ rather than ‘New Game’. It’s a blatant opening to the developer’s mission statement, and the game design as a whole is a brave choice, given how difficult it can be for a video game to walk that line between being a passive, cinematic experience and a truly interactive one.

Fahrenheit is set in New York City and tells the story of Lucas Kane, a regular guy who one night murders a complete stranger in the bathroom of a diner while seemingly possessed by some remote, malicious figure. In fact, the first playable section of the game opens just moments after Lucas has committed the murder, throwing you in at the deep end and creating a tense opening scene as you quickly try to remove as much evidence as possible before escaping the diner. The game (split up into separate chapters which can be replayed from the title screen upon completion) then focuses on Lucas’ attempts to learn the truth behind the terrible crime he was forced to commit as well as the strange powers he seems to be developing after the murder.

Lucas isn’t the only controllable character, however, as you will also play as Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, the two police officers assigned to the diner murder, and also Markus Kane, a priest who is also Lucas’ brother. This feature allows you to experience the story from several perspectives, and the choices you make as these characters will affect not only how the story progresses but will also determine which one of the several different endings you will receive upon completing the game.

Your character’s condition is represented by a status meter which displays their psychological condition rather than their physical one, and which ranges from ‘Neutral’ (most positive condition) to ‘Wrecked’ (most negative), with several others such as ‘Tense’ and ‘Depressed’ in between. This mental health meter is affected by both the positive and negative experiences of your character – for example, looking at a photograph of your ex-girlfriend will negatively affect the meter, while you can positively affect it by performing actions such as drinking a cup of coffee, playing a song on a jukebox, or even using the toilet. It’s important to keep an eye on your meter as if you allow it to empty and your character to hit psychological rock-bottom then your game ends there and then.

Often during these sections of gameplay you’ll be able to speak to nearby characters, and doing so offers up several dialogue options, allowing you to guide many of your conversations, although your choices only occasionally affect the outcome to any great degree. The dialogue system contains two flaws, however, due to the fact that you only have a limited time in which to choose your next dialogue option, which seems to go against the measured and thoughtful approach that the game otherwise encourages; and also due to your dialogue choices each being represented by just a word or two which don’t always make it clear as to exactly what topic you are choosing to discuss or what emotional approach you are taking. In a game that deals heavily with the subjects of emotion and relationships, these are relatively small but annoying flaws.

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Timed sections in which you have to perform certain actions as a time meter gradually runs down are occasionally introduced and they can make for some dramatic scenes, such as Markus Kane having to rescue his brother from a fatal fall, and Lucas having to hide evidence inside his apartment before answering the door to a police officer. At the same time, they can initially be exercises in trial-and-error until you figure out exactly what needs to be done before the time limit runs out.

An effective – and again, cinematic – touch to these sequences is that the game will often use a split-screen effect (think of the TV series 24) to show not only your character but also the particular threat you are rushing to overcome. Although this split-screen technique is also used at other times during the story, it is during these timed sequences that it works best, increasing the tension.

Fail enough times and eventually it will be game over. Although the difficulty of these sequences can be punishing at times, extra attempts can be collected throughout the game and the QTEs can be made easier by changing the difficulty level in the Options menu.

Although these cut-scenes feature various scenarios – a boxing match, escaping from the police, learning the details regarding how a murder victim died – on the whole they don’t fare well compared to the rest of the game. Some scenes drag on for too long while others offer moments of frustration as on-screen prompts are obscured to a degree by the frantic action going on behind them.

The events of the game take place against the backdrop of a heavy snow front blanketing not only New York but also the rest of the USA, giving the game an atmosphere that is alternately bleak, beautiful and apocalyptic. The latter aspect of apocalyptic dread is fostered by background details such as television reports and news articles revealing a drastically rising crime rate in New York as well as the looming threat of international war.

As for the central plot of Fahrenheit, given that the game focuses so much on story, it’s a real shame that at around two-thirds of the way through, the story falls apart, with the final act feeling very rushed and leaving a lot of unanswered questions. What has up until that point been a tense and interesting murder-mystery with supernatural elements suddenly loses all focus and descends into a fantastical mess of shadowy societies, ancient Mayan Gods and prophecies, superhuman powers, and some kind of sentient artificial intelligence.

From a cinematic standpoint, some of the longer, more elaborate cutscenes are very impressive, although you can’t fully appreciate them as your attention needs to be focused on the QTE symbols on-screen.

However, a handful of these scenes can be unlocked in the Bonus menu as non-interactive movies, allowing you to watch them again without having to perform the actual QTEs, which is a nice extra. The same Bonus menu also offers a selection of behind-the-scenes videos and artwork as well as several songs from the soundtrack.

One particular misstep which is worthy of mention is the inclusion in the game of two separate stealth sections which take place during flashbacks to Lucas’ childhood. These sections feel forced, poorly implemented and at odds with the rest of the game, although they are at least brief enough that they shouldn’t cause any major frustration.

The second gameplay type featured in Fahrenheit consists of cutscenes in which you don’t have direct control of your character but are instead required to overcome Quick Time Events by quickly pushing the control pad’s analogue sticks (and occasionally pressing shoulder buttons) in the directions shown on-screen.

You have several attempts at each of these QTEs, and failure to perform the required movements quickly enough will cost you an attempt.

Quantic Dream have done a great job with the graphics in Fahrenheit, with a nice variety of locations such as snow-covered city streets, a police precinct, a museum, a graveyard, and the house of a spiritual medium, all of which are brought to life with an impressive amount of detail and which really enhance the atmosphere presented by the game. Character models are also well-realised, with facial expressions being used to help convey emotion, although the range of expressions is fairly limited.

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The music and sound design featured in the game are impressive, with the instrumental soundtrack being provided by composer Angelo Badalamenti, best known to many for his work on the TV series Twin Peaks, his musical contributions here being melancholy, sinister, haunting, and dramatic. Also included on the soundtrack are a number of licensed soul, blues, rock and funk songs from musicians such as Nina Simone, some of which can be played through in-game objects such as a jukebox or record player.

Although the voice acting is generally strong, one noticeable point is that two of the main characters, Lucas Kane and Tyler Miles, are voiced by the same actor, and although it’s not uncommon for an actor to perform several different roles in a video game, the two voices in this case are very similar, and this can be a distraction given how much time you spend with these characters. The same issue comes up at a point in the game where you control Lucas at his workplace and can listen to dialogue snippets from his co-workers, only to find that the majority of them sound suspiciously like Lucas himself. It’s not a big deal and some players might not even notice it, but it can take you out of the moment.

Fahrenheit certainly isn’t a game that will appeal to everyone, as those players who have little interest in story or character when playing a game will find precious little to warrant their time here. And the story side of things is far from perfect, given the drop in quality during the final act of the game. However, on the whole, the game is a mostly successful venture into the still fairly uncharted video game territories of storytelling techniques and portraying characters and emotions, and for that it should be applauded. The fact that it remains technically impressive and polished throughout is also in its favour, whatever your level of immersion in the story itself.

Fahrenheit and the genre of the ‘interactive movie’ may not represent the future of video games but it is a fine example of a developer pushing boundaries and trying new things, which is vitally important in any medium. In this case, David Cage and Quantic Dream have managed to create a game that is entertaining, compelling and thrilling in its own right and is also at the same time an interesting step in the growth and exploration of the medium in general. Ultimately, that is something any video game fan can appreciate, making it well worth a purchase.

Score: 8 / 10

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F1 2012 ‘F1 2012 is not the finished article by any means, there is room for improvements & additions but it is a big step up from 2011...’

- fets81

FETS81 TAKES A LOOK AT F1 2012 AND HOW IT COMPARES TO THE PREVIOUS RELEASES IN CODEMASTER’S F1 FRANCHISE.

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F1 2012

REVIEW REVIEWER: fets81

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 21 Sept 2012

CODEMASTERS RELEASE THEIR LATEST F1 GAME F1 2012 is Codemasters’ third instalment in their F1 series which has so far led a strange parallel with the recent career of one of F1’s most highly decorated stars and his team.

Back when it was announced Codemasters would be taking over the licence for F1 the forums were alive with anticipation, the TOCA series was a favourite of most racing fans and race driver GRID was a great success on the next gen consoles, so with F1 fans deprived of a new F1 game for 4 years , the chance of being able to pit your wits against Lewis Hamilton, Fernando in a Ferrari, the new tracks everyone had been itching to try, people were really building this up, and just like Schumi’s return, maybe we had built it up too much?

F1 2010 gave us a reasonable experience, granted it was given a BAFTA but let’s face it, it had been 4 years, it could have looked like F1 94 and it’d still have sold out in seconds. So when the fans got their hands on it what they got was the gaming equivalent of Schumi’s Mercedes W01, based on Jenson’s championship winning Brawn GP. High things were expected but in reality it was what? Better than average and capable of the odd good result but never a winner.

F1 2011 rolled around and again anticipation was high, a summer of developer diaries promising us a more multiplayer-focused game had left gamers salivating at the prospect of unleashing new features such as KERS and DRS on our helpless victims online. However it became apparent devastatingly quickly that this game had fundamental flaws... very, very serious ones.

Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. Huge errors in the setup system left players doing laps 10-15 seconds quicker than the finger pointing bull rider at his very best, penalty systems that just weren’t consistent and outrageous corner cutting the game just didn’t pick up. The online racing had flashes of brilliance giving players the odd experience intended, but now like the MERC W02, the odd good result can’t mask the fact that right down to the very structure it just wasn’t good enough. F1 is a sport defined by attention to detail and the games need to reflect that and they just didn’t.

Now don’t think that this is just 68 laps of Codemasters-bashing, because they do some things right, they have active and open dialogue with their consumers in an effort to refine their product which, lets face it, not many developers do. They express their reasons for certain decisions and it’s fair to say the people involved are themselves avid F1 fans so the ingredients are there.

So F1 2012 was eventually announced, much more quietly this year and certain things gave me more hope this was going to be much closer to the title we’d dreamed about. An attempt to start easing players off using assists was made so people would feel a bit more achievement with their results, graphics especially for us PS3 users had been cleaned up and we were told they would be comparable to the other platforms with improved framerate. Setups had been worked on as well as improved physics and more aggressive AI, there was also confirmation of something fans had now cried out for since the first release, a demo, now we wanted to try before we buy and Codemasters obliged us. This again made me feel Codemasters had a lot more confidence in their product this year.

It seemed one by one they were really trying to address all the issues and requests we made. This really demonstrated how this open dialogue with the community has helped and for me also restore the confidence in the brand. I’ll be honest, I did wince when I heard about their new weather system allowing different track conditions over different parts of the circuit. It’s a novel idea granted but it is something that has the potential to be a game breaker if it’s over-used but I decided to install some faith and stuck my pre-order in anyway.

My initial experience was one of disbelief after putting the game in and turning it on. I was greeted by some of the most repulsive graphics ever to grace my PS3 and as it turned out this was a feature given exclusively to PlayStation owners. Screen tearing was awful and a frame rate something more akin to a flipbook than a £40 next gen console game with some even complaining of headaches.

The first thing you notice is the change in philosophy of the way the game is presented, gone are the silhouetted drivers and same old music with less focus on the glamour of F1 and more on the clinical nature of the sport. The cars and the music represent that, though there is a hint of TRON evolution.

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The young driver test is a new edition this year, something most F1 fans know about. It’s a clever way of introducing new players to the world of F1, its rules and techniques and it’s clear straight away that the graphics and framerate are significantly improved. The handling model has been altered to give those who are not allowed to screw several holes through a £180 oak table (to attach their shiny new force-feedback steering wheel to) a chance to compete with those that have and hidden them from the house-proud other half with coasters for about 2 months now.

Once you’re up-to-date and the test is complete you’re taken to a main menu. This is a much nicer place to be than previous games; a technical backdrop with your current car is being displayed and revolved in the centre of the screen with nice detail is something frankly you don’t mind have sitting on your TV. When you’re not even playing, the music is subtle and pleasant rather than ear blisteringly annoying and repetitive.

Off line features are not bad; season challenge is where you have 10 races to take the title, you set yourself a rival and once you win 2 out of 3 races against your rival you get his race seat and so on as you work your way up to better and better cars so you are better equipped to take the title.

Champions mode is a nice addition, with this years F1 having 6 World Champions on the grid you are set 7 challenges. Each one is a specific challenge to beat each of the champions culminating in having to beat all 6 of them at the new circuit of the Americas in one final 6 lap race.

Now even though these are nice additions you can’t help but feel they are just an extension of the young driver test.

However the racenet challenges do offer unlockable content. If you are able to beat the gold time then you will receive a new helmet design for your troubles so it does look as though there is progress being made and so you do feel the need to put the game in every week. Even if it’s just to beat the challenge it is a demonstration that they recognise a gamer’s need for constant development and input.

The usual career mode is included so you get to do your RandD to improve your car and battle your team mate, working your way up from a lower grid team to one of the top teams in a 5 season long career in a bid to win the world drivers’ title as many time as possible and to be honest it seems pretty solid.

It’s a consistent experience so you know what you’re getting when you start your career up, for me it delivers. It’s enjoyable and with the new handling system personally I find it has the ability to give the rewarding experience of driving with the assists off whilst still maintaining a pickup and play attitude. This is really without going into setups in any great depth, you’ll find given the time and effort the cars are very responsive to changes. Therefore you can really feel the changes you make, good or bad so it can be rewarding to spend time working on setups to suit your driving style in this year’s game.

