2 FREE GIFTS!

Might & Magic Duel of

Champions Starter Pack

Crimson portal
in Path of Exile

Hands-on with
the saviour of
survival horror

Super-fast
drives to fit
your budget

The true successor

to Left 4 Dead unleashed
PreviewED!

extra life

October 2014

Cowardice wins
the day in titanfall
Inside the relaunch of
guild Wars 2s living world
The city you never saw
in Rockstars LA Noire
Top 10 free downloads

#270 OCTOBER 2014

Future Publishing Ltd
Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Tel 01225 442244
Fax 01225 732275 Email pcgamer@futurenet.com
Web www.pcgamer.com
EDITORIAL
Global Editor In Chief Tim Clark
Editor Samuel Roberts
Deputy Editor Chris Thursten
Art Editor John Strike
Production Editor Tony Ellis
Web Editor Tom Senior
Section Editor Andy Kelly
News Editor Phil Savage
Staff Writer Ben Griffin
CONTRIBUTORS
Tyler Wilde, Evan Lahti, Cory Banks, Wes Fenlon, Andy McGregor,
Rose Brandle, Leif Johnson, Ian Dransfield, Richard Cobbett, Jem
Alexander, Dave James, Rob Zacny, Chris Livingston
Photography Future Photography Studio
Group Senior Editor, Games Daniel Dawkins
Group Art Director, Games Graham Dalzell
Creative Director Robin Abbott
Editorial Director Jim Douglas
Sales Director Nick Weatherall
ADVERTISING
Advertisement Manager Andrew Church
Advertising Sales Director James Ranson
Entertainments Sales Director Rob Elms
Account Manager David Priestman
Account Manager Rachel Sinclair
Account Manager Chris Brown
MARKETING
Group Marketing Manager Sam Wight
CIRCULATION/TRADE MARKETING
Trade Marketing Manager Colin Hornby
PRINT & PRODUCTION
Production Coordinator Roberta Lealand
LICENSING
Director of Licensing and Syndication Regina Erak
FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED
Head of Entertainment Group Clair Porteous
Head of Games Group Lee Nutter
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Phone our UK hotline on 0844 848 2852
Phone our International hotline on +44 (0) 1604 251045
Subscribe online at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
To view your account details/status and
to change your address, please go to
www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/youraccount
NEXT ISSUE ON SALE September 25

Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future.

Distributed in the UK by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue,
London EC1A 9PT.
Tel: 0207 429 4000

A member of the Audit

Bureau of Circulations

Giger counter

Talk to

This month, Im as excited about not shooting things

PC Gamer
as I am about shooting other things. On the one
Have your say!
Tweet us your
hand, weve got Evolve, Turtle Rocks dynamic
thoughts
multiplayer shooter where players gang up on the
@PCGamer
gorgeously horrible Kraken starring on our cover. You
can read about said ganging
up on p40. Then, on the other side of the
scale, we have Alien: Isolation, a survival
horror game where Im looking forward
to hiding in cupboards from the nastiest
of movie villain bastards.
This month Chris played hours of
Creative Assemblys intriguing firstperson nightmare, to see how the studio
sustains what is essentially a game
about staying away from a very smart AI
monster for as long as possible. Chris
died 50 times during the demo. Each
death, he told me, was itself a story
worth telling how hed be quietly watching a vent that the alien
appeared through on his last respawn, expecting it to appear again,
only to look down and see its tail speared through his chest. Turn to
p50 to read about how you can never quite figure out what the alien
is going to do next. This, in a game that doesnt even have plasma
rifles. Enjoy the issue.

22,054

January-December 2013
Future produces high-quality multimedia products
which reach our audiences online, on mobile and in
print. Future attracts over 50 millions consumers to its
brands every month across five core sectors:
Technology, Entertainment, Music, Creative and
Sports & Auto. We export and license our publications.
Future plc is a public company
quoted on the London Stock
Exchange (symbol: FUTR).
www.futureplc.com

Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick

Non-executive chairman Peter Allen
Tel +44 (0)207 042 4000 (London)
Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 (Bath)

PC GAMER is Future Publishing Limiteds registered trademark. All rights

reserved. Future Publishing Ltd. 2014. No part of this magazine may be
used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Future
Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England
and Wales. The registered office of Future Publishing Limited is at Beauford
Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. All information contained in
this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our
knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Future Publishing Limited
cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur.
Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers direct with
regard to pricing. All submissions to PC Gamer are made on the basis of a
licence to publish the submission in PC Gamer magazine, its associated
websites and all world-wide licensed editions of the same. Any material
submitted is sent at the owners risk and, although every care is taken, neither
Future Publishing Limited nor its agents shall be liable for loss or damage.
We encourage you to
recycle this magazine,
either through your usual
household recyclable
waste collection service
or at a recycling site.
We are committed to only
using magazine paper
which is derived from well
managed, certified
forestry and chlorine-free
manufacture. Future
Publishing and its paper
suppliers have been
independently certified in
accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).

SAMUEL ROBERTS
EDITOR
samuel.roberts@futurenet.com
@SamuelWRoberts

bringing you the scoops this month...

Chris Thursten
@CThursten
Tried to retrofit David
Foster Warface into PC
Gamer, decided it worked
better standalone.

Phil Savage
@Octaeder
Became PC Gamers News
Editor (yay!), reviewed
the below average Firefall.
A month of contrast.

Tyler Wilde
@twilde
Reviewed Lovely Planet,
didnt commit to whether
he believes this planet is
lovely or not.

OCTOBER 2014

Tony Ellis
Continued to feel guilt at
not finishing Baldurs
Gate. Will make for a
cracking chapter in his
autobiography.

Subscribe to

#270

OCTOBER 2014
Free Mouse worth
45!
See p64

MONITOR
12 THE SPY
From Cheshire with love.

14 FACE OFF

Yes! No! Paid mods!

16 SPECIAL REPORT

Behind the cult series Touhou.

18 E-SPORTS
The first in our new regular round-up.
PREVIEWS

20 Heroes of the Storm

22 Civilization: Beyond Earth
24 Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
26 Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters
28 The Witcher Adventure Game
30 Riot
32 The Crew
34 Survarium
36 The Long Dark
38 Wasteland 2

FEATURES
40 Evolve

Inside the monster-hunting shooter.

46 Cliff Bleszinski on BlueStreak

Whats next for the Gears creator.

50 Alien: Isolation

Chris gets killed 50 times playing

this tense survival horror game.

56 Interview

Chatting to EVEs Andie Nordgren

about space spreadsheets.

NETWORK
58 PLAY

The PC Gamer community pages.

62 SEND
Yeah, we heard what you said.

GIFTAGEDDON
Free stuff for Duel of
Champions and Path of Exile!
Turn to4page 66

MONTH 2013

40

18

40

46

Chris begins our new regular look

at e-sports by analysing this
years Dota 2 championships.

The creators of Left 4 Dead are

returning to reclaim the co-op
shooter crown. Actually, theyre
sending a science-fiction
monster to get it for them.

Cliffy B talks exclusively to PC

Gamer about creating an arena
shooter for the modern age.

E-sports: The
International 4

EVOLVE

CLIFF Bleszinski ON
BLUESTREAK

REVIEWS

18

50

46

106

70 Firefall
74 Risen 3: Titan Lords
76 The Wolf Among Us Season 1
78 OlliOlli
80 Gods Will Be Watching
81 Magic: The Gathering 2015
Duels of the Planeswalkers

81 Abyss Odyssey
82 Lovely Planet
84 W
arface
86 Light
88 Shattered Planet
89 Metro 2033 Redux
89 Metro: Last Light Redux
90 Halfway
92 War Thunder
94 Sacred 3
96 Unrest
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
98 Dark Souls II: Crown of the
Sunken King
99 Aperture Tag
ALPHA REVIEWS
100 Xenoraptor / Freaking Meatbags
101 Secret Ponchos / Beasts
of Prey / Dreaming Sarah
THEYRE BACK

102 The Labyrinth of Time

103 Drop RPG: Tendrys Tale /

Cook, Serve, Delicious / The Black

Mirror / Batman: Arkham Asylum

The Hard Stuff

106 SUPERTEST

Dave James puts the latest highperformance SSDs to the test.

110 REVIEWS

An anniversary Pentium CPU gets a verdict,

plus the Xbox One controller and more.

114 THE PC GAMER RIG

Our sub-1,000 Rig gets a new CPU.

EXTRA LIFE

70
50

70

106

Chris spends four hours being

relentlessly hunted in Creative
Assemblys survival horror game.

Phil reviews the long-indevelopment first-person online

shooter, and finds that the wait
wasnt quite worth it. Read the
full verdict here.

Sick of waiting for Windows to

boot, or just looking to upgrade?
Either way, Dave James can help
with his round-up of the best
SSDs on the market.

Alien: Isolation
hands-on

FIREFALL

SSD SUPERTEST

116 NOW PLAYING

Being a successful loser in Titanfall and

setting fire to this whole meaningless age
in Little Inferno.

120 TOP 10 DOWNLOADS

Be a normal person in Arma 3 and

explore a grim re-envisioning of Swindon.

124 UPDATE

Inside season two of Guild Wars 2s

living world.

126 REINSTALL

Andy defends the honour of L.A. Noires

extraordinary open world.

128 MUST PLAY

The best games in every genre revealed.

Apart from rhythm action.

OCTOBER 2014

MONITOR

T HE P C G A MER V IE W OF T HE W ORL D

OCTOBER 2014

Mako 2.0

3/4 Home

13 games later

MONITOR

Hot stuff

COSMIC Gunpoint follow-up

heads to outer space

PC Gamer writer-turneddeveloper Tom Francis is

making a new game. Heat
Signature is about
sneaking onto
randomly generated
spaceships and
causing mischief and
probably a lot of
punching. Hes looking for
artists and musicians to work
with: apply at www.pentadact.com if
you think youve got what it takes. AK

Delays?
No problem
THE TOP STORY

Dont let game delays get you down:

on PC, theyre no big deal

volve. Battlefield Hardline. The

Witcher 3. Batman: Arkham
Knight. The Division. All of
these games have unexpectedly
been delayed until 2015, and it
doesnt matter.
Launch delays are always negatively
received, sending some gamers into a storm
of incandescent rage. But were lucky on
PC, because theres always something else
to play. I can understand if diehard fans of a
series like The Witcher are feverishly
awaiting a sequel, but such delays are
generally a good thing in the long run. If a
developer has decided it needs more time to
work on its game, it clearly isnt trying to
rush the job out of the door.
DICE vice president Karl Magnus
Troedsson says the reason for Hardlines
delay was to ensure the game was the best,
most innovative Battlefield experience we
can give to you. The studio will be
spending the extra time giving the story
more depth, adding new features, and
improving stability something Battlefield
4s troubled launch could certainly have
benefited from. We are doing all of this
for one reason, says Troedsson. Because
we want Battlefield Hardline to be the best
game it can be, and so that we can create
the best environment for a smooth launch
for our players.
CD Projekt RED released an open letter
to both players and shareholders explaining
the reason for the delay to The Witcher 3.

A project this vast and complex would

inevitably require special care in its final
stages, manual fine-tuning of many details,
thorough testing time and again, the open
letter reads. We concluded that a few
additional months will let us achieve the
quality that will satisfy us, the quality
gamers expect from us.
Its not as if theres a shortage of brilliant
games on PC. There are so many, in fact,
that even we struggle to keep on top of
them all, and thats our job. This year sees
the release of brilliant space sim Elite:
Dangerous, World of Warcrafts Warlords of
Draenor expansion, mega-sequel Assassins
Creed Unity, Obsidians promising Infinity
Engine homage Pillars of Eternity, Far Cry
4, Alien: Isolation, The Sims 4... the list goes
on. Some of these games might slip, of
course, but most should hit their targets
later this year.
And thats not even counting the wealth
of brilliant indie games that are constantly
being released on PC. This year weve got
the stylishly violent Hotline Miami 2,
bizarre point-and-clicker Dropsy, and many
others, more than wed ever be able to
squeeze into this column. So, yes, delays
can be annoying, but the beauty of PC
gaming is that its the most diverse,
populated games platform on the planet.
And be honest, theres probably a hundred
Steam sale and Humble Bundle games in
your library you havent played yet.
Andy Kelly

Evil reborn

REMAKE Resident Evil shuffles

back from the dead
Capcom is reviving
Resident Evil again.
Building on 2002s GameCube
Resident Evil, itself a remake
of the 1996 PlayStation
horror classic, this edition
adds 1080p visuals, 5.1
sound, a scrolling
camera, various aspect
ratios, and both
traditional and improved
modern control schemes.
Expect it early next year
on Steam. BG

HEALTH BAR
CHECKING THE GAME BIZS PULSE
WINNERS
Oculus Rift DK2
The new and improved virtual reality headsets
are starting to trickle into early adopters hands.
The Sims 4
Maxis is supporting all manner of mods. Now
we can forget about toddler-and-poolgate.
Broforce
The macho shooter gets free Expendables 3
spin-off DLC: The Expendabros.

Colin McRae Rally

Codies angers fans by releasing a shoddy port
of a mobile game, then quickly offer refunds.
Tomb Raider goes Xbox exclusive
Rise of the Tomb Raider isnt coming to PC, as
Microsoft secures Lara for Xbox.
Crytek UK
The talented Nottingham-based studio,
formerly Free Radical Design, is no more.

LOSERS
OCTOBER 2014

Tales of gamings glory

Your own role in

the family, and in the
world, has changed
One mans game about a single phone call

Ben Griffin
advocates never
using your phone
while driving.

a dad whos undergone a sudden change of character.

hey say you should write about what you
know, so Zach Sanford wrote Three Fourths The implications matter.
For Sanford, there was something unsettling about
Home, a deeply personal game that takes
moving back home after a few years away. How
place during an hour-long car ride and
everything seemed like it was the same on the surface
explores themes of family, adulthood,
but, when you start to dig down, you realise that the
nostalgia and loss.
Development started after some unfortunate events fundamental components of your familys relationships
have irrevocably changed. At the same time, your own
forced a move from Minneapolis to Nebraska, says
role in the family, and in the world, has changed. You
Sanford. In the process of this upheaval, I had
are no longer someone that is really deemed worthy of
virtually all of my game development tools and work
being taken care of.
stolen (laptop, hard drives,
The setting of Three
notebooks etc), so working
Fourths Home is just as
on Three Fourths Home
important as the
meant that I had to start
sentiments involved. This
afresh. A little like his
monochromatic Nebraska
twentysomething
is a striking, almost
protagonist, Kelly.
hypnotic location, with
Holding the gamepads
its colourless cornstalk
right trigger advances her
rows and regiments of
car, and releasing it stops
wind farms spinning in
the engine. You can idly
silent unison, all standing
click the headlights and
upright on an otherwise
wipers on and off, and tune
Like the visuals, the writing
completely flat expanse.
into a tinny tape deck.
occupies an emotional grey area.
Ive heard it described by
While driving, Kelly holds
friends as a sort of leash a
an extended conversation
place that a lot of people leave, but ultimately end up
with her mum, dad and younger brother on the phone,
back in for whatever reason, says Sanford.
and you select replies using the D-pad.
So whats next? Sanfords head is, he tells me, filled
When your mum says, for instance, You got your
with nebulous blobs of floating ideas. The most formed
father to leave the house? Colour me surprised, you
so far is The Succession, a similarly narrative-rich sci-fi
can choose to say either, It took some convincing, or
affair influenced by films like The Machine and Alien
He insisted. It doesnt result in multiple endings
and completely devoid of dialogue. Either way, he
this isnt that kind of game but it does offer a degree
says, whatever I work on next will be challenging but
of player agency.
markedly different from Three Fourths Home.
Choose the former option and youre essentially
painting the dad as a hermit; pick the latter and this is
Ben Griffin

LONE WOLF

Four more (mostly) one-man games

VVVVVV

By Terry Cavanagh
A hard-as-nails puzzleplatformer where players
manipulate gravity to flip
between the floors and ceilings.

10

OCTOBER 2014

Sleep is Death

By Jason Rohrer
An online game for two: one
player acts as the narrator
while the other interacts with
his or her scenario.

Cave Story

By Daisuke Amaya
Developed over five years, Cave
Story is a freeware homage to
the 2D platformers of Amayas
youth, such as Metroid.

Love

By Eskil Steenberg
Filled with simple geometric
objects, Love is a painterly
MMO thats almost entirely
procedurally generated.

MONITOR
Sony Man Sky

Indie No Mans Sky is coming

to PC after PS4 release

Procedurally generated space

exploration darling No Mans Sky
will be a timed PS4 exclusive, so we
could be waiting a while for a PC
version. Weve always had PC in mind
but in my head [console-y] means solid
framerate and immediate controls,
says Hello Games Sean Murray.
I think a PC game can be
console-y and its intended
as a compliment, but I
get in trouble for
saying it. BG

Apparently there are 60,000 lines

of dialogue. Mass Effect 3 had 40,000.

The new Mako in all

its bouncy glory.

Mako 2.0: built for

speed not fighting?

The next Mass Effect

game revealed
A peek at the revamped Mako and the first
details on the fourth entry in the series

ey figures from BioWare

Montreal unveiled first
details about the next
Mass Effect at this years
Comic-Con. Mike Gamble,
Carl Boulay and Noel Lukasewich hosted
the 30-minute panel which covered the
games playable characters, customisable
armour and multiplayer.
The biggest cheer, however, was
reserved for the returning Mako. Absent
since Mass Effect, the bouncing military
buggy looks noticeably sleeker.
Customisation will also be possible,
according to Gamble. We feel if you are
going to spend a lot of time in vehicles and
places, they should reflect you as a player.
There were no cannons on the model
displayed, because the Mako 2.0 is less
about combat and more about
exploration. Early in-game footage
showed the vehicle careening down a
snowy mountain and crucially not
getting stuck on a rock. With the game
now running on the Frostbite 3 engine,
these brand new alien environments will
be vastly larger and better looking.
The footage chimes with Junes E3
reveal video in which BioWare director
Casey Hudson said, One of the things
that fans have told us they want in the
next Mass Effect game is to go somewhere
new, and to move forward. New
characters, new places. New people to fall
in love with. Were taking you to a whole

new region of space. Although the

timeline is still unclear is it sequel or
prequel? what we do know for sure is
that the Shepard trilogy is over.
In the next Mass Effect, youll play as a
totally new human protagonist. Renders
of both female and male character models
showed snap-on armour pieces that again
suggest no shortage of customisation, and
transparent helmets, which should afford
a better look at your characters face
during conversations.
The figures also wore cloth underarmour, which Gamble says offers a
free range of motion to do all sorts of
exploration activities. This hints at a
more mobile protagonist one capable
of parkour, perhaps? The armour also
bore the N7 insignia, which means the
protagonists are high-ranking marines
from the Systems Alliance military.
With BioWare still years from being
able to say that this is the exact game that
were making, the panel did field
questions from audience members. On
PVP, Gamble said: At this point there are
no plans, but this could change totally so
dont call me a liar. Mass Effect has always
been a cooperative experience, something
you can play with your friends...
competition is always critical, but
cooperation is bigger for us.
As for the name? According to Gamble,
Its not called Mass Effect 4, dammit!
Ben Griffin

ENTOMBED

XBONED LARA CROFT TUMBLES

INTO CONSOLE EXCLUSIVITY
Microsoft have snagged Rise of the
Tomb Raider - sequel to last years
reboot - as an Xbox One exclusive. Thats
the word from Gamescom, anyway,
although as ever its bound up in the kind of
impenetrable corporatese that youd
expect from Microsoft. This doesnt
mean that were walking away
from our fans who only play on
PlayStation or PC said
Crystal Dynamics Darrell
Gallagher. We have Lara
Croft and the Temple of
Osiris. Great. CT

Say what?
The month in tongues
Our distributor has been
working hard to gain approval
for the release, but it seems
that the Board of Film and
Video Censors deem some of
the content too controversial
for their consumers.
Stefan Marcinek of Kalypso Media Group
responds to Thailands baffling Tropico 5 ban.

Gearboxs contributions to
Aliens: Colonial Marines
totalled millions, none of
which was ever repaid.

Gearbox vice-president of marketing Steve

Gibson defends against a class-action
lawsuit from consumers.

Theres a little bit lost when

youre not laser-focused on
developing a project
specifically for one platform
initially to kind of maximise
what that product is best at.

Cliff Bleszinski justifies the PC exclusivity of

his upcoming shooter, BlueStreak.

OCTOBER 2014

11

THE SPY

BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?

The Spy assures

you, that is a gun in
his pocket.

new Assassins Creed game

has been revealed, titled Assassins Creed: Rogue. You
play a Templar traditionally the baddies in the series.
Frustratingly, Rogue has only been announced for
PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but The Spy is convinced
the game will make it to PC. After all, Assassins Creed:
Liberation was originally a PlayStation Vita exclusive.
In Rogue you play an Irish assassin hunter who
defects from the Order to join their rivals. The Spy
knows all about defection. He once had to smuggle a
defector across the Russian border in a suitcase.
Luckily the defector was very small. The jig was almost
up when the suitcase sneezed near a border guard, but
The Spy managed to knock him out
before he could raise the alarm. Good
thing hed packed his trusty sleep-darthidden-in-a sandwich.
Ninja Theory, the studio behind
Enslaved and the recent Devil May Cry
reboot, is working on a new game, but it
wont be a sequel to PlayStation
exclusive Heavenly Sword as originally
rumoured. For those asking, they
said on Twitter, our new project is a
new IP. Not a sequel to any of our
previous titles. Ninjas are the bane of
The Spy. Of all the henchmen he regularly has to
throw through panes of glass and down pits, theyre the
most frustrating. Theyre always leaping out at you
when you least expect it, and those throwing stars
sting. Luckily The Spy is an expert in ninjutsu himself.

An image leaked online seems to show a new Diablo

III expansion called Sword of Wisdom. It claims the
game will be revealed at BlizzCon in November, but
some have disputed its authenticity. The official Diablo
Twitter account joked about the image, crudely
replacing Sword of Wisdom with the release date for
the Ultimate Evil Edition of Diablo III in MS Paint, but
The Spy doesnt yet know whether this was a cunning
diversionary tactic or an indirect confirmation that the
image is real. Of course, Sword of Wisdom might not
be an expansion at all. It could be a graphic novel or
some other kind of spin-off. The Spy has often thought
there should be a range of media based on his own
exploits. The James Bond films paint an inaccurate
picture of the spying lifestyle. They only show the
exciting bits, but not the many tedious hours Bond
would have to spend at his desk filling out expense
forms. The Spy hates expense forms more than ninjas.
Ubisoft veteran Michel creator of Rayman Ancel is
leaving the company to form his own independent
development team, Wild Sheep Studio. Dont worry,
though hell still be contributing to projects at

Was this a cunning

diversionary tactic,
or confirmation?
Ubisoft, namely the long-awaited, and long-delayed,
Beyond Good & Evil 2. In addition to spending some of
his time on this new venture, said Ubisoft, Michel is
leading the creative development of select projects at
Ubisoft Montpellier, including an extremely ambitious
new title that is very close to his and the teams heart.
Its pretty obvious what theyre talking about there, if
youre The Spy.
The Spy respects Ancels decision. The Spy used to
be tied to one government agency, but since going
freelance hes been reaping the rewards. Sure, he
misses flirting with his secretary and eating at the
cafeteria with all the other spies, but sometimes you
just have to move on with your life.
Homefront 2, the sequel nobody wanted, has been
rescued from oblivion by publisher Deep Silver. Deep
Silver bought the brand and game from its previous
owners Crytek, as well as staff from the now defunct
Crytek UK formerly known as Free Radical,
developer of TimeSplitters. Homefront: The Revolution
will now be developed by Dambuster Studios, a new
Nottingham-based team made up of former Crytek
UK staff. They will continue their hard work on
upcoming shooter Homefront: The Revolution, reads
Cryteks statement about the sale.
The bad news? The TimeSplitters licence still
belongs to Crytek, dashing any hope of a follow-up
by the studio that made the ace originals. The Spy
spent many long hours at Spy HQ playing
TimeSplitters in the break room. Good times.
Except for that one particular time when one of
The Spys so-called buddies turned out to be a
mole and The Spy had to garotte him with the
gamepad cable. The whole affair was somewhat
awkward. Spy out.
The Spy

MONTH 2014

FACE OFF

let the flame war commence

Andy Kelly says

yes, a man is
entitled to the
sweat of his brow.

Chris Thursten
often stands up for
the little guy, but
its hard to tell
because he is also
very small.

14

Is it right to charge for

user-generated content?
YES Talented creators should be rewarded for
their work.
NO Turning everything into a marketplace
forces out the little guy.

AK I look at some mods and I wonder how people find

the time to make them. Something like Moonpath to
Elsweyr, the Skyrim mod that gives you an entirely new
world to explore filled with voice-acted quests, makes
me think, man, they did that for free. Its insane. So Im
not really surprised that people have started to charge
money for these things. Portal 2 mod Aperture Tag isnt,
as it turns out, all that good and Im dubious about
them selling assets created by Valve but its an
elaborate, huge thing that the creator should probably
be rewarded for in some tangible way.
CT It used to be that modders scored big by getting
hired by the developer whose work they were
repurposing usually Valve. Now, modders make it big
by convincing Valve to sell their work via the Steam
Workshop. In that sense, not much has changed. My
concern about the commercialisation of modding is
that it edges out the fringe stuff and concentrates
attention on a handful of successful creators eligible to
make money for their work. Securing their income
means restricting the powers of the little guy who just
wants to make some daft skins for a small audience.

bound up in potential terms of service issues its niche

by necessity rather than by design. You can have the
artisan coffee mug-makers and the corporate mugmakers, but Id like a platform for the people who just
want to give away coffee mugs on the street, too. This
is not a good analogy.
AK Look, Chris. This is the real world. The little guy
doesnt stand a chance. Those people handing out
mugs on the street will soon realise that handing out
mugs is not paying their rent, and theyll give up, and
the corporate giants will prevail. Thats whats going to
happen, so you might as well accept it now. OK, I guess
thats one incredibly negative way of looking at it. This
monetisation of mods has always been an inevitability,
I think. People are realising that they can cash in on
making stuff, whether its by getting tips on Twitch
streams or YouTube ads or whatever. Times are tough.
Daddy needs a new pair of shoes. Therell always be an
audience for the Dota 2 hatters. Like the people who
buy expensive artisan bread instead of cheap
supermarket loaves.

CT But what if there was a single distribution service

for bread, and bakers needed to submit their
AK This is the problem with a lot of online platforms,
prospective loaves for review by an anonymous jury
sure. Its difficult to get noticed on Twitch and
before they were allowed to sell them, and that jury
YouTube and so on when youre up against people with
only communicated in copy-pasted ASCII penises?
gargantuan audiences. I think the way around this is
What if the only way into commercial baking for a new
for people like us (that is, people who write about
and talented baker was to create themed bread for
games) to champion the little guys and highlight their
famous bread-eaters who then took a cut of the profits?
work. Its like real life: a guy might be making the
What if publicly-minded breadsmen who only wanted
worlds nicest, er, I dont know, coffee mugs in his
to give out the odd loaf on a street-corner
bedroom, but he doesnt have the financial
The
suddenly found themselves chased away
might to compete with... well, a big company
from their hobby by a system designed to
that makes coffee mugs, whoever that is.
faceprotect the rights of a select few to make
The point is, coffee mugs. I mean, the
off is over!
huge sums of money? It cant all be about
point is that in any market therell always
But who earned
the dough!
be the unsung heroes and the big guys.
your nickel and
That was a pun.
dimes? Tell us
CT In a market, yes. But thats not what
@PCGamer.
AK That scenario would indeed suck. So
we had before. Money has a warping
maybe youre right. But I just think these
effect; when its possible to get rich by
people who pour hours of their lives into
making hats for Dota 2, controlling and
making mods should be able to cash in somehow.
managing the process defines the structure that
There needs to be a happy medium between giving
allows people to make their own content. In the Steam
them a platform to do so, and stopping them from
Workshop, youre either a (commercially) successful
monopolising the market. Which is a perfect world
creator or your stuff doesnt get played with at all.
situation that will probably never happen.
Theres a modding scene on the side, sure, but its
OCTOBER 2014

SPECIAL
REPORT

Will says...
Even if Touhou isnt
your cup of tea,
there are elements
of it anyone can
appreciate fan
games of every
genre, covers and
remixes in every
style. There are
even regular
collaborations on
animated series,
some of which are
surprisingly good.
But the most
special part of
Touhou in my eyes
is the journey it
took to get where
it is today. It should
be an inspiration
not just to indie
developers, but
to anyone who
wants to commit
to their passion.

16

Bullet heaven
How one indie devs experiment gained worldwide acclaim

unya Ota was 19 when he decided he wanted

to make a game. Unsatisfied with most
games on the market, he wanted to make
something for himself to enjoy: something
simple, challenging and a bit oddball. In
his spare time, he taught himself programming and
how to compose game music. Under the alias ZUN,
Ota created Touhou Reiiden Highly Responsive to
Prayers in 1995.
In a game vaguely similar to Breakout, Shinto monk
Reimu Hakurei smacks around a giant yin yang ball as
she crosses dimensions, searching for the demon who
destroyed her shrine. Its absurd, difficult to control,
and unrepresentative of the series as a whole.
While the yin yang ball mechanic was thankfully
dropped, the games bosses were clearly influential.
Most stages involved flipping tiles and scoring points,
but every five levels, Reimu would encounter a vaguely
hellish figure. These unnerving enemies would shower
the screen in increasingly complex patterns of
projectiles, shifting the focus from coping with a
primitive physics engine to simple survival a welcome
change of pace.
The Story of Eastern Wonderland was ZUNs second
game, and a significant departure. It was the first true
Touhou game, a bullet hell shoot-em-up with slower,
more intricate patterns of projectiles. However, ZUN
OCTOBER 2014

was still experimenting with the tone and setting of the

Touhou series: in one tonally confused level, after
fighting hordes of cartoonish ghosts, you encounter a
modern-day tank emblazoned with a yin yang symbol.
Computers at the time werent well equipped for
rendering action-oriented games. The first five Touhou
games were developed on the NEC PC-9801 (PC98), a Japanese MS-DOS-based computer roughly
analogous to the Apple II. Due to the low framerate,
resolution and colour spectrum, half the challenge was
telling enemies projectiles from the background. The
music was similarly difficult to appreciate, due to the
small range of noises the computer could make.
Though ZUN finished Highly Responsive to Prayers in
1996, he initially sold the first two Touhou games a year
later at Comiket 52, a biannual convention and market
for self-published works. Sales of the first five games
were unremarkable: 1998s Lotus Land Story sold less
than 300 copies. Mystic Square marked the fifth and
final release of the PC-98-era titles, and after the
seriess tepid reception, it seemed to be the end of the
Touhou Project an eccentric curiosity that never
broke out of obscurity. ZUN went on to work for Taito
Corporation as a programmer for several years.
In 2002, ZUNs blog carried an announcement: a
new game, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, was in
development. This sixth entry was hardly recognisable

MONITOR
as a descendant of his earlier works. Running on
Windows, it was fast and fluid the equivalent of
moving from Wolfenstein 3D to Quake. It was a fresh
start for the Touhou series, and a rebellion against the
direction he saw other games going in.
ZUN felt many shmups at the time were
overburdened with abstract systems and gimmicks,
leaving dodging projectiles as an afterthought. In a
brief post-mortem, ZUN wrote, The Embodiment of
Scarlet Devil brings things back to the starting point, by
curbing the game systems that change the difficulty in
obscure ways while at the same time pursuing the
natural fun of dodging bullets. It was slow to build
momentum initial circulation was limited to the
copies sold at conventions, and later, online CD
retailers. Ultimately, the three things that garnered the
most attention for the Touhou Project were the music,
the characters, and piracy.
As a self-taught composer, ZUNs early compositions
were largely forgettable, unaided by the crude chiptune
system he had to work with. After years of experience
and the technological leap, he was able to make
something special. TEoSDs memorable, orchestral
soundtrack was, like many aspects of the series, atypical
for the genre, but nearly every song made the best of its
synthesized pianos, strings, and horns. Future releases
maintained that standard of quality, and as fans began
to put out cover albums, people became familiar with
Touhous music before the games themselves.
As a self-taught artist, however, ZUNs work has been
less successful. Trying to make the characters cute,
many came out disproportioned and doughy-faced. The
dialogue is also laughably baffling, including such
biting insults as, Shes lower than a human. I bet she
doesnt even have ten fingers. What ZUN did establish
was distinct personalities, however one-dimensional. As
the cast expanded, fan works became increasingly
widespread, including art, writing and games.
While the Touhou Projects popularity was growing
steadily, distribution of the games wasnt. Initially,
circulation was limited to copies from Comiket. A few
online hobby shops began to stock copies, some of
which shipped internationally. Availability though was
frequently limited, and many people interested in the
series turned to piracy. This, combined with fan
translations, led to an international fanbase.
After the release of the seventh game, all the
excitement culminated in 2004 at the first Annual
Hakurei Shrine Grand Festival, a convention
exclusively for Touhou fans. ZUN used the opportunity

SPINOFFS Alternate dimensions

Touhou 9

Phantasmagoria of Flower View

A competitive multiplayer twist on the classic

bullet hell action. Dodge bullets and send some
over to your opponent.
Touhou 9.5

Shoot the Bullet

Take a spin as the supernatural paparazzi.

Snap photos of bosses and their bullets. Like
Pokmon Snap in hell.
Touhou 12.3

Unthinkable Natural Law

The third collaboration with Twilight Frontier.

A projectile-heavy beat-em-up where magical
girls attack each other.
Touhou 12.8

Great Fairy Wars

Fan favourite Cirno is at war with the other

fairies. Freeze bullets and marvel at how
ludicrous the seriess numbering has become.

to demo both Imperishable Night, the eighth entry in the

series, and Immaterial and Missing Power, a fighting
game made in collaboration with Twilight Frontier, a
Japanese indie developer group. The convention has
grown each year since, offering the perfect platform for
popular cover bands to release albums.

Fan works became

widespread: art,
writing and games
Ten conventions and 13 games later, ZUN is
married, has a child, and Touhou has blossomed into
one of the most popular Japanese indie game series.
He has no intention of stopping: Im going to keep
making games that stand out. If all my fans disappear,
Im still happy if I can keep doing the games I want.
Will Uhl

Hexagrams, mouse fairies, and giant

diamonds. Welcome to Touhou.

Touhous eye candy is

dangerously hypnotising.

The fighter spin-offs have

the benefit of an art team.