Driving style is key this year too; tyre models have been altered and even though tyre scaling is not in this year’s game, my own personal opinion on this is that it’s not as big a deal as some may think. Given time with the game you’ll soon come to realise that even on the smaller scale races, if you don’t time your pit stops right or you go out all aggressive you will pay the price. Without tyre scaling they have managed to sustain strategy and the importance of driving style which is a significant achievement.

The reason why tyre scaling was not included in this year’s game is also a product of the open dialogue with the Community. When we asked why, we were told and the logic made sense… kind of. Tyre wear and driving style are so key to races this year that if you work on a setup for one race and the next race is only half the length well then that setup’s useless.

You have to start from scratch again, this was a way of getting performance continuity, you get a setup that suits your driving style then you take that to the track no matter what length of race or who you’re racing. So while it is a little bit of an unorthodox idea, there is method in their madness and if you want that full strategy experience of 3 stopping in Monaco, well they didn’t remove the 100% race option.

The YDT gets you up to speed on techniques and so on, the challenges and season modes are just ways of getting you to push a bit more every time and giving you a baseline of lap times around certain tracks.

Going from bronze to gold medals in Champions mode and getting into one of the top cars in seasons mode its fun but the ‘challenge’ starts to fade. If there was some kind of reward system it may keep players going back to try the challenges in different ways but as there’s no unlockable content once you’ve done it, there’s no real reason to do any of the Challenge modes again.

I think this hits upon a key point when you approach F1 2012: you really get out of it what you put in. There have been a few issues to date but nothing so far as extreme as the setup glitches of last year. If you really want to get a more immersive and satisfying experience then you’re going to have to be willing to put the time in, take the assists off, turn the race length up to 100% because it can deliver.

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You’re never going to feel like one of the greats doing a 3 lap race around Silverstone with auto braking on and F1 2012 makes no attempt to try. But it gives you hints that if you delve into it, if you commit to it and explore it, it will reward you, not from content or trophies but from the experience of winning a 100% race around the street of Monaco.

When you kept kicking the back end out over Casino Square as you’re trying to stretch your tyres to make that strategy work or the feeling that the time spent working on that setup helped you make that one less stop, its rewards are more unconventional.

It’s an achievement but not in a digital format to be stored on a hard drive never to be seen again, but a sense of achievement which you take with you into every race you have against every opponent you face.

F1 2012 is not the finished article by any means. There is room for improvement and additions but it is a big step up from 2011 and its multiplayer seems also to give good results. Obviously some seriously extended play over a few longer period of time will show if the progress which appears to have been made is genuine. After spending some time racing online it seems to be a lot more stable, smoother and produces some great close racing. So far after a good few hours online, I have yet to experience any of the game-breaking issues that plagued 2011.

So all in all F1 2012 really can give you a fantastic experience if you’re willing to meet it halfway but it can still satisfy the average gamer. It’s just a lot more apparent what you’re missing out on if you’re not fully invested in it but for me I’m quietly confident there are some classic racing moments ahead of me and some I’ve had already.

The last online race I had was 100% in Singapore and after I tried to sum it up but struggled. I walked over to my little F1 archive I have built and found the book I was looking for, thumbed to the page I have memorised and found the words I couldn’t conjure myself…

“I was stretching myself to the limit. I was trying out new things, pushing myself further at many blind spots, where I never before had the courage to go the limit. I was never a daredevil, never a spectacular driver. I would try to win as slowly as possible. Until that race I had never demanded more of myself or the cars. Whenever I shut my eyes, it was as if I were in the race again, making those leaps in the dark on those curves, where I had never before had the courage to push things so far.. I had never driven as I drove then”.

- Juan Manuel Fangio

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OPC MEMBER LACLENNELL GETS THE VIP TREATMENT AT AN EXCLUSIVE ASSASSINS CREED 3 VIEWING EVENT

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ASSASSIN’S CREED 3

VIP EVENT WRITER: LAClennell

EXCLUSIVE AC3 VIEWING EVENT Hello! My name is Lee, better known as that Geordie lad LAClennell PSN & XBL Gamer, Member of the Official Playstation Community and OPC Elite MW3 Clan, Avid Uncharted 3 gamer, Motorstormer, Member of the Old Guard Gears of War Veteran, massive Halo player, lifetime Resident Evil fan, but enough about me, let’s get to the point of this article! Tally ho!

I was invited to a special VIP Assassin’s Creed III Viewing event held in Newcastle upon Tyne (my hometown) hosted by Josh Winward, Field Executive for Ubisoft (Great chap, you can follow him on Twitter @JRWinward).

As part of being VIPs, we were treated to pizza and drink (non alcoholic!) before being taken through on the red carpet to the VIP viewing area (like proper VIPs!).

So we all took our seats and Josh introduced himself and welcomed us to the event, now to watch the gameplay!

The scenery of the event was all Revolution themed; lots of British and American flags hung around. All across the event floor, there were playable PS3 and Xbox 360’s showcasing the past games, showing how much Assassin’s Creed has changed since it started, this also giving us a chance to mingle and talk with other Assassin’s Creed fans, something which I think is quite rare today unless you are part of community forums (or Twitter!).

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First we were shown some Frontier gameplay, which we’d seen at Ubisoft’s Press Conference at E3 2012. Josh showed us how travelling by the trees and branches is quicker and stealthier, as traversing through the snow would only bog you down. He also showed how the wildlife could be just as dangerous as Redcoats. As with the fort scene, he showed us how we can choose to approach the target; either stealthily, or create a distraction then chase the target. In this instance Josh shot some explosive barrels causing a distraction, and then legged it to the target, picking up a musket rifle with bayonet in the process, and then jumping in the air to perform an air assassination with the bayonet of the rifle.

Then we were shown some naval warfare on the Caribbean Sea gameplay, that we’d seen at Sony’s Press Conference at E3 2012. Josh showed us that while Connor is manning the steering wheel of the ship, we have full 360 degree view of our surroundings, should an enemy ship decide to say ‘hi’ behind us. We were also shown an array of armaments of the ship, ranging from the main cannons, to the swivel cannon, and also a choice of ammo. Along with the main cannonball used to heavily damage enemy ships, you can also load chain shots to disable ships and board them to finish them off that way.

Finally we were shown never before-seen gameplay. Set in Boston, 1775. Josh showed us that along with hay bales set all around the place, there are now ones being pulled around by horse and cart, which you can jump and hide into, and just like if an enemy walks past a normal bale of hay, you can also ‘pull’ an enemy into a cart-bound bale and leave there. As Josh did this an NPC woman asked him to save her husband. Josh showed us how using NPCs as a distraction to ‘lure’ Redcoats over for a quick and silent kill can make it easier to get closer to the objective without being detected.

this time it’s looser; you just have to walk amongst small pockets of people, keeping a watch on the ‘eye’ cursor above Connor’s head (this indicates how much Connor is not known to the searching Redcoats).

Josh also showed us that you can ‘blend’ in on structures, like a shop stand, before killing an unexpecting Redcoat passing by.

Then the fighting begins. Josh showed us how much more aggressive Connor is than his predecessors, ranging from deadly combos down to just some damn nasty finishing moves (TOMAHAWK IN YOUR FACE!), as well as a range of gunplay to melee, back to gunplay combos.

After all the enemies were killed, another ten (give or take) came round the corner, too much for Connor to take on, so he started to flee. We were shown how we can now jump through people’s houses to escape and lose our pursuers easily. With our pursuers lost, Connor now had to get to the ship yard, but four Redcoats were blocking the only way in.

Josh then showed us, just like in Brotherhood and Revelations, calling in your Assassin friends can help in a situation like this, but not as you think! Four Assassins dressed as Redcoats appeared before Connor, and Connor put his hands behind his back, pretending to be tied up.

As they got closer to the actual Redcoats, they let Connor and the Assassins past, as they were fooled into thinking that they were real Redcoats who had caught Connor. As soon as they were clear, the Assassins left to do their own thing, and then Connor made his way onto a roof of a building that overlooked the ship that he needed to get on.

Connor with his bow, stealthily shoots a guard who is just standing doing nothing, killing him; this causes the Redcoats guarding the ship to investigate, leaving their posts, giving Connor the opportunity to board the ship, but not before picking up a musket rifle with bayonet, going up the ramp, impaling one Redcoat, shooting through him, killing another Redcoat, then finally pushing the final Redcoat overboard.

He also showed how you can crouch in tall grass to stay hidden from enemies passing by, then jumped onto a tree, ‘claw hooking’ the passing Redcoat up onto the branch (as seen in the Frontier gameplay), causing another distraction to save the husband. The one guard left noticed Connor but then Connor fled into the nearby market. Josh showed us that, just as in Assassins Creed II/Brotherhood/Revelations, with large crowds of people you can hide amongst them, but

Finally, Connor climbed to the top of the ship, and Josh explained and showed how Assassin’s Creed III is just as vast and big in depth as past Assassin’s Creed games.

That was the end of the viewing, followed by massive applause!

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Overall I was very impressed with what was shown. I’m massively hyped for ACIII now, probably more than I would have been normally.

Every VIP who attended was given some awesome ACIII swag too!

Thank you all for reading my write up of the special VIP Assassin’s Creed viewing event.

Remember, Assassin’s Creed III launches on the 31st October 2012, so go and preorder it now!

I would like to say a big thank you to Josh Winward and Game Newcastle for hosting such a great event, and for selecting me to be a VIP. Oh and also I’m going to be on Youtube for what I thought of all the gameplay seen, so watch out for me!

I also got my picture with Josh Winward and Andrien Gbinigie (@EscoBlades on Twitter, give him a follow too!), Microsoft Xbox MVP, Deputy Editor for XboxGameZone & Machinima Partner and Director.

It was a pleasure meeting you both! (I’m the guy in the stylish waistcoat)

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WE BLINDFOLDED QUIETLYWRONG AND TOOK HIM TO A SECRET LOCATION TO PREVIEW THE HOTLY ANTICIPATED NEW JRPG, NI NO KUNI. WE GOT AN INKLING THAT HE WAS IMPRESSED...

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NI NO KUNI

PREVIEW REVIEWER: QuietlyWrong

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 25 Jan 2013

DEVELOPER: LEVEL-5 / STUDIO GHIBLI PUBLISHER: NAMCO BANDAI GAMES EUROPE They say that you should never judge a book by its cover. Who among us hasn’t turned to this useful proverb from time to time when a promising introduction has failed to live up to expectations? But like most proverbs, it’s a load of codswallop. Publishers spend small fortunes on selecting just the right covers and posters and advertising for their products. When we pick up a new video game in the store, the cannier ones among us will look over the cover for clues.

There is information there, if you just know where to look for it. You can spot shovelware from a mile away, right? If the first thing you do in a game store is to turn the box over and look at the back, you probably know what I’m talking about.

Hold on, know-it-all, before you start listing those bullet-hell shooters and the real eastern esoterica, here’s my point: this is a mainstream JRPG. And that little detail points to a real sense of commitment to the genre’s heritage and to the dedicated gamer.

That commitment extends to every detail in the production. Not for the first time (remember Dragon Quest VIII?), Level-5 have paid the UK industry a compliment by pulling in a full UK cast for the voice talent. And so we have a talented local lad in the role of Oliver, and his beguilingly Welsh-accented companion, Drippy – a real treat to ears that have tired of the commonplace US vocals. And if you’re the kind of JRPG fan who just has to play with the original Japanese, you can rest assured that your purist choice is a few clicks of an options menu away.

There are three words on this game’s packaging that tell you far more about this game than you might initially think. No, I’m not talking about ‘Only On PlayStation’, though that does at least tell you that you’ll need to put a PS3 on your list to Father Christmas if you haven’t already got one. I’m not talking about ‘Level-5’ and ‘Studio Ghibli’

either, though I’ll come back to those important

words later. If you’re familiar with those names,

they already convey an enormous volume of

meaning. No, the three words I’m talking about

are just the name of the game: Ni No Kuni.

And the whole thing looks and sounds absolutely amazing.

Level-5’s work has always been known for its quality, so when Studio Ghibli partnered up with them to make a new RPG, you could hardly have hoped for a better match.

Literally, they mean simply ‘Second Country’, a reference to the fairy realm that your lead character, 13-year old Oliver, must enter in the hope of learning to become a wizard and bringing his mother back to life. But there is something very telling about the fact that the words in the title haven’t been translated en route to Europe and America. How many other Japanese games can you say that about?

Taking its cue (and inspiration) from Ghibli’s gorgeous hand-drawn animation, Level-5 has rendered a beautiful, painterly 3D environment that matches the anime work as well as you could hope for, with lush, detailed environments and cel-shaded characters. The latter take advantage of an intelligent lighting model that attempts to match how an animator might draw a shadow rather than use a realistic approach that might obscure subtle details.

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NI NO KUNI Movie Magic

Looking out over the verdant vistas of this game’s demo levels, I was quickly reminded of another Level-5 classic, Dragon Quest [VIII]: The Journey of The Cursed King. This was released towards the end of the PS2’s lifecycle (just as Ni No Kuni is coming towards the end of the PS3’s) and also featured colourful cel-shaded visuals and a distinctive British localization (right, guv?). I also remember reading more than one review that suggested that Dragon Quest’s players would often find themselves stopping just to admire the scenery. Well, call me an old cynic, but at that time, in 2005, I thought that those words were sentimental tosh. I played Dragon Quest and, OK, it was quite pretty, but hardly breath-stopping. Fast forward seven years to Ni No Kuni and... well... let’s just say, I’m either a lot less cynical now or Level-5 has really surpassed itself this time.

When not working on Ni No Kuni, Studio Ghibli is of course best known as one of the world’s paramount animation studios, with a prestigious back catalogue that includes anime classics Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso and Princess Mononoke.

Arguably its most successful film has been Spirited Away, to date the only film from a non-English-speaking country to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It also won the Golden Bear award for best film of the year (2002) at the Berlin International Film Festival, among many other film awards...

Ni No Kuni is actually Studio Ghibli’s second major co-development foray in the video gaming world, following 2002’s Magic Pengel, a monster-training RPG with a doodle-your-own-creatures mechanic. It was a well-received, original game that sadly never made its way to European shores.

Studio Ghibli’s feature films in recent years have seen its animation teams making increasingly innovative use of technology and 3D modelling to help add incredible detail to their beautiful handdrawn scenes without compromising their artistic vision. We can only hope that it won’t be another ten years before the studio’s next video game collaboration; Ghibli brings much more with it than the potential for better-looking cut-scenes.

No less attention has been lavished on the auditory component, with a sumptuous orchestral score composed by Joe Hisaishi and recorded by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Joe Hisaishi has composed music for dozens of films but is best known for his long-standing relationship with Studio Ghibli, having provided the scores for many of their finest features, including Spirited Away and Ponyo (for which he won Outstanding Achievement in Music at the 32nd Japan Academy Prizes).

What would all this glorious son et lumière be without decent gameplay though? Here, Level-5’s experience shines through once again.

For all its cutesy appearance, there’s a deep and complex RPG engine under the hood. As you explore Ni No Kuni’s open world, you find and recruit ‘familiars’, each with its own special skills and elementallyoriented spells. In battles, Oliver can send one at a time to battle in his place, or use his own abilities. Add a couple of companions, each of whom can have their own small cadre of familiars (up to three at a time), and each battle then becomes a careful juggling act as you switch familiars in and out to adapt to changing circumstances, and tweak your companions’ tactics accordingly.

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NI NO KUNI A mixture of real-time dodging, manoeuvring and tactic selection with pause-mode character-selection keeps you on your toes without overwhelming. As you level up and gain new skills, so do your familiars, which can eventually evolve into more powerful forms. Careful selection of your familiars becomes increasingly important as you progress, especially for the boss battles which will require a strategic approach.

Add in the usual accoutrements of a good JRPG – problems to solve, assorted items and recipes, collectables for the completist, minigames, side-quests and a 60+ hour central story – the whole thing adds up to an exquisite package.

There is a huge cultural divide between East and West, and when it comes to our console role playing games, the chasm seems to have been widening in recent years. While the Japanese consumers enjoy many fine examples of these ‘coming-of-age’ stories, where young protagonists find their feet and learn who they are in new and strange lands, the western market is increasingly dominated by muscle-clad power fantasies like Skyrim (consistently in the PS3 top-20 sellers almost a year after its release) and Mass Effect 3.

Will the western consumers take one look at the cartoonish style, the child protagonist and his doll-like companion, and put the box back on the shelf, thinking this is a game for kiddiwinks? Or can they see past the superficial first impressions and realise that here is the closest thing you can currently get to actually being part of your own Studio Ghibli film? From my first impressions, from a toe dipped in the shallow end and a stolen glance at the high diving board at the other end, this is game destined for critical acclaim. But whether it can achieve the commercial success it surely deserves.

There are three words on the cover of the box: Ni no kuni. The words reveal a secret, magical realm; they foreshadow an otherworldly experience. Make them synonymous with wonder. Speak them with a note of awe in your voice. Whisper them into other people’s dreams. Just go easy on the Drippy impersonations if you’re not actually Welsh, OK? Tidy!

Level Up

One of the biggest video game companies in Japan, Level-5 has been treating us to high quality JRPGs since Dark Cloud on the PS2 in 2000.

Level-5’s rise to prominence in the Japanese industry has been helped along by particularly strong international sales, especially in recent years for the Professor Layton series of puzzle adventure games on DS and 3DS. But the JRPGs are where my interest lies and – with the exception of the divisive White Knight Chronicles games – Level-5 has produced, time after time, critically acclaimed titles to treasure. Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle, Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII and IX, and one of the finest PSP games never to make it to Europe, strategy RPG Jeanne d’Arc.

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NI NO KUNI

All The Trimmings These days, no triple-A game release would be complete without a special edition, and Ni No Kuni’s comes with some exclusive downloadable familiars, a cute ‘Drippy’ plushy (quite a favourite at the Namco offices, apparently) and a fetching hardcover ‘Wizard’s Companion’ spellbook to complement the book that Oliver collects together during the story, detailing all the spells and monsters you’ll encounter on your travels.

Chances are good that this limited edition will sell out before the game’s release on January 25th, so if you’re a collector, a completist or if you just won’t be able to sleep without that plush Drippy by your side, a pre-order is recommended.

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THEORIES

ON PS4

‘PhantomOfOpera’ give his views on theories for the PS4

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THEORIES ON PS4 I believe our current generation has nearly reached saturation point.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of games coming out on PS3 which are on my day one purchase list, but I truly feel we could do with the announcement of a new console. Current video game sales have slowed down, with customers unsure whether to invest in the current generation or wait for the new XBOX or PlayStation platforms.

The need to have a new console is driven by the fact that older machines, such as the PS1 and PS2, reached the end of their shelf lives after five years and were swiftly replaced by newer and better models.

However, after launching the PS3, Sony had a different idea. It wanted to double the console shelf life and take it to ten years. Sony’s new strategy took into account two key factors - value for money and history. The launch price of the PS3 (599 US dollars for a 60GB model) was very expensive, much more than its predecessor and Sony needed to reassure customers that the investment would produce good results and last a long time. Also the PS2, over twelve years since its initial launch, is still in production and new games continue to be developed and sold, suggesting that the PS3 could have an equally long shelf life.

I have no doubt that the PS4 will last more than ten years, but I know that Sony will not wait until the console is ten years old to announce a replacement. Some publishers have already suggested that Sony has been working on a new generation platform for the last two and half years and, in recent months, there have been a number of rumours about what the new XBOX and PS4 will be capable to achieve.

To begin, let me make it clear that the theories in this article are based on my own speculations, comments made by some developers and publishers, internet rumours and a fair bit of wishful thinking. It is fair to say that, over time, I have changed my mind about the potential PS4 specifications. A couple of years ago I was absolutely convinced that the new console would include a new version of the Cell processor, with the eight Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) upgraded to 16 units. Given that Sony had heavily invested in the production of the Cell chipset I certainly did not feel they would abandon ship and convert to a different CPU. Unfortunately times have changed and given the current market conditions, the financial health of SCE and the difficulty developers encountered when coding for the PS3, I am now suggesting that the PS4 could look significantly different to what I had originally anticipated.

Coding for the PS3 has suffered from complex issues. At launch, and for the first couple of years, a number of developers seemed to struggle porting games from PC or XBOX to the PS3. This was mostly due to programmers failing to take advantage of the eight SPEs. Coding for PS3, taking advantage of the SPEs, was something unknown to developers who had to spend precious time reading complex and detailed manuals and understand the intricacies of the new system. It is also a known fact that some developers had to enlist the support of Sony engineers or first party developers when they realised they could not overcome some of the hurdles and complete their games.The recent issue of PS3 memory allocation between CPU and GPU has also made headlines. Bethesda, the developer of Oblivion and Fallout, struggled to make ends meet with their recent game Skyrim, a title which suffered from serious frame rate issues and made the game unplayable to some users. With some exceptions I believe things have now improved.

The majority of developers have learnt how to code for the Cell processor and are taking advantage of the SPEs. Current multi-platform games are looking equally good on PS3 and 360, with first and second party games looking incredibly good on PS3. We just need to mention

the likes of Beyond and The Last Of Us to know that these are the golden years of the PS3.

However, market conditions have changed and the financial recession has affected small businesses, individuals and corporations, including Sony which has recently announced heavy losses in all divisions.

A number of publishers are also struggling to generate enough profit with low video games sales and resources split between current and next generation titles. Although the PS3 is selling well, it is widely believed that the PS Vita has underperformed and sales are well below expectation, despite Sony suggesting the contrary. One possible way to overcome the struggle is to launch a new console; a well received new machine could be beneficial to the console maker as it will generate interest, revitalise the market and boost share prices.

When Sony announced the PS3 the two big issues that affected initial sales were time and price. The console was launched a year and half after the 360, which caused Sony to lose potential customers to the competition. The launch price of 599 US dollars was also considered too expensive for a machine that it was believed to be on par with the Microsoft’s console which was 200 US dollars cheaper than PS3. It is clear to me that the only way Sony can achieve sustainable growth is to develop a machine that is cheaper to produce, easier to develop for and sold at an attractive price point. Many suggest that Sony needs to launch the PS4 before Microsoft launches their next generation machine. I believe that that is not a priority. History suggest that launching first is not a guarantee of success, and as long as Sony launches shortly after the new XBOX they can still control the market and make a profit. However, launching an expensive console in this day and age may not be the smartest thing to do. No one is willing to take a second job or get a bank loan to buy a new console. Some people have had to re-prioritise their lives and, as a result, have less disposable income available. So, how will Sony make a new console cheaper to buy and easier to code for?

With the Cell production already fully established it seems a good idea to use the processor to power the new console. Developers are familiar with the CPU and coding should be easier. However, no one has heard of a new Cell model being produced and just doubling the number of SPE units may not be enough to survive the next generation battle.

Concept: how the PS4 could look?

Sony has also modified their strategy in recent years, cutting their budget on research and development and using third party manufacturers for their chipset needs. The first evidence of Sony’s new strategy is the PS Vita. The portable console was never equipped with a processor from the Cell family, but instead used a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and a quad-core PowerVR GPU, both processors purchased from a third party manufacturer. I also believe the PS Vita was the very first console from Sony where developers had a say on the specifications, and was built taking into account their requests.

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THEORIES ON PS4 If Sony were to continue with the same strategy, the next console is going to be built with parts bought off the shelf. This will produce a cheaper console which could be sold for approximately 400 US dollars. It will also give developers a machine that is easier to program and reduce development times and costs for first generation titles. There have been recent speculations of a deal between Sony and AMD with suggestions that the chip manufacturer would supply both CPU and GPU for the next generation machine. Whilst Sony never commented on those rumours I think they are not too far from reality. Frankly, I believe the next console from Sony will have a powerful and future-proof combination of CPU and GPU, possibly from the same manufacturer, and reduce costs due to economy of scale. I suggest a six or eight core fast CPU is vital to ensure the PS4 is the main and only multimedia machine people want to have in their living room.

But what about the GPU? Both the Star Wars 1313 and Watchdog demos, recently shown at E3, were powered by the new Nvidia GTX 680 GPU and looked amazing. Sony needs to ensure that the GPU included in the PS4 is of comparable power if it wants to be futureproof. Developers have also made it clear that a true generation leap is only possible if sufficient RAM is available for both CPU and GPU. Whilst it is possible to stream data, such as texture, off the Blu-ray disc or hard drive, the only way to minimise ‘pop up’ and ‘screen tear’ issues is to have at least 6 to 8 GB of memory available, with a minimum of 2 GB available exclusively to the GPU. Alternatively, Sony should give developers the freedom to split the memory allocation between CPU and GPU as they wish. Having convinced everyone that the only future-proof media format is Blu-ray, Sony needs to up the stakes and include a faster Blu-ray player with the ability to read 50GB discs, at reasonable speed, as some PS3 games have reached full disc capacity.

On competitor platforms, many developers are struggling to fit current triple-A games on one DVD and have had to split them on several discs. I suspect even Microsoft will adopt the initially hated Blu-ray player. Including a 2.5 inch 60 GB hard disk drive in the PS3 was definitely a great idea, but I hope PS4 will use modern and faster 3.5 inch models. With the digital revolution we need high capacity and fast hard disk drives that can exceed the 1 terabyte limit of the current 2.5 inch drives. Giving the option to connect external hard drives would also be beneficial to users and installing USB 3.0 ports would also resolve any speed transfer issues typical of USB 2.0 hard drives.

Sony’s attempt to experiment with the PS3 controller resulted in a prototype that looked like a boomerang and was disliked by both gamers and media. I believe the current Dualshock/SixAxis does a very good job at controlling games and should continue being the standard controller for PS4. I am not a massive fan of motion controllers but I think Sony is not going to give up on this cause. I am sure we will eventually see an updated version of PS Move or new ways to control games via motion control. One of the features that consumers have requested time and time again is the inclusion of cross-chat functionality. Unfortunately, due to the way the PS3 was originally built and the way the memory is allocated, it is clear that cross-chat is not a feature that will be available to the current PlayStation any time soon. However, it would be a mistake to launch a PS4 without this option and without the inclusion of a Bluetooth headset. A key feature that has always been appreciated by PS3 gamers is the ability to play online games for free. Sony needs to ensure that the PS4 will still offer free online play functionality and only offer a premium service to customers that purchase a PlayStation Plus subscription. Given the recent acquisition of Gakai I suspect PS Plus will also evolve and offer a new experience to gamers. I suggest Sony will launch various premium game channels

possibly based on game genre. By choosing the sport or the FPS channels customers could stream and play games linked to that particular genre for a monthly subscription fee. By integrating Gakai with the PS4 Sony could also stream demos, trial games and resolve the issue of backward compatibility. No more multiple consoles under your TV. All previous generation titles will be available to play anytime, anywhere.