OCTOBER 2014

17

Newbee: the champions

nobody saw coming.

Out of the blue

Upsets are the rule at THE DOTA 2 INTERNATIONAL 2014
Dota 2
What is it?

A faithful remake
of the original lanepushing game. Two
teams of five
heroes compete to
destroy each
others bases by
fighting, gathering
gold, and securing
strategic objectives.

How is it
judged?

Best-of-three
matches, with a
best-of-five for the
grand final.

Whats the
format?

Qualifiers followed
by a best-of-one
playoff phase. The
top eight teams
progress to the
main event, a
double-elimination
bracket.

18

here are no fixed narratives in sport. You

can set up your returning champions and
your underdog heroes but a tournament is
always going to follow its own course.
That is the difference between sport and
the types of entertainment that games normally
provide. This years Dota 2 International
Championship, held in Seattle, made the case for
games-as-sport precisely because the event was defined
by upsets and turnarounds.
Formed in February out of veterans of the Chinese
Dota scene, Newbee were invited to the fourth
International on the basis of their roster. They were a
dream lineup, of a sort each of their players had
competed in a prior International but they were
untested as a unit. Although they picked up pace in the
months prior to the tournament, most would have
placed Team DK, another Chinese dream team, ahead
of them. Or Invictus Gaming, who won ESL One
Frankfurt only weeks before in June.
This year, Valve changed the format to feature eight
teams, rather than the full sixteen, in the main event.
Where previously the playoffs determined initial
rankings, now they were elimination games. It suited
some teams more than others. Those chaotic initial
matches demonstrated just how lively and international
(cough) the Dota 2 scene is at the moment. Team

OCTOBER 2014

Liquid, who barely snuck into the tournament after a

second-place finish in the US qualifiers, blitzed
through a run of teams ranked much higher than them
before finally tapping out in 7th place.
While Liquid rose, European Dota crumbled.
Returning champions Alliance finished an
ignominious 12th, struggling in a tournament format
and metagame that no longer suited them.
The first games of the tournament suggested a
uniquely healthy metagame. Almost every character in
the game was played at the International, an
unprecedented testament to the games competitive
breadth. Or so it seemed until Newbee, LGD and Vici
figured it out.
On the final day of the playoffs, Newbee faced a 9th
place finish and elimination. Then they won three
best-of-threes in a row to secure not only a place in the
main event, but a slot in the upper bracket. They
demonstrated mastery of a form of Dota built around
sieging early with a team built to fight as a group.
When play moved to Seattles KeyArena, the mood
in the packed stadium reflected a game that had
changed overnight. On the first day, Newbee sent Vici
Gaming to the lower bracket while Evil Geniuses did
the same to Team DK. EG had already progressed
further in an International than an American team
ever had: the crowd loved them. Continuing their

MONITOR
INTERVIEW WITH...

Troels SyndereN
Nielsen
Player turned commentator on casting
ti4, defensive Dota, and Newbees win
What has it been like returning to the
International as a caster instead of
as a player?
Its been good. The jump from player to
caster for me hasnt been as big of a
step as it would be for many others, as
Ive been casting for years, doing it on
the side while playing. Going back to
this event, Ive felt a lot less pressure.
Of course, you want to perform as a
caster as well but its in a different way
I dont feel it in the same way. Also,
Im only responsible for myself and not
for a team.

think it was a logistical thing. If you

have all 16 teams playing, a lot of the
lower bracket will be best-of-one and
thats also underwhelming. At least
now every single elimination match is
best-of-three. What I would like to see
for coming years is best-of-threes the
whole way.

Chris Thursten
DK had a great run
but ultimately fell short.

Images courtesy of the official Dota 2 website.

To me, the game seems far more

defensive in some ways than it did
last year. Teams are good at balling
up. Does the current meta still
support the kind of Dota that people
got into it to watch the aggressive
Ive enjoyed coming here as a
midlaners, clutch teamfight ults?
commentator, I just like being part of
I think the teams are getting really
the event, to be
good at disengaging
honest, and being
and cutting their
PROFILE
able to do it like this
losses. Its something
A player since 2011,
has been great.
that takes a lot of
SyndereN retired in 2013
to commentate.
experience and from
Has the growing
an observers
scale of the event broadcasting on
standpoint its hard to understand how
ESPN, and so on changed your
difficult it actually is. We can sit there
approach?
and think about it as commentators
More attention is incredible, but even if
and observers, but while we have five
theres a bigger mainstream audience I
seconds to think about it the players
still feel like Im casting to the same
have one. They have one second
people. I dont try to be more beginnerwhether they go in or go out. A lot of
friendly because theres a direct stream teams are just getting better at it. Id
for them. As weird as it may sound, for
agree to an extent that the way the
me I dont think it makes much of a
game is played now changes that up a
difference whether theres 500 or two
little bit, but if you look across the
million people watching. I just try to
whole tournament a lot of strategies
make as much sense of the game as
have been played.
possible and communicate it in a way
that makes sense.
That deathball, that team-fight into
push strategy got Newbee to the grand
Would you have preferred to cast a
finals but its not just their strategy, its
live tournament that had all 16
their execution which was amazing.
teams at the main event?
Whether its the strategy carrying them
Definitely, yes. Id have preferred for all
or how they play, I think its just because
of the teams to be shown on stage. I
theyre so damn good at what they do.

extraordinary run, Newbee beat them 2-0 to claim a

place in the grand final.
In the lower bracket teams doubled down on their
particular talents. Watch Cloud 9 vs NaVi for a
demonstration of unorthodox modern Dota. Watch
Cloud 9 vs Vici for SingSings Meepo, a Hail Mary
performance on the micro-intensive hero that almost
kept them in the tournament. When EG faced Vici
Gaming, their incredible year came to an abrupt end.
An early surrender call in the final game implied a team
that had finally been dragged down by the morale
problems that have plagued US Dota for years.
And then that final. Last year, the International
Grand Final ran to five games over several hours: this
year, with both teams favouring a fast, aggressive style,
it was over in half the time. Newbees advantage was
that they had the flexibility to combine the strengths of
their rival with their own. After losing the first game
due to a fantastic performance from Vicis support
players, a resurgent Newbee showed some flare and
begun to ran a few personal favourite heroes alongside
metagame standards. In game two, Haos aggressive
carry play with Weaver achieved dominance despite
fierce opposition. In game three, Mu played a nearperfect game as Puck, a flashy hero that has long been a
staple of the best International matches.
And then it ended. Newbees dominant start in game
four seemed to break Vicis spirits especially those of
their captain, rOtk. A metagame that had started out
broad had been resolved down to a contest determined
by a few brutal first engagements. That Vici waited as
long as they did to surrender says more about the prize
at stake than the state of the match. Despite the
pyrotechnics and the thundering music, there was a
muted feeling in the arena: like the World Cup final
not long before, there was the sense that this wasnt the
final contest spectators wanted. But thats how sport
works, sometimes, and it doesnt detract from
Newbees talent or the scale of their accomplishment.

The collapse of European

Dota was hard for everyone.

OCTOBER 2014

19

PREVIEW

The Dragon Knight is

powerful, so shoot it.

HEROES OF THE STORM

PLAYED IT The alpha marches on, but there are a few clouds on the horizon.

lizzard and PopCap resemble

each other more and more. They
share a love for compulsive
feedback loops, a growing interest
in free-to-play, and a talent for creating
chunky, colourful art that you would
probably try to put in your mouth if you
were three years old.
That affinity is most obvious in The
Garden of Terror, the latest map to be
added to the Heroes of the Storm alpha. Two
teams of five players, each controlling a
different character from Blizzards stable,
clash in a botanical garden with the
objective of destroying one anothers bases.
When night falls, zombie plants emerge
that can be harvested for seeds. When one
team has enough seeds, a
player can transform
into a plantpot-tossing
monster with venus
READ ME
flytraps for hands. If
developer
Blizzard
there was ever going to
Entertainment
be a Plants vs. Zombies
publisher
MOBA and perhaps
In-house
thats inevitable I
link
www.battle.net
suspect itd look like this.

20

OCTOBER 2014

Garden of Terror borrows a little from

each of its predecessors. It has Dragon
Shires player-controlled super unit,
Blackhearts Bays currency collection and
Haunted Mines monster-hunting. Like
Cursed Hollow, the team that stays on top
of the map objective gains the power to
disable enemy buildings, making it
important to lay siege while you command
the advantage. Its another expression of a

Then I figured it
out. The plant monster
isnt the main event:
night time is
familiar theme, and the first few times I
played it I wasnt sure what it brought to the
game beyond a new arrangement of lanes.
Then I figured it out. The plant monster
isnt the main event: night time is. Dota 2
players will be familiar with the idea of a
day-night cycle where line-of-sight is
heavily truncated in the darkness. This
game mechanic is absent from the rest of
Heroes of the Storms maps, axed as part

Blizzards comprehensive sanding-down of

this complex genre. Garden of Terror
restores some of the tactical possibilities of
night to the game, such as ambushes from
cover, subtle rearrangement of heroes, and
sneaking objectives while the enemy
stumbles about in the dark. Furthermore,
night doesnt end until the last of the
garden terrors are slain: a team thats
comfortable in the dark can make it last a
long time with sufficient map control.
This map, which feels straightforward
and familiar, reveals its strategic potential
over time, and that is my experience of
Heroes of the Storm as a whole. Heroes are
designed to be playable by anyone with a
vague grasp of RPG conventions.
Recently-added orc shaman Rehgar is a
good example: he has a bouncing heal, a
damaging shield, and can slow enemies in
an area. As a support, its possible to play
him serviceably by staying behind the
frontline, shielding and healing your allies,
and using the totem to run away when
things go wrong.
His movement ability is what raises the
skill ceiling for the more experienced

MONITOR

Disabling buildings means

faster sieges.
The Siege Tank can deploy
to bombard enemies.

Thats more like it. Take

that, red guys castle!

Giant flowery plant golem is

having none of it, tower.

Capturing mercenaries is
vital to success.

Rehgar fought honorably.

And Rehgar died.

players. Most heroes require mounts that

take a short time to summon. Rehgar can
turn into a swift spirit wolf at will, and in
combat this can be used to stay one step
ahead of the enemy team. In a game where
most heroes have approximately equal
movement speeds, being able to dash ahead
to place a slowing totem gives you a huge
advantage if youre nimble-fingered
enough to pull it off. Its never as complex as

Players will spend

cash on heroes and
cosmetics and save up
their gold for Artifacts
Dota 2 can be, but thats not the point: the
freedom to experiment is the important
thing, something I felt was missing in my
first experiences with the game.
A new looking for group system makes it
relatively easy to party up with strangers,
something that Ive not seen happen much
in other games of this type. A scrolling
ticker on the main menu enables you to
request an invite to parties with an empty

space, and playing this way where you

have a bit of extra time to introduce
yourself and plan a strategy is vastly
superior to flying solo.
The companys approach to free-to-play
is still haphazard, however. They
experimented with adding account-wide
account upgrades called Artifacts that
promised to give experienced players a
substantial lead over newcomers from the
very beginning of the match, forcing you to
spend the in-game gold youd otherwise be
using to unlock heroes. The system was
removed following a player outcry.
That Blizzard are willing to listen is
promising, and this would have been a very
different preview if they hadnt. But they
also need to be more astute with how they
ask players to spend their gold, and what
they offer in return. I wonder if everybody Blizzard included - would not be more
comfortable if Heroes was a full price
game, and not free-to-play at all. Itd
certainly make the experience more
palatable to long-term fans, itd remove the
danger of further misteps in the future.
Chris Thursten

RELEASE TBC
OCTOBER 2014

21

PREVIEW
review
Eight-player multiplayer?
You got it.

Some resource pods contain Old Earth

luxuries that rally your people.

CIVILIZATION

BEYOND EARTH

Aliens gradually get more powerful, so

unlike Barbarians they remain a threat.

PLAYED IT Going hands-on with the sci-fi strategy thats light years ahead.

ts 2601 AD and Ive just landed on a

poisonous planet. Miasma seeps from
corroded vents and Starship Trooperstyle aliens dart in and out of the fog.
Welcome to space.
At first it feels as if these differences are
merely surface level, as if the latest in Sid
Meiers legendary turn-based strategy
series could pass for a Steam Workshop
skin-swap job. Take the settler, once guywith-donkey and now guy-with-rover. Or
covert ops, which are effectively spies. Or
energy, the gold substitute that lets you
purchase units, tiles and buildings. Or
random resource pods, which fill the role
of goody huts. But whatever their outward
appearance, these are Civilization staples,
in the same way that
Monopolys Park Lane
is always pricey whatever
edition you play. In many
READ ME
ways, Beyond Earth starts
Developer
Firaxis Games
where Civ V ends.
Publisher
Consider the four very
2K Games
new victory conditions.
Link
Theres Contact
www.civilization.
com/en/home
(discover an alien signal),

The Promised Land (launch a satellite to

find a new Earth), Emancipation (liberate
Old Earth from a worldwide disaster called
The Great Mistake), and Transcendence
(research transgenics, nanorobotics and
swarm intelligence). New technologies,
new prospects, new goals.
Affinities are also new, overarching
philosophies that shape technological
advancements. Harmony stresses a

Like the best of

Civilization, Im left
wanting more. Beyond
Earth is worlds apart
symbiotic co-existence based on alien
domestication and genetic modification.
Supremacy is about dominating the planet
with cutting-edge units and technology.
And Purity is a blend of both, based on
terraforming the planet. I identify with
Stephen Langs character in Avatar, so I go
with Supremacy.
But Im not alone out here. On turn 15,
General Kozlov of the Slavic Federation

erects a colony near me. There are eight

leaders in all, and before each game youll
align with one to act as your expedition
sponsor. Each of the eight leaders has an
affinity, too, and this governs how theyll
handle diplomacy.
By turn 30, Ive started to blaze ahead in
technology, which has been completely
restructured. Its all about leaves and
branches now branches are expansive and
represent broader tech leaps, while leaves
are specific and cost less research. Under
the Ecology branch, for instance, sit the
Geophysics leaf (reveal geothermal
pockets) and Alien Biology leaf (workers are
immune to miasma). Later theres even an
orbital layer, in which players can deploy
satellites that provide military, economic
and scientific support. Finally, there are
social policies, here called Virtues.
Hardcore militant that I am, Might wins
out over Knowledge and Industry.
My game finishes at 50 turns and, like
the best of Civilization, Im left wanting
more. No mere expansion, Beyond Earth
is worlds apart.
Ben Griffin

RELEASE OCTOBER 24
22

OCTOBER 2014

PREVIEW

Watch your air masks, because

oxygen is quite important...
Recognise anyone? All four characters
appeared in previous instalments.

BORDERLANDS

THE PRE-SEQUEL

My monstrous snider, meanwhile, freezes

foes who can then be smashed to bits.

PLAYED IT Getting to grips with lasers, lunatics, and low gravity.

ike a robot wearing a mans face,

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is
neither one thing nor another.
It iterates and improves on the
series like all good sequels should, but
storywise it slots into the gap between the
first two games, charting the descent of a
more humanised Handsome Jack. Hes
kind of like the Star Wars prequels Anakin
Skywalker, if he were intentionally rather
than accidentally funny.
Like the story, the Pre-Sequels world
size is also a halfway house, bigger than
Borderlands but a touch smaller than
Borderlands 2. I start on Pandoras moon, a
location you could see in the last game but
never get to, and its the perfect place to test
The Pre-Sequels various
new features.
The area I spawn in is
READ ME
called Outlands Spur, an
Developer
expanse of jagged rock
Gearbox Software,
2K Australia
cut by deep blue chasms.
Publisher
While theyd pose
2K Games
obstacles on Pandora,
Link
here I can jump them
www.tinyurl.com/
lnl6llp
with the help of glowing

24

OCTOBER 2014

green boost pads. Before that, though, I

need oxygen. I am, after all, in space, and
frequent trips to O2 terminals are a
necessity. They serve as waypoints rather
than burdens though, lining the path to
my mission which is to freeze a lake by
redirecting a flow of methane so that I can
cross into Drakensburg.
Thats easier said than done with the
moons native population of Kraggons

I start on Pandoras
moon, a location you
could see in the last
game but never get to
pounding about, though. Theyre like
crystalline space stegosauruses, and they
attack in packs. At least they offer a chance
to test my weapons. One criticism of the
Borderlands series is that, despite the roughly
87 bazillion guns, youd see the same types
crop up repeatedly in the course of a game.
The Pre-Sequel aims to keep things fresh
with two new families of firearm: laser and
ice. The first are more precision weapons,

able to target an exploding fuel barrel at 500

paces, while the latter specialise in crowd
control, immobilising one target so you can
concentrate on others.
The character you pick also greatly
affects how you play. I start with celestial
gladiator Athena, whose action skill,
Kinetic Aspis, is a Captain America-type
boomerang shield that absorbs all frontal
damage and directs it back at the enemy
when thrown. Robotically augmented
engineer Wilhelms action skill summons
two drones called Wolf and Saint: Wolf
roams the level attacking enemies while
Saint sticks close and regenerates health.
Finally theres the lawbringer Nisha, whose
action skill, Showdown, consists of pressing
LB to automatically aim at enemies and
receive increased gun damage, fire rates,
reload speed, bullet speed accuracy, and
recoil reduction. The fourth, Claptrap, isnt
available in my demo.
Like before, all characters have three
separate skill trees. Athena, the tanky
healer of the group, has the Phalanx tree,
which is all about teammate buffs and
health regeneration. The Wrath of the

MONITOR

Creatures draw on
elemental properties.

Goddess tree contains Kinetic Aspis, which

cause your shield to ricochet off multiple
enemies. Xiphos is more for damagedealing solo players and includes moves like
Epicenter (butt-slam to create black holes).
Ceraunic Storm ups elemental damage
through moves such as Flash Freeze.
Each character also carries four pieces of
equipment, including shields and skill
mods. I chuck a Longbow Flamin Merv
grenade at a group of soldiers and watch as
it splits into eight smaller grenades and
burns away their air masks.
The game swells with this brand of
slightly off-colour humour. The series was
always driven more by its personality than
its weapons, and The Pre-Sequel looks to be
packing its share of Internet-dominating
gags. Along with a very vocal Handsome
Jack, a cockney called Pickle looks set to
become this years Tiny Tina.
The third Borderlands game has no
number for a reason: Gearbox evidently
feel it hasnt earned sequel status. Theyve
clearly got unfinished business here,
however, and when that includes laser-rifle
shoot-outs with ice dragons on the moon,
theres no doubting its pedigree.

The Pre-Sequel finally gives you the

chance to explore Pandoras moon.

Ben Griffin

RELEASE OCTOBER 17

The plot follows Handsome Jacks

escape and capture of the moonbase.

OCTOBER 2014

25

PREVIEW
review
Please teach me your
hovering sword trick.

Im Zana, say hello to

my giant floating clock.

PATH OF EXILE

Ooh, that corpse-pillar will

look great on the porch.

FORSAKEN MASTERS
FIRST LOOK Take a master class in monster-slaying.

pare a thought for the losers of Path

of Exiles action-RPG loot lottery.
They slay the same monsters as
everyone else. They run the same
dungeons and take out the same bosses,
only to come out the other side with a rusty
trowel and bargain-bucket plate mail.
In a random system, some will find
themselves on the wrong end of every dice
roll. Producer and lead designer Chris
Wilson understands their pain. Theres
nothing more frustrating than knowing
what you want to do and just having bad
luck preventing you from actually doing it.
Path of Exiles second free expansion,
Forsaken Masters, wants to help. Itll
introduce seven masters: NPCs who
represent a powerful,
idealised version of each
character class. You can
befriend them to unlock
READ ME
customisable hideouts
developer
Grinding Gear
and extra crafting
publisher
options, designed to give
In-house
less fortunate players
link
ways to tweak items to
www.pathof
exile.com
suit their needs.

This is an RPG, a place where bonds of

friendship, trust and love can only be
forged through the completion of a linear
series of errands, but the tasks will vary
significantly depending on the master
youre trying to woo. For the assassin
master you kill individual targets, but
sometimes youll have to leave particular
witnesses alive to send a message to their
bosses, or lead targets into traps.

After a few missions,

masters start appearing
in towns to chat and sell
you things
Elsewhere, Elreon the Templar master is
busy rescuing relics from dangerous,
monster-infested dungeons a man clearly
in need of a monster-slaying specialist.
After a few missions, your relationship
with the master will level up, and theyll
start appearing in towns to chat and sell you
things. Prove yourself further, and theyll
whisk you away to a hideout, which can be
decorated with paraphernalia befitting an

action-RPG superhero artfully placed

logs, impaled corpses, swarms of bees, that
sort of thing. The hideout gives you access
to the masters specialised crafting bench,
and daily missions.
Unlike the extra endgame activities the
last update brought, all of this will be folded
into lower level areas. We wanted to make
sure that everything in the new expansion
could be experienced within the first 40 or
so hours of the game, playing through the
first difficulty level or two, says Wilson.
Grinding Gear wants to package PoEs hero
vs horde combat runs into different formats
to appeal to different types of player.
Dailies will offer guaranteed progression in
bite-sized increments as a quick, palatable
alternative to continuous re-runs of the
three-act story.
Masters will also be free, a symptom of
Grinding Gears no friction approach to
the free-to-play model. The only items you
pay for are cosmetic. More updates are
coming. If youre looking for a place to slay
millions of monsters in the coming year,
Path of Exile makes a fine choice.
Tom Senior

RELEASE SUMMER
26

OCTOBER 2014

PREVIEW
review
The Witcher universe, presented
in a handy tabletop format.

THE WITCHER
ADVENTURE GAME
PLAYED IT The epic RPG turned digital board game.

The game stars familiar faces from The Witcher

franchise, including Triss, Geralt and Yarpen Zigrin.
Travel the board accruing victory
points by completing quests.

Geralts character-specific action is brew,

which is used to gain more potion cards.

28

OCTOBER 2014

hat at first seems a cynical

attempt to hitch a ride on
the coattails of Hearthstone
soon reveals itself as an
entirely different beast. While both games
shrink expansive RPGs down to tabletop
proportions, this is more board game than
card battler, a story-led adventure built on
The Witchers core elements: brewing
potions, slaying monsters and reading
copious amounts of fantasy fiction.
Hearthstone is a card game that is mostly
PvP and our game is, well, a board game
with a quite different set of rules, says The
Witcher franchise director Rafal Jaki.
Weve been working on this for about two
years. It may not seem so but developing an
AAA board game is a very complicated
process. I think the whole team that we
have in the credits is around 50 people.
Essentially, players travel the board
completing quests and earning victory
points. Whoever has the most VP by the
end wins. Completing quests is a matter of
clicking a tick icon, but these icons are
greyed out until you bank enough
resources to unlock them.
Each turn offers six available actions.
Travel, fast travel and
rest are self-explanatory.
In investigate you solve a
random quest, develop
READ ME
has you drawing new
Developer
In-house
battle cards, and the last
Publisher
is character-specific.
CD Projekt Red
Potion-guzzler Geralt
Link
uses brew to gain more
thewitcher.com/
adventuregame
potion cards, magical

redhead Triss uses prepare for more spell

cards, roguish bard Dandelion sings to earn
coins, and dwarven fight bastard Yarpen
commands companions to assist him.
As Triss, my chosen character for this
multiplayer beta, I am working to restore
the sorceress Keira after some numbskull
turned her into a carved figurine. To do
this, I first travel to Oxenfurt, then use the
investigate action to resolve a random
issue. The best way to get information is
to buy a few rounds at the local tavern,
reads the card. I spend three scrolls and
receive three leads in return. These are
exchanged for proof, which is used to
complete the overarching quest.
Later in the turn, a wolf attacks. Fights
are decided by dice rolls: match your dice to
the icons on the table to win. Using battle
cards, you can modify dice. For example,
my meteor spell splits one die into four.

It is built on The
Witchers core elements:
brewing potions and
slaying monsters
Fail the fight and youll forfeit one of your
actions (although this can be regained by
resting). Luck is on my side this time, and
I vanquish the beast.
Adventure Game is slow, like a version
of The Witcher played entirely in menu
screens, but at the very least it successfully
distills the RPGs core components into a
board game angry losers cant tip over.
Ben Griffin

RELEASE autumn

PREVIEW
review

Expect both peaceful

and violent clashes.

Theres also a local

versus mode.

RIOT

The designers plan to

include a level editor.

first look The civil unrest sim inspired by historic clashes worldwide.

ideogame development can be a

tough gig, but few could have
been tougher than Riots. In
preparation for this five-man
teams game of the same name, former
Valve cinematographer Leonard Menchiari
travelled to Cairo to witness firsthand the
tumultuous uprising at Tahrir Square.
A huge peaceful crowd being smashed
by heavily armoured riot police forces,
heroic figures that shock everyone with
powerful and unpredictable actions, people
not giving up their idea of peace even while
being brutally beat up on the ground,
police forces taking off their helmets after
an order that went way too far these are
situations that I and many others have seen
and need to be shared
with the rest of the
world, says Menchiari.
There is no victory or
READ ME
defeat in Riot. This isnt a
Developer
In-house
State of Emergency-style
Publisher
cartoonish depiction of
Riot
civil unrest, its an
Link
unbiased exploration of
www.riot
simulator.org
mass demonstration

made by people with equal claim to the title

of journalist as game developer. Players
participate in both sides of the conflict, not
so much picking sides as perspectives.
Impartiality implies passivity, but Riot
is anything but. Tensions bubbling, activists
and police forces line up on opposite sides
of a street, buttons appearing over their
collective heads triggering an action,
peaceful or violent. Objectives revolve

This isnt a cartoonish

depiction of civil unrest,
its an exploration of
mass demonstration
around remaining in place for an amount of
time, evacuating a faction, or reaching a
specific area. There are four campaigns: the
Tahrir Revolution, the Grecian Battle of
Keratea, the Italian No TAV, and the
Spanish Indignants Movement. Menchiari
says, The game is not based on winning
the fight so much as how to face each fight.
Although rendered in mosaic 2D stylings
the engine underneath is 3D, allowing Riot

more control over visual effects. They can,

for instance, seamlessly change a city centre
from day to night, bathing it in a deep
orange glow without recolouring the entire
scene pixel by pixel.
Indeed, complex systems lie beneath
beautifully retro realism. According to Riot
each character acts independently, their
intelligent responses formed by fear, anger,
and mental stability. One person might kick
a shop window in while another could jump
on a car bonnet. Physics-led animations
enable realistic crowd movement. Swelling
seas of people dont follow a set path but ebb
and flow like the current, depending on
where physical contact is pressuring each
individual to move to. If Riot doesnt reflect
social upheaval visually, it certainly
captures it mechanically.
To me this game is not about
controversy, says Menchiari, but about
showing real episodes that happened and
are happening right now all around the
world, episodes that have been blocked by
the media, and that might wake people up
in ways that we cant possibly imagine.
Ben Griffin

RELEASE 2015
30

OCTOBER 2014

PREVIEW
The Pacific Northwest has
some of the best scenery.

THE CREW

PLAYED IT Driving from New York to LA in Ubisofts huge open-world racer.

he Crews recreation of North

America isnt to scale, obviously.
But scrolling around the map, it
still looks really, really big. To
determine exactly how big, Im going to
drive across it, coast to coast. My car of
choice is a Ford Mustang GT, which I
spend some time customising. I paint it
red red means fast and stick a spoiler
on it. Perfect. Theres a story in The Crew,
complete with cutscenes and missions, but
I wont be paying attention to any of that.
The focus of this preview is the enormous
world map. Is it actually any fun to drive
across? Lets find out.
I start in New York City. Its a decent
approximation of the Big Apple, but a
fraction of the size; it
takes me just a few
minutes to drive the
READ ME
entire length of
Developer
Manhattan. But the
Ivory Tower,
Ubisoft Reflections
detail is impressive,
Publisher
considering this is just
Ubisoft
one of a number of cities
Link
in the game. I see the
thecrew-game.
ubi.com
Statue of Liberty and

32

OCTOBER 2014

the Brooklyn Bridge. Yep, this is New York

all right. In real life, it would take about 40
hours to drive from here to Los Angeles,
so itll be interesting to see how The Crew
compares. I leave the city behind and head
south towards my next stop, New Orleans.
Rather than drive in a straight line, Ive
decided to stop off at a few cities and
landmarks along the way.
I notice the scenery change as I head

The focus of this

preview is the world
map. Is it actually any
fun to drive across?
south. The trees change to reflect the
swampy climes of Louisiana, which is a
nice touch. Im following a path set by the
in-game GPS, which seems to be leading
me down a lot of pretty boring, mostly
straight freeways. There should be an
avoid freeways option, like on a real GPS.
I reach New Orleans, and its tiny, feeling
more like a medium-sized town than one
of Americas biggest cities. But it looks like

New Orleans at least, and I drive through

the famous French Quarter on my way west
towards Texas. Dallas will be my next stop.
Im disappointed by the cars handling.
It feels weightless and flabby, and I dont
really get the sensation that Im roaring
across America in a powerful, gas-guzzling
muscle car. When I hit other vehicles, I
bounce off them like a bumper car.
Sometimes theres a cutaway to a slow-mo
crash cam, but its hardly Burnout Paradise.
This is an underwhelming driving
experience; a fuzzy halfway between a
snappy arcade racer and a realistic sim.
I power on, cutting through Dallas and
then heading further west towards the
Grand Canyon. I get there just as the sun
is rising, and I get my first wow moment.
I can see Dallas way off in the distance
behind me, and the rolling, red rocks of the
Grand Canyon ahead of me. This is the
first time I really get a sense of the scale of
the map, and I forget briefly about the
soggy handling. The close-up visual details
arent particularly good (at least in the beta
Im playing), but it has some great lighting
and sweeping vistas.

MONITOR

The cops are pretty

easy to outrun.
Variety is definitely the
games strong point.

The Crew looks its

best at sunset.
Theres a selection of
offroad vehicles.

The images on this page are press shots:

it doesnt look quite as good. There are nice
incidental details though, like deer bolting
across the road, and fighter jets streaking
loudly overhead as I go through Nevada,
near Area 51.
Next stop, Las Vegas. This is the bestlooking city Ive seen so far, with all the
gaudy casinos looking fantastic in the
glinting sun. Ive been driving for about an
hour and a half now, which is a long time in
game-hours. My hands are sweaty and my
eyes are burning, but Im almost there. The
variety of scenery Ive sped by, and distinct

Everywhere you see

bespoke scenery, from
natural landmarks to
iconic buildings
lack of loading breaks, is impressive. I drive
out of Vegas and into a vast, flat desert,
before reaching the Pacific Northwest,
where the dry sands turn to green forests of
fir trees. The segue between landscapes
isnt particularly subtle, but it just about
works. I do feel like Im crossing a large
country, albeit at supersonic speeds.

Seattle is my next city stop. I think about

what a mammoth task designing this map
must have been. Everywhere you look you
see bespoke scenery, from natural
landmarks such as the great mesas of
Monument Valley, to iconic buildings like
the Empire State. Im near the West Coast
now, and Los Angeles is just down the road.
I set a GPS marker and drive south through
Californias beautiful wine country, cross
the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco,
and finally hit the beaches of LA. Its taken
me just over two hours of non-stop driving
to get here. Our roadtrip is over.
Looking at my map, which shows you
the areas youve driven and the ones you
havent, I see I still have about 70 percent of
it left unexplored. This is a really impressive
open world, but I wonder if the game has
anything to offer beyond that. The
handling left me cold (although that could
just be the car I chose), and the roads were
too realistic to make for an especially fun or
memorable drive but I did enjoy watching
the scenery shift around me. Im intrigued
to see what the story mode has to offer, but
until then I can at least confirm that, yes,
the map is indeed really, really big.
Andy Kelly

RELEASE NOVEMBER 11
OCTOBER 2014

33

PREVIEW

The old school Soviet-era

weapons feel great to fire.

Youll find precious relics

hidden in hazardous areas.

SURVARIUM

Level up and you can buy better,

and better-looking, gear.

PLAYED IT Grim post-apocalyptic shooter from the developers of Stalker.

ostok Games is a new studio

founded by developers who
worked on the Stalker series.
You probably guessed that by
looking at the screenshots. But while it
shares the same bleak post-apocalyptic
Soviet aesthetic, the team are keen to
distance themselves from their old game.
In this world, nature is fighting back and
reclaiming the planet. Cities are abandoned
and overgrown, and bizarre new species of
mutated plants and animals are taking over.
Naturally there are a few survivors, and
thats the role youll be playing in this
massively multiplayer survival shooter.
The finished game is a long way off, but
Vostoks intention is to offer three modes:
team play, free play and
co-op. The last two
represent the grand
vision for the game,
READ ME
to create a dynamic
Developer
multiplayer experience
Vostok Games
reminiscent of DayZ.
Publisher
In co-op mode, players
In-house
will work together to
Link
www.survarium.com
complete objectives and

34

OCTOBER 2014

reveal stories about the catastrophe that

has decimated Earth. Free play is more
open-ended, dropping an as-yet-undecided
number of players into a map filled with
enemies and environmental hazards. Like
DayZ, this will be part PvP, part PvE.
Players will be able to form gangs, or work
alone, fighting both mobs and each other.
Vostok arent ready to show these modes
off yet, but they have released the first

Playing unlocks
currency, which can be
spent on an array of
post-apocalyptic gear
version of team play in the form of a closed
beta. Its a pretty standard multiplayer
mode that anyone whos played an online
FPS in the last ten years will be familiar
with. It pits two teams against each other
in arena-like maps, and features a Call of
Duty-style level system. Playing unlocks
currency, which can be spent on an array of
post-apocalyptic gear including gas masks,
bulletproof vests, and rusty old Russian

rifles. Youll start the game wearing only

a jumper and a pair of filthy tracksuit
bottoms, but keep earning roubles and
youll eventually be decked out in the
height of wasteland fashion.
Its not just for show, though. Areas of
the maps are flooded with mysterious
radiation-like energy that will kill you if
you linger near it too long. Kit yourself out
with a protective mask and suit and youll
be able to move around inside it, giving you
a tactical edge over other players. Even
though there isnt much in the way of
innovation in Survariums team play mode,
theyve made a really, really good shooter.
The guns all feel great, its fast-paced and
character movement is responsive.
The lack of futuristic CoD-style
weaponry makes battles feel extra brutal,
and the sound design is excellent, with
loud, echoing gunfire that is genuinely
unnerving. This early beta is an enticing
proof of concept for the games combat,
but nothing more. Its in the other modes
where its real potential lies.
Vostok has created an evocative postapocalyptic world, built using their own

MONITOR

Vostoks in-house graphics

engine is seriously impressive.