In fact, I suspect the PlayStation Plus service will also be extended to Sony certified devices offering a wide game library to anyone who owns an Android certified device.

We have already seen an example of PS Vita used to control a PS3 game. A patch to Little Big Planet 2 will add new levels and enable the game to be controlled with a Vita. Sony has already confirmed that more games, using this functionality, will be announced soon. I also believe that cross-control, cross-buy and cloud saving will be pretty much PS4 and PS Vita standard features. Many are speculating that ‘digital’ will revolutionise the way we buy games. Sony and various publishers have already started releasing new titles on the PSN store, with the option to pre-order some games which are automatically pushed to the console on release day. However, this is far from being the norm with only some titles being available digitally and at a more expensive price than the disc version. In future, all games must be available to buy in digital and disc format at competitive prices. It is also imperative that the PSN servers are updated to offer faster download speeds. It is unfortunate that it may take several hours to download a big triple-A game from the PSN store, despite having a faster downstream connection. Recently I downloaded the Dust 514 beta. After the lengthy download of the main code I was told that the game needed to download an additional 2 GB patch. On a tested 50 Mb fibre optic wired connection it took over 3 hours (when it should have taken minutes). By the time it was done, I had lost the will to play and had done something different with my free time. Ideally, the auto-download service will also be improved and would force the PS3 to update firmware and, most importantly, download game patches for all your gaming library and not just the titles recently played.

Finally, the differences between SCE territories needs to be a bad memory of the past. Over the past few months there has been a big uproar on the European PSN forums and official blog. Hundreds of gamers are complaining about announced games missing in action or delayed for months. This is incredibly frustrating, especially when SCEA seems to be very good at publishing titles on time in North America. Also, both Microsoft and Steam are doing an incredible good job at releasing titles, simultaneously, in all territories. The issue seems to be caused by the fact that Sony operates in each territory differently, with each region acting as an independent organisation. Europe is also formed by various nations that have different laws and licensing issues. Ideally, Sony should overcome the various legal issues (like Microsoft and Steam did), put a ban on the ‘silo’ mentality and have the QA departments in each region working together to facilitate the publishing process in all territories. Perhaps, having one QA team for all regions could be a way to minimise delays, as it would stop the resource intensive process that developers have to go through to get their games certified by each regional QA department.

Whilst in this article I shared PS4 theories of my making, I remain optimistic about the future of PlayStation and Sony’s ability to deliver a successful and powerful new console. The competition is fierce, but history has shown that Sony knows how to win hearts and minds of gamers and has always released powerful and fascinating machines.

Most importantly Sony has been able to innovate and develop new and interesting ways to play games. With the help of first and second party developers I know that, whatever happens, the future is bright and, personally, I can’t wait to see what it holds.

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DNATLANTIC JUMPED AT THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY FAR CRY 3 & POSE A FEW QUESTIONS TO THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER WHILE HE WAS THERE.

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FAR CRY 3

PREVIEW REVIEWER: DNAtlantic

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 30 Nov 2013

DNATLANTIC PLAYS THE FIRST 3 HOURS OF THE CAMPAIGN MODE IN AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT “Whether you’re already a fan of the Far Cry series or jumping into the franchise for the very first time, you’re going to be blown away by the gritty story and epic adventure we’re going to deliver,” said Dan Hay, producer at Ubisoft Montréal.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to a Far Cry 3 single player event where I could get 3 hours worth of the campaign story right from the beginning and man did I have some fun playing it. It’s taken the greenery and exotic island location of the first game, the sense of place and faction-fighting from the second – along with some very pretty environmental effects – and combined them all with some of the nastiest characters you’ll ever see in a game. Far Cry 3’s villainy is far beyond the pale – Vas, a dark, nasty figure more akin to the Joker than any other identity in gaming.

There’s a palpable sense of events hurrying out of control in Far Cry 3. From the opening level, which sees you escaping Vas’ clutches in a very effective gaming equivalent of a ‘cold open’, to later missions to save your friends, or help your adopted tribal pals, to... well, there’s a lot to do, and the open world is so much fun to explore. You have got some pretty intense things to do. You can in theory, once you find out what you need to do to rescue one friend, take time out to gather crafting items, or take on side quests.

and mobility), The Shark (assault takedowns and healing), and The Spider (stealth takedowns and survival).

Each of these trees bears a different focus. Dumping your skill points into ‘The Heron’ unlocks abilities like reduced fall damage, shooting with one hand while on a zip line, or staying underwater longer. With ‘The Shark’, you get things like more health slots and the ability to quietly pull the pin from an enemy’s grenade before kicking him away.

And with ‘The Spider’, you unlock stuff like faster reloads, quieter sprinting, and selling scavenged items at a higher price.

What this system does reinforce, though, is the player’s interaction with the jungle. Dennis, the NPC who nurses you back to health after escaping Vas, tells you that you must become one with the jungle, and this idea of self-sufficiency is found within the ability to exist purely off the land, if you choose. Sure, you need stores and such to find and buy guns and ammo and other upgrades, but if you wanted, you could – in theory – just rely on a bow and handmade arrows. That’s actually pretty cool.

A lot games take things like cooking grenades, or even stealth-kills, as a rote thing, but Far Cry 3’s protagonist starts off scared, alone, and really not that good – at anything. Ubisoft’s trying to present Far Cry 3 as very much a dark hero’s journey.

All of this is on top of the same, emergent chaos of gunfights and open world action as its predecessors, with the awesome change that you can now actually affect the world – no more automatically re-populating check-points! Random gunfights are wonderfully free-flowing.

The environment’s pretty nasty on Rook Island – there are trippy mushrooms, snakes, boars, komodo dragons, and even crocodiles in rivers and sharks close in to shore (not to mention nasty stuff like dirty needles and broken meth pipes in NPC’s pockets!). It just feels alive with danger and in a very immersive, non-intrusive kind of way – the wildlife will just as often attack bad-guys as you.

Far Cry 3 adds a tonne of depth to the standard FPS. Not only do you get miles of open world to run, swim, drive, and even fly over but where Far Cry 3 gets a little more overt in its RPG leanings is in its skill tree system. As you complete quests and pull off especially skilled takedowns (headshots, stealth kills, and so on), you collect experience points, which unlock skill points at various thresholds. These skill points let you purchase new active and passive abilities along three different animal-inspired skill trees: The Heron (long-range takedowns

Far Cry 3 is looking like it could easily be the best of the series – it’s certainly the most ambitious - and I for one am certainly looking forward to it For the people who might not know, Far Cry 3 will be out on November 30th.

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FAR CRY 3 Q&A - WITH DAN HAY (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AT UBISOFT MONTRÉAL) WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE SORTS OF ACTIVITIES THERE ARE FOR PLAYERS TO DO IN FC3?

Activity-wise, there’s a lot. You can gather up different types of plants to give to Dr Earnhardt, the mental herbalist who will make and give you medicine and drugs, there are collectable items you can find throughout the islands and more.

HOW IMPORTANT WILL IT BE FOR THE PLAYER TO GO AND EXPLORE THESE THINGS? IF THEY WANT JUST A STRAIGHT LINEAR FPS EXPERIENCE, CAN THEY HAVE THAT? Of course! If you’re one of those hardcore gamers who focus entirely on the missions and don’t want to venture out in the open world too much you certainly can. We don’t want to force upon the player to go into the open world but with certain missions it’s obviously a necessity for you to go out and find a certain object or plant. Although what’s great about the game is you’ll come across these hardcore linear first person players who will end up actually find themselves wanting finding out about this shiny thing up in the mountain or maybe run after a goat to hunt it for its skin to make something out of it. And that’s what will be great about FC3.

FAR CRY 2 WAS ALL ABOUT IMMERSION IN THE GAME BY USING A MAP THAT YOUR CHARACTER WOULD BRING OUT IN GAME AND THE AMOUNT OF AMMO YOU HAD WOULD ONLY POP UP WHEN SWITCHING WEAPONS. WILL I BE ABLE TO TURN OFF THE MINI MAP AND HUD? You will be able to turn the HUD off and use the large map when pressing select but in-game map doesn’t make a return. Immersion in the game is key. For Far Cry 3 we focused more now with the emotional side and in the way things happen in the game; having to press and hold on a wound to save your older brother but at the same time feeling his pulse slowing down as he is dying. The story-driven journey you take with Jason is what we believe is key to that immersion in the game and we are proud of what we have come up with to deliver just that.

APART FROM THE VEHICLES I ALREADY KNOW TO BE IN THE GAME, CARS, JEEPS, BOATS AND GLIDERS, ARE THERE ANY OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORT YOU’VE ADDED TO FC3?

Well there is one pretty awesome one but I’ll leave that as a surprise for you ;) DO CRATES AT SAFE HOUSES RETURN FROM FC2?

No but once you take over a base, there will be shops and places for you to store and buy other weapons.

HOW LONG WILL THE NOVELTY OF EXPLORATION LAST COMPARED TO FC2?

That’s a very good question. No one has asked me that before. I think it all depends on the player and how he or she plays the game.

There are a lot of things to do in the game. What I found funny is when my colleague on the E3 stage started to play the single player mission he didn’t actually know what would happen. There’s so much variety that can happen when playing through the game that what I find cool is the same thing wont happen twice.

Here’s an example; I was trying to take over this base and instead of taking it stealthy or head on, I trained up this tiger I found so he could attack the faction but then it saw some cows and got distracted and ran towards them which then created a stampede towards the base.

I then saw this bear in a cage and broke the bear out of the cage so he could attack the faction. So basically I started a war between the animals and the faction and out of the blue this civilian accidentally ran down one of the people from the faction which then created a battle between the civilians and the faction. It was absolute chaos but in the end I had got the job done and the base was mine!

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FAR CRY 3

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“THE HORROR... THE HORROR...”: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HORROR GAMES ON THE PS1, PS2 AND PS3

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF

HORROR GAMES

BY ALEX DE-GRUCHY

PlayStation: Dog + Window = Fear The horror genre of video games certainly wasn’t born on the Sony PlayStation, as earlier gaming systems of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum featured horror-themed games such as Friday The 13th and Zombie Zombie. The horror genre continued to be explored in certain computer and console games through into the 1990s, albeit in very limited form. However, the advent of 32-bit technology opened up to console developers a host of new possibilities in terms of what could be achieved in a video game. These technical advances could be employed to create not just better-quality graphics and sound but also allow improvements in other areas such as story and atmosphere – often vitally important elements of horror in any medium.

Launched in Japan in December 1994 and then in the rest of the world the following year, the PlayStation’s first year of existence saw the release of several horror games, including a port of science-fiction horror first-person shooter Doom. Another combination of the sci-fi and horror genres would also appear that year in Alien Trilogy – another first-person shooter – and the Japan-only release Dark Seed, the latter a re-release of an earlier Amiga game. It actually shares a link with Alien Trilogy in that Dark Seed was created with the direct involvement of H.R. Giger, the artist responsible for the iconic creature design featured in the original Alien movie. Another re-release appeared on PS1 in 1996 in the form of Alone In The Dark 2, the second game in a horror series which continues to this day.

Two original games of note released that same year were OverBlood, a sci-fi horror which, although achieving only moderate critical and commercial success, is worthy of mention due to it being one of the first horror games to feature a fully three-dimensional virtual environment;

and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the first in the five-game Legacy of Kain series. The series continued through to the PlayStation 2 and still stands today as a hugely impressive achievement in the field of storytelling in games, with the five games all combining to form one epic dark-fantasy story of betrayal, destiny and redemption starring the vampires Kain and Raziel.

1996 also saw the release of another game. One which introduced a master of unlocking, that taught ink ribbons were precious, and which saw a certain undead dog leap through a certain window and welcome video game players into a new era of horror: survival horror. That game, of course, was Resident Evil. (Biohazard in Japan) and was a commercial blockbuster and a critical success, with players and critics alike being fully drawn into the tense and creepy atmosphere created within the game. An atmosphere greatly enhanced by the challenge the game presented – limited ammo, healing items and game-saving items.

Combined with some terrifying and dangerous enemies, the game forced the player to abandon any thoughts of a gung-ho, guns-blazing approach and instead tread carefully, apprehensive about what horrors the next room or area might contain.

With the success of Resident Evil a sequel was inevitable, and two years after the release of the original, Resident Evil 2 appeared after a development period that was both troubled and costly, but which eventually resulted in a fantastic sequel that upped the ante in terms of scale and action while remaining true to its horror roots. A third game introducing the monstrous and relentless Nemesis creature was later released, as was Resident Evil: Survivor, a poorly-received spin-off which utilised a first-person perspective rather than the traditional third-person and which was playable in some territories with a lightgun rather than a controller.

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Still, Resident Evil wasn’t the only game to launch horror to new heights on the PlayStation. A more disturbing and psychological take on the genre appeared in the form of Silent Hill, a game which took a less action-oriented approach than Resident Evil in a number of ways, including having a more limited number of weapons and the choice of an everyman as the main character - one who has a more grounded, relatable goal in that he is a father simply trying to find his missing daughter. One of the many areas in which Silent Hill excelled was in the soundtrack and sound design provided by sound director Akira Yamaoka, whose choice of an industrial and discordant style of music helped keep players’ nerves frayed. Yamaoka’s work would become synonymous with Silent Hill as he continued to work on other games in the series for years to come.

A number of other horror games of varying quality appeared during the latter half of the PS1’s lifecycle, including licensed releases such as Evil Dead: Hail To The King (a lacklustre effort but one which at least saw Bruce Campbell reprising the role of Ash Williams) and Shadow Man. As for original games, Dino Crisis closely followed the formula set by Resident Evil but didn’t simply replace zombies with dinosaurs, instead standing as an impressive game in its own right. A sequel followed, although this abandoned the horror aspects of the original to focus more on action. Fear Effect and its sequel Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix offered a combination of action and puzzles brought to life by bold, attention-grabbing graphics, and both games were interesting blends of cyberpunk, horror and Chinese mythology. The series was originally supposed to continue with a third game for the following console generation, but sadly this never materialised.

As the PlayStation neared the end of its lifecycle, developers began looking towards the future and Sony’s next console – the PlayStation 2. Again, technology would advance and new doors would be opened, inviting players to cross their threshold and come face-to-face with the brand-new horrors that awaited beyond.

PlayStation 2: The Second Wave (of Mutilation) Although the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000, it wasn’t until 2001 that the horror genre made its presence felt on the console. Although when it did, it did so in a big way, with a slew of not only pure horror games but also other games which featured horror elements to at least some degree. The latest titles in existing series appeared, such as Resi-

dent Evil Code: Veronica X and Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica.

Despite their similar titles, the two games actually had little bearing on each other, the latter being a follow-up to the PS1’s Resident Evil: Survivor. The Alone In The Dark series continued with Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare, which was also released on PS1.

But by far the most important horror sequel in those early days of the PS2 was Silent Hill 2, which told a stand-alone story with barely any connection to the original game. This was no weakness, however, as the game delved even deeper than the original into the realm of psychological horror, exploring dark topics such as guilt, repressed memories and sexual abuse. It introducing the iconic character Pyramid Head – a figure who, as an example of the depth and symbolism to be found in the game, turns out to be so much more than just another enemy. Silent Hill 2 has come to be regarded by many as not only the best game in the Silent Hill series but also one of the greatest horror games ever made.

One particular original horror game which appeared in 2001 put its own spin on the genre and also introduced a gameplay mechanic which greatly added to its attempts at instilling fear in the player. That game was Project Zero (Zero in Japan) and it offered a very Japanese take on horror, with a genuinely oppressive, tense and disturbing atmosphere as you explored dark and decrepit buildings haunted by vengeful ghosts. The gameplay mechanic introduced by the game was your character being armed only with a supernatural camera which you used to fend off the ghosts, and as such you were continually forced to view the murderous spirits through the lens of your camera, making encounters very immersive. The series continued on the console in later years with Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly and Project Zero 3: The Tormented, both of which closely followed the formula of the original while telling their own very dark stories and creating similarly high levels of fear and tension.

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Two early PS2 games which might not have been pure horror games but which did feature elements of the genre and which went on to become successful series were Onimusha: Warlords and Devil May Cry. Onimusha: Warlords was based on the Resident Evil gameplay template but with swords, samurai and demons replacing guns, special forces soldiers and zombies. The action-heavy Devil May Cry introduced Dante the demon hunter and focused on shooting and hacking up demons as stylishly as possible. Interestingly, Devil May Cry actually began development as the latest Resident Evil game, before the decision was made to have it become its own separate title.

Horror games based on existing properties continued to appear, ranging from the well-known, such as Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, to the more obscure, such as Gregory Horror Show, a game based on a Japanese animated series and which featured bold, cartoon-style graphics that belied the sinister undercurrent running through the game. The Thing was a particularly impressive licensed release, the game acting as a sequel to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 horror movie.

Although the game contained plenty of action, it also paid respect to the bleak and isolated atmosphere present in the original film. It also took concepts from the film and used them to create innovative and effective gameplay elements in the form of a “trust system” and a “fear system” which affected your dealings with the non-player characters under your command, with their behaviour being influenced by your actions as well as the environments in which they found themselves.

Another game to feature an innovative gameplay mechanic was Forbidden Siren (Siren in Japan), which, like Project Zero before it, was a very Japanese-influenced horror experience, creating an oppressive atmosphere of dread and fear in a game that was also very challenging.

The gameplay mechanic in question was the “sightjack” ability which allowed the player to see through the eyes of enemies, thus offering an advantage while simultaneously increasing tension as you watched your enemies attempt to hunt you down.

The horror genre took a turn for the nasty in 2003 when Rockstar Games, never a developer afraid to take risks, unleashed the brutal and murderous Manhunt upon the PS2. Manhunt threw players into an utterly merciless world where murder was the only constant, with your

character being forced to hide and sneak and kill simply to survive, and where sudden, brutal violence was shown in a very realistic and graphic fashion. Inevitably, the game drew controversy, but beyond this it remained a bleak, bloody and powerful horror experience that was certainly visceral but also darkly psychological at the same time. A sequel was released four years later but Manhunt 2, whilst offering a similar combination of brutal violence and psychological horror, couldn’t quite match up to the grim brilliance of its predecessor.

Meanwhile, the Resident Evil series marched on with the releases of Resident Evil: Dead Aim, an interesting but flawed mix of first-person and third-person action; and Resident Evil: Outbreak, which was the first in the series to feature online multiplayer support, except for the PAL version of the game, which had no online capability. This was rectified for the game’s sequel, however.

As well as the latest games in established horror franchises such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the PS2 also saw the release of a number of more obscure horror titles with niche appeal, such as Lifeline, which never saw release in Europe but which is notable for its feature of having the player control their on-screen character not with a traditional controller but by speaking commands into an actual USB headset.

Another game employing an alternative control method was The Typing of the Dead (a Japan-only release), which was an adaption of The House of the Dead 2. Instead of employing a light-gun as the House of the Dead games usually did, this title had the player use a keyboard to defeat oncoming zombies and monsters by quickly typing specific letters, words and phrases. Some critics enjoyed the game’s absurd premise and humour while others panned it for the same reasons.

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By now, the PS2 counted a number of impressive horror games amongst its library, and more were appearing all the time as developers continued to work within the genre: •

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•

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Obscure starred a group of teenagers battling monsters at a school and featured co-operative multiplayer as well as the ability to complete the game even if controllable members of the main cast should die.

The Suffering was a bloody and violent mash-up of action and horror featuring monster designs by legendary visual effects artist Stan Winston.

Much of the sadly overlooked Cold Fear took place on a boat during a storm, and the game challenged the player to survive against not only monstrous enemies but also the environmental hazards presented by the setting.

Haunting Ground was a gothic horror starring a girl and her dog that focused on puzzles and evasion rather than combat, and which gave you the ability to issue commands to your canine companion.

In 2005 the PS2 saw the release of Resident Evil 4, a game which revitalised the long-running series, expertly straddling the line between action and horror, and which was a huge critical and commercial success, often being cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Whilst retaining connections to the previous games, Resident Evil 4 introduced a host of impressive new elements which have since influenced not only other horror games but third-person games in general.

One final PS2 horror game worthy of mention is Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, a remake of the original game but one different enough that it could easily be considered an original game in its own right. The game contained no combat whatsoever, with evasion being the only way of dealing with enemies, focusing instead on story, atmosphere and psychology.

In fact, the framing device used for the story is a first-person psychotherapy session in which the player is questioned by a therapist, with your chosen answers then affecting settings and characters encountered in the game. It was a clever and innovative design decision that helped create a unique and compelling horror game.

On the whole, the PlayStation 2 era was a hugely successful and creative one for the horror genre in video games, the console’s library being packed with dozens of horror games catering to a wide range of tastes.

But as before, a new generation of console eventually approached and with it gamers began to look forward to a new generation of horror, one over which the success of the more action-oriented Resident Evil 4 would cast a large – but not all-encompassing – shadow.

PlayStation 3: A New Definition of Nightmare The early days of horror on the PlayStation 3 saw the genre influenced by the ever-growing popularity of the first-person shooter genre, as found in games such as F.E.A.R., Clive Barker’s Jericho (as the title suggests, a game made in conjunction with famed horror author) and The Darkness, an adaption of the Top Cow comic book series.

These games attempted to combine horror with the often frantic action of first-person shooters, with mixed results. One game released early in the life of the PS3 which did manage to combine first-person action and genuine horror to impressive effect was Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

This was partly due to the fact that for the majority of the game, the focus of the action was on melee combat rather than guns, forcing the player to get up-close and personal when dealing with enemies. Also, mixed in amongst the brutal combat were more subtle moments of psychological horror that greatly added to the atmosphere of the game.

Another feature was the ability to carry out forensic investigations of crime scenes – although perhaps not used as often as it could have been, it was still an element that added more depth to the game.

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Condemned 2: Bloodshot was released in 2008, and later that same year another horror game appeared which opted for third-person gameplay over first-person and which spawned a successful horror franchise: Dead Space. Featuring impressive graphics that brought to life its worn-in, industrial sci-fi setting and the horrors found therein, Dead Space did an excellent job of providing not only intense, gory action but also quieter moments of fear and tension, offering a thorough and very effective horror experience that remains one of the finest of this console generation. The series would go on to produce an equally impressive sequel and the game’s universe was also expanded into other media such as animated films, novels and comic books.

Japan), a remake of the original Forbidden Siren but which implemented a number of the gameplay improvements found in the sequel to the original game. The innovative “sightjack” ability made a refined return and Siren: Blood Curse offered the same stealth-oriented gameplay and oppressive atmosphere of dread present in the two PS2 games.

Indeed, Siren: Blood Curse remains one of the few pure horror games on the PS3, eschewing the more action-oriented approach taken by many of the console’s other horror games.

Another entry in the Resident Evil series was inevitable and Resident Evil 5 was released amidst a great deal of hype and expectation.

Spurred on by the success of Resident Evil 4, the next instalment put even more emphasis on combat and over-the-top action, moving further and further away from its survival horror roots – much of the game took place in daylight and in wide-open areas, ammunition was plentiful, and you were forced to play alongside a co-op partner (controlled either by AI or a second human player) for the entire game.

Despite Resident Evil 5 being technically impressive, the game’s clear shift in focus left many long-time fans of the series disappointed and certainly fostered the impression that the horror genre had on the whole become co-opted by the action genre. More evidence for this argument was later provided by Capcom in the form of squad-based shooter Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Although not regarded foremost as a horror game, BioShock certainly did feature a number of disquieting and horrific moments within its scifi setting and alongside its thoughtful, philosophical story. Although yet another first-person shooter, BioShock was actually so much more, containing excellent voice acting, stunning and memorable art design, a deep and flexible combat system, an exploration of certain moral and philosophical themes, and one of the best plot twists ever seen in a video game.

As well as new, original titles, existing horror series continued with the PS3, such as Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Meanwhile, other games continued to utilise horror to successful effect even if their central genre was something else. For example, Demon’s Souls was an action-RPG, but one that contained horror elements in its settings and enemy design. The game presented the player with a world that was dark, bleak and decaying, filled with a variety of nightmarish and monstrous creatures. This dark-fantasy approach worked to equally great effect in the game’s spiritual successor Dark Souls.

A game derided by many long-time fans of the series for its emphasis on combat. But it still possessed a number of the recognisable elements – an intriguing story, a dark and immersive atmosphere, an excellent soundtrack – which had made the Silent Hill series so effective and successful. A series continuation which was actually a remake came in the form of Siren: Blood Curse (Siren: New Translation in

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Also, some developers weren’t afraid to put a horror spin on existing titles which hadn’t originated in the genre, as seen in games such as Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, which saw zombies and other undead creatures roaming the Old West landscape of the original Red Dead Redemption; Infamous: Festival of Blood, an expansion for Infamous 2 that focused on vampires; and Yakuza: Dead Souls, a zombie-filled take on the Yakuza action-adventure series. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and Yakuza: Dead Souls were far from the only games representative of the revitalised interest in zombie fiction which had come about over the past several years. Other games focusing on zombies – some including attempts at genuine horror while others took a more cartoon approach – included Burn Zombie Burn!, Dead Block, Plants vs. Zombies, Dead Island and Dead Rising 2.

Several zombie-themed games were purely digital releases on the PlayStation Store, with one of the most enjoyable and polished being Dead Nation, a top-down shooter which offered plenty of frantic action as you – and a co-op partner, if you so chose – gunned down hordes of the undead. This action was complemented by the fact that the developer had clearly put a lot of effort into the settings and atmosphere present within the game, with excellent and moody sound design and a high level of detail in the graphics. The PlayStation Store contains a number of other horror games besides Dead Nation. In these days of triple-A titles, with many developers taking less risks due to the high costs associated with video game development. The Store offers the chance for smaller developers to release games which might be too great a financial risk as full blu-ray titles, but which still have potential and which are inherently no less valid than any retail release – good news for the horror genre given the decline in support it has suffered from some developers and publishers this console generation.