The games excellent sound

design adds to the atmosphere.

This map is built around a statue

that actually exists in Russia.

in-house graphics engine, and its capable of

some beautiful environments. Among my
favourite maps are Mamayev Kurgan, a
battered landscape of buried tunnels and
trenches dug around a massive, striking
statue which is actually a real monument
to the Battle of Stalingrad built near
Volgograd, Russia. In the centre is a huge,
cavernous rift in the ground that bleeds
deadly poison or radiation or whatever it is,
and the narrow tunnels make for some
tense close-quarters firefights.
Vostoks radar station centrepiece is an
enormous radar dish being choked by the
oversized roots of a giant tree. You can
climb the roots to the top of the dish and
use it as a sniper nest, if you manage to
unlock a good long-range weapon. At the
base of the dish theres an area of land
flooded with that radiation stuff, which
forms a thick fog, so you can use it as cover
if you have the requisite mask and suit
combo. All the maps are vaguely
symmetrical, and the goal besides
shooting each other is to collect batteries
that are strewn around the map and bring
them back to your base. Naturally, carrying

Protect teammates as they

carry parts back to your base.

a battery leaves you unable to use your

weapons, which is where the team element
comes in. Its a pretty basic riff on capture
the flag, but it plays well enough.
As if the games Stalker DNA wasnt
obvious enough, the game also features
artefacts, objects created by the worlds
changing ecology that grant the bearer
unusual powers. Throw a sponge artefact
and itll explode with a burst of deadly

Recovering artefacts
from hazardous areas
will be a big part of co-op
and free play modes
toxins. The coil deactivates nearby
scanners and other electronics. The rattle
silences your footsteps. The larkspur
speeds up health regeneration. These buffs
are usually tucked away in hazardous areas,
and artefact recovery will be a big part of
the cooperative and free play modes.
But heres the rub. Survarium is a free-toplay game. Theres a microtransaction
system in place, with two currencies:

roubles and gold. Roubles are earned

in-game, slowly, and gold can be purchased
with real-world money to fast track you to
better equipment. Armour, weapons and so
on are level-locked though, so players with
money to burn cant just kit themselves out
with the best gear.
The microtransactions dont seem too
intrusive at the moment, but well have to
see how that pans out. Some will also be
concerned about the games use of
matchmaking rather than a server browser,
but this does at least seem to reliably
segregate players by level. Free-to-play
models are easy to screw up, but I think
Vostok know what theyre doing.
My slice of Survarium was an interesting
appetiser. Theyve nailed the combat, but
its the modes that havent yet been revealed
that Im really interested in. If they can
combine the bleak atmosphere and
brutality of the Stalker games with the
emergent, story-generating multiplayer of
DayZ, this could be pretty special. Im
naturally wary of the free-to-play aspect,
but fingers crossed it doesnt spoil things.
Andy Kelly

RELEASE WINTER
OCTOBER 2014

35

PREVIEW
Dont be fooled by its natural
beauty: this place is deadly.

THE LONG DARK

PLAYED IT Survival gets serious in Hinterlands stylish wilderness sim.

he Long Dark sees you play as

Will Mackenzie, a bush pilot
whose plane crashes in a remote
wilderness after a mysterious
geomagnetic disaster. The alpha build
Im playing is dedicated entirely to what
Hinterland call the survival sandbox, but
the finished game will feature an episodic
story that reveals more about this event.
Here the only goal is to stay alive for as long
as possible easier said than done in this
harsh frozen landscape. I spent a good
chunk of today playing The Long Dark, and
I think it might be the closest anyones ever
come to making my dream survival game.
Starting a new game I find myself gazing
across a sea of trees. Im immediately struck
by the art style, which
looks like concept art
come to life. Its
remarkable how much
READ ME
atmosphere theyve
Developer
Hinterland Games
managed to squeeze out
Publisher
of those stylised, handIn-house
painted textures. Snow
Link
swirls in the wind as I
www.intothe
longdark.com
make my way down a hill

36

OCTOBER 2014

into a forest. Its a stark, barren landscape,

and I feel like Im being swallowed by it.
Mackenzie is voiced by Mark Meer (who
also voiced Commander Shepard in the
Mass Effect series), and regularly vocalises
how he feels. My stomach feels like an
empty pit, hell grumble if hes hungry.
That smarts, but Ill be fine, he says if
you sustain a minor injury. Its a nice,
immersive touch.

I think it might be the

closest anyones ever
come to making my
dream survival game
As I wander through the forest, I notice
words appearing at the bottom-right of the
screen: freezing, starving, dehydrated. I
havent found anything useful yet; just a few
skittish deer that I have no hope of hunting.
Night is falling and Im about to give in and
start a new game, but then I see something
in the distance: a wisp of smoke. I trudge
through the snow towards it, and find a
cabin. Relief washes over me as I open the

door. Supplies are scattered around: a lamp,

bandages, matches, canned food. I light the
wood burner and it casts a warm glow over
the room, which raises my temperature
when I crouch next to it. Against all odds,
Ive survived the first night.
Or so I think. I didnt pay attention to my
status and go to bed on an empty stomach,
dying of starvation in my sleep. Game over.
Even for a survival game, The Long Dark is
merciless. Youll have to keep a close eye on
your temperature, hunger, thirst and
fatigue metres to manage them effectively.
I love how a lot of the tiresome chores that
usually define survival games, like endlessly
hitting trees to collect wood, can be
automated. I can instruct Mackenzie to
spend a set amount of hours foraging for
wood, and the game will tell me beforehand
how many calories this will burn. If I have
an axe Ill have a better chance of finding
something; without one, theres a good
chance Ill fail and find nothing.
Everything you do burns calories. To
keep them topped up, youll have to find
food. One of the easiest ways to do this
early in the game is to scavenge venison

MONITOR

Fires dont last long. Youll need

wood to keep them burning.

Theres shelter out there,

you just have to find it.

from deer carcasses and cook it on a fire

but theres always the risk of contracting
food poisoning. You can also find candy
bars, soda, and other packaged food in
buildings by rifling through drawers and
cupboards. The wilderness in The Long
Dark is not a vast, empty expanse of
countryside: it has been hand designed, and
there are a lot of interesting locations to
discover, including an abandoned logging
camp and a hydroelectric dam.
Lets take a moment to talk about
atmosphere, which is something The Long
Dark absolutely nails. In my second attempt
I find myself crouching by a fire Ive built in
the broken shell of an old cabin. Its warm
enough, even though its full of holes, and
Im well fed, but a blizzard has rolled in,
trapping me inside. As the fire crackles I
hear the wind roar. Nearby is the frozen
corpse of some unfortunate soul.
Occasionally I hear the howl of a wolf, too
close for comfort. The light from the fire
dances around the shelter the dynamic
lighting effects are really impressive and
an impenetrable wall of snow surrounds me
on all sides. Its a perfect, and totally

unscripted, moment. An evocative

marriage of circumstance, image and
sound that immediately sells the game to
me. This is what survival should feel like.
I place my bedroll next to the fire and
sleep through the night. The blizzard is
gone by morning, and I emerge once again
into the wilderness. I explore some more,
stumbling upon a derailed train whose
payload of logs has spilled over. The

This marriage of
circumstance, image
and sound immediately
sells the game to me
environment is always eager to tell stories,
and I get a distinct sense that something has
gone horribly wrong with the world. Then
I encounter my first wolf. Ive seen a few in
the distance before, and managed to avoid
them, but this one catches me unaware as
Im busy scavenging meat from a dead
animal. It leaps at me, and the game
instructs me to hammer the left mouse
button to build up my strength then press

This cabin looks cozy, but youll

need a fire to warm it up.

the right to strike. But my empty belly

means I cant work up the strength, and the
beast mauls me to death. Game over, again.
From what Ive played, animal attacks in
The Long Dark are thankfully rare. You
wont be constantly attacked by wolves as
you explore, which would have ruined that
carefully crafted atmosphere.
There are some things I dont like. Not
being able to build fires indoors makes
sense in small cabins and the like, but when
I had to leave the cover of a large, highceilinged generator room in the
hydroelectric dam to light one and warm
up, the illusion was shattered. Not being
able to save is frustrating too, but I suspect
the final game will have the option.
This is an alpha, after all, but one that
feels like its on its way to becoming a
complete game, rather than just a glorified
tech demos. Im really impressed with
what Ive played so far. With a focus on
atmosphere and environmental survival,
it stands out in an increasingly crowded
genre, and I cant wait to explore more of
this deadly, snowbound wilderness.
Andy Kelly

RELEASE SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER 2014

37

PREVIEW
review

We can be friends, right?

Heres what $2.9 million

gets you .

Scenarios like this will unravel in

a few different novel ways.

It cant hurt that it looks like

a top-down Fallout.

Wasteland 2

PLAYED IT The irradiated desert has never looked so inviting.

know what a high-profile Kickstarter

project this is, Brian Fargo tells me.
Theres the pressure from 60,000
people saying, Dont screw this up,
and then Ive got all of my fellow developers
who are saying, Brian, dont screw this
up. He chuckles, but the pressure is real.
Backers gave Fargos inXile almost $3
million to make this game, a sequel to the
classic RPG that inspired Fallout.
Fargo shows me an optional quest where
a bartender asks our party to save his
shipment of alcohol. We load into the
encounter with the shipment itself, on a
delivery truck ambushed by a rogue group
of hobos. It looks as though the party will
have to mow down some homeless to get
the beer back.
Fargo clicks through
some dialogue then
waits. After a few beats,
READ ME
but right before the
developer
party attacks, one of the
InXile
party members rushes
publisher
forward to try to save the
In-house
day. He is Scotchmo, a
link
www.bit.ly/Waste2
hobo NPC, and he

implores his bum brethren to remember

the Hobo Code: we beg, we borrow, we do
not steal! The hobos are properly shamed
and begin to disperse.
This is just one way to resolve the
encounter, according to Fargo. You could
have started shooting, or used conversation
skills the variety in outcomes and content
is unprecedented.
Playing for myself, I find Im facing

I underestimate their
battle prowess, and the
rabbits feast on our sunbleached corpses
branching decisions from the get-go. The
character creator feels ripped from Fallout:
ability scores such as coordination and
luck affect your chances to hit with a
ranged weapon or talk your way out of a bad
deal, while skills such as toaster repair or
animal whisperer bend your build toward
some warped sense of usefulness. Youre
given enough choices at the beginning to
make a specialised character, but spending

too deep in the strange skills will hinder

your normal abilities.
I receive two different distress calls: one
for a settlement under siege by raiders, and
another for a botanical area where the
plants have come alive and are eating
people. I probably cant save both.
I rush to fight the plants, but never make
it: a warren of giant rabbits ends my partys
life after I underestimate their battle
prowess, spending action points on poorlyaimed range attacks. The rabbits feast on
our sun-bleached corpses.
You can kill anyone, but the consequence
may not be apparent for hours of play time.
Fargo says: you cant just have a combat
and figure out which result you like better
and do it a different way. Its sometimes
going to be hours later before you know
whats happening. That sounds cool in
theory, but Im worried the abundance of
options could be overwhelming.
Fargo says that the more than 60 hours of
playtime are a consequence of his desire to
overdeliver on content an attitude that
can only please that army of backers.
Cory Banks

RELEASE SEPTEMBER
38

OCTOBER 2014

40

OCTOBER 2014

E V O LV E
The Left 4 Dead team are redefining
co-op with evolvE, their epic
multiplayer monster hunt. By Ben Griffin

release

2015

heres an immaculate bank of four

monitors before me. Black cables
connect the highest of high-end
PCs, headsets, amps, controllers,
keyboards and mice. Its a typically
slick preview setup designed to show
off the game and win over the game
journalist. On the opposite side of
the room is a lone PC.
I make a beeline for it, not because
Ive got Twitter beef with the four
other journalists present, or because
Im wickedly antisocial or even
because its got a slightly fancier
monitor. Its because this PC is for
whoever controls the monster.
And nothing is going to stop me
doing that.
You see, Evolve is a four-on-one
shooter where one team of humans
hunts a terrifying player-controlled
alien. The four Hunters each have a
class and a unique set of skills to help
them on their 15-minute quest.
Theres nothing quite like it. Its a
bold game that opts for
asymmetrical cooperative
multiplayer; its an even bolder one
that drops the concept of a
traditional campaign entirely
(although you can play solo with AI).
Evolve nevertheless spins its story:

the setting is Shear, a rough and

rugged planet on the farthest fringe
of explored space. Humans are
mounting a colonisation attempt,
but the planet isnt having it. Not its
unpredictable climate, which veers
from freezing to boiling. Not its
composition, which can best be
described as jagged. And not its
diverse population, many of which
have claws.

Chased down

The idea for Evolve has actually

been around for a while, says Turtle
Rock founder Phil Robb. Way back
even before Left 4 Dead was made.
Just the idea that, hey, wouldnt it be
fun if we could get together and hunt
a giant monster? Part of it is us
trying to figure out what the appeal
of games like Deerhunter were,
sitting around going, I dont get it,
whats so fun about sitting in the
weeds and waiting for this deer to go
by? And it sort of snowballed into,
Well, hey, what if it was a bear? And
then it was, Screw bears, what if it
was dinosaurs? What if it was giant
alien monsters?
Evolves inspirations are many.
They include the 1996 historical

OCTOBER 2014

41

E V O LV E

Animals spawn randomly

no two games are alike.

adventure movie The Ghost and the

Darkness starring Michael Douglas
as a lion hunter, a specific scene in
Peter Jacksons King Kong where
the giant ape bursts into a village and
battles Jack Black and company,
Aliens, Predator, and The Grey.
Im the Kraken for the first match.
Its maw split into clammy tentacles,
its posture stooped, its back adorned
by two cephalopodic appendages
generating crackling blue bioelectricity, this is a gigantic alpha
predator and one of three playable
beasts (a fourth is scheduled for
DLC). Its a different organism
altogether from the first to take the
spotlight the hulking Goliath.
Where that is a bipedal bulldozer
able to punch through the hull of a
starship according to its bio, the
Kraken is more about ranged
projectile damage.
These monsters have gone
through many drafts. The original

Goliath, for instance, was called

Scorpid. He was very crab-like,
says Robb. And the thing that we
found with him is that he wasnt
relatable... With a crab, you cant get
the raw fury and emotion that you
can with another creature. We gave
Goliath lips so that he could pull
back his lips in a snarl, and we gave
him eyes so that he could emote. We
have a lot of character in our
Hunters and we wanted to do the
same thing with the monsters.
My Kraken quite literally fizzes
with personality. His four moves are
a lightning strike called down from
the heavens that deals area-of-effect
damage; a gusty vortex that knocks
enemies back; banshee mines that,
when stepped on, deal electricity
damage; and aftershock, which
builds an electrically charged shield.
And if the attacks werent selfexplanatory enough, a two-minute
pre-match reel showcases what they
Only one of these Hunters
is correctly dressed.

42

OCTOBER 2014

do and how to use them. Before the

match Im allowed to pick two, as
well as a perk these range from
attack buffs to defence boosts.
Monsters navigate maps in
completely different ways. The
Goliath sprints on two legs and the
Kraken bounds on four; the former
scales cliffs while the later soars over
them. Speaking of maps, this is a
place like nowhere youve seen
before. Robb explains Turtle Rocks
vision for Shear: We were going for
the feeling of isolation, this being a
frontier planet. We didnt want to
make it a big metropolis planet full
of cities and things like that. This is a
planet dotted with settlements, and
the settlements are lonely places, and
fairly far away from each other. So
theres that feeling of isolation:
youre on the edge of civilised space.
The colonists are opportunistic,
taking advantage of naturally
occurring building materials and
using spaceship parts as
accoutrements. Turtle Rock call
their design philosophy loco-tech,

All twelve Hunters

are unique.

Maps are small enough

to force confrontations.

The two monsters seem to have been

designed with a elemental theme.

He was crab-like. With

a crab, you cant get the
raw fury and emotion
inspired by steam engines and
machinery from the industrial
revolution: thick buckles, black
pipes, churning turbines and wads of
grease. The stage Im playing is
called The Dam, a desert canyon
under a starry sky. Its exotic and
hostile, an environment where only
the fittest survive. This doesnt feel
like a videogame construct meant to
accommodate, but an alien world
thats flourished without
intervention, like festering mould
behind the radiator. Its meant for
those adapted to it, and repellent to
everything else.
On the sides of this half-kilometre
map, networks of tall caves converge
on a sprawling dam. As the monster,

my aim is to destroy it, but first I

must roam the level snacking on
local wildlife. Much of it is small
enough to pose no threat. Longlimbed crowbill sloths flee when
they see me approach, as you would,
so I cast a bolt of lighting and fry
them. Some creatures fight back.
Kill elite creatures, like the armadon
or tyrant, and you gain temporary
buffs. The general rule is the bigger
the animal, the more meat it offers.

Feeding frenzy

Evolve isnt so named merely because

it lends itself to a clever logo that
visualises the games four-on-one
angle. You have to actually evolve,
and eating meat is how. The Kraken

Animal house Planet Shear is home to some nasty wildlife

Trapjaw

The hyenas of Shear, theyll muscle in

on the monsters kills.

Armadon

Armoured and ugly. Like a rhino

mated with a pangolin.

Blitzleopard

Fast and thorny. Never let one sit on

your new sofa.

has three stages, growing bigger and

more powerful each time. Upon
evolving, you unlock another ability,
but watch out: get caught in the act
and youll take greater damage. You
wont want to scrap with the Hunters
unless youre fully evolved, because
if they have any semblance of
teamwork youll be outgunned.
Instead, I spend the first two thirds
of the match zapping anything
smaller than me like an electrical
bully, and eating it.
I have to be careful, because
certain elements of the game can
give away my position. I blaze
through a flock of alien birds and
their distressed squawks echo
around the level. My footprints also
leave a temporary breadcrumb trail.
Animals react to kills, too: vulturelike harpies show up on Hunters
huds, while trapjaws arrive in packs
like hyenas to contest you. The
randomised weather can play a part
in your strategy: rain washes away
monster footprints faster and
reduces the scent range, while fog
banks obscures sight lines and aids
escape. Weather is a rolling modifier
that forces both sides to make
on-the-fly tactical decisions and
adjustments to their playing style.
Enough fauna munched on, I
evolve to my final form, all four
powers unlocked. Now its time to
attack the dams generator. The
Hunters know Im heading there
because thats where all matches in
Hunt mode end up (other modes
have yet to be revealed). Either I
destroy it and win, or they destroy
OCTOBER 2014

43

This isnt a wildlife problem but a

malignant intelligence, says Robb.

me and win. The flat, open space

surrounding it feels purpose-built
for us to thrown down, like an arena
from some 3D beat-em-up.
Ive got the advantage here after
levelling up my sweeping lightning
attack: Im able to damage all the
Hunters at once in one massive blast.
They pepper me with shots, but Ive
perfected the art of hitting and
running. I knock one man to the
ground, using him as bait so that
when a friend comes to revive him, I
target them instead. Soon theyre all
dead, and Ive got all the time in the
world to whale on the generator.
OK, round over, its time to switch.
There are four Hunter classes:
Assault, Medic, Support and
Trapper. Theyre equally important,
but the Trapper is more important.
And Im not just saying that because
Im a Trapper. Paltry machine gun

The Krakens codename was Grounder, because

it grounds electricity through the Hunters.

44

OCTOBER 2014

aside, her harpoon gun tethers the

monster to the ground, and her pet
trapjaw Daisy, which is basically an
alien bloodhound, can track the
monsters scent. Best of all is the
mobile arena. Deploying it encloses
the monster in a shimmering
hologram dome for a few minutes,
and because your quarry is faster
than you, its the only way to kill it in
the early stages.
These Hunters are a different set
from those I saw during the games
reveal a few months back. Although
the classes dont change, the humans
(and robots) in these roles do. There
are 12 characters in all three in
each class. My Trapper is Maggie, a
tough talker with an even tougher
upbringing, as I discover during the
opening scene in which our Hunters
banter in a dropship. Maggie asks
the Assault guy Hyde, a cockney

man mountain, if she scares him. He

replies, Nah...Well, yeah, a bit.
Along with random exchanges down
on the ground, these moments tell
the story and flesh out the
characters.
We did not want these characters
to be re-skins of the same character,
Robb tells me. Weve tried very
very hard to make sure all the
characters are very unique. Even
within the classes. So you have three
assault characters, and weve worked
really hard to make sure each one of
these guys performs their job in
different ways... We want to make
sure everyone finds a favourite.

The games afoot

We drop from the sky and land at the

generator. Now the hunt begins. We
quickly find that following the
Krakens footsteps is folly, because
well always be a step behind. Instead
we call on Bucket, the Support.
Bucket is a bulky yellow robot who
can detach his head and fly it like a
drone. Once he finds the monster, he
marks it on everyones screens.
Using this ability at the start of each
match is a good routine to adopt.
We split into pairs. Obviously this
requires a bit of coordination, so
mics are crucial. One things for
sure, though: you never want to go it
alone. As in Left 4 Dead, natural
hazards impede lone wolves. One
alien with massive jaws the
megamouth locks me in a tussle
animation that can only be
interrupted by a teammate. Later, a
giant venus flytrap imprisons me in
its gob until Im rescued. If you
couldnt tell, Im quite clumsy.

E V O LV E
MONSTER MASH Two monsters and their powers
The Kraken

Goliath

Vortex: a push attack that flings enemies

backwards with force.
Lightning strike: calls down lightning from
the sky and shocks anyone in the vicinity.
Banshee mine: summons a mine from its
maw that detonates when Hunters are near.
Aftershock: an electrical pulse forms around
the Kraken for a few seconds, damaging
Hunters within it.

Fire breath: a liquid flame projectile that sets

foes on fire and deals damage over time.
Leap smash: the Goliath jumps into the air
then crashes back to earth causing immense
area-of-effect damage.
Rock throw: grabs a hunk of earth and hurls
it at the Hunters, knocking them back.
Charge: closes the gap by getting down on all
fours and barrelling towards opponents.

At last we find the monster, thanks

in no small part to my trapjaw who
sniffs it out. Not being fully evolved.
the Kraken tries to flee, but I root it
to the ground with my harpoons and
lay my mobile arena. Now the other
three members of my team can go to
town. The Assault man Hyde, our
primary damage dealer, is key here,
using a minigun, flamethrower and
toxic grenades to weaken the
monster, then deploying a personal
shield when it strikes back. This is
where Bucket comes in, using his
cloaking field to render everyone
invisible. His guided missile
launcher and sentry gun mines keep
up the damage.
When I get knocked down,
Lazarus the Medic helps out. While

Dont call it steampunk!

The style is loco-tech.

The dune beetle eats the monsters food source,

like how a seagull steals your chips at the beach.

Im able to damage all

the Hunters at once in
one massive blast
anyone can revive anyone (including
the pet trapjaw), the Medic brings
teammates back to life almost
instantly. Lazarus excels at creeping
round the level with his invisibility
cloak, silently using healing bursts to
keep the team alive and fighting.
Finally, and only through
teamwork, we take down the
Kraken. It collapses with a wail.
Evolve feels good, and it works. So
what, for Robb, are his hallmarks of
a strong co-op game? It needs to be
more than taking a group of people
and putting them in a room and
saying, run this way... A good co-op
game forces you to cooperate.
Forces doesnt sound very friendly
and very nice but theres this kind of
nice elegance to the way the games
go when everyones cooperating.

Evolve marks a continuation of Left

4 Deads engaging brand of forced
co-op but also introduces a
competitive aspect in terms of
pitting a human-controlled
monster against four humancontrolled, differentlypowered, Hunters. Its a risk.
Purely competitive shooters
are more popular, but as
Robb points out, no one
has infused one with
co-op in quite this way.
I wont say its easier,
but its a different beat to
balance a game based on each
person being an island in their own
way. I dont like to think of [co-op
games] as not as popular, I like to
think of the cooperative genre as not
fully explored.
OCTOBER 2014

45

COVER FEATURE xxxxx

Bleszinski
talk s

BlueStreak
The polarising designer of Gears
of War and Unreal returns
to PC gaming.
By Evan Lahti

46

OCTOBER 2014

release

2015

Im going to wind up with a

game about crafting hats or
something. I dont want that

n July, Gears of War and

Unreal designer Cliff
Bleszinski revealed his next
project: a free-to-play,
PC-focused arena shooter
called Project BlueStreak
created by Boss Key
Productions, his new studio.
Following a Reddit AMA that
answered some surface-level
questions about the game, I talked to
him about what kind of shooter hes
trying to create.
BlueStreak, which wont be the
final name, mainly exists as concept
art at the moment, so when I get the
elephant-in-the-room question out
of the way, monetisation, Bleszinski
says it hasnt been figured out yet. I
like to use my restaurant metaphor:
weve picked out the space, we know
what genre of food were going to be
in, were currently crafting the
menu... how much its going to cost
for a side of butter, I dont know yet,
right? And thats one of the things

with working with [my publisher]

Nexon, theyre like, Go build a
fantastic game and a community
around it, and well work on figuring
out how to make it hopefully make a
lot of money.
Though the business model may
not even exist on a napkin yet, as one
of the fathers of competitive FPS,
Bleszinski is openly wary of pay to
win infiltrating BlueStreaks design.
Everyone else that I talked to about
the free-to-play space, theyre like,
Oh, youve gotta lead with your
monetisation strategy. And Im like,
well, then Im going to wind up with
a game thats about crafting hats or
something. I dont want that. When
you look at the success of League and
Dota, those are fantastic gameplay
experiences first but they then kind
of worked through figuring out what
each ones monetisation scheme was
in that space... I still see a lot of
hatred in the pay-to-win category,
and I said initially in the AMA I

would like to avoid that as much as

possible. There might be pay for
slight perks, or pay for variety, but
its anyones guess right now. And
with using the community to help
develop this game, they can help
dictate this a bit.
Likewise, though itll be a
competitive, five-on-five game,
Bleszinski isnt committing to
BlueStreak being an e-sports-driven
experience out of the gate. More
important to him at the moment is
nailing arena FPS essentials, like
player movement. When I look at
your average Call of Duty match its
twitch to ironsights, pop-pop,
randomly come around a corner...
thats fun as a core loop, but for me it
doesnt have that FPS dance, which
Halo still nails, where one person
acquires another, starts opening up
shots, and the other person has a shot
at turning the table if they either find
some health or a pickup or get lucky.
As long as a game is skill-based,
OCTOBER 2014

47

COVER FEATURE xxxxx

boosters or speed-ups, jetpacks,

and it yields those kinds of
things like that. And so what you
interesting plays, hopefully itll
have is run, prone, dash, maybe a
wind up being watchable. But it
dive, and just a jump. And thats fine
comes down to making a great,
for what that is, but theres so much
airtight game, and once those
more that can be done in sci-fi in
variables, those verbs are all in place
regards to giving the player whatever
and cool enough for the skilled
movement we think is cool we can
players, thats when people want to
come up with a creative fiction to
watch it because it becomes
explain how its physically
aspirational.
happening. I dont want to spoil what
That dance is critical to what he
Im thinking of with this, but I think
wants to achieve in BlueStreak, and
what I want to do on PC is get back
he says its something thats lacking
to that sense of verticality that we
in most current FPSes. Bleszinski
werent afraid of with a lot of the
believes many modern multiplayer
older shooters. Because on consoles
maps are too porous, and would
were always afraid of the twin sticks
rather BlueStreak adopt a kind of
and looking up is too confusing if
medium-sized, arena-based shooter
someones above you all that kind
with the right balance of tight
of stuff that Halo
corners and open
rightfully taught us.
spaces. Open spaces, he
Bleszinski isnt
says, are where that
entirely sour on
dance happens and
contemporary shooters,
theyre also risky spaces
of course. I ask him what
to be in. But true to the
he thought of Titanfall,
design of games like
another sci-fi FPS that
Unreal Tournament,
Cliff Bleszinski
was ambitious about
balancing the danger of
and friend.
player movement.
open spaces by nestling
What I liked about
map attractors such as
Titanfall was the variety of gameplay
valuable weapons or power-ups in
that, just when shooting by itself
them provides a risk/reward
started to get a bit old, your Titan
trade-off, Bleszinski says.
would be ready and they knew how
to switch it up a bit, he says. I think
Future perfect
introducing a little bit of minion
BlueStreaks sci-fi theme facilitates a
gameplay without Titanfall turning
fiction where floating power-ups
full MOBA was a good step.
arent as immersion-breaking, and
Im surprised when Bleszinski
its also a setting that supports the
gives a huge compliment to a
creative forms of movement
franchise created by a company that
Bleszinski is clearly excited about.
he spent most of the 90s competing
That isnt the case in most current
with. The new Wolfenstein was in
FPSes, he says. When you look at
my opinion... one of the best firstmovement in the majority of your
person shooter campaigns since
average military shooters... its a
Half-Life 2. And I think Im about
contemporary world and I think
halfway through right now. Im stuck
even the people working on
on this bridge section but I refuse to
Advanced Warfare have realised how
lower the difficulty because I hate
limiting that can be when youre just
having to do that in a game. When I
a regular soldier without any sort of

So much
more can be
done in sci-fi
Unreal Tournament
is where it all started...

...Gears of War perfected

the shoulderpad.

THE ARENA SHOOTER RETURNS Why the genre is far from dead

saw that game at E3 a couple years

ago and then PAX East, I was
completely underwhelmed, I was
writing it off. I didnt want to be a
dick and say something about it on
social, but my expectations were
really low I thought it seemed kind
of cheesy and just weird. And then
when I got hands-on, it was
extraordinarily well written,
graphically gorgeous, and the maps
were extremely well built. And the
combat was just fantastic, it was a
labour of love.

Word of mod

Unreal Tournament

Epic
What distinguishes it? Completely
free with the exception of a maps
and mods marketplace, the new UT
is half-meant as a hype engine for
Unreal Engine 4.

48

OCTOBER 2014

Battleborn

Gearbox Software
What distinguishes it? Developer
Gearbox says it isnt a MOBA, but
theres a broad variety of playable
characters and creep-like enemy
NPCs to be found within.

Toxikk

Reakktor Studios
What distinguishes it? In
the words of its developer: No
regenerating health. No cover
systems. No iron sight aiming.
Mutators. No free-to-play.

Hard details on BlueStreak are scant

at this stage Bleszinski wont reveal
anything about factions, weapons, or
modes, but its going to be
fascinating to watch Boss Key
compete with a franchise that
Bleszinski had a hand in creating:
Unreal Tournament. Epics rebooted,
completely-free-not-free-to-play
arena FPS has a bit of a head start on
BlueStreak, and one of the exciting
things about the new UT has been

BLUESTREAK

Its surprising how many alien

planets look like Monument Valley.

Epics focus on involving modders in

the project from the get-go. Its
unclear whether BlueStreak will be
moddable for certain, but Bleszinski
would like it to be. What I love
about the modding community is
that they keep the developers
honest, he says. You look at what
happened with Watch Dogs, and the
conspiracy theorists continuing to
wonder why that stuff was cut out. A
lot of the best games, a lot of the best
talent comes out of the mod
community because the mod
community doesnt have all of the
bullshit red tape that keeps
innovation back sometimes in this
industry. You look at... theres a new
mod that came out for Portal 2 thats
just the paint gun, I love that kind of
stuff. Will we embrace that?
Hopefully. But again, lets figure out
the darn game first.
Bleszinskis openly enthusiastic
about designing a game again. But
after almost a decade of creating
console games, whats encouraging
is how sincere he is about being on

PC again. When I ask him whats

exciting to him about the platform
right now, he says, Whats not? If
you want the highest-end
experience, you go to a high-end PC.
If you want to go where the majority
of the Twitch streams and the
YouTubers are, its mostly on PC.
And not to flak the consoles, but for
me, making a classic arena shooter
that wants to have the maximum
global reach possible and explore the
free-to-play space, the PC absolutely
makes the most sense.
Bleszinski politely points to one of
his other free-to-play FPS
competitors, a game announced on

the same day as his. Randy

[Pitchford], over at Gearbox, hes
doing that interesting looking
pseudo-MOBA Battleborn, and I
looked at the platforms planned and
its PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4,
and a lot of developers intelligently
do that to mitigate risk. I get and
respect that. But theres a little bit
lost when youre not laser-focused on
developing a project specifically for
one platform initially, to maximise
what that product is best at. And for
PC, its that classic keyboard-andmouse aiming ability and the ability
for players to manoeuvre in a nimble
fashion on all axes.
OCTOBER 2014

49

ALIEN: ISOLATION

50

OCTOBER 2014

release

Oct 7

t can hear my motion tracker. Of

course it can. This is the third time
Ive tried hiding in this particular
bank of lockers in this particular
storage room along this particular
access corridor in Sevastopol
Stations medical facility. I need to
reach the emergency wards beyond
to find an access key, and while an
ally slowly bleeds out elsewhere
I squat in the dark, eyes glued
to the sensor.
Beepbeepbeep, beep, beep.
The alien moves away, still at
ground level I recognise the arc of
its movement as the route to the
room Ive just come from and I
dash out of my locker and head for
the door. Best to be safe: I pull up the
sensor again and point its 90-degree
field of view at the aliens last known
location. I inch backwards, totally
transfixed by that distant blob of
light on the screen. It starts to move
towards me. Beep. Beep.
Beepbeepbeepbeep.
I barely make it back inside the
locker. For the fourth time, a shadow
appears in the doorway. This time,
though, theres nothing tentative
about the aliens approach. It dashes
forward and left, peering inside the
vent system Id used to reach this
storage room in the first place. Then

Fifty brief
lives in
Alien:
Isolation.
By Chris Thursten

a little too late to save this particular

instance of Ripleys life. It makes
sense: Id treated the device as part of
the user interface, but like almost all
the machinery you interact with in
Alien: Isolation its a physical part of
the game world. It makes a noise, so
the alien can hear it too.
I respawn at an emergency phone
in a room a short distance from
where I died. These phones are the
games save points theres no
quicksave and theyre often placed
slightly off the critical path. This
design decision is the first of several
that preserve the games tension. Die
without finding a save point and you
can be set back a long way, but
explore thoroughly at risk of, you
know, dying and you stand a better
chance of being able to save more
regularly. Its a risk-reward system
that encourages you to put yourself
under more substantial duress.
The phone is another of the games
unreliable devices. Ripley slides a
transparent punchcard into a slot
and waits while three lights blink on
in sequence. When I first found this
particular save point, I knew the
alien wasnt far. Turning my back on
the door to watch those three lights
was terrifying. Saving then turning
to see it enter the room, more so.