Horror games – and games containing elements of horror to at least some degree – available on the PlayStation Store include Limbo, a side-scrolling platformer whose monochromatic visual style lends the game an eerie and dreamlike atmosphere; Amy, a survival horror which tasks the player with protecting a young girl while fighting off a monstrous infection; Costume Quest, a charming and colourful adventureRPG set on Halloween night; I Am Alive, a bleak and challenging postapocalyptic game that takes a look at human nature in the face of the

end of the world; and The Walking Dead, an episodic adaption of the Image comic book series heavy on story and characterisation.

It could easily be argued that the PlayStation 3 hasn’t lived up to its predecessor the PS2 in terms of providing as wide a range of horror games by developers keen to explore and add new things to the genre. The opinion that pure horror games are a dead genre is regularly regurgitated by critics and players alike nowadays. There is certainly both current and upcoming evidence that this is the case: the recently released Resident Evil 6 focused almost entirely on over-the-top, largescale action rather than providing any real kind of horror; and with Capcom definitively abandoning the “survival horror” category they themselves had created and instead labelling the game “dramatic horror”.

Also despite the first two games being two of the finest horror games released for the PS3 so far, the upcoming Dead Space 3 has chosen to follow in the footsteps of the Resident Evil series. The third installment takes a more action-heavy approach, even introducing a co-op mode, a feature heavily criticised by many players of both Resident Evil 5 and 6.

It doesn’t bode well for the delivery of a horror experience as effective as those found in the first two Dead Space games.

But as easy as it is to be bleak about the future of horror on the PlayStation, there remains plenty of evidence to the contrary, as can be found in upcoming PS3 titles such as Dead Island: Riptide, a sequel to the original open-world zombie game; Deadly Premonition, an offbeat and critically polarising horror finally seeing release on the PS3; Until Dawn, a first-person horror featuring gameplay based around use of the PlayStation Move controller; and The Last of Us, the highly-anticipated postapocalyptic horror-adventure from acclaimed developer Naughty Dog. The fact is, horror video games have existed throughout most of the history of the medium and, just as in the mediums of film and literature, there’s no reason to expect that the genre would ever truly go away.

Developers will continue to explore and advance the genre through use of their own creativity as well as whatever technological advances become available, always finding new ways to instil fear and tension within the player. So if you ever think to yourself that horror has no future on the PlayStation, just consider the genre as if it were the killer in a slasher movie – just when you think he’s finally dead...

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HAVE CODEMASTERS CATERED FOR ALL RACING FANS WITH F1 2012 AND THE UPCOMING F1 RACE STARS? BABAORILEY3 FINDS OUT.

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F1 2012/F1 RACE STARS

PREVIEW WRITER: babaoriley3

A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS? While creating a racing game, developers always have to keep one thing in mind, that no matter what they do, they can’t please everyone.

Some gamers will want an arcade gaming experience, such as Burnout Paradise, while others will prefer a Gran Turismo-style simulation.

Trying to get the balance right between the two is hard, and this year Codemasters think they have found a solution.

Since Codemasters first gained the rights to the Formula One series in 2009, the games have slowly improved, with F1 2010 being the first outing on the PS3. Last year’s edition didn’t really add much to the gameplay, apart from the addition of KERS and DRS to match the rule changes for the 2011 season. Now on to their fourth season, they are no longer debutants but experienced campaigners, and improvements will be expected on the slightly buggy nature of the last couple of games.

F1 2012 is the biggest step that Codemasters F1 series has taken in terms of developments. While previous games have been based on living the life of a Formula One driver, with interviews and press conferences, as well as the menus being based in the paddock, this instalment scraps all of those to allow the game to focus on what the game should have always been about, driving. Career mode remains largely unchanged, with the objective still being to get yourself moving up the ladder, moving from Marussia to McLaren. You can choose to only take part in the race or go for the full race weekend with full race distance, although this can be a bit tedious on the harder difficulties in the slower cars; a man can only drive around so long in 17th while getting lapped before getting very bored indeed. As I learnt on F1 2010 and 2011.

allowing you to move up the F1 hierarchy faster than before, meaning that you don’t have to commit a large period of time moving through teams, so there is still time to play your other new shiny games. As well as this, there is now Champions mode, allowing you to take on all six champions competing in 2012 in a variety of scenarios at which they excel, with Kimi at Spa being a prime example. This mode doesn’t seem to have too much replay value, unless it is updated with new situations. Multiplayer returns in the same tried and tested format, which will undoubtedly mean the same crash-fest as before. And as expected, all 24 drivers and 20 tracks are included, meaning you can race around Austin before Sebastian, Fernando and Lewis give it a try.

All of this makes F1 2012 a very good racing simulator, which will keep 50% of the market happy, but what about the others? What if you just want to have good fun while racing around a crazy track with crazy power-ups? Then F1 Race Stars will appeal to you.

Barring rule changes to try and spice up the 2013 season, F1 Race Stars is quite a long way away from a realistic racing game, with caricatures of all the seasons drivers, as well as some slightly unexpected track modifications.

I mean who doesn’t love hairpins that head towards the sky and loop the loops? The graphics of tracks and cars are given an overhaul, with Hockenheim leading you through a Bavarian castle, and all the drivers having oversized heads with undersized cars. And of course, no game like this is complete without power-ups to give you an advantage ahead of the pack.

The Young Driver Test makes it easy for new players of the series to understand the mechanics of driving a F1 car, making this game very accessible.

However, there is now a mode that allows you to get into a top team more quickly, without having to go through a full season or two.

Season challenge is basically a 10-race career mode, with 5-lap races

You won’t see any double diffusers and F-ducts here, with homing bubbles and turbo boosts being the order of the day. These Mario Kart clones are usually awful, so it will be good to see how this manages when it is released this November, just in time for the Christmas rush.

One thing is certain, if you like a good old racing game, then Codemasters will have catered for you in some way during 2012.

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AT FIRST GLANCE, IS METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE JUST A NEW GAME WITH A SLIGHTLY SILLY TITLE? CAPTAINCORTEZ DIGS A LITTLE DEEPER & REVEALS JUST HOW PROMISING THIS GAME MAY ACTUALLY BE.

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METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE

PREVIEW REVIEWER: CaptainCortez

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 21 Feb 2013

A SILLY TITLE OR A GAME WITH MUCH PROMISE? At first glance, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is nothing but a new game with a slightly silly title. Digging a little deeper however, reveals just how promising this game may actually be.

With the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (a prequel to the previous Metal Gear Solid titles) however, players were happy once again and more importantly now had the pleasure of playing with the original Snake (Big Boss) for the entirety of the game.

Enter Raiden.

Metal Gear Solid 2 introduced a blonde hero who served as the main protagonist throughout the majority of the campaign. There was nothing inherently wrong with him as a character but his inclusion as protagonist was a disappointment, because, after all, he was a rookie compared to everyone’s favourite espionage figure, Snake and as such, shouldn’t have been expected to be on par with our usual spy. The problem ran deeper than that however.

Now the question you may be asking is, ‘what happened to Raiden?’

Well, the answer to that is simple.

You see, if you take away a kid’s lollipop, anger, crying and feelings of resentment kick in and that’s exactly what happened with ‘Blondie’ here. Taken from us, our most familiar hero was gone and instead replaced with this newbie, Raiden.

Effeminate in appearance, Raiden had long flowing golden hair, a catsuit, and nimble, acrobatic moves that would make even the world’s top Olympic gymnast jealous.

Without the familiarity of our gruff and tough protagonist, players felt lost, outraged and some even went as far as to lose interest in Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series altogether, regardless of how good the game actually was.

Acknowledging the huge backlash regarding their last title, Konami and Hideo Kojima decided to embrace the hatred by making a long distant, past relative (supposedly) of Raiden who was not only effeminate, but was portrayed as a weak, incompetent pushover who had questionable relations with his superior, Colonel Volgin. Needless to say, with Volgin’s thirst for power, mixed with his tyrannical behaviour and torture methods, you could tell who did the receiving in this relationship...

Boom! All of a sudden, Raiden had become a joke in the form of Ivan Raidonovitch Raikov - an incredibly useless GRU Major, second in command to Volgin who was renowned for abusing his subordinates.

This new mockery of Raiden was short-lived however, because when Metal Gear Solid 4 was released, players were introduced to a new Raiden. A battle hardened Raiden with intent to kill, dressed in some kind of cybernetic suit that gave him superhuman abilities to be on equal ground with one of the series’ main antagonists, Vamp.

This was the game that showed gamers across the globe just how cool someone could become.

Metal Gear Solid 2 was worth playing for Vamp and Fortune alone.

These characters are two of the most iconic characters in Metal Gear history, next to Meryl and Psycho Mantis of the original PlayStation 1 title.

With a strong but strange mixture of grace and brutality, Raiden grew into a well-rounded, stylish and powerful character, becoming loved and respected by many. So, with that in mind, Kojima and Konami decided to make a game based solely on Raiden, the child soldier turned hero of the Metal Gear Solid series.

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Now, when coming up with a concept for a game based on an already existing character, the first thing you must do is get to grips with who this character is, what his/her motivations are, how he/she works and what kind of game they are suited to. In this instance, the answer is action, but for a character of this magnitude to work in a game, it couldn’t just be your typical action game. No. Konami and Kojima would have to take this several steps further and break into the ‘extreme action’ genre if this was going to work, and who better to go to than the original ‘extreme action’ sub-genre creator, Hideki Kamiya.

places Metal Gear Rising in the year 2018, four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4.

Now, reverting back to the gameplay aspect of things, the key feature originally shown to us was Metal Gear Rising’s unique in-game cutting ability.

That’s right. Step forward Platinum Games!

Being a relatively new company within the industry, P* would be worrying about the success of their titles if they were any other company, but formed of many Ex-Capcom and Clover employees, they don’t worry so much because they know they’re the gods of the experimental action genre.

Since Kamiya’s original creation within this sub-genre (Devil May Cry), he has since been responsible for Bayonetta which proved to be a huge success amongst fans of the extreme and stylish action genres, with a sequel having just been announced for the WiiU (sucks for us!).

Just as a note here, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Platinum Games, they’re incredibly talented at making things look shiny much akin to a Michael Bay movie and aside from their interestingly imaginative creativity when it comes to set pieces, level design and mech suits/bosses, new, furiously fast and responsive game mechanics are their strong point.

Now, looking at the currently released media for this title, it’s clear that Metal Gear Rising has been in development for some time now and has had many teasers, trailers and gameplay videos presented to the public ever since it was first announced back in 2009.

The system itself allows (in theory) for anything to be sliced through.

Whether for combat purposes, platforming purposes or the sheer hilarity of cutting melons into as many tiny pieces as possible, it’s as clear as day to us that this game has been built around this single mechanic.

During combat, you can slice enemies normally with attack-combo’s you’d see similar to those featured in titles such as Devil May Cry and God of War. You can roll, jump and shield yourself from danger with Rising’s block mechanic. You can use stealth to stalk your enemies and go in for the kill, use rooftops to jump on and drop straight through your enemies, use your surroundings as cover to scout without fear of detection, enabling you to read your enemies’ movement patterns to judge the best time to go in for the kill.

Or……

You can run around like a mentalist, jumping, weaving, dodging and slashing everything that comes your way, spinning your katana around fast enough to block incoming projectiles (such as bullets), all while sliding along the ground (in a clearly Vanquish inspired fashion) whilst switching to manual slice mode to de-limb your opponents, slicing them up as you see fit, and when you’re done, you’re free to rip out their cybernetic spinal cords to power yourself and your suit back up.

The combat is fast paced. Very fast paced, but luckily for us, we can use a ‘free slicing’ mode, which allows us to automatically cut things to ribbons at a blistering speed, as we run through and past each and every on screen target, with just a simple button press.

Note - In case you wondered, Platinum Games are in charge of the gameplay mechanics, whilst Konami are handling plot and Raiden’s character design.

Using this mechanic for platforming however, is different and involves a small amount of brain power.

The story, originally set to be an ‘interquel’ between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has now been declared as a spin off with an older Raiden whose past as a child soldier still haunts him. Information regarding the game’s timeline

If you’re on a mission where your goal is to infiltrate a base whilst remaining undetected, you don’t want cameras in your way. So, the simple solution is to slice through them. Now, you can do this with what looks like virtually all of your surroundings.

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You can cut through brick, metal, flesh, people, mechs and whatever else comes your way and on top of this, if there’s something preventing you from progressing through the level, you can cut through heavy steel door locks and even pylons to pass through or run up and use as a way to continue towards your objective.

You are, after all a Cybernetic Ninja.

On top of this, boss fights look insanely fast, the story looks over the top and the gameplay looks to be incredibly fun and rewarding, with a serious amount of depth for those of us who really want to delve deep into the combat mechanics.

My current feeling is that everything looks and feels great right now, but will Raiden’s quest for vengeance feel just as good in our hands when it releases in February next year?

Only time will tell, but in the meantime, be sure to check out the latest Story trailer below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeK9ZG7mc1w

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RYANNUMBER3GAMER HAS BEEN DREAMING UP THE PERFECT DLC CHARACTERS TO ADD TO PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE... ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION, SUPERBOT? WRITER: ryannumber3gamer

10. Gex (Gex series).

4. Sora (Kingdom Hearts series).

Moves: Tail whip, Karate kick, karate punch.