Whats that? I thought, having

momentarily forgotten what game
I was playing
it checks the locker. I get an eerie
sense that it suspects Im in here, an
effect created by the creatures
nuanced animation, the frustration
conveyed by the sudden flick of its
head toward my hiding place. It
hisses and I hold two buttons one
to hold my breath, the other to squat
back inside the locker as low as I can.
Perhaps Im too late, or perhaps the
alien has simply had enough, but
hiding doesnt save me. The locker
door is ripped off; Amanda Ripley
lets out a muffled yelp of fear; double
jaws open; the screen turns black.
It can hear the motion tracker,
lead designer Gary Napper tells me,

I survived, in that instance, by

cowering under a desk. But the next
time I died and respawned at that
save point, I wasnt facing the same
threat. The game records your
position, your health, and the items
in your inventory, as well as the
aliens general alert state and its
internal sense of where you might
be. Then, when the save is loaded,
the aliens location changes. It might
be up in the vents, looking for a new
entry point. It might be right outside
the room youre in. It might be in a
different part of the level. This
means that while Alien: Isolation is
fundamentally a game about trial
OCTOBER 2014

51

ALIEN: ISOLATION
Yeah, youre screwed.

and error, its never quite the same

trial every time. This subtle
randomisation applies to mission
objectives, too: every time you play
the campaign, a few key items may
spawn in different rooms,
necessitating a different approach.
Having learned my lesson about

and, as it slides open, peek both ways

before dashing across into a vent.
Inside, I bring up the sensor briefly
and spin a full circle scanning for
the creature. Nothing. In the room
beyond, the sensor buzzes to indicate
its picked something up. I dont raise
it instead, I listen. Alien: Isolations

That clutching no-no-no

feeling as you know youve got
nowhere to run
the motion tracker, I cant simply
rush out of the room and complete
the section the right way. I still need
to determine where the alien is and
move only when its safe, but this
time I need to use my eyes as well as
my ears. I creep towards the door

sound design is phenomenal. Over

the groans of the station itself and
the quiet, unsettling music, I can
hear thudding footsteps. Its moving,
fast, but I can also hear that its
moving above me. Its in the vents,
heading over me and away. This is

NATURAL SELECTION Some of the dozens of dumb ways to die

52

Hiding under a desk,

perfectly illuminated.

Bouncing a noisemaker
back at yourself.

Getting shot by other

survivors.

Sprinting for the next

checkpoint.

Er, hi, alien!

Yeah, its me.
Good job. Ill
just die now.

Well, shit. Lets

just get this
over with.

The hell,
guys? I was
only trying to
use you as a
distraction.

This would
work in
Colonial
Marineeaagh.

OCTOBER 2014

my chance. I take a risk and stand,

walking quickly and calmly in the
opposite direction. I finally reach the
patient wards, where I promptly hide
in a footlocker out of habit.
I played a four hour section from
the middle of the game, and this
level of tension was sustained
throughout. Although Im told that
therell be quieter and safer sections,
something that impressed me about
this sequence was how it consistently
defied my expectations of how a
horror game is structured. Im used
to the clues that tip me off to scripted
sequences, monster arrivals, and so
on. With the exception of a single
scripted slaying witnessed through a
window, Alien: Isolation doesnt stick
to those patterns. I never ran into a
jump scare that the designers had
placed for me. Horror comes from
game systems working together, a
grail developers have been chasing
for a long time. Amnesia managed it,
to a degree, but suffered for having a
monster that quickly lost its
mystique with prolonged exposure.
In my extended session with Isolation,
the alien suffered no such problem.
I say four hour section, but what I
should say is section that took me
four hours. I suspect that
playthrough times will vary
substantially: something that took
me two hours was blasted through
by another journalist in a quarter of
that. Youll have to take it on faith
when I say that this isnt entirely
because Im terrible Isolations
unscripted alien means that theres
only a certain extent to which the

Androids can be disabled

with EMP mines.

Still keeping the Joseph

Conrad theme, I see.

developers can fix the pace. On

release, expect at least one angry
internet commenter to complain
that they beat the game in no time at
all; others, I suspect, will be quieter
about the fact that it took them a
month of cowering in lockers.
This degree of variability allows
Isolation to create subtle, surprising
moments of horror. Rather than
cursing the developers for getting
me with a jump scare, I cursed them
for filling a dark room with
clattering wheelie chairs. Theres
nothing like surviving for half an
hour between save points and then
summoning the alien by tripping
over a hazard cone (I say hazard
cone, but what I want to say is traffic
cone. The game is, however, set in
space, where that doesnt make any
sense. I discussed this matter for a
couple of minutes with Napper, and
we agreed that its a hazard cone. For
indicating slippery space-floors,
perhaps. I digress.)
My 50 or so deaths had surprising
emotional range. Some were
horrible, heartbreaking that
clutching no-no-no feeling as you
know youve got nowhere to run, as
the alien sees you, shrieks and
charges and others followed
Jurassic Parks classic clever girl
moment. Some felt like scripted
moments from a horror film, such as
the time when I fled a pair of guntoting survivors only to catch my
breath in a dark corridor. I heard an
ominous sound, and saw fluid
dripping from a vent in the ceiling. I
looked up, dumb and curious.

the aliens head into a room beyond.

Instead, I lobbed it squarely at a box
right in front of me, watching in
horror as it bounced, rolled, and
came to rest between my legs. Right,
well, shit. Thats that, then.
With the exception of one chilling
sequence where you look down to
see the aliens tail protruding from
your sternum, death is less grisly
than I expected. Get caught and you
enter a brief first-person cutscene
depicting Ripleys last moments.
Shes torn from lockers and hoisted
into the ceiling, dragged out from
under tables, knocked off her feet,
lashed by that prehensile tail. Most
end the same way: a jaw widening, a
hiss, darkness. Its rarely drawn out
or gory, but it works. Death at the
hands of the alien establishes the
creature as the games foremost
authority. Theres nothing messy or
uncertain about its movements. It
eliminates you surgically. I felt like I
was being removed from the game
with a scalpel. Youre an insect and
its a boot, at first, and its worth

It eliminates you surgically.

I felt like I was being removed from
the game with a scalpel
Whats that? I thought, having
momentarily forgotten what game I
was playing. A pair of lunging alien
arms put paid to my uncertainty.
Other deaths are, strangely, funny.
This isnt a game that reaches for
slapstick on purpose, but it manages
it from time to time. Before I got the
hang of the system for throwing
flares and other gadgets, inaccuracy
proved deadly. Once, I crouched
behind a hospital gurney and tried to
lob a jury-rigged noisemaker over

pausing to consider what a

turnaround that represents for the
relationship between gamers and
Gigers monster. Last year I yawned
and held the trigger and gunned
down hundreds of these things: this
year I confronted one of them with a
revolver that I was too afraid to fire.
You are not entirely powerless.
Collecting scrap allows you to
assemble a large variety of gadgets.
Most are something you throw
molotovs, pipe bombs, EMP

Aw, lookit their little

space sleeping bags.

OCTOBER 2014

53

In space, dentists are

still scary.

Environmental puzzles
break up the pace.

Amanda Ripley is based on

Sigourney Weavers mother.

54

OCTOBER 2014

mines, flares, smoke bombs, flash

bangs, and so on. Others, like the
alien-rebuffing flamethrower, are
tools that buy you time to escape.
None are capable of killing the
creature but they can be lethal
against your other principle foe:
jumpy armed inhabitants of the
station wholl fire without warning if
they see you. At certain points in the
game you can rewire sections of the
level by shunting power between
systems, but doing so risks incurring
the wrath of otherwise-passive
androids. Depressurise a corridor,
for example, and you face an
enraged, preternaturally strong
robot with milk for blood who
believes that you are, ironically,
endangering the lives of other
people on board. The games three
principal groups of antagonists
survivors, androids, and the creature
have relationships with each other,
too. Androids will ignore the
creature (and it them), but survivors
are as afraid of it as you are. This
turns the creature itself into the
surprising final part of your arsenal.
The majority of horror action
games eventually reward your
persistence by allowing you to turn
the tables, a now I have a machine
gun, ho ho ho moment. Isolation

doesnt do this. Instead, skillful play

is rewarded with a growing sense of
control. It still only takes a
momentary error to strip all that
control away, but when you survive
by manipulating the environment to
your advantage its a far more
complex and satisfying feeling than
blasting something with a gun.
In one instance, I squatted
underneath a desk near the corner of
an L-shaped corridor. I knew the
creature was somewhere back the
way I came, on the hunt due to an
earlier blunder. Ahead of me was a
frightened survivor with a gun.
There was no other cover between
me and her, and she was blocking my
way out. I readied a flare from my
inventory, lit it, and threw it out
from under my hiding place into the
bend in the corridor. The survivor
noticed the light and turned, moving
cautiously forward to investigate.
Her feet moved past my hiding place.
Elsewhere, the creature also saw the
light. I heard the familiar thumpthump-thump of its footsteps,
followed by a gunshot and a pitiful
scream. She fled back towards me
before she died: her corpse fell so
close to my hiding place that I could
loot it for ammo while the alien was
still hunched over it, tail inches from

ALIEN: ISOLATION
me. Satisfied, it rose and prowled
away. I snuck out and escaped the
level, feeling guilty Im sorry,
anonymous survivor, whoever you
were but relieved and thrilled by
the efficacy with which Id saved
myself. Id come to respect and
understand the alien enough to use it
as a tool. Id become tougher, no
longer the person who creeps about
with their eyes on a motion tracker.
Thats exactly the journey I want to
go on in a piece of Alien fiction.
Its unfortunate that the moment
immediately following this was the
sessions weakest: a scripted sequence
where the alien almost catches you
followed by an explosion and a
timed, lethal, unintuitive escape up a
series of ladders that mixes the
regular controls with quicktime
events. I died here, once, and got set
back all the way to the other side of a
lengthy encounter with the creature.
This sequence would be fine with a
bit of tweaking: grant the player a
save checkpoint when it begins and it
becomes a benign interlude; remove
the lethality and it becomes a brief
environmental puzzle. Both are
possible before release.
Elsewhere, I was impressed by the
level design. Cover and hiding places
are placed in a way that creates
Hacking under pressure is
tense stuff.

Finding patient zero doesnt

help much after the fact.

There are moments when you

crouch and pray, desperately, that
it doesnt turn around
certain opportunities and shuts off
others. A locker might afford sight of
one door while occluding another,
forcing you to rely on other senses to
figure out where the alien is. A desk
might conceal you from the creature
when it approaches from one
direction but expose you from
another, creating moments when
you crouch and pray, desperately,
that it doesnt turn around.
There are door override switches
that briefly lock crucial doors, and
dark rooms that light up, utterly
unhelpfully, when you enter. These
features create new challenges
within the broad remit of dont get
murdered and offer new potential
ways to solve them; new ways to
prolong and end Amanda Ripleys
brief lives. This brings me to the
point I want to end on: Alien: Isolation
is a game. It has save points and
gadgets, special terminals that add
new corridors to your map. Its a
stealth puzzle, set in a maze, which
A cool setpiece, shame
about the quicktime event.

challenges you to think laterally

while under threat from an
advanced, unscripted AI opponent.
That isnt a reduction of its value. Its
lamentably rare to find a developer
or at least, a developer with a budget
who is interested in using the
vocabulary of a game to create a
cinematic experience rather than the
other way around.
It makes sense that the alien can
hear the beep-beep-beep of the
motion tracker. Of course it does.
But its the creative process that goes
into making that a reality the logic
that argues that the player should be
given the opportunity to experiment
and fail, to play within a
consistently-realised world that the
designer doesnt fully control that
makes Alien: Isolation so exciting.
This is the Alien game I wanted.

junkyard angel
Things Ripley can make
out of wire and duct tape
Medikit

Restores health if you get shot or

hold your breath for too long.

Noisemaker

Time-delayed audible distraction.

Can be thrown or placed.

Flashbang

Dazzles human opponents but

doesnt seem to perturb the alien.

Smoke bomb

Blocks line of sight and makes a

loud crack when it goes off.

EMP mine

The only way to disable an

android long enough to kill it.

OCTOBER 2014

55

THE

INTERVIEW
EVE Onlines executive producer on the future,
accessibility, and spreadsheets in space. By Andy Kelly
Andie Nordgren
Job title

Executive producer, CCP Games

Credits

EVE Online, Dust 514

Bio

CCPs massive MMO has a new boss. Shes taking

charge of not only the development of the game,
but also its long-term vision. She was behind the
games new update model, which sees ten
smaller updates being released a year instead of
two large expansions, and previously served as
EVEs senior producer.

EVE is receiving smaller, more

frequent updates these days.
Hows that working out?
From my perspective its playing out
really well. Were not seeing the type
of results wed see from a traditional
expansion, but because were
deploying a new update so much
sooner, were starting to see how this
gives us momentum. But well really
begin to see how this pans out in the
updates that will be coming out after
Crius [the most recent]. Those have
been planned within this new model,
and well see the benefits of being
able to work on more ambitious
things and do a lot more changes.
What will be the focus of the next
wave of updates?
There are two big areas were
looking to improve. One is the core
part of the sandbox gameplay, which
is corporations, alliances, nullsec,
sovereignty. This is a big area were
looking into, under the umbrella of
the vision to allow players to build
their own stargates. Theres a lot of
things we have to solve here, to make
sure that people are having fun. The
other aspect is improving the
content thats in the game, and the
systems we have for playing with it.
Its really about making sure solo
gameplay and small group gameplay
is in a better state than it has been.
What about your long-term goals?
Our long-term vision is to make our
universe, New Eden, the most
ambitious work of living science
fiction in the world. But to do this we
need to make it look better, behave
better, and have better and more
interesting mechanics... Thats

56

OCTOBER 2014

pretty abstract, of course, but Im a

pretty abstract person [laughs]...
Well be putting more and more of
this science fiction universe into
players hands. But its hard for me to
talk about this, because were getting
into feature promises, which is
something weve done in the past
that I want to avoid. We need to
balance talking about the future of
EVE, and actually delivering on it.
What are you doing to make EVE
more accessible for new players?
Were working on changing the new
player experience to something
thats much more action-driven and
less text-driven. The tooltips that
weve just released are a key part of
that, and were also working on a
new notification system. Once we
put them together, well have a much
more modern experience that will
bring you into the game with much
less reading and more flying around
and doing stuff in space.
The other part were really going
to invest in are tools our existing
players can use to bring other people
into the game. If youre a player
whos already part of the EVE
community, and youre going to help
set a new player up, we can support
that. One feature we have in the
works is properly shareable overview
settings. This is something every
new player has to do, and if you could
just grab a setup from someone else,
without having to modify it thats
an example of the many small things
of that variety well be adding to
make the path of coming into the
game much smoother.
We also want to invest a lot more
in our third-party developers. We

INTERVIEW
Amarr ships are among
the prettiest in the game.

Theres some beautiful

cosmic scenery in New Eden.

have a pretty unique community

where players and corporations
make a lot of tools for themselves...
We have a project in process now to
give players not just read access, but
write access. This will allow
corporations to do membership
management with their own tools
and so on. Its about empowering our
existing player base.
EVE is often, unfairly, written off as
spreadsheets in space. How do
you feel about this label?
If you approach EVE like a
traditional computer game, and look
at the interface and some of the game
activity, I would say its pretty fair to
call it spreadsheets in space. But
what Im trying to do is shift peoples
experiences of what EVE is. Its a
game, of course, but its more like a
board game than a computer game.
What I mean is that a board game is
something that you play with others.
So the point of the game is not for
you to interact with the game itself
so much, but that it should be a
connector that lets you interact with
other people in an interesting way.
Were looking at modernising the
user interface. We want to get away
from some legacy features that are
literally spreadsheets. I think our
recent industry update is a good
example of that. Weve gone from a
completely database-and-buttons
type interface to a much more
interesting visualisation with direct
feedback. The other part of our
vision is to move much more

You wont get much out of

EVE if you focus on PvE.

gameplay into the world itself, away

from windows and into the world.
Youre playing the game by placing
structures or flying somewhere or
doing something in space, rather
than clicking things in a window.
Whats the trick to keeping players
after their 14 day trial ends?
The key is to get players to
understand that the way to play EVE
is to find a way to connect with the
community and the ecosystem
around it. That doesnt mean you
have to join a big nullsec player
corporation, though. We see this in
our data, that if we dont manage to
get people into that community,
they bounce off pretty quickly.
There are things that we can do to
fix that, which is part of our work on
the new player experience. We have
to guide people into a different part
of the game. Our current new player
experience guides people into the
part of the game that isnt really
about the community. We need to

get people into the connected parts

of EVE in a non-clumsy way.
As a player, what frustrates you
about the game as it exists now?
My biggest frustration comes from
how much we take for granted that
people understand. We have a lot of
core systems where we dont really
show people how theyre connected.
This is the type of frustration I run
into when I play the game myself. If
you know things already you can get
an overview and figure out whats
smart to do, but if youre not already
familiar with all of the core systems,
it can be hard to answer certain
questions. Like, Im sitting here with
this type of ship and these skills, but
Im still uncertain about what to
actually unlock and do.
Thats one of our most interesting
challenges: to make the game more
accessible without dumbing it down.
There should be better ways for
players to get a grasp of things, but
you of course have players who think

Im trying to shift
peoples experiences
of what EVE is
that this is part of the point of EVE
Online. You have to figure things out
for yourself. Its what I call acquired
fun. You have to work for it. Its not
handed to you on a silver platter. We
need to remove aspects of the game
where we are obscuring interesting
gameplay, to the point where people
dont even understand its there. But,
at the same time, we dont want to
remove interesting systems because
they can be initially hard to get your
head around. EVE is a fantastic game
and universe when it comes to the
joy of finding something and
mastering it.
OCTOBER 2014

57

Fly the PC Gamer flag by signing up to our fast-growing Steam group

Weve experienced a
sharp spike in subscribers
this month, with almost
3,000 new faces in our Steam group.
How? Why? It can only be a result of
our hugely successful Twitch stream
in which Andy played Zeus in Arma

The Index
Wildstar
URL www.pcgws.com/
application
Server Eko
PC Gamers Wildstar
guild is a Dominion
community active on the
Eko server. Apologies to
Americans, its EU only.

IIIs multiplayer mode of the same

name, chasing his fellow PC Gamer
writers around Altis. You can join in
the shenanigans by navigating to
Steams community tab, searching
for PC Gamer under find people,
and clicking join group. In the rare

times were not online, upwards of

14,000 people daily will help you get
over it. Below are the games were
currently mad about, so if you are
too, why not join us?
Hosted by

DayZ
IP 109.169.60.63
Port 2302
Better zombie
pathfinding and
improved animal AI are
just a couple of ways in
which this survival horror
is upgrading.
Planetside 2
IP Miller (Terran)
Link
www.ps2pcg.enjin.com
With the swampcovered, infantryfocused Hossin continent
now live, PlanetSide 2
has been given a new
lease of life.
World of
Warcraft
URL
www.pcgwow.enjin.com
Server
Steamwheedle Cartel
We have over 700
active members on
the Steamwheedle
Cartel server. Embark
on epic raids with our
very handsome and
charismatic community.
Rust
IP 85.236.100.12
Port 28615
There are many
survival games out there,
but survival games that
let you cavort about as a
bald man in a loincloth?
Less common.
Starbound
Link 85.236.100.118
Port 22325
Explore weird and wild
biomes by our side, or
make sweet, sweet music
with various instruments.

58

Minecraft

Guild Wars 2

IP 85.236.100.24 Port 25765

What kind of people build life-sized cathedrals block by block?
Or entire theme parks complete with rollercoasters and ghost
trains? The lovely folks in our Minecraft group, thats who.

URL www.pcggw.com Server Desolation EU

Every Thursday and Sunday our PC Gamer Guild runs guild
missions. Theyre well-organised and a chance to meet likeminded gamers. How else would you slay Tequatl the Sunless?

Ventrilo

EVE Online

IP 85.236.100.121 Port 3834

Not a game, but Ventrilo does provide an important service. Use
it to chat to all members of the PC Gamer Steam group (not all at
once, mind) across a range of game-specific channels.

Server Tranquility Link www.tinyurl.com/pcgrecruit

Kickstart your addiction by heading to the EVE website for your
14-day free trial, then visit our groups forums where youll find an
industrial-sized list of guides to mining, trading, PvP and more.

GET INVOLVED

How to join our STEAM COMMUNITY 68,500

October 2014

POPULATION

Step 1

If you dont already have a Steam account,

head to www.steampowered.com,
download the client, run it and sign up.

Step 2

Install your games from the Steam client.

If youre having technical problems, hit the
forums at the Steam site.

Step 3

In the community tab of the Steam client,

search for PC Gamer and join our group. Then
chat, play and troll to your hearts content.

Theres always time

for a power pose.

The Mint Imperials have the

best name in SW:TOR.

Raiding, PvP and social

activities all feature.

Dont be late to the party.

They spend a lot of time posing

for photos, apparently.

Mint condition
Satisfy your sweet tooth by joining the Mint Imperials
in Star Wars: The Old Republic

he Mint Imperials are

not only one of our bestnamed guilds, but one of
our best, period. Partly because
of their legacy, going strong
since early access; partly
because their approach includes
raiding, PvP, and social
activities such as large credit
lotto draws, Christmas
scavenger hunts and boxing
tournaments; and partly
because theyre so friendly.
I spoke to Guildmaster
Bocephus about his experience.
Like most MMOs, I think the
social aspect is why we stay with
one game for so long. Ive made
great friends playing this game,
and we all have a great time

playing together. I know that

when I get home from work I
can log into our Teamspeak and
people will be there.
Bocephus, a powertech
Bounty Hunter, is active three
evenings a week. During these
sessions, if hes not on the
forums youll find him
coordinating raid teams with
the help of his guild officers
Emmgel, Silara, Dawg,
Sithmeister and Dheco. While
the Mint Imperials get up to all
sorts, raiding is a main focus,
with the guild now able to boast
five full eight-man teams.
Bocephus has been involved
in the guild for so long that he
has a host of fond memories.

My favourite in-game
moments are probably the
times when we come so close
but fail to down a boss. Like
when we took a difficult secret
boss, Dreadful Entity, from
ten million health down to
179hp, only to wipe and have
to call it an evening. Painful,
but memorable. We got it the
next time!
Bocephus closes with a
message to prospective Mint
Imperials: We welcome all
types of player and are a very
active and friendly guild. Feel
free to pop an application to us
on our website and come see
what were all about.

If you fancy joining the guild, its

as simple as filling out a form.

Player
OF THE MONTH
Who? Bocephus
Where? Star Wars: The Old
Republic
Why? For being the finest
Guildmaster this side of
Alderaan.

GET INVOLVED
How to join the
PC Gamer Mint
Imperials
First head to the Mint
Imperials home page,
www.pcg-mi.enjin.com/
home, then click on join
now at the top of the
page. This takes you
to an application form
where youll need to
answer a few questions,
such as your experience
level and what role
you plan to play. Once
submitted, simply visit
the forum, get in touch
with an officer, and
theyll send you an invite.

Ben Griffin

October 2014

59

Spoiler alerts, revisiting the D&D universe and that time-sinking feeling...
Twist in the tale

USER REVIEWS

I cant believe what I have just

read; I am quite enjoying the
review of Moebius: Empire Rising
and thinking this is a game I
might like. Then it happens; the
final sentence is utterly idiotic!
I like games/films/stories to
take me on a journey, I like to
immerse myself in them and if
they want me to be surprised by
a twist then I enjoy the surprise.
So why oh why are people
obsessed with telling me there
will be a twist! It is stupid, it is
selfish and I cannot for the life
of me understand why you
would want to.
If you are not clever enough
to write a review and keep
important aspects such as this
hidden then write one for an
FPS! If I bought this game now

Just completed
Fallout: New Vegas for
the second time, but
with mods this time.
Loved it even more than
the first time.
@avennr
Its arguably the best one,
improved vastly by not
having textures that look
like mud.
Im going through
Half-Life 2 again, just
finished Ravenholm, it
gave me a few scares!
@jimmotep
Samuels playing through
Half-Life 2 again. Heres
his mini-review: I dont
remember there being
this many exploding
barrels. 96%.
Last Vice desk
mission in L.A. Noire.
Great game. Fascinating
story that keeps me
inside the loop.
@laurentiubuica
Andy replayed L.A. Noire
while wearing a trilby and
smoking 40 cigars.
I was just playing
Batman: Arkham
Origins and its the most
fun Ive ever had, the
missions are amazing
and the fighting is
awesome.
@wanderon
If you like fighting Bane
in a drain, youll definitely
love Arkham City.
Just started out with
Murdered: Soul Suspect.
Pretty decent so far tbh.
@benkezenz
Turn back, its a
disappointing pile of ass.
Elite: Dangerous.
Its awesome. Got a
flightstick for it, still
waiting on my oculus
DK2 though :(
@sireelbiscuits
Were still waiting on
ours, too. Its a painful
wait.

62

Roleplay nostalgia

I would spend my time trying

to work out the twist, and thats
not what I want from a game.

I have been having a blast

playing the enhanced editions
of Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, bought
in the latest Steam Summer
Sale. It has been great reliving
my adventures with Minsc and
Boo from years ago. Is there
any hope for a future D&D
singleplayer (or co-op) game in
the future?

Ian

Darren Braylo

We understand your
frustration, and in this case we
agree you have a point - sorry
for giving you notice of a twist
ending, even though we didnt
give the specifics of the ending
away. Well try to be more
vigilant about spoilers from
now on. Vader is Lukes dad.

With that particular licence,

wed say its unlikely at the
moment most of the devs
responsible for that generation
of RPGs are deep into their own
fantasy projects in Dragon
Age: Inquisition and Pillars
of Eternity. That doesnt mean
we cant wish really hard.

PCG

PCG

The twist is... damn,

we nearly did it again!

The hot mail

Big bad boss

Ive just given up on

WildStar, the most
promising MMORPG
to come out for a while, and I have
to ask is the MMORPG as good as
dead? Obviously not from a
business point of view because
there are plenty still being made,
but the format is as stale a piece of
bread thats been pushed to the
back of the cupboard and forgotten
for six months.
I start a new MMORPG with
high-ish hopes, only to realise that
its the same old format with a few
tweaks. My main problem is the
feeling of why am I doing this?.
Ask yourself that question in every
game you play and youll realise that
its just a massive time sink and
theres no pot of gold at the end of
the rainbow.
When will somebody actually
make an MMORPG with a story that
progresses? Where unique events

OCTOBER 2014

A world full of colour and

humour. How horrible.

happen that actually mean

something? Where a team of top
players kill the big bad boss, it
doesnt respawn, and the game
world changes permanently?
I know its a tall order, but until
that game is made Im giving up on
MMORPGs and going back to
normal singleplayer RPGs.
Joe

Big MMOs being burdened by old

design ideas is an issue, but
WildStar was actually a strong
refresh of some of those concepts
fair enough if you want to leave
it, but it could be some time before
a better one arrives. Plus, WildStar
is fun and colourful. Maybe you
just have a problem with fun.

PCG

CLICK

LIKE

SHOOT

WATCH

FOLLOW

SEND

pcgamer@futurenet.com

pcgamer.com

facebook.com
/pcgamermagazine

steamcommunity.com
/groups/pcgamer

youtube.com
/pcgamer

@pcgamer

HOT TOPIC

PC Gamer
Future Publishing
30 Monmouth St
Bath BA1 2BW UK

USER REVIEWS

Should Dota 2 allow

you to give up?

Ive been playing

Unturned, an absolute
blast with friends, on
your own its okay but
not where the best
experience lies.
@tucksahoy
It is indeed a game.

The game is never over until

the Ancient falls. Yes,
sometimes you have to deal with
fountain camping. Boo hoo.

Right now Im
playing Prison Architect
by Introversion
Software. Its an
amazing game about
designing a prison and
still in alpha.
@lewisrobinson57
Someones got to show
these criminal bastards
whos in charge.

Matthew Fu

Fountain camping isnt the

worst, because unless they
somehow got there without
killing your barracks, the creeps
will push on their own. Whats
worse is when they deliberately
use abilities to slow down their
own creep wave, or pull them off
into the jungle.
Clement Bilhorn

Yeah I tried moving over

from LOL to Dota 2 and
while I agree that Dota 2 is more
polished and I find it better, I
stopped playing because I didnt
have enough friends to play
with and in most matches up to
three people would just AFK at
some point.
Joo Morais

Only in ranked to avoid

trolling.
Rian Duarte

The surrender argument is

one that, in my eyes,
separates the mentalities of the
playerbase. For me, I will NEVER
give up on a match. Will we still
lose? Most of the time, yes. But
that isnt the point. The point, to
me, is FIGHT TIL YOUR LAST
BREATH. Make them EARN the
win to the very last second.
So go ahead and whine about
surrendering. Ill be fighting and
giving it everything Ive got while
you AFK in base.
And maybe, just maybe, that
little extra effort will pay
dividends in future games by
teaching you to not give up, to

fight with your back against the

ropes, whether it is a gank
attempt or a full-blown team
fight, and to always give the other
team hell.

I think that they can add a

vote system like TF2... if
four of five in the team agree to
surrender, the game ends there.
Rekiem Aguilera

Brett Dent

Or you could leave the

game and start another
one if youre confident you dont
want to continue. I could play two
games in the time it took to lose a
single game, meaning more
practice, meaning I can get better
at the fundamentals. A win rarely
teaches people the correct way
to play, a loss (if used properly)
can open doors you didnt even
know existed.

NO. Just NO.

Rhadson Mendoza

Surrender is for LOL players.

Coming from HoN and

League of Legends I can say,
without a shred of doubt, that
having a surrender option is awful
and people will be forced into
giving up early.
I have over 2,000 hours of Dota
2 under my belt, and Ive had
tonnes of comebacks that would
never have happened with a
surrender button.
There should only be an option
for surrendering in five stacks.

Louis Joy

Brad Warren

William Grayson

Yes but not in the first 15

minutes. And it should be a
five-player unanimous decision.
I think the forfeiting is the
one thing in LOL I like more
than Dota. I hate sitting in the
fountain getting killed for 15
minutes just because I dont want
to go to low priority.

If you know the game, you

will know that at some
point it is mathematically
impossible to win. Some know
this, and know when to GG.
Others take it as an excuse to
draw games out, not take towers
and punish good players by
picking off feeders. Please. Bring
us a concede button Valve, for
real Dota players sakes.

Adam Hearst

Travis Astro Hasson

Tony Martine

Am playing Radial-G
on my Oculus Rift DK2
in sweet 1080p at
75fps.
@vr_sam
Radial-G sounds like a
failed hip-hop artist (but
the demo is very cool).
Playing Divinity:
Original Sin, a great old
school RPG! :D
@FirmYn
If Divinity: Original Sin
was a school, it would
be an expensive private
school that has produced
all the major celebrities
and political figures in
this world. Rihanna,
Nicolas Cage, Margaret
Thatcher they would
all have come from
that school.
Enjoying Mafia II right
now. I have made it my
mission to play all the
60 untouched Steam
games I have left from
the sales.
@D3adtrap
Trying and failing to clear
a Steam Library would
make a great Twilight
Zone episode. Mafia II is
worth your time.
Im washing the taste
of the new Thief game
out of my mouth by
replaying Thief: The
Dark Project and the
wonderful Dark Mod.
@wheredocatsgo
Ouch. You dont like
rooftop dogs?

OCTOBER 2014

63

Special
edition
covers

More Great reasons to subscribe

Youre guaranteed
to get your copy!
64

OCTOBER 2014

Youll get it before

copies appear in shops.

Its delivered
direct to your door!

Free codes
with every issue.

Subscribe
to

AND GET A Roccat

Savu Gaming Mouse

Worth

45

The worlds only optical mouse with

a 4000 dpi sensor giving you speed
and control like nothing else in its class.
Delivers true 400, 800, 1600 and
4000 dpi for lag-free gaming with
precise control at the speed you need.
Ultra-precise feedback, so you can
command accurately no matter how
hectic your game gets.

Plus!

Save 23%

Pay only 59.99 by annual direct debit

Two simple ways to subscribe
ONLINE

myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/PCGP2N

BY PHONE

0844 848 2852

(quote ref: PCGP2N)

Lines are open 8:00am-9:30pm weekdays

8.00am-4pm Saturdays

*Savings compared to buying 13 full priced issues from UK newsstand. This offer is for new UK print subscribers (paying by Direct Debit) only. You will receive 13 issues in a year. Gift is available to new UK print
subs paying by annual direct debit. Please allow up to 60 days for delivery of your gift. Gift is subject to availability. In the event of stocks becoming exhausted, we reserve the right to replace with items of a
similar value. Full details of the Direct Debit guarantee are available upon request. If you are dissatisfied in any way you can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription at any time and we will refund you
for all unmailed issues. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. For full terms and conditions please visit: myfavm.ag/magterms. Offer ends: 30th September 2014.

OCTOBER 2014

65

ere at the internationally

fabulous PC Gamer
conglomerate we are smiling
reservedly (any further display of
emotion would be unseemly) at this
months double giveaway. We have a
fearsome new ability for the excellent
Path of Exile, which opens a portal to
the unforgiving land of Wraeclas, plus

a starter pack for card game Might

& Magic: Duel of Champions to boot.
Theyre both exclusive for you. Enjoy!

SAMUEL ROBERTS
EDITOR
samuel.roberts@futurenet.com
@SamuelWRoberts

The Crimson Portal would

blown GLaDOSs mind.

Where to find
your codes
Print edition

There should be a red card opposite this

page with your codes on it. If its missing
or looks like its been tampered with, tell
your newsagent! If you have any problems
at all, contact us via the address below.

Digital edition

Codes will be sent out to digital

subscribers including Zinio and iOS by
e-mail on September 28. If youre reading
on iOS, you need to opt-in to share
information with the publisher when you
subscribe in order for us to contact you.
Sending out the e-mails takes a couple of
days, so you may not receive yours straight
away. If you didnt opt-in or youve only
bought a single issue, see below for
further instructions.

Any problems?

Dont panic! Send us an e-mail at

pcgamer.giftageddon@futurenet.
com with proof of purchase either a
photograph of the magazine showing the
code page, or a receipt for a digital edition,
and well send you a replacement code.

66

OCTOBER 2014

PATH OF EXILE

ExilE-lEnt valuE An exclusive new ability

for use in this online action-RPG

The small group of talented
New Zealand-based
developers behind online
action-RPG Path of Exile promise
their game will never be pay-to-win.
We believe them. We said as much
in our review of the game several
months back in which we awarded it
85%, and you can read our preview
of the upcoming expansion in this
very issue.
What makes this game are the
gems that unlock and modify
abilities when slotted into equipment.
One gem might chain your Fireballs,
for instance, while another might
split them into multiple projectiles.

You can choose to play as one of

seven classes, all of which have
different mixes of strength, dexterity
and intelligence, and plenty of
upgradeable skills to choose from.
Crimson Portal is an exclusive ability
you can only get by reading this
magazine. Its yours for free.
How do I redeem my code?
If you havent already, visit www.
pathofexile.com/shop/redeem-key and
either create a new account or log
in. Download the game if you need
to, then follow the on-screen
instructions to input your key and
claim your free gift.

MIgHT & MAgIc:

DuEL OF cHAMPIOns
HOuSE OF CaRDS Become a pro with our

starter pack for Ubisofts card game

Not even feared magician

David Blaine has this many cards.

From one strategy to

another, Might & Magic:
Duel of Champions is a
tactical free-to-play card-battler
released in late 2012. Packing in
more than 770 cards, players align
with factions, choose heroes, and
build realm-conquering armies
from an assortment of fun and
wonderful spells and creatures.
Were offering you an ideal entry
point in the shape of a starter pack
containing 71 cards, alongside gold
and XP boosts that help you gain
resources faster. Plus were throwing
in one Heart of Nightmares Super
Pack containing 175 seals, and one
Necro Starter Deck worth 50,000
gold. Everything you need to get
started with Might & Magic: Duel of
Champions is right here. The games
latest expansion, Griffin Bane, came
out in July.
How do I redeem my code?
Visit www.duelofchampions.com/en/
login to download the game, then
input the code. New players must
redeem their codes within six hours
of account creation and before
October 31. One code per player.
New accounts only.

Decided by experts.
Read by over 17 million technology enthusiasts every month.*

The most influential mobile phone

article on the planet.
The world is watching.
best mobile phones

* Global monthly unique visitors to techradar.com, September 2012 (comScore)

MOnTh 2014

67

REVIEW
Extra lives

How we review
Wherever possible, we finish a game before finalising the review.
We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a
reviewer whos apassionate expert in the field. The main aim of
the reviews section is to help you make buying decisions.

Sometimes you get a second chance, and

sometimes you dont. The developers of
Firefall have built and rebuilt their shooter
MMO many times over the years, and
unfortunately the final product
reflects the worst parts of that
haphazard development. Theres
better news elsewhere. Metro 2033
a personal fave has been given a
tremendous new lease of life in its
Redux edition. It was quietly one of the
best singleplayer shooters of the last
few years, and deserves its second shot
at stardom.

Alphas & betas

This means well review any released alpha, beta, or

otherwise unfinished game that you can currently pay for. For
these games, we wont assign a score, but we will tell you whether
theyre worth your time in their current state.

Downloadable content

DLC might be hours-long new missions for a game, or it

might be a single new item. Either way, if we think you want to
know about it, well review it.

Theyre Back

Whenever theres a bargain or re-release of a significant

game, our expert will revisit it and tell you whether it holds up
today. With jokes.

Our scoring system explained

00%-10% A game of absolutely no value. Are you playing
one of these games? Take 3d6 emotional damage.
Examples: Big Brother
11%-39% Yikes. Technically broken, or so fundamentally
flawed that its ultimately not worth any time or money. Bad.
Examples: The War Z
40%-49% This game is functional, but majorly flawed
and disappointing.
Examples: Aliens: Colonial Marines, Star Trek

CHRIS THURSTEN
DEPUTY EDITOR
Chris.Thursten@futurenet.com

50%-59% Mediocre. If it has any interesting ideas, they

dont work well. Might suffer from bugs or technical issues.
Examples: Primordia, Painkiller: Hell & Damnation

Let us know
what you think
Get in touch via our
Send section on page
62 or simply tweet us
your thoughts
@PCGamer

60%-69% An interesting idea poorly expressed, or a

derivative idea executed averagely. Comes with caveats.

Examples: SimCity, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

70%-79% Good, but not a classic. This score is a

recommendation, just not a glowing one.
Examples: Assassins Creed III, Shadowrun Returns
80%-89% A great game with exceptional moments or
features and touches of brilliance.
Examples: Arma 3, Gone Home, Titanfall
90%-94% A compelling recommendation for most PC
gamers. Ahead of its time and important to PC gaming.
Examples: Dota 2, Europa Universalis IV, Borderlands 2

this months Second Chancers...

95%-98% This is far and away one of the best games

weve ever played, and we recommend it to the entire world.
Examples: Half-Life 2, Minecraft, Spelunky
99%-100% Advances the human species. Life-changing. A
masterpiece and more. Actively boosts the immune systems
of nearby children and small animals.

The Editors Choice award is granted in

addition to the score, at the discretion
of the PC Gamer staff. It represents
exceptional quality or innovation.

Find out more

www.bit.ly/pcgreviews

68

OCTOBER 2014

Phil Savage

Tyler Wilde

Richard Cobbett

Tom Senior

Specialist in
MMO, strategy
Currently playing
Firefall
This month
Discovered that rare thing:
a boring jetpack.

Specialist in
RPG, adventure
Currently playing
The Wolf Among Us
This month
Made a Star Trek joke too
nerdy for us. Extraordinary.

Specialist in
Adventure, puzzle
Currently playing
Gods Will Be Watching
This month
Made tough choices about
tiny pixel space people.

Specialist in
Action, strategy
Currently playing
Gods Will Be Watching
This month
Rather hoped that gods
would stop it, honestly.

84
76

70

REVIEWS CONTENTS
70 Firefall
74 Risen 3: Titan Lords
76 The Wolf Among Us Season 1
78 OlliOlli
80 Gods Will Be Watching
81 Magic: The Gathering 2015

92 War Thunder
94 Sacred 3
96 Unrest
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

98 Dark Souls II

Crown of the Sunken King

99 Aperture Tag
ALPHAS & BETAS

Duels of the Planeswalkers /

Abyss Odyssey
82 Lovely Planet
84 Warface
86 Light
88 Shattered Planet
89 Metro 2033 Redux / Metro Last

Light Redux
90 Halfway

100 Xenoraptor / Freaking Meatbags

101 Secret Ponchos / Beasts of

Prey / Dreaming Sarah

Theyre Back

102 The Labyrinth of Time

103 Drod RPG: Tendrys Tale / Cook,

Serve, Delicious / The Black Mirror /

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Chris Thursten

Andy Kelly

Sam Roberts

Evan Lahti

Emanuel Maiberg

Cory Banks

Jon Blyth

Specialist in
RPG, shooter
Currently playing
Warface
This month
Laughed at a child for
having to do homework.

Specialist in
Simulation, RPG
Currently playing
Unrest
This month
Enjoyed the simple life of a
space trucker.

Specialist in
Action, RPG
Currently playing
Batman: Arkham City
This month
Unwound by pummeling
some goons. In the game!

Specialist in
Simulation, shooter
Currently playing
Halfway
This month
Met Halfways developers
in the middle.

Specialist in
Action, RPG
Currently playing
Abyss Odyssey
This month
Stared into the abyss. More
of a gully, really.

Specialist in
Strategy, RPG
Currently playing
Dark Souls II
This month
Played more Dark Souls.
You know, just in case.

Specialist in
Retro, mazes
Currently playing
The Labyrinth of Time
This month
A-maze-d us all with his oh
god Im so sorry Ill stop.

OCTOBER 2014

69

review

The scenic views

dont justify how long
you spend sprinting

Need to know
What is it?

An MMO shooter born from a

long and troubled development
thats easy to spot in-game.

Influenced by
Tribes, constant
course-correction

Play it on

Dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM,

1GB VRAM GPU

Alternatively

PlanetSide 2, 90%

Copy protection
Account log-in

70

october 2014

FIRE AND FORGET

Wanted: players for Firefall. Must like long walks
with little reward. By Phil Savage

irefall is a free-to-play
MMO shooter with an
emphasis on dynamic
events, skill-based
combat and desperate
defences against sometimes
overwhelming forces. All of which
sounds promising, but Firefall also
boasts a lack of variety, constant
busywork and a set of interconnected
systems that sit awkwardly against
the moment-to-moment drudgery.
It has potential. The problem is
that, in almost every instance, it fails
to meet the ideal its trying to sell.
The single greatest example of this
at least in the 30 hours I played is
Sunken Harbor. Its a hub
containing a PvP arena, designed as
a space for players to let off steam
between missions. But where the
in-game displays and banners
advertise a fully featured team
competition, the reality is an
unstructured free-for-all, where the
few who show up take potshots at

each other before growing bored

and wandering off. Mostly it sits
empty, the symbolic beacon of an
incredibly lengthy development.
Thats a shame, because in the
right place, with the right class and
participating in the right event, you
get a hint of what the game should
have been. Theres a frantic fun to be
had dodging and weaving with your
jetpack, avoiding fire and clearing
out hordes. Firefall contains the
suggestion of a solid shooter, and
occasionally it comes to the surface.

The ends of the Earth

Set primarily in Brazil, the game

depicts a world thats witnessed more
than its share of cataclysm. First
there was the Firefall itself: an
asteroid shower that devastated
much of the planet. More relevant to
the main plot is the Arclight, a
spaceship that crashed to Earth. Its
flaring crystite engines pulled
through a strange purple death cloud

Killing fields
Visit new places, murder new people

Job board

The main bulk of the games

missions. Each involves travelling
between multiple points,
shooting stuff along the way.

Thumps

Here, a player has called

down a thumper. Waves of
creatures will try to destroy
it, and so must, in turn, be
destroyed.

4
3

ARES mission

Liberate baubles from a

cave containing more enemies
than a single person could
conceivably murder.

Melding tornado

In which you must kill a

tornado. Dont worry, its an evil
tornado, and it spawns monsters.

from an alternate dimension. This is

the Melding, from which emerged
the Chosen the humanoid beings
now trying to wipe out humanity.
This is the backdrop against which
you, gun-for-hire Ares 35, operate.
As youre a mercenary, the invasion
of the Chosen is, at first, only
tangentially related to your
operations. The war provides plenty
of opportunities to pick up work, and
the majority of your time will be
spent taking on missions from each
hubs job board. These offer a variety
of scenarios in which you must go to
a place and kill things. Sometimes
youre killing things while defending
a person, sometimes youre killing
things while collecting some items,
and sometimes youre killing things
because those things needed killing.
Each job is accompanied by
dialogue between your handler,
Aero, and your temporary employer.
Some form multi-part quest chains
that span multiple hubs. At each new
area, I made sure to pick up any
missions involving a rogue named
Wiley, whod previously had
dealings with the last owner of my
callsign. It was a fun little mystery
sprinkled sparsely throughout my
time with the game. But aside from
this and a few other exceptions, the
games conversations waver between
incidental and annoying. Aero, in
particular, has a jarringly moralistic
edge. Shell repeatedly tell NPCs
youre not a contract killer, which,
given all the killing you do, rings
somewhat false.
From its opening seconds through
to its sparse endgame (currently a
dedicated PvP zone and couple of
raid bosses), Firefall is an awkward
mix of shooter and MMO. It doesnt
have the breadth of systems needed
to keep levelling enjoyable, so it
devolves into repetition. Many
objectives struggle to sustain the
pretence of variety across even one
october 2014

71

Squad Thumps have a chance to

spawn a mass wave of Chosen.

ABT. Always be thumping.

Yeah, so why are we calling

them the Chosen exactly?
Thatll teach them not
to use fair trade suppliers.

Enemies sometimes need a bit of

prod before theyll shoot back.

An in-game banner for a PvP

mode that doesnt exist in-game.

72

october 2014

Coral reef: one of the games

most vibrant-looking zones.

review

mission. Too often, I would take

down the requisite number of
bandits, only for the counter to
increase as a new wave spawned.
The few times a mission does try
something different, it can go badly
wrong. For one job, I was required to
disguise as a bandit. This happened
without warning after completing a
combat objective, leaving me close to
death and without my abilities,
jetpack or health regeneration. Even
after Id inevitably died, I respawned
at the quest hub with the disguise
still intact forced to sprint back to
the objective without access to my
deployable vehicle. A potentially
interesting mission became
memorable only for its failings.
When youre not on a job, youll be
stopping at one of the dynamic
events that appear on the map.
These vary from small solo missions
to more difficult group activities.
Theres little to distinguish these
from the regular quests youre still
travelling to an area of the map to
fend off bugs, bandits or Chosen.
But many require you to hold out
against waves of enemies, and its this
that provides the best showcase for
Firefalls combat.
At the start, each player has access
to five basic battleframes. These
lightweight mech suits function as
your class, and can be swapped at any
Battleframe Station without
changing character. Earned XP goes
towards levelling your currently
equipped frame, so while
experimentation is possible, its more
effective to stick with a single type.
The battleframe you equip defines
your weapons and abilities, and
while all are useful in combat some
have the edge in terms of how
enjoyable they are to play.
In particular, the minigun of the
Dreadnaught and the scoped
automatic rifle of the Recon are
unexciting to wield. In typical
MMO style, enemies can have a big
chunk of health. Holding a mouse
button over one as their HP slowly
drains is an uninteresting
interaction. I grew more attached to
the plasma grenades of the Assault
classs cannon, which required me to
be consistently accurate while on the
move. It doesnt match the
satisfaction of mastering Tribes:
Ascends Thumper DX or Spinfusor,

but at least offered a consistent

challenge that dragged me through
the games repetition.
Each frame can equip abilities to
the first four slots of the hotbar, and
its these that gel so well with the
defensive mission archetype.
Engineers can place turrets,
Biotechs can deploy healing area-ofeffect spells, and Assaults can slam to
the ground, doing huge damage to
the collected enemies below. The
best example of this is squad
Thumps. These resource collection
events can be called down by players
to any location. Personal thumpers
offer a challenge, but its the
craftable squad versions that provide
some of the most tense and
engrossing battles.

Storm chasing

If this is starting to sound like

unqualified praise, know that the
event system is completely
unsupported by the way players
travel across the map. Melding
Tornadoes are one of the most
interesting activities the game offers
a group battle against a swirling,
purple, Chosen-spawning twister.
Its a call to arms for the playerbase,
with the coordinates shared over
zone chat whenever one appears.
Except, even knowing where it is, it
can be difficult to reach. You can
teleport to mission hubs, but doing
so costs credits a valuable currency
that I was never comfortable
wasting. At which point, youre
forced to either walk or drive, the
latter only an option if youve bought
a vehicle with real money or crafted
one following a level 25 mission.
Most of the tornadoes had vanished
by the time Id arrived. That or they
were empty, leaving me with no
hope of finishing the encounter.
This is Firefalls other major
failing: it doesnt respect your time.
Yes, its a nice looking game the
alien vibrancy and variety make up
for some inconsistent texture quality
and off-puttingly cartoonish NPCs
but these scenic views dont justify
how long youll spend sprinting from
place to place. In one mission, I was
asked to trek north to meet someone.
When I arrived, they asked me to
turn around and head back. Its so
absurd its actually funny, but it
highlights a persistent flaw.

Expect to pay Free-to-play Release Out now Developer Red 5 Studios Publisher In-house
Multiplayer Massively Link www.firefallthegame.com

Cosmetically enhanced
Red Bean is a currency bought with real
money. Heres what it buys
Hair

This rad hair style

costs 20 RB.

Glasses

Unremarkable
goggles? Thatll be
40 RB.

Battleframe 1

Paint your frame

yellow for a cool 30 RB.

Battleframe 2

Finish with a leopard

print pattern. Just
100 RB.

Vehicle

A permanent vehicle
costs 175 RB. Dont ask
where you store it.

Alternatively

Conversion note: 5 = 57 Red Bean

Trade Red Bean for credits. The exchange rate is great, and theyll let
you buy weapons and items from the player market.

The real money store is largely

stocked with cosmetics and XP
boosts. Its not pay to win but it is
skewed so that the non-paying
options take more time than theyre
worth. Crystite, the basic in-game
currency, is earned slowly, and is
largely swallowed up by researching
new crafting options. This in itself is
a slow process all crafting actions
are performed on a timer that can
take anything from seconds to days.
That timer, of course, can be
bypassed by paying real money.
These are small inconveniences,
but they all add up. Yes, obviously,
free-to-play games must strike a
balance between time and money,
but here that balance feels off. Not
because of the contents of the
in-game store, or the value of each
currency, but because Firefall is
rarely engaging enough to make the
commitment worthwhile.

Makes you work a lot for

little. The repetitive churn
of missions further spoils
an only occasionally
entertaining shooter.

Firefalls
other major
failing: it
doesnt
respect
your time

47
october 2014

73

review

Soul Searching

Its hero may be dead, but Risen 3: Titan Lords

brings the series back to life. By Leif Johnson

Need to know
What is it?

A third-person open-world RPG

with the occasional ship battle.

Influenced by

Gothic, Assassins Creed IV

Play it on

2.GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, GeForce

9600GT / Radeon HD 3850

Alternatively
Skyrim, 94%

Copy protection

Steam

A world
where Glory
is earned
by killing
chickens

iranha Bytes knows you

probably didnt like Risen
2, and so the studio
symbolically kills it off a
mere 30 minutes into the
sequel. Theres our hero from 2012s
pirate-themed adventure, still
nameless after all these years and
looking as though he just wandered
off the set of Assassins Creed IV. But
piracy apparently isnt what you
want, and so he dies in front of a
glowing portal in a ruin without so
much as a final arrr.
Fortunately, he is risen. His corpse
spends three weeks fermenting in
the tropical sun before hes brought
back to life by a loopy shaman.
Piranha revives the series with him,
and fittingly sends him off in search
of his soul. Its a generally fun romp
that takes him into deep caves hiding
menacing shadow lords, and into
bleached dreams where he waxes
philosophical with villains from
Risens past, but happily its not the
kind of game that demands
encyclopedic knowledge of its
forebears. Titan Lords tale of
securing the help of powerful mages
stands quite well on its own.
You can thank the three new
factions you can align with for a lot
of that. The voodoo of Risen 2 makes
a return in the camps of the natives,
but they never steal the show quite

like their neighbours. The

Guardians serve the Mages on their
rocky isle, but their combat skills
(and gear) add a welcome edge to the
spellslinging faction by providing
them with a degree of melee
prowess. Scowling on stage left we
have my fellow Demon Hunters,
who bring a bit of Conan-style grit
to the proceedings.
Yet more importantly, the three
factions bring magic. Magic
enhances the experience of Risen 3 so
thoroughly that its appalling to
think that its predecessor shipped
without it. A chief complaint of Risen
2 was that the tendency of enemies
to gang up on you kept you from
attacking, but here I send them
flying back with a spell like the
Demon Hunters Shockwave. While
they stagger back in shock I whip out
a crossbow and thoonk thoonk thoonk
they collapse like dominoes. Its
stupid fun.
But lets be candid: it takes a while
to reach this state of combat nirvana.
Risen 3 wisely isnt as stingy with
gold and gear as its predecessor nor
does it leave the locations of quest
objectives open to guesswork but
its core combat does rely on the same
dubious dance of parrying, heavy
attacks and slashes, despite fancy
new animations. Risen 3 is strikingly
bug-free considering the series

Disposable arsenal
Risen 3s coolest consumable spells
Rain of Fire

Surrounded?
Your enemies
wont be singing in
the rain when this
spell goes off.

Shadow Warrior

Extra help is
always nice,
especially when its
undead and carries a
big sword.

Necromancy

Add insult
to (severe)
injury by making that
guy you killed fight
for you.

Runeskin

Feeling puny?
Switch on this
to take hits like a
golem. Oh, and glow
green. Woo.

Parrot Flight

Ever just want

to fly away
from it all? Use this,
but be wary of the
urge to eat crackers.

Expect to pay 40 Release Out now Developer Piranha Bytes Publisher Deep Silver
Multiplayer None Link www.risen3.deepsilver.com

74

OCTOBER 2014

reputation, but sometimes obvious

hits seem to miss and relentless
enemy attacks can still break
seemingly well-timed blocks.
But then this is a world where
Glory is earned by killing chickens,
to say nothing of chopping down
liches from other dimensions. Glory
is everywhere, and its used to boost
stats that affect our heros prowess in
skills such as Melee or Influence. Its
a versatile system, and one that
enabled me to turn my Demon
Hunter into a battle mage of sorts
who wreaked havoc with his
battleaxe while summoning demon
dogs. Not powerful enough? Buy
some lessons from folks around
towns. Toss in consumable spells of
the crystal and runic varieties and
companions from various factions,
and youll find few situations where
hope is in short supply.
And situations abound. Theres a
pleasing balance of combat and
story, seasoned with minigames for
lockpicking or arm wrestling for
extra gold. And bless my beard, the
ship battles! Somebodys clearly
been playing Assassins Creed IV, and
its paid off. Once our hero nabs a
ship, sea monsters and clashes with
enemy ships begin precisely when
the rest of the game starts to slip into
an all-too-predictable rhythm. The
versatile mix of broadside cannon
bursts and races to keep powderkegs
from exploding ensure the concept
never outstays its welcome.
Any concerns? Well, few of those
island vistas inspire screenshots.
Frankly, Risen looks old. But I still
didnt want to stop playing.

Combat quibbles and

muddy graphics do little
to spoil the fun of this
enjoyable RPG. Now with
ship-to-ship combat.

83

Nothing a little
antacid wont fix.

You wanted magic?

Well give you magic!

With some creative spell use, you

can bring along several helpers.

Here there be monsters.

And you blow them away.
I love how my companion is just
content to watch this happen.

Good thing Edward Kenway

taught me how to do this.

Alien V. This time

they have wings.

OCTOBER 2014

75

review

PLAY ROUGH

The full season of The Wolf Among Us tells a story

worthy of better design. By Tyler Wilde

Need to know
What is it?

A story adventure game based

on the Fables graphic novels

Influenced by

The Walking Dead, L.A. Noire

Play it on

Core 2 Duo 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM,

DirectX 9 graphics card

Alternatively

The Walking Dead

Copy protection

Steam

dont like hitting the Q key

very quickly to do things. In
The Wolf Among Us, abusing
this one button to win a
fight, to transform into a
wolf, to lift a car ties the violence of
sheriff Bigby Wolf to the strain on
my finger. That interactive
connection is a reason to include
button mashing and quick time
events, but its not a great solution. I
enjoyed all five episodes of The Wolf
Among Us a lot but Im
disappointed that it holds onto some
of the conventions established in The
Walking Dead.

Familiar story

Like that other dilemma-laden

adventure from Telltale, The Wolf
Among Us adapts a graphic novel
series into interactive episodes,
where dialogue choices make up
most of the decision-making.
Telltale tells a great story, and Fables

makes for a fantastically odd cast and

premise: Sheriff Bigby Wolf, also
known as The Big Bad Wolf,
struggles to protect refugee fairytale
characters in a magically-disguised
New York slum.
The Wolf Among Us is great for its
source material and its writing,
acting, character design, and ethical
challenges the same reasons The
Walking Dead is great but Telltale
still struggles to express action, and
cant always maintain the illusion of
meaningful choice.
Most disappointing is that the
response to my actions sometimes
feels incongruous. At one point, for
instance, I chose to interrogate a
suspect by the book, and was scolded
for another characters violence. A
single line of dialogue in the final
episode cleared my name, but it
didnt really seem to make a
difference. Im not concerned with
how much my choices really mean

Allies and moochers

Bigby doesnt have many friends, but a few approximations
Snow White

Mr Toad

Colin

Nerissa

Assistant to the deputy

mayor, and Bigbys
closest friend. Snow
cares about order and
proper procedure above
all else, but she lets a
few of Bigbys violent
rages fly.

Fables
makes for a
fantastically
odd cast and
premise
76

Bigbys most unlikely

friend is one of the
Three Little Pigs. He
hides out on Bigbys
couch, which is only fair
after Bigbys previous
occupation as a pig
house demolisher.

A slum landlord who

generally acts like an
ass a lovable ass,
to be fair. He at least
cares about his son, and
pleads with The Big Bad
Wolf to let them stay in
Fabletown.

The Little Mermaid is

now a prostitute, and
has information that
could help Bigbys
investigation, but she
isnt talking. It wouldnt
be much of a mystery if
she did.

Expect to pay 19 for five episodes Release Out now Developer Telltale Games Publisher In-house
Multiplayer None Link www.telltalegames.com/thewolfamongus

OCTOBER 2014

I accept that Telltale isnt really

building hundreds of unique
branches but the illusion must be
maintained so I dont feel helpless.
When my choices do feel
meaningful, The Wolf Among Us is
brilliant. And, as long as its part of
the theme and not because the
characters have limited dialogue, its
also brilliant when choices dont feel
meaningful. Like any good noir
story, The Wolf Among Us cant be
solved. The finale satisfyingly
resolves the plot, but there is no right
choice and there is no winning.
The best conflict is between order
and compassion, which is where
Telltale really finds the ethical grey
area it loves so much. Do you send a
struggling father and his son to the
farm because they cant afford the
magic which keeps the Fables
disguised among humans? What if
Snow, the only person you trust, tells
you its necessary to keep everyone
else safe?
Those challenges, and the quality
of the characters and writing that
make them matter, are where
Telltale aces The Wolf Among Us. It
ends with a polite nudge to continue
the story with the Fables graphic
novels, and Ill take its advice.
Telltale got me invested and I want
more I even fear a little that the
comics will disappoint me, because it
wont be my Bigby in the story.
I wish my choices in this series had
more meaning, and I think
interactivity can be better than quick
time events, but The Wolf Among Us
still feels like something I lived more
than something I watched.

A fantastic, morally
ambiguous detective tale
that sometimes struggles
to make its interactivity
meaningful and fun.

83

Bigby and Snow have

a rare tender moment.

Bigby set his office lighting to

highlighter ink and coffee stains.

The best decisions

are where to go next.
Everyone in Fabletown
has an agenda.

Some of the staging and

lighting is fantastic.

You dont want to go

live on The Farm.

Snow gets more interesting

later in the season.

OCTOBER 2014

77

Theyre a dedicated crowd,

given youll rarely reach them.

Neon future city: still no

damn hoverboards.

Start a grind close to

the rail for a bigger score.

Get used to landing

on your face.

JESUS FLIP

OlliOlli skates around frustration, but ultimately

sticks the landing. By Phil Savage

Need to know
What is it?

A score-centric 2D skating
game and homage to the
console classics.

Influenced by

Tony Hawks Pro Skater (the

good ones), Skate

Play it on

Dual-Core CPU, 2GB RAM

Alternatively

Bit.Trip Runner 2, 85%

Copy protection
None

f OlliOlli proves anything, its

that skating games arent yet
pass. It perfectly captures the
layered thrill of not only mastering a
route, but enhancing it through
tricks and personal flair. It has a few
missteps, but the core act of flipping,
grinding and spinning ensures the
action remains stimulating across its
many challenging levels.
OlliOlli looks like a more colourful
Canabalt, sounds like the final hours
of an electronic club set, and plays
like a cross between Tony Hawks Pro
Skater and EAs Skate. The action is
centred mostly on the left analogue
stick. You flick to launch your sidescrolling skater into a trick, and hold
it down in any direction to grind a
rail. Once in a grind, letting go of
the stick causes another jump, which
can lead into another grind. Each
linked action builds your multiplier,
and most levels are designed to
encourage lengthy combos.

You must tap the A button before

hitting the ground. Do it close to the
surface and youre rewarded with a
perfect rating and points to match
miss it, and youre sloppy, throwing
a recovery animation your way that
can end your run.
The flip-grind-flip-grind
structure only gets you through each
level to maximise your score, you
need variety, and the most advanced
manoeuvres in OlliOllis library of
tricks. This Tricktionary is filled
with quarter and half-circle turns,
letting you execute Laserflips,
Backside 360 Shove-its, and other
improbably named defiances of
gravity. More complex moves can be
performed by combining an
analogue flick with a tap of the pads
shoulder buttons.
Each campaign level consists of
five missions, which range from
besting a specific score to
performing a certain trick. Reach

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Roll7 Publisher Devolver Digital
Multiplayer Lots of leaderboards Link www.bit.ly/WmxwD6

78

OCTOBER 2014

the end of one Amateur level and

youll unlock the next. Each chapter
also contains a number of Pro levels,
available once youve finished the
corresponding Amateur missions.
Youre never short of things to do.
Theres a downside to the number
of levels, in that OlliOlli has 100
separate leaderboards plus an even
harder RAD mode for those who
complete every mission. In a score
attack game, that muddies the purity
of its point-based rivalry.
For some, the answer will be to
attempt dominance on every
leaderboard. For me, the constant
challenge means extended periods of
play wear down my resolve. The 3D
skating games that inspired OlliOlli
had the benefit of letting you take a
break from the intense skill-based
progression. At any moment you
could roll off to practise, explore or
generally mess around. Thats not
the case here youre always being
pushed to improve or face failure.
That means OlliOlli is best played
in short sessions. It also means its a
game that offers a consistently
meaningful reward. Not of unlocks
and achievements, but of measurable
improvement against an expressive
and enjoyable set of systems.

Satisfying arcade
skate-em-up thats fun
from the off, and
promises many hours on
the hard path to mastery.

82

164 PAGES OF PURE TERROR

EVERYTHING A HORROR FAN NEEDS IN ONE MAGAZINE!

FROM T
MAKER HE
OF SFX S
M AGA Z
INE!

ON SALE NOW! PICK UP YOUR COPY IN

OR DOWNLOAD TO YOUR FAVOURITE DEVICE

Taking hostages is hard. Im not

robbing that bank any more.

Gods have yet to get YouTube.

The script can be a bit
wonky. But serviceable.

I dread to think what youd

consider managing badly.

Also the dog!

BLIND FAITH

Gods Will Be Watching, but its your job

to judge. By Richard Cobbett

Need to know
What is it?

A series of (mostly) one-screen

point-and-click vignettes.

Influenced by

Minimalism, despair

Play it on

Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM,

512MB 3D card

Alternatively

Papers Please, 87%

Copy protection

Steam

his is a game about the fact

that youre probably not a
psychopath, but that hey,
sometimes shit happens.
First scenario: youre not terrorists.
Your hostages may disagree, but, as
you tell them, youre not looking to
hurt anyone. Theyre just there for
protection while your team hacks a
government server.
Then the timer starts. All you have
to do is keep things quiet for your
hackers, and keep the guards outside
the door out of flashbang range an
instant game over. And everything
would be fine, if everyone would just
sit there and be quiet for a few
minutes. But will they? No!
Shouting at them doesnt calm them
down, but - oh, damn it! The
computer feeds been hacked again.
Have the hacker fix that, then- what
now? All the pussy-footing around
made the hostages lose respect and
openly rebel? Theres an easy way to

fix that. Hope their leader learns to

love hopping.
And so, slowly but surely, in a
hundred tiny little steps down that
road paved with good intentions,
does Gods Will Be Watching make you
the bad guy. Or the mad scientist. Or
the pragmatic military leader,
slowed by a wounded soldier. The
second vignette is an immediate shift
from being more or less the one in
control to the victim, controlling
two soldiers being tortured for
information over 20 agonising days.
In each episode, the rules change.
This is a very unpleasant, very
uncomfortable game to play. One
that demands cold decisions in
nightmare situations and then
depicts the results with the heartless
edge of a rusty scalpel. In a
particularly beautiful little twist of
that knife, the game itself stands
back from moralising, encouraging
you to do it to yourself at the end of

Expect to pay 7 Release Out now Developer Deconstructeam Publisher Devolver Digital
Multiplayer None Link www.godswillbewatching.com

80

OCTOBER 2014

each stage, with a The Walking Dead/

Catherine style breakdown of how
everyone else who played did a
reminder that you could almost
certainly have done better.
For the most part, its extremely
effective, squeezes every drop of life
out of its pixels, and backs it all with a
great atmospheric soundtrack.
Where it struggles is that to stretch
out the handful of stories into a
commercial game, each vignette is
designed to be challenging, even if
you do opt to take the easier, often
morally repugnant shortcuts like
thumping hostages. The resulting
repetition after things go wrong
badly saps the emotional core of each
story, rapidly turning characters into
simple puzzle pieces.
The scenarios are also long and
cant be saved, which can be a real
pain if you screw up on something
minor. These points aside, Gods Will
Be Watching is a clever idea well
executed, avoiding the branching
and overt morality of most similar
games in favour of simply asking you
to judge yourself as you see fit. A very
clever, very different kind of
adventure that will make you feel
and make you feel bad, but hopefully
for most of the right reasons.

An inspired and different

take on the concept of
survival in videogames,
where you get to bring
your own horror.

81

review

BOTTOM DEALING

Magic: The Gathering 2015 Duel

of the Planeswalkers. By Tom Senior

hat have they done? For

years the Duels series has
produced limited but
satisfactory versions of the classic
card duelling game. The ballooning
success of Hearthstone makes this a
great time to introduce new players
to the complex, highly competitive
king of the genre. Instead we get this.
The underlying ruleset is still
great. You summon monsters to
engage in proxy combat with
wizards. Each turn, you place land
cards as resources for spells,
summons and enchantments, and
must use them to disassemble your
opponents fantasy zoo of monsters.
Each section of the campaign has a
explore option that lets you play
apparently endless AI battles to win
booster packs. Expect to use this a
lot, and to unwrap boosters full of
duplicates, weak cards, and cards of a
colour you dont necessarily want.

Card collections are 3 per plane,

or 14 for the whole bunch, plus a
special range of cards included in
Magic 2015s premium booster
packs, sold at 1.50 a pop. These
include ten powerful cards you can
use in singleplayer and multiplayer.
If you want full access to the variety
and depth of Magic 2015s card pool,
youll need to put up a lot more than
the initial 7 asking price.
Where have all the game modes
gone? Three and four-player freefor-alls are included but competitive
team mode Two-Headed Giant is
not. Sealed play from 2014 has also
been thrown out, likewise
Planechase. At best Magic 2015 is a
frustrating, poorly paced experience
with fewer features than its
predecessors. At worst, a
cynical redesign that just
wants to suck more money
out of players.

30

Living Death somehow

seems appropriate.
No thanks.

Expect to pay 7 + various Release Out now Developer Stainless Games

Publisher Wizards of the Coast Multiplayer 2-4 Link www.bit.ly/1y1LkOU

WAY DOWN

Pressing X until
everything dies works.