Level 1: A super powerful tail whip.

Level 2: He turns everyone into flies and eats them.

Level 3: He puts everyone into a TV and changes the channel.

Moves: Keyblade swing, fire attack, freeze attack.

Level 1: He uses a powerful keyblade and attacks one person.

Level 2: Summons Donald & Goofy to help attack.

Level 3: Changes into final form and attacks everyone.

9. Abe (Oddworld).

3. Sully (Uncharted series).

Moves: Slap, bring in enemies to attack, get Mudokons to help you.

Level 1: Abe uses mind control on the closest person.

Level 2: Abe uses mind control on everyone.

Level 3: Abe calls in loads of Mudokons to attack every person.

Moves: Shotgun, machine gun, powerful punch.

Level 1: Brings out a powerful shotgun and attacks someone.

Level 2: Drives a car around and attacks everyone.

Level 3: He climbs onto his airplane and starts shooting everyone with a powerful machine gun.

8. Spyro The Dragon (Spyro series).

Moves: Breathes fire, charge attack, head-butt.

Level 1: He uses a powerful fire breath on the closest enemy.

Level 2: Spyro runs around using a super charge attack.

Level 3: Hunter comes in and you can shoot arrows at enemies.

7. Crash Bandicoot (Crash Series).

Moves: Spin attack, slide attack, belly-flop.

Level 1: Crash pulls out the fruit gun and attacks an enemy.

Level 2: Crash gets three Aku Akus and runs around attacking enemies.

Level 3: Coco picks up Crash on her tiger and both attack all enemies.

2. Kuo (Infamous 2).

Moves: Ice Punch, ice Blast, throwing ice.

Level 1: She freezes and punches an enemy.

Level 2: She uses freeze breath to freeze enemies and attack them.

Level 3: She and Cole join their powers together to attack everyone.

1. Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet & Clank series).

Moves: Attack claw, laser attack, super speed attack.

Level 1: He calls in Lawrence who helps attack.

Level 2: He runs and attacks at super speed.

Level 3: He calls in Courtney Gears who sings a song which kills all enemies.

6. Murray (Sly Cooper Series).

Moves: Punch, grab, belly-slam.

Level 1: Murray uses the fire punch power-up to attack an enemy.

Level 2: Murray uses a thunder flop to take out enemies below him.

Level 3: He eats spice from Sly 2 Episode 4 which makes him angry and attacks enemies.

5. Batman (Batman Arkham Series).

Moves: Punch, throw Batarang, uses grapple gun to attack enemies.

Level 1: Throws a Batarang that blows up when it hits an enemy.

Level 2: The Batwing comes and attacks everyone.

Level 3: Batman takes control of a titan and starts attacking everyone.

So those are the top 10 characters I’d love to see in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Thanks for reading.

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TOKYO JUNGLE

REVIEW REVIEWER: chrisa3211

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 26 Sept 2012

CHRISA3211 ENTERS THE ‘WILD’ STREETS OF TOKYO ...

‘Humankind has vanished’ boldly proclaims the game’s introduction before throwing you straight into tutorials. They’re not so forthcoming with details, however, and we’re left to figure out for ourselves why Tokyo’s hustle and bustle has been replaced with wild animals. After familiarising yourself with the concepts of stealth, hunting, combat and territory, your chosen animal takes to the streets in search of dinner.

Already released in Japan, Tokyo Jungle has now made its way to the American and European Playstation Network stores and sees players taking control of cats, dogs and, ahem, larger animals in two different game types: in ‘survival’, the aim is to live for as long as possible by eating and procreating your way through the various districts of the Japanese capital. By retrieving memory sticks – every animal’s preferred data storage device - you then unlock separate story missions in the plots centred around some of the creatures.

In survival mode, time is sped up so you’re rewarded for every year you stay alive - as well as territory taken, spouses seduced and enemies

eaten. This does mean, however, that your animal’s hunger meter will seem to need more attention than Louie Spence – let it hit zero and you’ll begin to lose health; when you run out of health, that’s game over. Checkpoints exist only in the story mode so you’ll need to be extra wary if you’re negotiating the streets as one of the weaker creatures.

The deer, for example, will struggle to defeat anything larger than a chicken, so needs to hide in conveniently positioned clumps of tall grass to avoid being mauled. Unfortunately this creates some pacing issues as, while waiting tactically for enemies to pass, you’ll quickly find your stomach rumbling for some more greenery.

It’s hardly detrimental to the game since foes are, by and large, rather oblivious to your presence unless you want them to be; however, when one false move will put you back at square one it can be frustrating to be sat in a bush starving to death, with five feet and a T-Rex separating you from a stack of oversized mushrooms.

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The game certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously though – Japan Studio’s vision of postapocalyptia is accompanied by chirpy music and beat-em-up style effects.

If you tire of having your 8th generation prized animal crushed in one swoop of a cheetah’s fist, though, take refuge in the comparative leniency of the story missions. Allocating a few chapters each to 8 of the game’s creatures, you’re tasked with helping the animals adapt to a Tokyo where there are no owners to feed them and there are hungry zoo animals around every corner. Replay value is limited but the quests nicely break up what would otherwise be a cycle of starting a new survival, dying then starting again.

The game certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously though – Japan Studio’s vision of postapocalyptia is accompanied by chirpy music and beat-em-up style effects. Graphically speaking, it’s not exactly going to make Nathan Drake feel self-conscious, but if you’re looking for a game solely based on its texture quality then Tokyo Jungle was probably never on your radar to begin with. It’s well presented, even if some translations don’t technically result in English words, as menus and interfaces are clean and simple.

RPG-esque elements come in

the form of equipment found in the Tokyo ruins: clothing to strengthen and stylise your cat, foods to wash away the taste of pigeon and medicine to help you cope with the post-apocalyptic weather. Although no quantity of stat-buffing baseball caps is going to make a fight between your Pomerarian and an angry lion less bloody, it’s difficult to resist donning a pair of boxing gloves for hilarity’s sake.

It’s to the game’s credit that you’re free to explore the city rather than being confined to closed stages. Unfortunately, although you can keep on mating and creating new generations of animals ad infinitum, the survival aspect of the game can get repetitive and the map itself is not huge. Priced at £9.99/€12.99, however, it’s difficult to feel cheated when the entire game’ll set you back less than some multiplayer map packs: it’s delightful, different and downright daft at times.

If you’re open to an admittedly imperfect but ingenious slice of old-fashioned fun, give Tokyo Jungle a look!

TOKYOJUNGLE

‘IT’S TO THE GAME’S CREDIT THAT YOU’RE FREE TO EXPLORE THE CITY RATHER THAN BEING CONFINED TO CLOSED STAGES’.

CHRISA3211

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ARKEDO SERIES 001: JUMP!

REVIEW REVIEWER: QuietlyWrong

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 24 Aug 2011

ARKEDO’S FIRST OFFERING ON THE PS STORE...

With Arkedo’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit headlining the PlayStation Store offerings this month, I thought I’d look back at their first offering for the Store, the unabashedly retro, wallet-friendly JUMP! Story ‘A giant iron crab appeared, dropping bombs everywhere it goes.’ What more story do you need? Go stop those bombs!

Gameplay A mega-pixellated platforming-puzzling playground, the game couldn’t be much simpler to control – left and right to run and X to jump. Each level provides a new variation requiring you to collect all the bombs before their timers run out, avoiding hazards and monsters along the way. Get all the bombs and a doorway to the next level opens up.

Each level thoughtfully presents a different challenge. Some are races against the clock, requiring you to plan the order in which you collect the bombs; others use collapsing platforms to force you to choose

your route wisely. Other puzzle elements include piggy banks that only turn into bombs when you’ve collected enough money and gems to unlock them, and some devious one-way routes, moving platforms and Indiana Jones-style giant boulders.

Some of the level’s hazards and monsters – flame columns, crabs and snakes – are as predictable as clockwork, whereas others – bats and bone-flinging skeletons – introduce a random element to the danger that injects a niggling frustration to proceedings.

Neither bats’ nor skeletons’ behaviour patterns are malicious, so misfortune may lead to that ‘just one more go’ sensation if not to joypadagainst-floor-syndrome.

If the monsters are giving you too much grief, a limited number of hoardable knives can be found among the levels, throwable with the square button – though none is needed to complete any level.

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Graphics In keeping with the retro style, everything in the foreground is composed of great chunky pixels, but the whole is extremely vibrant and highly polished, with crisp outlines here and there, so the effect is charming rather than simplistic. A well-drawn background and smooth movement really help to life the visuals.

Sound Jaunty music and sound-effects well suited to the gameplay, predominantly adopting the chip music ambiance of the 80’s. A little repetitive after repeated attempts on one level, but there is some good variation in the music as you progress through the game.

– once you’ve mastered the game – will take less than half an hour. Hopefully it should take a few enjoyable hours getting to that level of mastery first.

Overall For me, the pick of the three Arkedo ‘series’ of budget downloadable titles, it’s a short burst of well-pitched platforming fun at a very appealing price. I can’t help but feel that with a little more content – online leaderboards for time-trials, comparing friends’ times, etc – it could have been even greater, but at £1.59 (including trophy support) it’s hard to be too critical.

Good - Stylish

Difficulty Any longevity and challenge in the game is derived from the fact that once you run out of lives, it’s game over. No saves, no continues – go back to the start and try again! That and the fact that you often learn the tricks and the traps of the levels through trial and error, though the game is rarely especially cruel. Few of the levels are particularly difficult once you’ve familiarised yourself with the layout. Indeed some of the hardest levels generously present an extra life ‘heart’ very near the beginning; when you die, the level resets and you get to pick up another extra life again, over and over until you eventually nail the level.

Getting through the 30 levels in one sitting

- Simple - Amusing - Cheap!

Bad - Short - Some frustrations Rating A packet of custard creams. In one sitting.

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DEAD OR ALIVE 5

REVIEW REVIEWER: englishgolfer

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 28 Sept 2012

THE FIRST DEAD OR ALIVE GAME FOR THE PS3...

As hard to believe as this may sound, Dead or Alive 5 is the first multiformat Dead or Alive game since Dead or Alive 2, back in the space year 2000. It is also the first time that a Dead or Alive game has been released on PlayStation 3.

Story Following the events of the previous Dead or Alive titles the sinister DOATEC corporation, those that were behind erasing people’s memories and cloning ninja schoolgirls, is no more. At the start of the story Helena Douglas launches a new Dead or Alive tournament, pitting the world’s best fighters against each other, to celebrate the launch of a new family friendly DOATEC… because nothing says peace and harmony like a bunch of sweaty men and women punching each other in the face. Meanwhile, series cover girl Kasumi is on the hunt to find her evil clone Alpha. To be frank the narrative is dense and confusing, especially if you haven’t played any of the previous games in the series. The fact that the narrative constantly jumps around in time only adds to the confusion.

Gameplay The story mode is told through multiple chapters, each featuring a different character, and consists of about 60 fights. Each fight has an optional bonus challenge, such as blocking X number of attacks, or performing a devastating tag combo. Completing these bonus challenges unlocks online titles that can be associated with your online profile. Similarly there are a wealth of additional titles, characters (including three characters from Sega’s Virtua Fighter series) and a veriety of weird and wonderful costumes to be unlocked by completing the arcade, survival, and time attack modes.

The combat system itself is pretty much unchanged from the earlier Dead or Alive games; it’s essentially a big game of rock, paper, scissors - punches and kicks can be beaten by holds, holds can be beaten by throws, and throws can be beaten by punches and kicks. It’s incredibly fast and fluid, making it easy for novices to string together impressive combos. At the same time there’s plenty of scope for players to learn complex combos and master more difficult techniques.

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The real meat of the game is found in the online multiplayer. Here players can take on all comers from across the globe in head to head battles. For the most part the online mode is very smooth, but on the odd occasion there is noticeable lag, which can be detrimental to the whole experience.

Graphics Simply put this is one great looking game. A lot of effort has been put into each of the character models (they even sweat realistically!) and the bustling destructive environments. It’s possible to smash opponents through tables, fences and walls. In some cases levels consist of multiple tiers, resulting in some bone breaking tumbles as characters are launched down stairs, off ledges, and through windows.

Difficulty The story mode is not particularly challenging, even when taking into account the bonus challenges. There are multiple tiers of difficulty for the arcade, survival, tag, and time trial modes, and a legion of skillful players online to test your mettle against.

Good - Smooth fast fighting.

- Heaps of unlockable content.

- Easy to pick up and play, difficult to master.

- Very easy on the eye.

Bad - The story is a garbled mess.

- The online can be laggy at times.

Rating: 8 out of 10 The Dead or Alive series makes an explosive return to PlayStation. It may not be that different to previous entries in the series, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

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STRONG BAD’S COOL GAME (EP 1)

REVIEW REVIEWER: ryannumber3gamer

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3

RELEASE DATE: 23 March 2011

EPISODE ONE - HOMESTAR RUINER Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is an adventure game made by Telltale Games and based on the Homestar Runner website and cartoons. It was first released on the Wii and PC in 2008 with the Playstation soon following afterwards.

Story Strong Bad is checking his email and finds he has an email asking why he just doesn’t “beat the snot” out of Homestar if he hates him so much. But after a talk with Homestar, Strong Bad decides defeating him in a race that Homestar has been training for is much better.