Its more a picturesque stroll than an

Abyss Odyssey. By Emanuel Maiberg

skull-faced demon who

plays the violin; tree
monsters; a winged lion
with a mouthful of eyeballs. Much
like ACE Teams Zeno Clash, Abyss
Odyssey creates a world that it is a
pleasure to be weirded-out by.
That weirdness is its best quality.
Abyss is an ill-conceived mishmash of
better fighting and platforming
games. Its combat copies Super
Smash Bros. down to the little quirks:
the bubble shield position from
which you can dodge to either side,
and executing special moves by
pressing the attack button and one of
four directions. But that combat
without the originals iconography
and item drops just isnt enough.
The procedurally generated levels
supposedly make the game different
every time you play, but I dont find I
need different strategies for facing a
giant wooden bull and facing a giant

bird man with a spear and shield.

Theres no need for strategy. I never
need to be skilful or smart, because
jamming on the attack button and
praying is usually just as effective.
If I try something more
complicated, Im frustrated by how
Abyss controls. I know what I want to
do, but my character cant keep up
with my input. I have to wait for the
attack animation to finish, carefully
turn my character, and wait for the
enemy to get up so I can continue
pummelling him.
It took me a few attempts (and
under two hours) to defeat the endboss warlock with the first playable
character, the nimble Katrien. That
unlocked the slower but stronger
Ghost Monk, with whom I defeated
the warlock first go.
I could keep playing, but
why? Abyss Odyssey doesnt
have a good answer.

55

When your character dies, you

get one more life as a soldier.

Expect to pay 11 Release Out now Developer ACE Team Publisher

In-house Multiplayer Two to four-player Link www.abyssodyssey.com

OCTOBER 2014

81

Shoot a grey triangle and you

teleport to it. Theres a lot to learn.

The fog shrouds

incoming projectiles.

The difficulty
escalates fast.

Apples are fired like clay pigeons, and

must be shot before they hit the ground.

CRUEL WORLD

Lovely Planet is fast, mean, and some of the

years best shooting. By Tyler Wilde

Need to know
What is it?

A high precision first-person

platformer and shooter
built for speedruns.

Influenced by

Super Meat Boy,

Katamari Damacy

Play it on

1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM,

shader 2.0 graphics card

Alternatively

Hotline Miami, 86%

Copy protection

Steam

his is a first-person shooter

its played from a first-person
perspective, and you shoot
things but Lovely Planet has more in
common with Super Meat Boy than
Call of Duty. Its 80-plus levels are all
beaten in under a minute, but
beating them can take ten or more
tries. Lets say, 100 or more tries. I
clocked about seven hours just
getting to the final area.
Your gun (a stick, really) fires an
infinite supply of purple cubes that
fly in slow, straight lines. Accuracy is
less important than Id like bullets
dont retain your momentum and
there are generous hitboxes around
the stationary baddies but
combined with its high-speed
platforming, Lovely Planet is a brutal
test of precision. Theres only one
way to survive its obstacle courses:
memorise every flick of your wrist
from the start to the purple pole at
the end. Its built for speedrunners

who will exploit every angle to shave

milliseconds off their runs, but just
finishing a level is an achievement.
Here are a few reasons you might
die or otherwise fail. You were hit by
a projectile. You were hit by a
homing projectile. You shot a neutral
character. You didnt shoot a baddie.
You destroyed a platform you needed
to jump on. You let an apple touch
the ground. You touched a red blob
on the ground.
I sometimes thought the levels
were mistakes. There is no damn way
it is seriously asking me to hit a damn
jump pad, spin around, shoot a damn
apple, turn back, shoot the damn blob on
the next platform, and nail the next
damn jump.
And then, through brute force
repetition, I did it. I finished Lovely
Planet by bashing my head against it
until conscious thought was replaced
with pure eye-hand mastery, and it
felt great.

Expect to pay 3.50 Release Out now Developer Quicktequila Publisher tinyBuild
Multiplayer None Link www.quicktequila.com/lovelyplanet

82

OCTOBER 2014

My glowing praise only dims for

Lovely Planets presentation. Its cute,
and the visual simplicity is an asset
where precision is so necessary, but
theres no clever, coherent world
building. Lovely Planets areas are
only differentiated by minor
additions to the motif the swamp is
shrouded in fog, for instance and
theyre weird, but forgettable.
The awkward keyboard-navigated
menu is Lovely Planets worst quality,
along with its limited and poor
presentation of information. It
records one world-record time for
each level, but theres no name
attached and no leaderboard
otherwise. I cant compare my times
to my Steam friends, or see how I
rank in a chart.
At least I know Im the best as
long as you ignore that any records I
set were in an early copy of the game,
against almost no other players. Im
sure those records will be crushed as
soon as it releases, but I love how
beating a level makes me feel like Ive
tapped into some impossible agility.
The rapid repetition training can be
gruelling, but learning, succeeding,
then mastering Lovely Planets trick
jumps and perfect projectile slinging
is heavenly.

A great, merciless
speedrunning platformer
and twitch shooter, but
one that suffers from
mediocre presentation.

82

Review

FIRE SALE

Warface sets its sights a little too low. By Chris Thursten

Need to know
What is it?

A free-to-play online shooter.

Influenced by

Call of Duty, World of Tanks

Play it on

Dual core CPU, 512MB GPU,

2GB RAM

Alternatively
Titanfall, 86%

Copy protection
Online only

o you remember that

bit in Call of Duty? You
know the one I mean.
You were a guy a
war guy and you
ran around a corner to find another
war guy running in the opposite
direction. Yes! This was your
moment. You raised your RDS and
sprayed hot 5.56mm NATO into
his exposed back, earning you 100
points, a kill, and a little shot of
dopamine. Then, disaster! Another
war guy ran around the corner
behind you, the screen turned red;
you died. Do you remember that bit?
You must do, because it happened to
everybody, everywhere, every day,
for years and years.
Warface is Cryteks free-to-play
stab at Call of Dutys deathmatch
formula, which it spreads across
multiple modes, bundles with a thin
handful of new ideas, and shackles
to an ever-present storefront.
Warface is the game you play if you

fancy running in a circle shooting

people in the back but dont want
to pay full price for the privilege
which is a reasonable notion and
is also the game you play if you are
ten years old and your parents wont
buy you something better. I know
that because the voices Ive heard
in-game have, universally, been
children; on one occasion I heard
someone get told off for not doing
their homework. That brief moment
of kitchen sink drama was the most
fun Ive had with Warface, a game
that is otherwise as oppressively allright-I-suppose as youd expect from
the lovechild of two business models.

Paleface

Warface has the quality of something

that you played once in a stickyfloored arcade during a halfremembered summer holiday. It
should smell of cigarettes and old
carpet. Its low-rent in the way that
lightgun shooters traditionally were,

Den of confusion
Warface has a safe house area that you can visit from the
main menu. You cant bring your friends. It is pointless.
Three
basketball
hoops

Football net
and so on

Pinball table

Sci-fi
holo-table

There is a ball,
but you cant
pick it up. Why
do you have
three of these?

Warfaces
successes
are entirely
those of
other, better
games
84

Youll find a
Warface pinball
table, but instead
of actual pinball
it just has a big
screenshot of
the game on it.

Expect to pay Free Release Out now Developer Crytek Publisher In-house
Multiplayer Online, co-op and competitive Link www.warface.com

OCTOBER 2014

Weights. A
football net. A
camera. Sofas.
A graveyard
for various
useless items.

Why is there
a glowing
holo-map of a
featureless hill
in this rundown
warehouse?

and its this, rather than the Call of

Duty-shaped hole it aspires to fill,
that gives it a personality. Its not
a substantially realised thing it
never reaches House of the Dead or
Area 51s shit-but-kitsch territory
but its something, and when
Warfaces angry red LED damage
indicators are bursting from the
body of a stricken foe theres a little
of Time Crisis to the experience.
You can press a button to slide
along the ground on your butt
and earn bonus points for killing
someone while doing so. One of the
better modes is a bit like CounterStrike with rubbish maps. Theres a
capable co-op mode where you fight
your way through a series of themed
alleyways blasting pigeon-brained
AI and sometimes tangling with
helicopters or mechs or tanks, an
experience that scales up through a
series of difficulty levels and that, in
its final stages, requires some actual
coordination. Its very repetitive, but
it looks OK and its free.
Warface isnt terrible. I found
myself easily sinking hours into it.
But its successes are entirely those
of other, better games. If this kind
of modern military shooter is what
youre looking for, you should be
playing Counter-Strike: GO. Or
Titanfall. Or one of the earlier, better
Battlefields. Or Call of Duty. If a free
competitive game on PC is what
youre looking for, look further;
there are lots. This is a game with
tame ambitions that manages to
achieve a few of them. Theres merit
there, I suppose, but not enough to
warrant a recommendation.

Warface is a middling
contender in the most
oversubscribed genre
around, and it trades too
hard on being free.

58

Everybody shoot from the big truck is one of

several cooperative scenarios.

You can help each other

climb things . Aww.

Im pretty sure someones

mum just told me to go to bed.

Be a lone sniper,
like every other player.
Warface are a good PMC. This lift
belongs to an evil PMC.

Collect respawning RPGs to

down boss choppers.

Just do it.

OCTOBER 2014

85

Besides looking cool, shadows

reveal where youre exposed.
If guards spot you, run,
but dont get cornered.

Either a hostile guard or someone

left the office microwave open.

For flat line art, the

environments are nicely detailed.

BRIEF CANDLE

Stylish ideas arent enough to sustain Lights

bite-sized stealth adventure. By Mikel Reparaz

Need to know
What is it?

Cyberpunk-tinged stealth.
Looks like Geometry Wars, plays
like a simplified Hitman.

Influenced by

Johnny Mnemonic, Hitman

Play it on

Dual Core CPU, 2GB RAM,

GeForce GT 7800/
Radeon HD 4800

Alternatively

Hotline Miami, 86%

Copy protection

Steam

he title of this minimalist

sneak-em-up describes
several things. First, theres
Project: Light, the shadowy
initiative thats left you in the
custody of a sinister corporation,
from which you must immediately
escape. Then theres the central
hook, in which the interplay of light
and shadow establishes lines of sight
and offers clues about where its safe
to hide from roving guards. More
disappointingly, light also applies to
the content: an anaemic 12-level
campaign that can be blown through
in an hour or less.
That wouldnt be a deal-breaker if
it were a fantastic hour, but Light
doesnt really have much going for it
beyond its slick aesthetics. It
introduces unique concepts and goes
nowhere with them, settling for
bare-bones cyberpunk stealth.
As an amnesiac blue square, you
need to solve the mystery of Project:

Light while evading detection and

capture at the hands of patrolling red
squares. This is where Lights
dynamic lighting effects come in:
duck behind an office chair or table,
and the area in front of it goes dark,
while the area behind it stays lit.
Nobody can see you from the dark
area, but youre (potentially) visible
to anyone standing in the light. In
practice its more stylish than useful:
avoiding detection hinges on
predicting the guards repetitive
movements and dodging their Metal
Gear-esque cones of vision.
Killing a guard lets you swap
outfits, which dramatically shortens
the other guards normally farreaching fields of view although
you risk putting them on alert unless
you drag and hide the body in a
nearby closet. Further confounding
your efforts are white civilian
squares, as well as security cameras
and locked doors. Some of the latter

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Just a Pixel Publisher Team 17
Multiplayer None Link www.lightthegame.com

86

OCTOBER 2014

can be picked, while others have to

be unlocked remotely by hacking
terminals highlighted in gold.
Lights hacking is as austere as its
visuals; holding down E hacks
whatever computer youre standing
next to, Q displays every locked
door or camera associated with it.
Clicking menu icons turns them off,
and thats really the extent of it.
As simple as it is, Lights stealth is
enjoyable. Theres enough space to
use different methods for sneaking
past the same guards, whether by
skirting precariously around their
vision cones or by cutting quickly
through adjacent rooms. But the 12
short maps almost all of which I
finished in five minutes or less,
deaths included end up feeling like
a proof-of-concept demo, or a
framework for cool ideas. Sneaking
never really evolves as Light
progresses. The terminals, guards,
and security cameras always follow
the same simple patterns, and once
you know what those are, theyre
easy to overcome.
Updates could expand Lights ideas
to create more complex challenges.
As it stands, its hard to recommend
something that ends so quickly after
making so little impact.

After a promising start,

this simplistic take on
stealth quickly plateaus
and then stops, falling
well short of its potential.

50

Now fully interactive on your iPad

Download

2isFsuReEs!E*

Interactive pages Full screen trailers

Exclusive extra content
Search for Total Film in the App Store
www.totalfilm.com/newsstand
* Download two free issues with a no obligation subscription. Offer applies to new subscribers only.
iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

Fail to the king, baby.

INCOMING MESSAGE: Hi, heres an

annoyance to click through!

Watch... scan... nuke from orbit,

its the only way to be sure.

Sure, whats the worst

that could happen?

fragmentary
Pointing and clicking gets tiring on the
Shattered Planet. By Richard Cobbett

Need to know
What is it?

A roguelike where you explore

the floating shards of a
mysterious planets.

Influenced by
Spelunky

Play it on

1GHz CPU, 2GB RAM

Alternatively

Dungeons of Dredmor, 82%

Copy protection

Steam

hats a roguelike?
Wenches, mostly. But its
getting harder to find an
answer these days, as more and more
games take the basic idea and give it
enough of a spin that one pseudogenre cant really cover it.
Shattered Planet features most of
the tropes, including randomly
generated worlds full of painful
death. In this case, disposable clones
are sent down from a spaceship to
Planet Hey, Isnt This Bastion? to
document wildlife and hunt for
treasure on behalf of an occasionally
generous employer. The twist is that
the currency found on each jaunt can
be spent on permanant character
upgrades. Does that disqualify it?
Who knows. But it certainly helps
when facing an army of killer aliens
for the fiftieth time.
This is a mobile game that has
made the jump to real computers,
and thats easily its biggest weakness.

It feels slight. Theres little drive to

explore and not a vast amount to
encounter. After just a couple of
hours, I opened the in-game
encylopedia to find that the handful
of enemies Id seen counted as over
half of what it had to offer.
Theres more to the game than
monsters, with pets to tame and
collect, character classes to unlock,
and special events a little like FTLs
decisions. Even so, it never manages
to create the spark that makes return
visits feel like a fresh adventure and
not a completionist chore.
Thats a shame, because in most
ways this is a clever, charming game.
It looks lovely, its full of fun touches
like the way grid square bounces a
little when stepped on, and its got a
sense of humour. Surviving may
involve a fair amount of luck in terms
of items and maps, but the game has
strategy too: a dark, monstersummoning poison spreads from the

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Kitfox Games Publisher In-house
Multiplayer None Link www.kitfoxgames.com

88

OCTOBER 2014

Without the monsters, there are some

pretty bits. Someone, drop a picnic.

start point to hurry up exploration;

avoiding enemies is usually a better
option than taking them on; certain
items allow safe passage through
enemy territory.
Theres no one reason it didnt
click with me, but I can think of a
few small ones the atmospheric
ambient music soon losing its sense
of drive, the weak sound effects, the
lack of much to find, and most
notably, the item system. You do find
gear, including bottles of mystery
goo and disguises, but you get
starting equipment from dropping
crystals into a slot machine that just
straight-up creates things of every
quality level a holdover from the
free-to-play original that sold packs
of crystals. It badly diminishes the
joy of discovery.
Shattered Planets biggest problem
though is that its up against a whole
expanding roguelike genre whose
standing champions go much
deeper, hit a hell of a lot harder and
offer far more tantalising treats to
explore than the prospect of fighting
monsters can provide. Its fine for
what it is, but what it is is a mobile
game, struggling to provide a
compelling reason for you to sit
down and dive in.

A simple, bite-sized
roguelike game that will
still eat your face, but its
many levels shallower
than its rivals.

64

review

ON TRACK

More detailed models mean this

guys suit must weigh a ton.

Metro 2033 Redux is a superb survival

horror FPS, improved. By Jem Alexander

ts easy to be cynical and assume

this remastered edition of Metro
2033 is aimed squarely at the
console market, whose hardware has
only just caught up. Imagine my
surprise, then, when this turned out
to be an honest to goodness, genuine
remaster. A collection of tweaks and
polishes that elevate the game to
even greater heights.
The story so far: the surface of the
Earth is scorched and irradiated, so
the people of Moscow live in the
tunnels of the metro while the Dark
Ones plot against them. The genius
feature of the game is that you can
barter high-grade ammunition for
better guns and upgrades. Never
before has finding a stash of bullets
prompted such an internal conflict.
Metro 2033 Redux is all this, but
looks a lot better. Im not talking a
little texture upgrade here, Im
talking new meshes and animations,

and reworked environments. This

feels like the definitive version.
Cutscenes have been reworked so
that the camera never leaves the
perspective of protagonist Artyom.
There was nothing wrong with
wresting the non-interactive
viewpoint away from the player from
time to time, but in such a tense,
atmospheric game, heightening your
engagement like this just feels like
common sense.
I could continue listing bits and
pieces: the improved lighting and
weather effects, the expanded
environments and added secrets, the
addition of some of Metro: Last
Lights better features, like weapon
customisation. But you get the point.
So is it worth buying again?
Absolutely. Especially
since you can get it for half
price on Steam if you
already own Metro 2033.

90

Be prepared to see a lot of tunnels.

Its not called Metro for nothing.

Expect to pay 17 (50% with original) Release Out now Developer 4A

Games Publisher Deep Silver Multiplayer None Link www.bit.ly/1rhirfccom

DERAILED

With looks this good who

needs a remaster?

Metro: Last Light Redux doesnt

improve on anything. By Jem Alexander

his is a re-release of a game

little more than a year old. It
offers almost nothing to PC
gamers whose rigs were up to the
task of running it the first time
around. It looks almost identical to
the version you played last May.
Its little more than a Game of the
Year edition. It includes every piece
of DLC released to date and, bless
them theyve tried, some of the new
weapons have been integrated into
the singleplayer story.
Visually the games are practically
the same. I played the original and
the Redux version alternately,
chapter by chapter, and found it easy
to forget which I was playing at any
given moment. So much special
attention has been given to Metro
2033 Redux, that the more modern
Last Light Redux actually looks worse
in comparison. Which is fitting,
since its also the worse game of the

two. Its a fine shooter, but fans of the

originals survival horror were
disappointed by the bombastic
combat and boss fights. A new
Survivor mode does its best to
recreate the feel of Metro 2033 by
making ammo more scarce and
enemies more aggressive, but it feels
like an attempt at a quick fix.
It makes sense for Metro: Last
Light Redux to exist on consoles,
given that a locked 60fps framerate
and higher resolution are the main
selling points, but obviously this
doesnt really impact PC owners. If
youve not played Last Light before,
Redux is worth picking up, as it saves
you a few pounds over the original
version. But if you already own the
game theres very little to draw you
back to buy it again.
Unless you really want
another set of Steam
achievements, that is.

80

You never get that drink. Shame,

bet hes a right laugh after a few.

Expect to pay 17 (50% with original) Release Out now Developer 4A

Games Publisher Deep Silver Multiplayer None Link www.bit.ly/1rhirfccom

OCTOBER 2014

89

There are some optional missions

alongside the main campaign.

The characters all have unique

strengths and weaknesses.
In the hub you can grab new gear and
select the crew for your next mission.

The ships crew are under violent

attack from a group of cyborgs.

Chequered

Turn-based strategy game Halfway isnt all the

way there. By Evan Lahti

Need to know
What is it?

Simple turn-based sci-fi

strategy game, with a pleasing
SNES-era art direction.

Influenced by

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Play it on

Dual Core CPU, 2GB RAM, any

modern graphics card

Alternatively
Xenonauts, 85%

Copy protection

Steam

e were treated to a surplus

of indie, turn-based
strategy games in 2014.
And happily, theyve all been
thematically and mechanically
different: The Banner Saga (an
elegant Viking epic), Xenonauts (a
spiritual sequel to old X-COM),
Dead State (a Fallout-like zombie
sandbox in Early Access). Halfway is
less complex and sprawling than
these games, which ends up as both
a shortcoming and an asset.
Passengers of a massive spaceship
awake from cryosleep to find their
vessel, The Goliath, overrun with
evil cyborgs and out of control,
hyper-jumping to a random spot
every few hours. You control the
surviving crew members, fighting
your way deck to deck in a couple of
dozen combat missions.
Missions are represented as
connected dots on a map of the ship,
and you complete them one by one,

with a handful of optional missions

along the way. Between combat you
retreat to a hub to equip new gear,
talk with your party, and select the
crew for your next mission. This is
the unbroken rhythm of Halfway:
combat, plot progression, gear
management, repeat.
Your party characters dont have
classes, so theyre mostly defined by
what weapons and armour you give
them, with just one active ability
each. I liked the natural advantages
that come up with this system, and
that I could choose which characters
to invest in along the way. Linda
can heal herself without a medkit
every few turns, making her a
natural tank, so I spent every health
stimpack I found on her to increase
her maximum HP. Mortens active
ability guarantees a hit from any
range, so I equipped him with my
best shotgun, allowing him to snipe
with it every few rounds.

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Robotality Publisher Chucklefish

Multiplayer None Link www.robotality.com/blog

90

OCTOBER 2014

Halfway doesnt have difficulty

settings or permadeath, but it does
achieve that XCOM experience of
narrow victory: plenty of my rounds
hung on a 62 percent sniper shot
connecting with its target. At the
same time, I was frustrated by the
few times when difficulty arose
purely as a result of the equipment
decisions Id made or the party
composition Id chosen.
What wore on me most was
how unvaried and uncreative
Halfways enemies are. Theyre
essentially the same from beginning
to end: silent robot-zombies that
move, shoot and melee. Worst are
the turrets, boring punching bags
that soak up damage and grenades.
Mechanically there just isnt a lot
happening here: something like a
fragile, fast-moving suicide-bomber
enemy, or an enemy that destroys
cover, wouldve shaken me out of my
tactical comfort zone.
Halfways narrow design makes it
easy to pick up for the dozen hours it
takes to complete, but compared to
XCOM or Xenonauts, its more sci-fi
checkers than an intricate strategy
game. For anyone daunted by those
games massive campaigns, Halfway
is a straightforward alternative.

Halfway is a relatively
tough and enjoyable
but mechanically lean
sci-fi strategy game.

68

In AssocIATIon wITh

Awards finalists
announced:
its time to pick the
best tech of 2014
Vote for your
favourite tech
and you could
win an iPad Air
T3.com/awards

Vote in the worlds

top tech awards

review

Unconfirmed Kill
Multiplayer combat sim War Thunder seizes air
superiority, not supremacy. By Rob Zacny

he problem with War

Thunder is that it
swings from amazing
to hugely frustrating,
often within the same
session. Its a game I love, except for
all those times when Im ready to
nuke it from my hard drive.
Every few sessions something
technical goes annoyingly wrong. A
lot of times, I get an authentication
error and cant log into my account.
A few minutes later, it works again.
Sometimes my controls mysteriously
go haywire. All my settings are lost,
and I have to remap everything,
which is the most boring and
painstaking task in flight sims. War
Thunder often feels like a ramshackle
construction. There are too many
places where it seems buggy or
unfinished. It would be unbearable,
except for all those times when its
actually sublime.
At its best, War Thunder is a
visually impressive realisation of air
and ground combat. It is
breathtaking when youre in the air,
soaring over valleys or Pacific atolls.
Just taking a plane up through the
clouds, where the world beyond your

Need to know
What is it?

A casual multiplayer World War

II-era combat sim. Really.

Influenced by

World of Tanks, The Battle

of Britain

Play it on

Dual-core 3GHz CPU, 4GB RAM,

GeForce 560/Radeon HD 6870

Alternatively

Rise of Flight, 82%

Copy protection

Steam

It would be
unbearable,
except for all
those times
when its
sublime

wingtips vanishes into fog while

condensation whips over the canopy,
then gives way to elation when you
burst into the clear blue sky. It feels
like Im really up there at the
controls of a plane, playing among
the peaks of a cloud formation.
More important, War Thunders
air combat is some of the best and
most intense Ive ever experienced.
World of Warplanes doesnt come
close: its planes are too confined by
the games simple physics; its a
shooter where your avatar is a plane.
In War Thunder, I always feel like Im
actually in the cockpit, and every kill
is a story to tell.
Even on the Arcade settings,
where the planes are extremely
forgiving and every battle is basically
an aerial melee, War Thunder forces
you to learn and use basic flight
manoeuvres and aerial tactics. You
can also crank up the realism, which
does away with respawns and puts
you into more varied tactical
situations. Instead of just racing to
shoot up all the other teams tanks or
airbases, you might be waging a
carrier battle in the Pacific, or trying
to escort bombers to a target.

Top dogs
The rulers of the air across the five tiers of War Thunder

Mitsubishi
A5M4

B-25J

This precursor to the

Zero has fast feet,
but a weak punch.

This bomber wins

games thanks to
its high speed and
a fast climb.

FW 190

Its dual 20mm

cannons make this
an assassin-class
fighter.

Spitfire Mk IX

Flying rings around

hostiles, upgraded
guns give it a knockout punch.

MiG 15

Its only rival is the

F-86, and with two
sets of cannon, it
only needs one shot.

Expect to pay Free Release Out now Developer Gaijin Entertainment Publisher In-house
Multiplayer 32-player competitive and co-op multiplayer Link warthunder.com

92

OCTOBER 2014

If only War Thunder stayed at

high altitude. But unfortunately,
it crashes down to earth with the
introduction of tank combat. Where
air combat is fast and graceful, the
tanks are plodding and fussy. Early
tanks grind to a halt over the gentlest
grades, and War Thunder
consistently overestimates my
interest in managing a tanks manual
transmission. Its like coaxing a slug.

Grinding gears

The slow pace is exacerbated by a

combat system where the person
who spots the target first is probably
going to get the kill. So battlefields
will too often devolve into careful
camping grounds, and manoeuvring
to a good position eats up a quarter
of the battle time.
Then theres the progression
system. The War Thunder tech
tree is jammed full of weird sidebranches and too many marginal
upgrades. Plus, the currency and
research required to progress in the
second and third tier of the game
lead to some real doldrums.
Premium currency helps alleviate
this somewhat, but unless youre
willing to drop some real cash on
buying aircraft, you should brace
yourself for some slogging.
But as frustrated as I get with its
limitations, nothing else out there
so readily puts you at the centre of a
dogfight. When I swoop in behind
an enemy fighter, drop the crosshairs
just above the cockpit and watch the
bullets hit home, I feel transported.
War Thunder drives me crazy. Im
not sure how I can ever leave.

War Thunder undoubtedly

rules the skies but the lack
of polish hurts, as does
the dull ground warfare.

78

The sun isnt the only

thing going down here.

Tank battles are

often sniper fests.

Being on the ground

is somehow less fun.

Its pretty impressive from

all the way up here.
Unfortunately you cant
save all your wingmen.

Carrier down: not what you

want to see back at base.

With high-performance
aircraft, combat is dizzying.

OCTOBER 2014

93

And snark about this

coming in 3... 2... 1...

Heroist environmental hazards. Hurt

the monsters, why dont you?
As a Seraphim, things get much easier with this
easily maintained doughnut of electric death.

By the end of the game, its all about

avoiding hits. Damage is just assumed.

The guest local player gets a

bump up to the party leaders level.

Heresy

New developers deep-six the RPG mechanics

in Sacred 3. By Richard Cobbett

Need to know
What is it?

A hack and slash arcade game

set in a formerly RPG universe.

Influenced by
Not Sacred 2

Play it on

Core i5, 4GB RAM, 2GB 3D card

Alternatively

Divinity: Original Sin, 87%

Copy protection

Steam

ore than once, I found

myself quitting this just to
make sure I was playing
the right game. Sacred 2 was an openworld mix of Diablo and RPG. I was
expecting something, well, a bit
similar. Not a corridor-based
comedy co-op hack and slash. Rarely
has the expression nothings sacred
been taken quite so literally.
Its a truly bizarre decision, made
odder by the fact that if this had been
released as an action spin-off, it
would actually be a good fit its a
surprisingly enjoyable monster mash
for one or two players on a local
machine, or up to four grouped
together on the internet.
In particular, Sacred 3 has a solid
understanding of how to make hits
feel good, from the crunch of the
critical hits and the clank of gold
hitting stone, to splattering armies
of little gremlins. The levels and
bosses also serve up a decent degree

of variety among all the corridors

and the wheels that have to be
turned six times before youre
allowed to progress into the next
arena through whatever locked door
or purple forcefield is currently
blocking the way. Sacred 3 doesnt
have many tricks to play, but it plays
them well, with regular scenery
changes and set-pieces breaking up
the combat and keeping it fresh.
Its also desperate to be a comedy,
to the point of playing like a writers
audition for a gig on Saints Row 5.
Every mission briefing, seemingly
every enemy and every obstacle is
served up with quips, snark and
banter between the good guys, the
villains, and even the assorted souls
your character can join with as part
of the upgrade system.
Thats a lot of banter. Imagine how
much banter you think it is. Now
double it. Triple it. Add a bit more
just for good measure. Thankfully

Expect to pay 30 Release Out now Developer Keen Games Publisher Deep Silver
Multiplayer 2 player local, 4 player online Link www.sacred3.com

94

OCTOBER 2014

its usually funny enough to get away

with it, or at least to get a smirk, but
it does get old.
Another key to either enjoying or
hating the experience is the levelling
system, which eschews the happy
clatter of new toys from enemies in
favour of simply doling them out at
intervals. You then use the gold you
collect to upgrade them by more or
less dropping it straight into a coin
slot. And it all feels trotted out on
Sacred 3s timeframe, so theres no
sense of discovery or excitement.
Nor is there a sense of rhyme or
reason behind the unlocking of
these things. Mid-fight, suddenly
the game will stop and tell you that
you can now call on a vampire for
assistance. Why? No idea.
At the same time, theres a decent
sense of getting more powerful as
the game progresses, and the combat
is well designed, demanding good
use of dodging and timing rather
than just mashing the attack button.
Sacred 3 isnt a bad arcade hack and
slash game, and the humour does
give it a sense of life that you dont
normally get when swords and bows
are redecorating whole continents in
blood. But its not a game that ever
comes close to earning its name.

Behind the name, theres

solid hack and slash with
some decent enemies.
But Sacred? Not to
anyone, it seems.

72

Sunday 7th September | Silverstone Circuit

S
T
E
TICKY 23
ONL E GATE
H
T
N
O
dren
l
i
h
c
r
try fo under *
n
e
E
FRE ed 14 &
ag

:
IT
IS
V
O
F
IN
E
R
O
M
R
FO

TRAXSHOWS.CO.UK
Round 5 of Time Attack British Drift Championship Over 3,500 display cars
All-Day Track Action Huge Retail Village Plus loads more
Tickets 23 on the gate. * FREE entry for children aged 14 & under when accompanied by a paying adult. All attractions subject to change. Warning motorsport can be dangerous.

Reactions to the snake-like

naga are a highlight.

The slum has some really

unpleasant characters.

This opulent palace is in

stark contrast to the slums.

Get used to this dialogue

interface. Youll see it a lot.

Choose wisely

Wrestle with moral dilemmas and ancient Indian

snake beings in Unrest. By Andy Kelly

Need to know
What is it?

A story-led RPG set in a fantasy

version of ancient India.

Influenced by
Early BioWare

Play it on

Pretty much any PC

Alternatively

Planescape: Torment, 94%

Copy protection

Steam

his is a roleplaying game in

the literal sense. In a vision of
ancient India lightly dusted
with fantasy, you briefly inhabit the
lives of a cast of very different and
unusual characters. You dont play a
warrior or a wizard, but a girl facing
an arranged marriage, a starving
child in a slum, and others.
Dialogue is central. Theres a lot of
text here enough to give Planescape:
Torment a run for its money and
youll spend the majority of the short
2-3 hour running time reading. Its
all decently written, if a little too
earnest. Some lighter moments
would have been welcome, although
to be fair that would jar with the
subject matter mostly politics,
corruption, war, famine and religion.
Replays are encouraged. There are
dozens of ways to complete each
vignette, and experimenting with
dialogue choices can dramatically
alter the story. My favourite is the

character trying to get out of the

arranged marriage. In my first
attempt I ended up sentenced to
death. In another I managed to
escape the village and my fate. The
paths leading to both outcomes were
full of interesting moments and
personalities. How you speak to
people affects their opinion of you,
and I enjoyed choosing options
based on the pre-determined traits
each protagonist has.
As engaging as the stories are, I
can see the presentation being a
stumbling point for a lot of people.
The hand-painted environments
have a certain charm, but the
characters are basic and sparsely
animated. Audio is also an issue: each
music track is short and has no
looping point, so the soundtrack
quickly becomes grating as it
endlessly stops and starts.
Unrest feels more like a choose
your own adventure book than the

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Pyrodactyl Publisher KISS Ltd
Multiplayer None Link www.pyrodactyl.com

96

OCTOBER 2014

RPG it claims to be. I love the story,

and the decision to eschew voice
acting for large amounts of detailed,
evocative text, but the game itself
feels almost unnecessary. Dont
expect a challenge or any systems to
play with.
Moral dilemmas are the order of
the day, and youll be forced to deal
with some tricky subjects and
pretty grim outcomes. The fantasy
elements I mentioned earlier come in
the form of the naga, a race of snakelike beings that humans are,
naturally, fearful of. You even get to
play as a naga yourself, and seeing
things from their perspective is a
nice touch. I like how the game
steers away from the binary morality
that plagues a lot of choice-andconsequence RPGs.
Unrest tells a deep, text-heavy tale
in a genuinely unique setting, but its
a shame the quality of the game itself
cant match that of the writing and
that the ending is so abrupt and
unsatisfying. If you can stomach the
low production values youll find a
diverse adventure that rewards
experimentation, but its also one
that takes itself a little too seriously,
and that will only take a handful of
hours to finish.

A compelling story with

many outcomes and an
unusual setting, but the
game itself is a little too
rough around the edges.

60

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
Careful: Sinh
breathes toxic fire.

In the first boss encounter

you fight three guys at once.
The entrance to
Sanctum City.

Sanctum Knights
drop badass armour.

Desecrate shrines by
doing Fonzie thumbs.

ROYAL

Time to die some more in Dark Souls II:

Crown of the Sunken King. By Cory Banks

Need to know
What is it?

First of three new add-ons for

the brutal action-RPG.

Influenced by
Dark Souls

Play it on

i5 3.5GHz, 16GB RAM,

Nvidia GTX 750Ti

Alternatively

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die

Edition, 89%

Copy protection

Steam

he biggest criticism levelled

at Dark Souls II was that it was
too easy. I thought about that
as I died again while playing this,
the first part of From Softwares
three-piece downloadable content
set. My old tricks failed time and
time again, forcing me to relearn
enemy patterns and try new tactics.
Thats a good thing, though you
have to slog through some drab
environments along the way.
Crown of the Sunken King gives you
a dragons claw to access the new
area. Grafted onto Black Gulch, its
divided into three parts. In Shulva,
the Sanctum City, I cross narrow
ledges, activate platforms to reach
areas, and spend more time jumping
than in the base game. It never
approaches platformer status, but I
like the new emphasis on verticality.
Enemies attack from above or below
more frequently, and some of the
best secrets in the early areas are

discovered by trying to access rooms

far above the ground. There are new
environmental dangers here, too,
and a better focus on puzzles and
switches than before.
Sunken Kings enemies are also all
new. The basic Sanctum Soldiers are
so heavily armoured and tightly
grouped that I quickly had to
abandon my magic-based build for a
sword-and-board approach, so that I
could parry attacks and do more
damage. Massive, blind bipedal
dragons guard a later bonfire, and
take a tremendous amount of effort
to kill. If I aggroed two at a time, one
of them was guaranteed to chew on
my bones.
The toughest enemies, Sanctum
Knights, start off incorporeal,
immune to physical damage. It
wasnt until I discovered how to
make them substantial that I could
take on more than one of them at a
time, and any time I heard a

Expect to pay 8, 20 for Season Pass Release Out now Developer From Software Publisher Bandai
Namco Multiplayer Online co-op and PvP (its complicated) Link www.darksoulsii.com

98

OCTOBER 2014

phantom baddie, I was genuinely

fearful for my stash of souls.
There are two new boss battles
(three if you count an optional group
of NPCs). Both are more creative
than many of the basic games
guardians. There are two NPC
summons for each fight, which helps
even the odds, and one battle takes
place in front of one of the most
beautiful areas From Software has
ever designed.
Unfortunately, thats one of only a
few standout landmarks. Mostly you
fight within grey, monochrome
environments that wear down on
you after repeated deaths. Aside
from a few key moments, the
drabness of these areas makes
pushing through a slog. Dark Souls II
has few moments that drag, but there
were points in Sunken King where
the momentum slows to a crawl.
But I pushed through, and when
the final boss was down and the
crown of the Sunken King sat upon
my head I had played through ten
solid, satisfying hours of new Dark
Souls. Sunken King wont do anything
to convince you to play Dark Souls II
if you dont already love it, but stays
consistently challenging for even
veteran players.

Not much in the way of

scenery, but a whole new
challenge for diehards,
and a lot of content for
your money.

85

review

Paint By numBer

The pleasure of the outdoors.

Aperture tAg has few portals, but

many holes. By Christopher Livingston

his Portal 2 mod replaces the

portal gun with a gel gun.
Repulsion gel makes you
bounce higher, and propulsion gel
makes you move faster. Sadly, theres
no replacement for Portal 2s other
elements, such as enjoyable voice
acting, excellent writing, and a wellbalanced level of challenge.
Of the just-over-two-dozen test
chambers, a couple are recycled
from the original game, spiced up by
the lack of a portal gun to solve them
with. The early game evolves slowly,
for a long while giving you only the
repulsion gel to play with. You cant
play the mod without owning Portal
2, so a shorter refresher course
would have been welcome.
Once both gels are unlocked, the
complexity ramps up, though
unevenly. I found a couple of early
chambers surprisingly vexing while
some endgame puzzles were so easily

solved I felt like Id missed

something. A small handful of test
chambers are genuinely satisfying to
solve, utilising gels, blocks, buttons,
mirror cubes, force fields and portals
(they do show up from time to time,
but cant be placed by the player).
However, the attempts at story,
misdirection, surprise and humour
all fall flat. The personality core
leading you through the test
chambers isnt exactly irritating, but
his jokes arent funny, and apart from
generally upbeat its a struggle to
pin down what his personality is.
This mod is for sale on Steam. Im
all for modders getting paid for their
work, and clearly a lot went into this,
but Id say the price is a tad
optimistic for what you get. In the
Steam Workshop, you can
explore a few hundred
thousand custom test
chambers for free.

58

Always having paint means

turrets lose their teeth.

Expect to pay 5 Release Out now Developer Aperture Tag Team

Publisher In-house Multiplayer None Link www.bit.ly/1pXpmsf

Slash your internet,

TV & phone bills!
One quick call.
Thousands of deals.

We do the hard work for you:

1

Call free and speak to our London based impartial experts.

We review over 6,000 deals from the top UK providers to

nd the right one for you - with our Lowest Price Guarantee.

Our experts do the hard work, answer your questions and

even arrange your installation!

Save
up to

408*
per
year

83%
of ou

**

custom r
ers

save

Were proud to be the only service to be accredited by Ofcom

for TV, broadband and home phone comparison

Experts available:
Monday-Friday 8am-8pm,
Saturday 9am-5.30pm,
Sunday 10am-5.30pm
www.techradarstores.co.uk/digitalsave Or text DEAL to 81400 and well call you

Call us free and well do the hard work!

0800 093 1662

*20% of Simplifydigital customers received an average saving of 408. Data based on 1,538 records between 1st of Jan 2010 to 8th Nov 2010. ** Out of 445 consultations between 01/01/2010 and 03/05/2010, 368 Simplifydigital customers saved money by signing
up to our recommended deal. Lowest Price Guarantee Terms and Conditions apply see www.simplifydigital.co.uk/lowest-price-guarantee for full details. Standard SMS network charges apply.

ALPHA REVIEWS ROUNDUP

Rapt

Its always the way: youre an

intergalactic space lizard...

Neon space-dragon lovers unite,

Xenoraptor is here! By Ian Dransfield

want my railgun-sporting space

dragon to be... green! No, wait blue! Purple! Oh, the decisions
one has to make when reviewing
games that arent yet finished.
Xenoraptor doesnt force you to make
these decisions, but when confronted
with the ability to change the colour
of my vacuum-dwelling neon
wyvern what else is a professional to
do except get hung up on it for ages?
So its almost annoying that
Xenoraptor also allows just as much
customisation of the weapons you
use and the extras you employ
(armour, radar and so on all those
things dragons are known for). I say
almost annoying, because its not
really its great.
It gives this fast-paced twin-stick
shooter the kind of personalised
depth that brings you back again and
again. (But play it on a pad, as the
mouse and keyboard control isnt

...and suddenly flying

chainsaws attack you.

Expect to pay 10 Release Out now Developer Peter Cleary

Publisher In-house Multiplayer Up to 8 Link www.bit.ly/Xenoraptor

great.) Its backed up by a game thats

actually fun and that escalates
quickly to introduce more variations
on the space-chainsaws that attack
you, forcing you to change tactics on
the fly. Its a great little package.
In fact, Xenoraptor feels pretty
much complete. Maybe the overall
presentation will be tidied up, I dont
know but the bit that matters
(space dragons shooting things) is
present and correct, with working
co-op and competitive multiplayer.
I do have some reservations when
it comes to the price, and I foresee
this being a game that is released at a
lower price or benefits from a
number of Steam sales through its
life. That being said, given half a
chance youll get much more than a
tenners worth of
entertainment out of
Xenoraptor and its not
even finished yet.

MEATY

The RTS bits are light and

mainly resource gathering.

Protect the humans, for once, in

Freaking Meatbags. By Ian Dransfield

Sometimes you get to mix it up

with some old-fashioned shooting.

Expect to pay 8 Release Out now Developer Wild Factor Publisher

Plug In Digital Multiplayer None Link www.bit.ly/FreakMeat

100

OCTOBER 2014

hatever happened to the

RTS? cry the denizens
of the internet. Well, it
still exists. But it has also evolved into
things like Freaking Meatbags a
hybrid of RTS, tower defence and
straight-up shooter.
Even at this early stage theres a lot
to like. Your janitor-bot protagonist
is dropped off on a bunch of alien
planets and tasked with protecting
the small, squishy inhabitants. How?
By getting them to mine resources,
build a base and defences, clone new
humans (and semi-humans) and hold
off waves of wild robot attacks.
One brilliant touch is that your
human workers can have motivation
problems, and sometimes just drop
tools and stop working for a bit. It is,
as they say, funny. Oh, and you can
slap a brainslug on their heads to
make them love their work, if that
worries you at all.

Slugs are just one of the robust

upgrades some missing from this
version that help instil that feeling
of progression you can only get from
buying more powerful turrets.
Just when you think its all going
to be the same, Meatbags drops a new
type of level into play: there are no
bases to build or squishy ones to save,
you simply go around blasting wild
robots with drone attachments. Its
cathartic and helps break up the
standard RTS/tower defence feel.
It doesnt feel like theres much
more to add: I saw no glitches,
experienced no crashes, it looks the
part and even incidental dialogue
and story elements are present and
half-funny. Future plans include a
map editor. That, as long as its fully
fledged and not a halfarsed job, is enough for
me to keep close tabs on
Meatbags future.

Its pretty, but doesnt stray

far from dust and sand.

I tried to take down a T-Rex

with this axe. Not smart.
This was an actual
four-player lineup.
You cant play it without a
pad. Youll just look foolish.

Beasts of Prey

By Ian Dransfield

WORST KEPT

Secret Ponchos has the good and the

bad, but not the ugly. By Ian Dransfield

his is one of those early

access games with a bit
of hype behind it,
presumably because its
bloody gorgeous and has
had stylish trailers and is the sort of
thing people actively describe as
stylish when talking about it.
Its an online shooter of the twinstick variety very much a console
game thats also on PC, as it only
supports a gamepad. A selection of
Wild West-inspired character types
shoot, whip and knife each other for
the purpose of... well, winning.
The version I played only
supported two-vs-two scuffles
though this will be different in the
finished version and singleplayer
practice that features non-firing,
unmoving enemies.
Ponchos works, looks lovely, and
sounds great. Those are the parts of
it that give me hope for when its
finished properly. Because right now
there isnt much else.
Theres the fact that the actual act
of shooting feels somewhat sticky. It
ruins the flow of the action and
makes for stilted, stuttering
gunfights full of standing still and
staccato gunfire. And whats the
point of cover? Really? You can hide
a bit, thats about it, but I missed the

memo on why its a requisite part of

Secret Ponchos.
Then, my absolute biggest issue,
theres the lack of balance. The
phantom poncho character class is so
overpowered you will see countless
matches consisting of just that class.
Hit with the bullwhip to stun, move
in for a three-blast shooty kill. Then
do that again. And again.
Happily, balance is an easy thing
to sort, and the developers are clearly
aware of this. Once it is, well begin
to see more of the other character
classes being used which were
present but seriously underused in
my time with the game.
Theres also a bizarre ranking
system that could see you playing
Ponchos for 20 hours solid and still be
at the starting rank. Its based on a
bounty system the higher the
bounty, the better your rank. But
you lose value as well as gaining it, so
you can realistically be stuck at the
bottom rung for a long time. Again,
something that can easily be fixed.
Secret Ponchos took a price cut just
before we went to press, too, and
better yet, it ships with an extra copy
of the game. If you were
worried about finding
someone to play with, this
should solve that.

Expect to pay 11 Release Out now Developer Switchblade Monkeys Entertainment

Publisher In-house Multiplayer Up to 4 Link www.bit.ly/SecretP

hink Minecraft, or Rust, or DayZ, or

whichever of the other 10 million
survival MMOs spring to mind. Whats
missing? Dinosaurs, obviously. Beasts of Prey is
here to fill that gap. You start in a random place
with nothing but a combat knife and the ability
to chop down trees with it, which is pretty
unbelievable oh wait its a game with dinosaurs.
Hopefully with more work and the
developers are very active BoP will live up to
the heady promises it makes and take its
rightful place alongside those great games
where you hit trees with things you would never
hit a tree with in real life.
For now, its too glitchy, unreliable
and poorly optimised to recommend
especially at such a high price. One
to keep an eye on, though.
Expect to pay 27 Release Out now Link bit.ly/PreyBeasts

Take a bath, perhaps?

Dreaming Sarah

By Ian Dransfield

n this platformer and puzzler you play a

young girl making her way through a
dreamworld the dreamworld of Sarah,
who is in a coma. Progress requires exploration,
the figuring out of simple puzzles, finding items
and expanding your theatre of play with said
items (for example, the umbrella that enables
you to float over gaps). Its a typical
Metroidvania model.
Dreaming Sarah is a fun and fulfilling game
with far more exploration and discovery than I
initially gave it credit for, along with the kind of
soundtrack that everyones bound to be harping
on about for years to come.
It doesnt look like theres much
more to be done on it, but even if that
wasnt the case Id have few
reservations recommending this.
Expect to pay 5 Release Out now Link bit.ly/DreamingSarah

OCTOBER 2014

101

THEYRE BACK

Re-releases reviewed By Jon Blyth

My name is Daedalus Clayface

and youre all under arrest.

Ive used all my quarters on a toilet

door and nothing happened.
I dont care. Let me fall. I
want no part in this world

I can verify that you dont get

bonus text for pulling 18 times.

A diner? WHERE NEXT ON

THIS INSANE VOYAGE?

MAZE EXTRACT

You dont need to bother with The Labyrinth

of Time its a maze thats balls.

Need to know
What is it?

A multimedia adventure,
apparently.

Influenced by

Greek mythology, bad TV

Play it on

Windows XP, 1.8GHz CPU,

512MB RAM,
DirectX 9.0c graphics card

Alternatively
Ether One, 82%

Copy protection

None

sk me whats not fun. Three

things spring immediately
to mind. One, stepping on
an upturned plug. Two, plunging
your hand into a basket of bread
knives and vipers. Then really
swirling your arm around until you
cant tell the snake bites from the
knife wounds, or your own blood
from that of the snakes. Three, and
probably most importantly, mazes.
From the cheap mountain maze in
1982s The Hobbit, where west was
not the opposite of east, to the hedge
mazes in the gardens of aristocrats,
which I can only assume were the
most enjoyment their thin, effortless
blood could handle, no maze has
ever been fun. I say this objectively
and without undue emotion, and
definitely not as a man who 30 years
ago began crying, lost and alone, in a
hedge maze on the Isle of Wight,
while his family laughed on a nearby
balcony. Incidentally, that was at a

family resort called Blackgang

Chine, which I darent look up in
case its double-racist.
As I write, the music from The
Labyrinth of Time is leaking out of my
headphones, making me feel nervous
and unhappy. Its a humourless and
serious soundtrack, Lovecraftian in
its attempts to unsettle and to bolt an
unearned sense of dread onto an
intriguing-enough storyline of
modern Greek Myth.
So, Minos has made not just a
hedge maze, but a splintered
temporal snarl of locations plucked
from time and space. Every step can
take you without warning from a
crystal sky plinth to a hotel lobby or
a cinema. Its disorientating, like
someone chucked Meccano, Lego
and Sticklebricks into a tumble dryer
then asked you to climb inside and
play with it.
Especially when you get to the
hedge maze, along with the medieval

Expect to pay 3.50 Release Out now Developer Terra Nova Development Publisher Wyrmkeep
Entertainment Multiplayer None Link www.gog.com First review PCG 2, 91%

102

October 2014

and mirror mazes. Unlike, say,

Dungeon Master where the walls take
up a definite square of the grid map,
the walls here occupy the lines
between the squares. It makes the
world feel more flimsy, and less easy
to commit to memory. (Regular
readers might notice that this is the
third consecutive month Ive
invoked Dungeon Master, leading
them to conclude that I should just
go and bloody well marry it.)
Still, you can tell how much a
developer cares about his world by
whether he lets you flush the toilets.
From Labyrinths first location,
youre about seven clicks away from
yanking a classic chain flush. Its
something of a high point.
Sadly, you can also tell how
entertaining an adventure game is
going to be from the text that pops
up when you try something that
doesnt work. Leave That Alone!
cries the game, when you try to pick
up a bath. Its a weirdly jovial tone
that grates against the stressful
music and haughty mythological
concept. Whos voice is that? And
the first puzzle youll encounter is a
4x4 tile-slider that youd find in a
posh Christmas cracker. Damn, I
hate mazes.

Oh God, Ive just looked up

the old review and it got
91% in PCG 2. Either
someone is wrong, or 21
years have changed us all.

45

review

JUDGE DROD

Point your sword right,

or face disadvantage.

Drod RPG: Tendrys Tale is

truly inspirational.

heres something likeable

here. Its not in the puzzles,
which mainly feature
coloured keys, block sliding, and
pointing your sword in the right
direction. Its not in the static-enemy
dungeon combat, which is not only
inflexible, but severely outclassed by
Desktop Dungeon (reviewed last
month). Its not even in the humour,
although it does cleverly lower your
expectations so far and so fast that
you start to smile with relief at jokes
that are just about passable.
The best reason to like Drod is that
it feels do-able from the other side. I
dont say this about many things,
because its something that
oblivious, obnoxious tools will pop
up and say in every field in which
they have no insight or appreciation.
But the reason I like Drod is that I
really think I could make this game.
I could make this game right now, if

I could just rouse myself to be arsed.

I could do the graphics, because they
dont really look like anything, and
thats totally within my skills. I could
write the script, because its just a
bunch of dumb gags strung together
with a weakly developed theme, and
thats my speciality. And I can
certainly voice-act up to and above
the low standards of Drods likeably
nasal and profoundly amateur cast. If
Drod says anything to me, its not
Im a crap game, and a waste of
time. Its wheres your excuse for
not making games now, eh? Why are
you still writing about them, you
ambitionless cretin?
Its worth mentioning briefly that
Drod RPG is not an RPG. Its a topdown platform puzzler thats voiced
by someone who sounds
like a 14-year-old me. Its
by no means great, but its
impossible to dislike.

59

You might want to make less

terrible levels in the editor.

Expect to pay 3.50 Developer Caravel Games Publisher In-house

Multiplayer None Link www.gog.com First review N/A

How hard can it be?

Too hard!

Look, I just wanted to play

something good, OK?

Although there is a nice

statue of a horse. 98%!

COOK, SERVE, DELICIOUS

THE BLACK MIRROR

BATMAN:
ARKHAM ASYLUM

ver on iOS Im playing Chippy a basic

food-prep time-management game
its extremely difficult to screw up. It only
makes me yearn for the less forgiving
embrace of Cook, Serve, Delicious. Its a
valuable life lesson: no individual task is
overwhelming, but life conspires to swamp
you in conjoined and contradictory
simplicities. The crucial difference is that
you can get better at this before youre too
old to put your experience into practice. So
battle now, commit these new procedures
to the reflexive parts of your brain, and in a
matter of months, you might have an
insight into the actions and satisfactions of
a competent human. Then leave
the house and rejoin the rest of
the world in the panicked bluff
we call existence.

adly, this isnt a videogame version of

Charlie Brookers boo, humans! TV
series. An interactive version of a prime
minister sexing a pig would undoubtedly be
a strong premise for some kind of simulator
with a specific target audience. But no:
whatever laughs you get from this gothic
point-and-click will be in the same earnest
but bewildering league as Tommy
Wiseaus The Room. Ill be honest: I could
only stomach an hour of the tectonic pace,
the stilted posh dialogue and the
frustrating puzzles of this adventure
before my brain betrayed me, and I found
myself staring wistfully out of the window.
I dont mind the melancholy of
those wistful introspective
moments, but theyre not the
sign of a good videogame.

his hasnt been re-released as such, but

newer games arent really going away
these days, which is why the old re-release
kings Mastertronic have had Morrowind in
their Coming Soon page for the last six
months (its been out for a while), and Focus
Multimedia has been headlining with
Angry Birds Star Wars since I re-reviewed it
with playing-to-the-gallery scorn last year.
But Id like to end on a positive note, and to
my eternal shame, I never finished this first
time around. And itll come as no surprise
to you, or to anyone else whos read a thing
about a game, that its brilliant. Even that
bit where you have to let Bane
charge you, and stun himself on
a wall. Classic boss battle clich,
made forgivable by Batman.

Expect to pay 7 (Steam) Developer Gaslamp Games

Publisher In-house First review N/A

Expect to pay 7 (Steam) Developer Future Games

Publisher Nordic Games First review PCG 137, 57%

Expect to pay 15 (Steam) Developer Rocksteady

Games Publisher Warner First review PCG 232, 80%

76

39

90

october 2014

103

GE T T HE P C YOUR GA MES DESERV E

GROUP TEST

SSDs

High capacity solid state

storage rated.
By Dave James

Dictionary
NAND >

SATA >

Memory
controller >

olid state drives are the

most dynamic technology
on the PC scene right now.
The difference a good
SSD can make to your
gaming system is massive. Especially
if youre currently booting from an
old spinning platter hard drive.
But I can buy a 2TB hard drive for
half the price.
Capacity is the one thing traditional
hard drives have got going for them.
And if all you want that capacity for
is storing old photos or music and
videos, then a dog-slow hard drive is
fine. But if youre using a hard drive
as your main boot device and the
place where you store your games,
youre missing out.
Whats the big improvement?
Its all about speed. The fact that
with an SSD you can boot your PC
in a matter of seconds rather than
minutes should tell you all you need
to know. As should the experience of
sitting twiddling your thumbs
waiting for the next map to load
while everyone else on your chat
stream is in there.
Can I get a large enough SSD to
house my OS and my games?
Yes. This months supertest is
specifically based on affordable halfterabyte drives and since Windows

only takes up around 30GB, youve

got a lot of fast storage space left for
your games.
Thats the great thing about SSDs
right now: the technology is
continually improving, so prices are
tumbling on an almost daily basis.
And not just the slower, older drives
either. Companies such as Crucial
and Samsung are making it their
business to drive down prices of new,
competitive, high-capacity SSDs.

drive. Other SSD manufacturers

have to buy the components they use
and so cant be quite as aggressive on
price. Its possible, as a result of this,
that well end up with just a few big
names in the SSD market as
happened in the hard drive market,
and as will eventually happen to
pretty much every other part of PC
componentry. But right now its
creating a situation thats
advantageous to us.

Really? Why are these

manufacturers being so generous?
Because right now the SSD market is
new and competitive, and big
businesses hate that. So theyre
driving prices down to try to force
the smaller companies out. The big
names can afford to do this because
theyre also memory manufacturers,
and memory is the most volatile SSD
component in terms of price.
Crucials parent company, Micron, is
one of the largest creators of
memory around, and Samsung is
another. If you can build your SSD
completely in-house then you
command the price of your own

If the SSD market is such a fastchanging one, wont these drives

quickly become obsolete?
Its true there are new storage
connections on the way, such as the
M.2 interface in the new Z97
motherboards reviewed in these
pages last month, but the SATA
interface most SSDs are currently
based on will be around for the
foreseeable future. And since current
SATA SSD technology is already at
the limit of its performance, no
SATA SSD released later this year is
likely to be much faster than the
selection Ive reviewed for you over
the next few pages.
OCTOBER 2014

105

GROUP TEST

SSDs

how we tested

High capacity solid state

storage reviewed. By Dave James

Steady state > A new SSD

will always perform better
than one thats been in use
for a while. Each drive was
filled and cleared multiple
times to ensure it reached
what is known as the steady
state, using PCMark 8s
expanded storage test.
Synthetic testing > The
AS SSD benchmark was
used to test both sequential
read/write speeds and 4k

random read/write speeds.

This second test is crucial as
it uses the same size files an
operating system typically
throws about second-bysecond, thus giving a good
indication of general system
responsiveness.
Real-world testing >
Zip compression was tested
using a 5GB folder of mixed
file types (Just Cause 2), and
transfer performance using
30GB of Steam folders.

MX100
145 Crucial

rucials last few SSDs

have taken the market
by storm. They may not
be the absolute fastest,
but they are among the
best value. This 512GB MX100 is
the cheapest half-terabyte SSD you
can buy, and its super fast.
The old M500 SSD was the first
real broadside Crucial delivered to
the SSD world, aggressive on price
because it used parent-company
Microns NAND modules. The
M550 improved performance while
still selling at a great price. Now the
512GB MX100 is here, and at an
unprecedented price for its size.
Ostensibly MX100 represents

The 512GB MX100

is here, and at an
unprecedented
price for its size
Crucials budget SSD range, its
lower capacity options delivering
much lower performance than their
equivalent top-end M550 brethren.
But that doesnt apply with this, the
largest of the MX100 drives.
Both those smaller 128GB and
256GB versions use the same highdensity 128Gbit memory, and that
enables them to be made for less,
since they need fewer actual chips to
make up their capacity. But NAND
flash performance thrives on
parallelism, so while having fewer
chips makes them cheaper, it also
leaves them slower.

This 512GB drive uses the same

128Gbit silicon, but because of its
higher capacity its got more
memory chips working in parallel
just like the pricier M550 and that
means theres nothing between them
in terms of performance. This
512GB capacity seems to be the
absolute sweet spot for the MX100.
Even the excellent Samsung 840
EVO drive cant compete, either in
terms of outright performance or on
price. The 840 EVO is faster in the
5GB compression test, but because it
uses its proprietary TurboWrite tech
to improve performance on smaller
transfers that doesnt help in the
extended 30GB transfer test. In fact
only Crucials M550, and the
SanDisk Extreme Pro, can keep pace
with the MX100 in those terms.
With a well-performing 512GB
drive available for such a low price

we can almost call a halt to referring

to an SSD as a boot drive, with the
inference that you need a second
drive to store everything else on. In a
gaming machine, half a terabyte of
solid state storage is almost all you
need. Youre not going to fit your
entire gaming library on this SSD,
but its a significant chunk of what
youll be playing at any one time.
So, while the MX100 isnt the
absolute fastest SSD you can buy, the
512GB is certainly the sweet spot for
this budget range both in terms of
price and performance.

The clear winner in this

roundup. Crucial has really
laid down a marker with
this quick, capacious and
cheap drive.

SPEC Capacity 512GB Memory controller Marvell 9189 Memory type Micron 16nm MLC Cache 512MB Warranty 3 years

106

OCTOBER 2014

92

GET THE PC YOUR GAMES DESERVE

840 Evo
197 Samsung

hen this drive first

appeared last year it was
the price/performance
hero of the SSD world. Equipped
with its own memory controller and
19nm triple level cell (TLC)
NAND, it offered high-capacity
storage for much less cash than
anything else at the time.
If the MX100 hadnt been released,
Samsungs 840 EVO would arguably
still be somewhere around the top of
the pile. Probably vying for the top
award with Crucials M550. But
Crucial has now toppled Samsung, at
least in the price/performance arena.
First it released the M550, which
traded benchmark blows at around
the same price, then it blew Samsung
out of the water with that fantastic
drive opposite.
Samsung hasnt yet seen fit to
release a new drive at this end of the
market, preferring to go after the

high-end with its latest 850 Pro. And

while that super-serious SSD is an
absolute stellar performer probably
the fastest SATA-based drive Ive
seen its about twice the price of the
MX100 and so essentially knocks
itself out of the running in this
particular round-up.
So were left with the now ageing
840 EVO, and its much less
competitive in todays fast-changing
SSD market than it was at launch.
Even though it has the funky
TurboWrite tech, which uses some
of its slower TLC memory like the
quicker single level cell (SLC) to
improve performance, it cant make
up ground on Crucial.
Samsung drives are ultra reliable,
however, and come with the
impressive Magician software, so the
840 EVO would still make for a
decent drive in your PC. But I can
see Samsung replacing it very soon.

Time hasnt been too kind

to the previous champion
of Solid State Storage
devices, and its starting
to show its age.

83

SPEC Capacity 500GB Memory controller Samsung MEX Memory type Samsung 19nm TLC Cache 512MB Warranty 3 years

Extreme Pro
264 SanDisk

hile the Samsung 850 Pro

may have priced itself out
of these pages, SanDisks
latest Extreme Pro drive just
manages to scrape in. It too is a very
pricey drive, especially in a market
where the cost of ownership is
seemingly dropping every time you
blink. But it isnt quite as expensive
as Samsungs latest and its almost as
fast which makes it the absolute
fastest drive in this test.
Part of the reason the Extreme Pro
is so fast is also part of the reason its
so much more expensive. Even
though SanDisk is using its own
memory, its using low-density
64Gbit NAND modules. That
means its squeezing a lot of memory
chips into the drive to reach that
512GB capacity . Thats expensive,
but because of the increased
parallelism it also boosts the
performance of the drive as a whole.

SanDisk has created its own

firmware to go with the Marvell
controller, and has been making a lot
of noise about both the consistency
of the Extreme Pros performance
and its longevity. Consistency has
been an important selling point for
SSDs after it was found that the
performance of the earlier designs
seriously degraded over time.
Long life is also important. SSD
memory can only be written to a
finite number of times, but SanDisk
has taken the hitherto
unprecedented step of backing its
latest SSD with a massive ten year
warranty. Thats quite a show of
confidence in a market where three
years is the norm.
The Extreme Pro is thus a smart
choice, but so much more expensive
that its a tough choice too. If you can
afford it, its a match for any SATA
SSD out there.

A fantastically fast drive,

with a warranty that
shows SanDisk has huge
confidence in its longterm existence.

88

SPEC Capacity 480GB Memory controller Marvell 9187 Memory type SanDisk 19nm MLC Cache 1GB Warranty 10 years

OCTOBER 2014

107

GROUP TEST

M550
200 Crucial

pare a thought for the

poor Crucial M550. There
it was, getting great
acclaim for being priced at
the level of the Samsung
840 EVO but offering improved
general performance. Then the
MX100 was released, undercutting
its price by a hefty margin and still
managing just as sprightly speeds.
Crucials decision to release the
MX100 with only slightly different
silicon inside to the M550, for a lot
less money, seems kind of confusing
based on performance. There is so
little between the drives especially
at this capacity that its practically
impossible to find a reason to go
with the M550 instead.
The difference lies in the choice of
NAND flash. The MX100 uses
128Gbit 16nm memory as opposed
to the 128Gbit 20nm memory in the
M550. At lower capacities the M550

range switches to lower density

64Gbit modules to maintain the
parallel performance, giving it a
performance lead over the young
upstart. But at this 512GB capacity
they both post similar enough
benchmark figures to make the
difference unimportant. The 16nm
NAND might have a slightly shorter
life, but thats only going to have a
negligible impact.
If you want a larger drive, the
MX100 range doesnt cater for your
tastes. The 512GB model is as far as
it goes, while the M550 is available in
full 1TB capacities. But, as good as
Crucials M550 drive is, at this halfterabyte capacity its younger sibling
simply makes more sense. Its not the
first time and it wont be the last
that a company releases a product
undercut by its own hardware, but
that doesnt stop it from seeming like
a rather odd thing to do.

A great little drive, offering

decent performance at a
decent price, but it
struggles against the
similar, cheaper MX100.

83

SPEC Capacity 512GB Memory controller Marvell 9189 Memory type Micron 20nm MLC Cache 512MB Warranty 3 years

HyperX 3K
227 Kingston

elcome to the old

school. There was
a time when if you
wanted a wellperforming SSD
you had to go for one with a
SandForce memory controller like
this. But these days that tech is
looking noticeably dated compared
with that in even the cheapest SSDs.
Yes, the HyperXs quoted
sequential read and write numbers
are easily up there with the best, but
those marketing-friendly figures
dont tell the whole story. The
SandForce controllers trick is to use
smart compression algorithms to
squeeze data down into more
manageable sizes that transfer faster.
With uncompressed files that works
fine hence the high numbers.
What it cant work its magic with is
data thats already been compressed
in some way, such as virtually all

music, images and video. You know,

the sort of files we all use on a daily
basis. SandForce performance with
those files drops off a cliff, as shown
by this drive, which posts the
weakest sequential write
performance in this round-up.
The random 4k performance of
SandForce drives is likewise well off
the pace compared to the Marvell or
Samsung-controlled SSDs, and
thats a great indication of how
responsive theyll feel in day-to-day
use. The good news for Kingston is
that of the three SandForce-powered
SSDs in this test, the HyperX is the
fastest for 4k files. Unfortunately the
fact that its also one of the most
expensive doesnt make it a drive I
can easily recommend. Its real-world
performance isnt a million miles
away from the rest, but there are
bigger, cheaper, faster SSDs available
than this.

An ageing memory
controller and a high price
tag are an unfortunate
combination, holding this
drive back.

SPEC Capacity 480GB Memory controller SandForce SF-2281 Memory type Intel 25nm MLC Cache N/A Warranty 3 years

108

OCTOBER 2014

71

GET THE PC YOUR GAMES DESERVE

benchmarks

XLR8 Pro

The solid state

of affairs

214 PNY

Sequential read/write performance

Read AS SSD MB/s (higher is better)
Write AS SSD MB/s (higher is better)

his is another SandForce

drive. When youve got an
ageing technology generally
the thing to do is drop the price, but
because the manufacturers who
opted for SandForce generally arent
the ones making their own cut-price
memory, they cant afford to. So
these are still some of the most
expensive SSDs you can buy.
Thats a shame, because although
theyre not as responsive as the latest
Samsung or Marvell-controlled
drives, theyre still much faster than
any traditional hard drive. Alas,
Crucial has ruined the game: there
doesnt seem to be an SSD maker
around that could drop its
SandForce drives below the price of
the MX100 and remain competitive.
If they could, this 480GB SSD,
with its acceptable performance
levels, would be available for

4k random write performance

AS SSD MB/s (higher is better)
30GB file transfer performance
Time in seconds (lower is better)

chickenfeed. Instead it makes me

wonder whats next for a number of
the companies churning out SSDs
with off-the-shelf memory
controllers and NAND flash
memory chips. There are cheaper
alternatives that make for better
purchases right now.
Compared with the Kingston
HyperX drive, the XLR8 Pro trades
blows across the benchmarks,
winning some and losing others, but
its random 4k read/write
performance is easily the
slowest of all the drives in
this test.

Crucial MX100
474
106
191

Samsung 840 EVO

409 496
82
230

68

SPEC Capacity 480GB Memory controller SandForce SF-2281 Memory type Intel 25nm MLC
Cache N/A Warranty 5 years (with registration)

499

SanDisk Extreme Pro

474

506

103
191

XPG SX900

Crucial M550
463
92

186 Adata

183

t least Adata has tried to do

something a little different.
Like the PNY and Kingston
drives, its uses the SandForce
controller, but somehow boasting a
higher overall capacity.
Thats because SandForce
controllers normally use something
called RAISE (redundant array of
independent silicon elements) to
manage error correction dealing
with unreliable NAND modules.
Since modern SandForce drives use
pretty good memory modules that
level of error-correction isnt really
needed, so Adata has simply turned it
off. That means we get a bit more
space in our half-terabyte class SSD.
SandForce has said that for
consumer workloads RAISE is
probably not that necessary anyway.
None of this tweaking affects
performance: the Adata performs at

504

Kingston HyperX 3K
263

484

20

the same sort of levels as the other

two SandForce-powered SSDs in
this test. Which is to say that it
doesnt perform particularly
brilliantly when compared with the
non-SandForce drives.
Except, bizarrely, in the huge
30GB file transfer, where the SX900
actually posted the fastest time of all
the drives in the test. Considering
the competition thats a pretty
impressive result for Adata. But a
single benchmark win does not a
winning drive make and
the XPG SX900 is still not
going to get my
recommendation today.