Gameplay The gameplay is satisfactory for an adventure game with the game controlling great. Gameplay is based on you collecting items, talking to people and solving puzzles to accomplish your objectives. Though it is a “point and click” game, Telltale has successfully implemented the game onto a PS3 controller with no niggling input issues.

A crucial part of any game is the sound and this game doesn’t disappoint. The musical score reflects the Homestar Runner style and changes according to what is happening in the game; becoming quieter when you are sneaking, for example, into a castle. The sound effects are also appropriately executed.

There is a great amount of ‘fun factor’ in the game with the balance between puzzles, story and comedy being pitched perfectly. There is also a lot of replayability, with pieces of a Snake Boxer 4 book to find.

There are also different clothes you can unlock for Strong Bad and then you can take pictures of him wearing them.

For the trophy hoarder there are trophies to be collected that require more than one run-through of the game. Another nice touch is a mini game that you play in Strong Bad’s house called Snake Boxer 4.

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Graphics The game has captured the looks and style of the Homestar Runner website and cartoons. I would not say the graphics are something gamers have not seen before but to be fair they are not meant to be.

They are meant to fit and match the style of the drawn cartoons on Homestar Runner.com.

Difficulty The puzzles can be hard but Telltale has added a hint system that you can set from low, which is hardly any hints at all, to high where you are given hints most of the time. The simplest kind of puzzle is using one item to interact with another item on the screen. Harder puzzles will involve sneaking past on-screen characters and setting up traps.

Overall It is a great first episode to the series and it is really funny. The puzzles can be hard but there are hints to help you. I would have given this game a top score had the extended mode been longer but as there are four more episodes to review there is a strong chance that I will rate this game collection 10/10. As with most games today, there is a demo on the Playstation Store. However the demo is not for Episode 1, it’s for Episode 4.

Good: - Fun Puzzles - Good gameplay - Nice story - Stays true to Homestar Runner.com’s Cartoons and Strong Bad’s Emails - Enjoyable and Funny characters - Game is very entertaining Bad: - Extended Mode is short if you’ve already collected everything

‘IT IS A GREAT FIRST EPISODE TO THE SERIES AND IT IS REALLY FUNNY. THE PUZZLES CAN BE HARD BUT THERE ARE HINTS TO

- Some puzzles are very annoying

HELP YOU’

Rating: 9/10 A good start to the series.

RYANNUMBER3GAMER

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ENGLISHGOLFER PRESENTS...

THE 19TH HOLE It’s time for another round of the 19th hole - a chance to get to know two community members a little better. In this issue we have WinnieP (who we’ll start with) and Cimbrer - our very own ‘Danish pastry’.

WinnieP

Q. WINNIEP, WHERE DOES YOUR USERNAME CAME FROM? Winnie is a nickname I’ve had since I was a kid, luckily it’s nowhere near as bad as my uncle spending his life being called Poohie, and Paulie was already taken. It’s not the most masculine of ID’s but I think I can pull it off. It has confused people in the past when they then hear my sometimes Isaac Hayes tone over a mic.

Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST POST ON THESE FORUMS, IF YOU CAN REMEMBER? I took a peek a few weeks back, when the question was posted in GD. It’s something about Buzz Quiz buzzers (Jan’10). I had been reading the

forum for quite some time before that and then didn’t really post much after that either, until I was interested in joining the SSX Über Tuesdays, and when asking Domiinatrix how to go about joining in, as I only tend to read the forum, she joked about me being ‘a bit of a lurker’.

So it’s her fault if you’ve ever read one of my posts and thought to yourself ‘what and why?’ has he just posted here.

Q. BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR GAMING HISTORY My life into the gaming world started with my gadget loving Granddad (RIP) buying me a second hand Sinclair ZX Spectrum (rubber keys), then he upgraded me to a ZX Spectrum+2 (I think it was called, one with the tape player attached). Then I was big into Mega Drive, playing and constantly swapping SNES games with my friends (Road Rash, Skitchin, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, Toe Jam & Earl, and Desert Strike). Then I didn’t own a console for years but would play loads on my friend’s N64s (Golden Eye, Snow Boarding Game) and his PS1 (Resi 1, GT, Ridge Racer, Point Blank). For a while I didn’t do any gaming except Pub Golf with the rollerball and Tiger Woods 04 on my OLD PC, with the mouse as your swing. It was only when my girlfriend surprised me for my birthday with a silver slim PS2, which came with this little game called Vice City. It wasn’t anything like the GTA I’d played years earlier, and that was me hooked!

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Read all the info about the soon to be released PS3, and once I had saved enough money I bought the 40 gig model the same weekend it was launched! My PS3 is the only gaming fix I need, although I do miss the laughs and smashed fingers Pub Golf had to offer. I wouldn’t mind someone giving me a VITA for a few weeks to play Uncharted & AC Liberation.

Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE GAME, AND WHY? This is such a hard question! It’s like someone asking me what my favourite genre of music is. I can’t even decide what my favourite game genre is, let alone one particular game! It’s all relevant to my mood at the time.

The best I can do is comparing moods to games via music. Say sometimes all I want to do is drive at breakneck speeds on any racer with a cockpit or bumper cam, I’ll listen to Prodigy or DnB. Other times I might feel like visiting a beautiful world with epic set pieces from Uncharted, like a crescendo of orchestral classical music with a delicately beautiful start then packs booming punch. Getting lost in a deep story and mellow world like AC, I’ll listen to Blues/Jazz.

If I want to scare myself and go to a dark creepy place, DeadSpace, the music of choice is System of a Down. When I kick back with something like Skate or SSX, RnB Hip-hop. Or if I’m feeling lazy, I might just fancy running around shooting people in the face with auto-aim GTA IV multiplayer so, errm, I haven’t got a soundtrack for that!

Q. WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN ON THESE FORUMS? Well funny you should bring that up lol! As well as probably annoying people with my random posts all over the different forum sections, I seem to have somehow found myself helping out MissSouthampton setting up and running an OPC Event for the Assassins Creed Multiplayer.

As I type we have been running warm-up “retro” AC events, waiting for detailed info on AC3 Multiplayer elements so we can have a plan of attack on how online play is going to work exactly. Our goal is to make a fun exciting easy gaming event experience.

So if you have or are getting AC3 and fancy meeting up with other forum members to show off your best assassination techniques, want to find new team members to build your multiplayer assassin guild, or you’re new to the forums or just currently a ‘reader’ or ‘lurker’ (like I once was) and have thought about joining an OPC event but haven’t yet.. Come join us in Assassin Unite (Action/Adventure AC section for all the details). http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Assassin-s-Creed/Assassins-Unite-Let-s-have-an-Event-Night/td-p/14142907 Just post your ID in that thread saying you want to play with us and you’ll receive a friend request from AC-Event, sorted.

Q. IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE FORUMS FOR A DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? I’d get the office a few things like, Nerf Guns (haven’t got one just want one), and a Lego train set. I’d organise a Gregg’s donut day and rip up the rule book regarding office cats/pets (they can help with stress).

As far as changing the forum itself, give full functionality to phone browser users and maybe an 18+ section that you can only read & post if you are logged in. Not for any naughty pics etc., just so we can have adult conversations without having to worry about language used or the content being discussed, especially as some of the games we play have an adult rating.

PICTURE THIS: YOU, ENVISAGER AND LORDROSS ARE DEEP IN THE JUNGLE LOOKING FOR THE LOST TREASURE OF YASTERVILLE. YOU STUMBLE INTO AN OPENING AND ARE SUDDENLY SURROUNDED

BY CANNIBALS WHO DEMAND TO EAT ONE OF YOU BEFORE LETTING THE OTHER TWO FREE. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? I would offer myself up. With all the chilies, alcohol, and herbs I’ve consumed over the years, I think I would make a pre-marinated tasty snack. Hoping that LordRoss with his experience, wisdom & knowledge would be able to talk them round via means of negotiation, and Vissy could offer some of his gaming memorabilia as a trade for me.

Although I’m hoping it would end up been a translation mix up, and they were actually just offering us round for lunch. Or they’re all friendly Yasterfarians -something akin to an Uncharted closing chapter, and they were just a test to the treasure all along.

FINALLY, I INVITE YOU OUT TO PLAY GOLF WITH ME, NAME A REALLIFE PERSON AND A GAME CHARACTER YOU’D LIKE TO PLAY WITH US AND WHY? Game character would be Isaac Clark. I could ask him what he thinks about the changes to the DeadSpace franchise, not too much talking though, I prefer a quieter Isaac. Plus I could give him a nudge on those unpredictable tricky greens, to use a bit of his kinesis to our advantage.

As for the real person, I couldn’t decide between many people like Chris Moyles, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Steven Fry, Ken Block, Seb Loab, Ron Dennis, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button or even Brian Blessed and more. So, I’ll be a bit sad and pick Wretched-Hawk! The more I see of some of his random posts, talk of old jobs, friends and contacts etc. the more I’m intrigued about the real man behind his plumage. I think there might be some good anecdotes and some deep thoughts and ideas behind his PSN persona.

My other request is: The round of golf is played by your (englishgolfer’s) place, so you can cook us all lunch after. Mmm pro food...

You’re on! It has been known that I do like to cook now and then. Thanks WinnieP for taking the time to answer the questions.

Moving on, next up we have Cimbrer...

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a PlayStation 2 back in 2001. Racing games, Action/adventure, Role playing games and platforming has been my favorite genres throughout.

I got the PlayStation 3 at launch, getting more into online gaming, and trying to keep a broad taste in games.

AH YES, ONLINE GAMING. WHENEVER YOU CAME ONLINE ON SSX YOU STARTED TO SING ‘STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT’ BY FRANK SINATRA. WHY, AND DO YOU DO THIS WITH EVERY GAME YOU PLAY? I don’t do it on every game. I think I just zone out at times, and at random I start to hum or sing. It’ll be whatever is on my mind. I don’t know if I should be worried about this.

Q. SO WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN ON THESE FORUMS? My main involvement is Battlefield 3, helping out with the weekly event, its good fun. http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Battlefield/OPC-Battlefield3-Sundays/td-p/14026613 Apart from that I lurk about all over the place. It does shift a bit, depending on what I’m playing. If, for instance, a new Action/Adventure game grabs my attention, I’ll follow that section more closely.

Cimbrer Q. YOUR USERNAME – WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? It’s the name of a Viking tribe. I come from the area in Denmark where they supposedly derived from. There are many references to my username in Denmark, for example: The Cimbrian Bull statue.

Q. DOES LIVING IN DENMARK CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS FOR YOUR GAMING? Gaming by itself isn’t really problematic. My wallet might disagree sometimes, though. It’s more a case of what we’re offered in terms of services. Announcements should be taken with a pinch of salt, as we may have to wait for months, or even years before anything happens.

That said, we’re not even at the bottom of the ‘food chain’ of the Network. There’s still countries, where the user-base doesn’t have official support, a PlayStation Store, etc.

It’s not unlikely to see a discussion on the difference between SCEA and SCEE (mainly focused on UK) when there’s an even bigger difference within the region. That’s some food for thought.

Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST POST ON THESE FORUMS, IF YOU CAN REMEMBER? I had a question in relation to Metal Gear Online, something about paying for a map pack. It wasn’t so simple and easy and I was asking if others were having the same kind of issues.

I THINK MY FIRST POST WAS ALSO IN THE METAL GEAR SECTION AS WELL. I COULD NEVER WORK OUT WHY KONAMI INSISTED ON MAKING US USE A DIFFERENT USERNAME THAN OUR PSN ONE. ANYWAY, Q. BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR GAMING HISTORY. I got into it a bit late, compared to others – my first games console was

IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE FORUMS FOR A DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? I’d make people pass a test in order to use the new message button.

Probably wouldn’t make me popular, the crowd would rise against me, and I’d spend the rest of the day having office chair race events in the office.

PICTURE THIS: YOU, ENVISAGER AND LORDROSS ARE DEEP IN THE JUNGLE LOOKING FOR THE LOST TREASURE OF YASTERVILLE. YOU STUMBLE INTO AN OPENING AND ARE SUDDENLY SURROUNDED

BY CANNIBALS WHO DEMAND TO EAT ONE OF YOU BEFORE LETTING THE OTHER TWO FREE. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? We make a run for it, making it a literal survival of the fittest. I may not survive this mad attempt at rescuing my own skin.

Q. FINALLY, I INVITE YOU OUT TO PLAY GOLF WITH ME, NAME A REAL-LIFE PERSON AND A GAME CHARACTER YOU’D LIKE TO PLAY WITH US AND WHY? I’d bring Officer Cole Phelps, the main character from L.A. Noire, and Actor/comedian Bill Murray.

It’ll be an interesting round of golf, where Cole may walk around and interrogate everyone around us. This could give me some better time to chat and joke with Bill Murray, and I’m sure we’ll all have a great time.

Again, thank you Cimbrer for your answers.

Good luck to both of you in the events you are running.

If anyone reading this would like to be interviewed in the next issue just pm me on the forum.

Until then, happy gaming - whether it is online or on the fairways!

- englishgolfer

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COMMUNITY

EVENTS

Check out the ‘Community Events’ page on the Official PlayStation Community forum to see what awesome stuff is going on - there’s something for everyone!

VISIT: http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Community-Events/bd-p/bEN_CommunityEvents

COMMUNITY.EU.PLAYSTATION.COM

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