74

205

PNY XLR8 Pro

304

462

15
206

Adata XPG SX900

285

486

17
176

SPEC Capacity 512GB Memory controller SandForce SF-2281 Memory type Intel 25nm MLC
Cache N/A Warranty 3 years

OCTOBER 2014

109

ON TEST

REVIEWS
The very best in PC gaming
hardware, reviewed and
rated. By Dave James

Pentium G3258
Anniversary
Edition

TESTING CRITERIA

Components and
materials >A piece of kit
is quite literally the sum of
its parts. We look for the
fastest chips, the highest
core counts and the most
modern materials.
Real-world
performance>Each piece
of kit we look at must be
examined on its own merits.
If its a mouse, how does it
feel? Is it too heavy or light?
If its a memory stick, an item
designed for portability, how

much data can it hold? Does

it read and write data quickly?
Attractiveness>Some kit
looks good, some looks bad.
Aesthetics are often taken
into account, as depending
on the item, it can be a factor
in your long-term satisfaction.
Value>It may be the
highest-performing piece
of kit in its category, but
is it within reach of most
consumers? We like to see
components that are not
only best-in-class, but offer
value for money too.

52 Intel

ow this takes me back.

A budget-priced,
low-end Intel Pentium
chip with serious
overclocking
headroom. This is what
overclocking used to be about: not
pushing the latest mega-expensive
CPU to see what extra few numbers
you could squeeze out of a synthetic
benchmark, but cooking the clocks
on a cheapo chip to get your games
to actually run faster.
Its just a shame its taken a
celebration of 20 years of Pentium
chips to get Intel to relax its iron grip

Suddenly the
G3258 is only a few
fps slower than a
quad core chip
on the clockspeeds of any CPU
outside the premium K-series.
But forget the politics: this is an
awesome budget gaming CPU with
a great chance of wresting the
market away from AMDs bargain
FX range. Its built from the same
22nm Haswell building blocks as the
recent Devils Canyon processors,
but without the new-fangled thermal
interface material or extra capacitors.
Theyre not an issue, because it
maintains an impressively low
temperature even when overclocked.
At stock speeds it isnt going to win
many awards the lack of Turbo

mode means
it only runs at
the 3.2GHz
baseclock so the
single-threaded
performance is pretty
weak. And because it
doesnt have HyperThreading
its restricted to just a pair of
processing threads. The multithreaded benchmark tests put this
CPU a long way behind the
competition, unsurprisingly.
For the most part youre looking at
between 15-20% lower average
framerates compared with the i5
4570, and running the CPUintensive Battlefield 4 this dual-core
Pentium is over 40% slower.
So far, so unimpressive, but this
chip is all about overclocking and
things change completely when you
start playing with the clockspeeds.
And, for the record, Im no pro
overclocker all Ive done is stick a
closed-loop liquid cooler on top and
raised the CPU multiplier in the
BIOS. The awesome little G3258
has done the rest.

From a
starting point
of 3.2GHz I was
able to run it at a
completely stable,
relatively cool, 4.6GHz.
Thats the same top speed
Ive been able to get from our
Core i7 4770K sample.
Running at that speed the
gaming difference almost
completely disappears. Suddenly the
G3258 is only a few fps slower than a
Turbo-mode quad core chip thats
three times the price.
Battlefield 4 is still a sticking point,
and highlights how an increasingly
multi-threaded gaming world is
going to make life difficult for lower
core count CPUs. But for now its
the exception rather than the rule.

An unexpected bargain. A
fantastic budget gaming
processor that is just
begging to be
overclocked.

94

SPEC Socket Intel LGA 1150 Core technology Intel 4th Gen Core Clock speed 3.2GHz Cores 2 Threads 2 Lithography 22nm Cache 3MB TDP 53W

110

OCTOBER 2014

GET THE PC YOUR GAMES DESERVE

KIT FILTER

Core i5 4690K
170 Intel

id Intel really need to bother

refreshing its middle-order
range of CPUs when the top
and bottom of the market are so well
catered for? The ultra-conservative
3.5GHz clockspeed suggests not.
But the new i5 4690K does have its
redeeming features.
Its got the same improved thermal
interface and power management as
the new top-end i7. That means this
resolutely quad-core CPU can easily
surpass the limited overclocking
performance of the K-series i5 its
effectively putting out to pasture.
Following just a few minor tweaks to
the BIOS it responded with a very
healthy 4.6GHz .
With this sort of clockspeed the
single-threaded performance of the
i5 4690K is right up there with the
very fastest i7. Thats perfect for the
vast majority of PC games, most of

which still depend on just one or two

primary cores at best. Thats also
why the overclocked Pentium
Anniversary chip makes such a good
gaming CPU. But in games like
Battlefield 4, with its core-optimised
game engine, that chip falls down
and the i5 keeps going.
In gaming terms, there is little
difference between an i5 and an i7
CPU. Theyre both still essentially
quad-core processors. With the i5s
overclocking potential the
average PC gamer simply
doesnt need an expensive
eight-threaded CPU.

Bitfenix Fury 750G 121

This was clearly built with home builders and

modders in mind. Its the first PSU Ive seen to
come with individually braided cables for
both modular and non-modular leads. Thats
a big thing in PC modding circles and helps
squeeze cables into small spaces, reducing
interference to airflow. Sadly the
price reflects the specialisation.
www.bitfenix.com

83

90

SPEC Socket Intel LGA 1150 Core technology Intel 4th Gen Core Clock speed 3.5GHz Turbo 3.9GHz
Cores 4 Threads 4 Lithography 22nm Cache 6MB TDP 88W

Audio-Technica ATH-AG1 240

Xbox One Wireless

Controller

The sound is excellent, with decent bass

sounds that dont overpower everything else
and high notes just on the right side of crisp.
The microphone is also one of the clearest
and most reliable. Shame about the lack of
adjustability on the headband, which means
that if you dont get on with the fit
youre in trouble.
www.audio-technica.com

44 Microsoft

82

his new Xbox One controller

has only just had drivers
released to provide PC
functionality, and sadly wireless
connectivity is still a way off. Id
much rather the Xbox One
controller simply worked with the
existing 360 controller wireless
dongle. Presumably theres a
separate adapter on the way. The
other features this controller brings
make it almost worth the wait.
The design is more compact and
feels both more comfortable and
more robust. Ditching that clunky
battery compartment helps slim
down the design theyre housed in
the main body instead. The biggest
improvement is in the buttons and
particularly the twin triggers. The
ultra-smooth travel of these makes it
far easier to take advantage of the

full analogue range of

control in-game. The sticks
have also been changed to
prevent your thumbs slipping off,
and the D-pad feels more deliberate
and less like a wobbly afterthought.
Theyre neat additions to an already
definitive-feeling controller.
But the lack of wireless
connectivity and the fact that most
PC gamers who wanted a joypad
already own the 360 version, mean
that as welcome as these
improvements are the
Xbox One controller isnt
the must-have device it
could have been.

SPEC Buttons 8 + D-pad Analogue triggers 2 Analogue sticks 2 Wireless No

84

Corsair Graphite 760T 148

Its pricey, but you get a lot for your money. Its
a cavernous case and the pseudo-modular
interior removable drive bays, etc means
building a machine in it is an absolute joy.
Theres a huge space behind the
motherboard for cable routing and a big
cutout behind the CPU socket for
simple cooler mounting.
www.corsair.com

88

OCTOBER 2014

111

The PC
Gamer Rig
Overclocking is now an option

n this, the finest gaming PC

you can build for less than
1,000, the processor isnt
quite so important as the
graphics card in terms of fps,
but its still pleasing to get that Core
i5 4690K CPU in the component
list. Price drops on a few key items
have allowed me to opt for this
seriously overclockable chip, and it
works brilliantly with the bargainpriced H97 Gigabyte board.
While some prices have fallen, its
interesting to note which havent.
The cost of the system memory in
this machine has risen by quite a

hefty amount, and the predictions

are that memory cost is going to go
up by another 10% very soon.
That could increase the monopoly
held over the market by the SSD
makers who use their own memory
chips, such as Samsung and Crucial.
The manufacturers who still have to
buy that stuff in are really
going to struggle.

Dave James
Hardware Editor

WHATS IN THE BOX The components that make up the PCG Rig
NEW!

168

67

72

47

40

50

CPU

Motherboard

RAM

Case

Storage

CPU Cooler

Intel Core i5 4690K

Gigabyte H97-HD3

Crucial Ballistix Sport

Corsair Carbide 200R

Seagate Barracuda

Zalman LQ310

The Devils Canyon

i5 is in the PCG Rig.
Overclocking fun ahoy!

Great value, supports

the next-gen Broadwell
CPUs and PCIe SSDs.

Eight gigs of fast

1600MHz DDR3, but the
price is climbing.

Component prices have

been on the rise; this is a
cost-saving compromise.

To save money, storage

has been restricted to a
single terabyte of HDD.

Zalmans water-cooler
is an excellent choice for
near-silent cooling.

Fitted October 2014

Fitted August 2014

Fitted November 2011

Fitted December 2013

Fitted September 2013

Fitted August 2013

228

34

110

84

45

40

Graphics Card

power supply

Monitor

Keyboard

Mouse

headset

Nvidia GeForce
GTX 770

SilverStone Strider
Essential 500W

Viewsonic
VX2370Smh

Ozone Strike Pro

Plantronics
Gamecom 780

The formerly 400 GTX

770 is now available at a
bargain price.

SilverStone is a reliable
name, and thats what
you need in a PSU.

A budget monitor with

the picture quality of a
much pricier model.

Full size, decent features

and comes with your
choice of Cherry MX
mechanical switches.

Shogun Bros
Ballista MK-1
With a perfectly placed
and accurate sensor, this
laser mouse is a bargain.

Plantronics work on
virtual surround with
Dolby pays off here.

FITTED January 2014

Fitted April 2014

Fitted February 2013

FITTED July 2014

FITTED March 2014

FITTED December 2013

POSSIBLE upgrades

Crucial MX100 512GB > The winner of this months grouptest is the best-value SSD
Ive seen, and at half a terabyte it has masses of storage for games.
Corsair Vengeance K70 > Still my absolute favourite mechanical keyboard, and if
you can afford it, a far better option than the cheaper Ozone above.
AMD R9 290 > The next step up on the GPU ladder is AMDs second tier Hawaiipowered graphics card. Its a bit faster than the GTX 770 and has more memory.

114

OCTOBER 2014

TOTAL
PRICE

985

NOW PLAYING

THE GAMES WE LOVE, RIGHT NOW

get more from your gaming

NOW PLAYING

Succeeding in a titan is about

hanging around until after a duel.

THE PC
GAMER
TEAM

SAM

Successful cowardice is
about hiding a giant robot
LEARNING TO BE a Brilliant loser in Titanfall
SAM ROBERTS

ANDY

Ben

chris

Wes

116

This month Learned that

giant futuristic military
robot monkeys dont like
open conflict.
Also Played Gods Will
Be Watching

itanfall is the first multiplayer

shooter Ive played in a long time
that enables me to thrive as a
coward. While Ive dabbled with CTF and
Last Titan Standing, its the basic pointscoring Attrition mode that permits me to
contribute so dubiously to the war effort.
Successful cowardice in Titanfall is
about hiding a giant robot. Titans are
tricky things to figure out how to work
most players Ive encountered, even
veterans, like to use them as a saving
grace in a frantic firefight where multiple
mechs, some in flames, are already
battering the shit out of each other. But
its hard to kill anything when you use
them like this. The length of the

october 2014

embarking animation gives enemy pilots

industrial map with a strong sense of
a few seconds to get away and enemy
verticality and a neat balance of open
robots enough time to plan for your
exteriors and cramped interiors, I bag five
arrival. It may look swish, but a cinematic
titan kills, five pilot kills and many grunt
certain death is still worthless. So I deploy
kills while only dying once. I spend about a
my titan outside the main area of conflict, third of the match in open combat, and
and arrive at opportune moments.
two thirds just hanging back in my titan,
After a rocky few months Im now doing hoping no one notices that I jump in every
better than I have any right to. Most of the 30 seconds bellowing ROBOT PUNCH!
levels are big enough to tuck a titan away
Few people pay attention to this sort of
behind some scenery. Theyre just about
strategy. Thats because its against the
quiet enough to get away with it.
logic of Titanfall to assume that someone
This is how I play Titanfall: I am a giant
would call down a beautiful military
robot, staying out of the way, tracing the
monkey robot from space only to avoid
shifting battlefield, popping out from
the actual fighting. But if its working, why
around corners when your titan is at half
should I stop?
health to belt you with a robot punch.
Usually Im scraping around mid-table
Some of the 15 maps accommodate
on a losing team, but since Ive adopted
this better than others, but employing
cowardly tactics, my KD ratio isnt quite as
this strategy in the recent past has led to
tragic, and in a feedback sense, being on
my biggest successes. And yes, Im aware
the periphery of battle for most of the
that playing it like
time means any moments
this is utterly dickish. READ ME
of actual heroism feel that
In an Attrition
bit more impressive.
released March 2014
match in Outpost
My most outstanding
our review PCG 265, 86%
207, a creaky
instance of cowardice
buy it Origin, 40
more www.titanfall.com

The calm before the storm.

I spawned this in the middle of

nowhere. No way Im going into the fray.

Photobombed by
a mans open legs.

The night sky suddenly lights

up with an otherworldly glow
terrifying storms in STALKER: Call Of pripyat
suddenly lights up with an otherworldly
glow. In the distance, I see a strange red
This month Tried really
storm emerging through the clouds. The
hard not to make an
ground rumbles. Eerie music plays. I am
obvious emission gag.
absolutely terrified. Then the storm gets
Also Played Arma 3,
more intense, and all around me there are
Shovel Knight, The
Long Dark
flashes of light and clouds of crimson fog.
Im hypnotised by the light show, but I
snap myself out of it and run for shelter in
ve never played a Stalker game before.
the remains of the old ship. The ground
I take my first tentative steps into The
continues to shake violently and I see red
Zone not knowing anything about it.
light pouring through an open doorway.
The game begins in a swampy area called
Then quiet.
Zaton, where a large, rusting ship has
Stalkers, the voice says, the emission
become a camp for the local stalkers.
is finally over. I hope youre all in one
Night falls and a thunderstorm begins.
piece! I am, I think. I step outside.
Lightning flashes on the horizon, lighting
The ground is still rumbling, but softly.
the landscape up. All of a sudden, it stops
The glow in the clouds dissipates, and its
again. I wonder if its a bug. Then I hear a
dark again. I click on my flashlight and
siren and a voice
wonder what the hell
crackling over the radio:
just happened. All I
READ ME
Emission incoming!
know is that The Zone is
released 2010
Seek cover
a strange and
our review PCG 211, 87%
immediately!
dangerous place, and
buy it Steam, 13
Theres a flash of light, more cop.stalker-game.com
Stalker is a very special
and the night sky
game.

Andy Kelly

War photography.

comes during an Attrition game in the

atrociously-named but otherwise brilliant
Corporate map. Its a fancy futuristic
industrial park with lots of glass corridors
running overhead. Its the epilogue. My
team has lost, but not by much. My
comrades are evacuating to a fairly tight
exit on the top floor of the building. I can
see theyre all getting mowed down along
the way from my vantage point on the
top floor, since Ive arrived at the evac
point early. Instead of trying to hold my
ground against an obviously superior
team, I find an office screen near some
computers then crouch and cloak while
the enemy searches for me and my allies. I
wait until the very last second before the
evac jet takes off then run out and rocket
jump into the departing aircraft, escaping
frantic gunfire. An experience boost
indicates on-screen that I was the only
one of my team to make it.
Its literally the cowards way out but
the fact that Im the sole survivor means
my approach to Titanfall might actually
be a sensible one.

Get to cover, quick!

Red sky at night,

Stalkers not-delight.

october 2014

117

NOW PLAYING

THE GAMES WE LOVE, RIGHT NOW

Connect to Facebook and

burn your friends pictures.

Sharp-edged social commentary

with bottomless bags of scorn
Committing cultural arson in Little Inferno
things for warmth. From the Snooty
Foodie section of the catalogue I throw in
This month Contrary to
some fine china and an exploding
all warnings, didnt get
blowfish. Turning to Totally Recalled Toys
burned playing with fire.
I toss a heater so crappy it actually sets
Also Played Watch Dogs,
itself on fire. I burn abstract concepts like
Elite: Dangerous, Dark
Souls II
music, email and creationism. Theres
even a mini sun and moon with
gravitational fields that send all items in

ongratulations, reads the letter,

my Little Inferno orbiting wildly until they
on the legitimate purchase of your
burn to a crisp. Money rises from the ash.
brand new Little Inferno
Different combinations unlock
Entertainment Fireplace! Weve lovingly
different achievements, and these enable
crafted each fireplace to warm your home me to browse new sections of Chimney
and your heart. Love, Miss Nancy,
Stuffer. I ignite a cell phone and low selfTomorrow Corporation. In celebration, I
esteem action doll for the texting gurl
burn the terms and conditions.
achievement. Sending both the television
Goodness! Have you already burned
and radio up in flames gets me the before
all your things? writes Miss Nancy. You
the internet achievement. Through sheer
can always buy more. With your brand
haphazard experimentation Ive now got
new... CATALOG! My glossy issue of
access to Shop and Awe, 1st Person
Chimney Stuffer drops down the flue and
Shopper, and Miss Nancys Guide to
into my eager hands. From this
Stylish Living, all filled with increasingly
consumerist bible Ill mail-order hundreds expensive and outlandish stock.
of soul-nourishing goods, setting them
Its all pretty pointless, but thats the
ablaze for the sole purpose of earning
point. This is sharp-edged cultural
coins to fund my spree.
commentary with
You see, the world is
bottomless bags of
READ ME
growing colder, and the
scorn. Although it casts
released November 2012
only course of action is
its net wide, satirising
our review PCG 249, 45%
burning expensive
the game industry, the
buy it 7

Ben Griffin

more www.bit.ly/1nl0sRA

118

october 2014

food industry, social media and

materialism, theres no ambiguity to its
message: beware the damaging cycle. We
consume to consume. In other words,
desire desires desire.
How right that is, I think as I fling
another credit card into the fire and watch
the plastic twist and melt.
And suddenly, spiders!

Burn down the bank for

outrageous symbolism.

These werent rockets,

they were bombs
Getting a real job in Kerbal Space Program

An elegant design.
Later, I will crash it.

to plan Id still shower most of Kerbin with

discarded booster engines. I chose not to
go to the Mun because it was easy, but
This month Learned to
rein it in before any more
because it was wheeeeeeeeee!
Kerbals died unnecessarily.
Career mode has given me a budget
A partial success.
and
missions that require restraint. If
Also Played Dota 2,
youre asked to test a parachute at
Counter-Strike: GO
20,000 metres, you cant build a rocket
that is still busy exploding at that point. It
SPs new career mode has forced
should feel restrictive, but it doesnt
me to fix a few bad habits that
instead, Im building sleeker, more
have crept into my rocket designs
capable craft that strike closer to the
over the years. I say bad habits. Deadly
fantasy of running a space agency. Ive
might be more accurate. Incompetent.
realised that my urge to add more and
With no real restrictions on the types of
more rockets is an impulse that doesnt
rockets I might build I built outwards: if my actually make me particularly happy, like
last moonshot involved three solid fuel
ordering takeout pizza two nights in a
boosters, surely the next attempt requires row. Being forced to be more conservative
nine. Twelve? Do I have
is actually making me
enough space for 20?
enjoy the game more,
READ ME
These werent rockets,
and fewer Kerbals die as
released March 2013
they were bombs. Even
a result. Well, slightly
our review N/A
when everything went
fewer, anyway.
buy it Steam, 20

Chris Thursten

Contracts force you to be

creative within restraints.

more www.kerbalspaceprogram.com

What I dont count on is pirate hunters showing up

Confounding the
Spanish in Assassins
Creed IV: black flag
WES FENLON
This month Started
learning the basics of
Dwarf Fortress. RIP.
Also Played Dwarf
Fortress, Sam & Max
Save the World

y trusty brig is just a few cannon

hits away from splitting at the
seams. Against any other ship
her size, shes easily capable of victory.
But scuttling three Spanish frigates while
a fort rains down mortar shells is another
story. Ive got to stay agile, constantly
firing while weaving out of mortar zones
and chipping away at my opponents.
Seeing Assassins Creed Unity at E3 got
me excited for the series again, but its
Black Flags piracy, not its assassinations,
that I really love. The fort sieges are my
favourite: this one is way out of my league
due to the ships on guard duty. Then I
discovered my secret weapon: enemies
stop firing on my ship when I board
another, and boarding lets me regain

Ill be back for you, whale, as

soon as I deal with the Spanish.

ammo, I do what any pirate would do

health. I disable the frigates and leave
sail around a nearby island to break the
them listing on the open sea until I need
sightline, then sail fullspeed back to the
to board them for a pick-me-up.
fort to wrest it from the Spanish. When
After three repairs, I finally have the
those pirate hunters
longevity to bring down
come back, theyll be
the forts defences.
READ ME
greeted to a surprise
What I dont count on is
released November 2013
mortar shelling. Ah, its
pirate hunters showing
our review PCG 261, 90%
the pirates life for me.
up. Low on health and
buy it 20
more www.assassinscreed.com

October 2014

119

TOP

10

DOWNLOADS

Free games stuff from the web

Those fires were heading for?

Dont worry about them.

Pilot Civilian Air Rescue

MISSION Missions of mercy in Arma 3

alling Arma 3 a military simulator is

the auto-hover function, you can perform
a little inaccurate. Really, its a
somewhat effectively.
warzone simulator capable of
Its worth doing for the unique
depicting not just conflict, but also the
perspective the scenario brings. Flying on
lives of those operating around it. Case in
my first assignment, with no agency over
point: Pilot Civilian Air Rescue, an Arma 3
the battles below, I put all of my focus
scenario about flying an unarmed civilian
into the task at hand. I ignored the hostile
chopper across the games war-torn
red dots on my radar display. True, I could
island of Altis.
be shot down at any moment, but
Your job is to ferry doctors to
so what? I had a job to do:
outposts, extract lost
picking up perfectly mobile
phil says...
soldiers, transport
civilians from the scene of
Theres
wounded civilians, and
a car crash.
always
generally move people
At the start of the
somewhere
away from angry men
scenario, you can select
new to
crash.
and their guns.
from a variety of settings,
As you may possibly
such as weather, time of
have realised by now,
day or the frequency of
playing Pilot Civilian Air Rescue
helicopter malfunctions. Oh
requires you fly a helicopter one
thats right, I forgot to mention:
of Armas more difficult challenges. The
your helicopter can malfunction. Luckily,
CH-49 Mohawk youre given is a bulky
if you crash, a rescue chopper will be
thing, and many of the mission objectives
dispatched to collect you. If it crashes,
call for a delicate landing on uneven
then youre really in trouble.
terrain. Crucially however, the mods
You can download Pilot Civilian Air
civilian theme means that your role is
Rescue directly from the Steam
purely logistical, which gives you time to
Workshop, where youll also find creator
perfect the art. Or at least to get good
RobJs full Helicopter Pilot series. PS
www.bit.ly/1k3UBoI
enough at it that through liberal use of

120

OCTOBER 2014

2 VVVVVV
LEVELS Campaigns of
utmost gravity

ant more levels for VVVVVV or

its free Make and Play edition?
Just download these and head for the
play level menu. PS

Back To VVVVVV
More gravity-flipped
platforming. This time
you must activate power
sources across a multi-level world.
www.bit.ly/VVVVVV1
Dimension
Switchback
An attempt to make the
largest level the editor will
allow. Later chapters break away from the
VVVVVV formula. www.bit.ly/VVVVVV2
CCCCCCCCCC Retold
A remake of a demake.
CCCCCCCCCC started life
as an ASCII homage to the
original game, and is here remade using
VVVVVVs level editor. www.bit.ly/VVVVVV3
Dj Verdigris
A clever series of single
room challenges. Complete
one and youre teleported
back to the start, only now there are more
hazards to avoid. www.bit.ly/VVVVVV4

3 TheWorse
Mod

A place for reflection,

in every sense.

MOD Make Watch Dogs

more watchable

atch Dogs is by no means an ugly game,

but its release version is inferior to the
one demoed at Ubisofts 2012 E3 press
conference. Now, thanks to the work of modder
TheWorse, those fancy graphics are attainable.
His mod reintroduces the depth-of-field and
bloom effects seen in that demo, and improves
other elements as well. The most dramatic
change is actually an optional extra by fellow
graphics wizard MaLDo, which enables ultrasetting graphics without the stuttering
experienced on some GPUs.
Thats what is so impressive about the mod: it
not only improves the look of the game, it makes
it run better too. PS
www.bit.ly/WatchMod

4 Double Hitler
WEBGAME As if one wasnt enough

f youre going to make Hitler the star of

your comedy game, you need to be
pretty confident that its going to be
funny. Luckily for Double Hitler, it is. It turns

out that the Austrian dictator was, in fact,

two small boys, one standing on the
shoulders of the other. PS
www.bit.ly/DoubleHitler

Coming Out
Simulator 2014

WEBGAME REAL TALK

C
A

Bottom Half The blondehaired brother takes the feet,

moving left or right across the screen
but destabilising his passenger.

Top Half Physics: mortal

enemy of Hitler. As the top
brother wobbles about, you use the
mouse to readjust his position.

A
C

Paintbrush Hit the

spacebar for direct hand
control via mouse, useful for realising
Hitlers artistic dreams.

oming Out Simulator 2014

is a semi-autobiographical
conversation simulator by Nothing
to Hide developer Nicky Case. Its a
poignant and occasionally humorous
game about a major moment in its
creators life.
The bulk of the game takes place
from Cases perspective, as you
attempt to come out to deeply
conservative parents. The question is,
do you break the news carefully, say
it plainly and defiantly, or try to avoid
the subject? Its a difficult event to
experience, and the game does a great
job conveying the feeling of being
simultaneously trapped, hopeless,
indignant and determined. PS
www.bit.ly/ComingOut2014

OCTOBER 2014

121

TOP

10

DOWNLOADS

Free games stuff from the web

Fallen Swindon

WEBGAME Weirdness in Wiltshire

allen London is a browser-based adventure about a capital

city beset by strangeness, steampunk and demons. Fallen
Swindon borrows these elements, and moves them west
for a tale of courage in the face of disappointment.
Created by PC Gamer contributor Richard Cobbett, this Twine
parody pokes fun at Fallen London by couching its weirdness in
the mundanity of British life. The job centre promises only
despair, the pub fruit machine is a fast route to pennilessness,
and whats rotten at the heart of the local shop isnt the meat.
This is barely even fiction. PS
www.bit.ly/FallenSwindon

Well, it was either get drunk

or queue at the job centre.

William Steele 2: Home Again

LEVEL Get a new perspective on The Dark Mod

Hopelessness:
Afterlife
MOD The best of Black Mesa

h, crouch-jumping. Its a nostalgic

feeling that takes me back to the
late 90s, and the memory of climbing
waist-high crates before carefully
leaping past trip mines. It pissed me
off then, too.
Half-Life mod Hopelessness:
Afterlife isnt short of crouch-jumps
theres a whole section dedicated
to the bloody things but theyre
a symptom of something more
admirable. This short campaign plays
like a condensed highlights reel from
Freemans first adventure.
Youre without weapons in the
lengthy first chapter, so the action
is about puzzles and platforming. A
basic inventory system exists, and to
progress you must find specific items
littered around Black Mesas debris.
It can be confusing at times, but
Hopelessness: Afterlife has some tricks
that both set the scene and alert you
to possible interactions.
Once you find some weapons, its a
straight rush through tight corridors
and open areas, and a great reminder
of Half-Lifes fast and frantic combat,
as you face off against aliens, soldiers
and spec-ops. Its almost enough to
make you forget the 15 minutes spent
repeatedly pressing Ctrl-Space. PS
www.bit.ly/HL-Afterlife

122

OCTOBER 2014

eleased almost two years ago, the

The first of the two levels, titled Home
first William Steele proved to be
Again, is my favourite. It takes place
one of The Dark Mods best userduring a city-wide curfew, so you instantly
made levels. Now, finally, creator
fail if you so much as step on the
Greyman has delivered two
main street. Instead you prowl
more, and theyre as terrific
the rooftops, stopping at
as expected.
any open windows to
phil says...
Parents
These latest missions
pinch peoples valuables.
dead? Might
detail Steeles return to
Its an enjoyable space
as well rob
his hometown of
to navigate. At times, a
them.
Bridgeport. Shortly after
note might suggest
arriving, he discovers that
treasure hidden away
his parents have been the
near ground level, pushing
latest victims in a string of
you towards the guards
murders across the city.
below. Otherwise, youre mostly
Determined to find the killer, he plans to
traversing a path above them, unseen
break into City Watch and steal any
and overlooking their patrols. PS
information they might be hiding.
www.bit.ly/WSteele
Its like pretending the floor
is lava, only with squalor.

STARBOUND

Cow Simulator 2014

MODS Expand your exploration

MOD Divine Bovines

ass the time until Starbounds next update with mods. The
community have made additions and improvements to
almost every aspect of the game, from crafting, items and
technology, to really weird stuff, like the avian sex mod, which is as
real as it was inevitable. More useful are the mods that expand
existing stuff. Here are three to try. PS

ell, it happened: the internet

killed simulators. It started
innocuously enough, with Surgeon
Simulator 2013. But things took a dark
turn with Goat Simulator a short
joke that struggles to justify its own
existence. Crowdfunders have even
pledged over $1,000 to fund Rock
Simulator 2014.
Given all this, Cow Simulator 2014
an official Divinity: Original Sin mod
created by developer Larian Studios
could easily have been cynical postlaunch marketing. Its not, although
you wouldnt think so to play it.
You control a party consisting of
one cow and three bulls. These bovine
heroes walk around their field and...
thats pretty much it. There are sheep
and chickens, but you cant interact
with them because youre cows. There
are a couple of outhouses, but you
cant search them because youre
cows. You can equip a ring, found in
certain bales of hay. Its pointless,
though; youre cows.
Why does this mod exist, then?
Because Divinity has a powerful editor,
and a desire to build a community
of content creators. If you download
The Divinity Engine from Steams
Tools library, Cow Simulator provides
a low complexity way to play with the
games innards. PS
www.bit.ly/1zShJLG

XS Corporation Mods
Starbound has a couple of mech Techs,
but nothing like the monstrosities added
here. Each is beautifully designed, and adds new
weapons and features. Attached to the various
frames youll find cluster bombs, heat beams, rail
cannons and more. A great (if expensive) choice
to clear dungeons or strip-mine resources.
www.bit.ly/StarboundA

Pixel Goods Store

If Wildstars housing system proved
anything, it was that your quality of life can
be dramatically improved through the acquisition
of tat. For Starbound, that philosophy is further
explored with this new station that lets you use
pixels to purchase a wide variety of items and
decorations to be placed around your home.
www.bit.ly/StarboundB

Mighty Music
Starbounds musical instruments are a
great idea in theory. In practice, theyre a
bit of a pain. Even if you manage to find one out
in the world, you must then import your chosen
song using ABC notation. Alternatively, install
this mod, which adds new instruments alongside
a huge library of songs and soundtracks.
www.bit.ly/StarboundC

machinima
Hiding in Plain Sight with Dark Souls 2
Sure, you could
take your Dark
Souls 2 invasions
seriously besting your
presumptuous opponent
with a show of effortless
skill. But then, maybe thats
what theyll be expecting.
Instead, take a lesson from
YouTubes GuardianHX,
who teaches the value of
mercilessly trolling your
enemy instead. PS

www.bit.ly/DS2Plain

Becoming the
enemy

Heres the plan: confuse any

invading player by disguising
as an NPC. Our hero kills an AI
soldier, equips their armour
and takes their place. NPCs
dont attack invaders, so itll
be hard for them to spot him.

An invader
appears

The first invader has no idea

the player is standing right
next to them. They search
around, retrace their steps,
then smash open some
crates. The timer expires with
them none the wiser.

A fighting chance

To give the next invader

a fighting chance and to
troll them even more the
player throws down some
Hello Carvings, potentially
giving away their position. Its
too late. The invader realises
just as the timer ends.

Challenge failed

The player summons a

dark spirit, but after the now
standard period of confusion,
they get wise to the ruse.
Theres a fierce ranged battle,
but eventually the spirit
closes the gap, taking the
player down in a few swipes.

OCTOBER 2014

123

UPDATE

WHATS NEW IN THE BIGGEST GAMES

Lasting Change

Guild Wars 2s latest updates are sticking around. By Phil Savage

S
READ ME
first reviewed
PCG 245, 94%
Developer
ArenaNet
Publisher
NCsoft
Requires
Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM,
256MB VRAM
link
www.guildwars2.com
community
www.pcggw.com

ince its release, Guild Wars 2 has

received 34 content updates. Thats
an impressive total for any MMO, let
alone one with no subscription. Except
youd be hard pressed to see evidence of
that work if you logged in today. Traces
remain the island of Southsun Cove, the
destroyed Lions Arch and the inventories
full of exotic back items but the bulk of a
more than year-long campaign of
releases now exists only in memory.
Theres something appealing about
that transience for those who were there,
who took part in the shared experience of
a fleeting event. At the same time, it was
balls for everyone else. ArenaNets Living
World, as this series of fortnightly
updates was called, had the effect of
alienating those who fell behind. It also
meant former players missed some great
events. The Twisted Marionette was one
of my favourite bosses in the game to
date; now its gone, likely for good.
The Living World recently relaunched
for a second season, and its structure has
been overhauled in a way that directly
addresses this issue. None of its additions
are temporary: everything introduced
becomes permanently part of the game.
For starters, theres a new zone, Dry Top,
brought across from the first Guild Wars.
There, it was a small and largely
unremarkable desert; here its larger and

Top of the hour Exploring Dry Top

50 minutes

Messages go out informing

players of newly spawned
champions. These can
be tough battles,
made harder by
the obscuring
sandstorm.

20 minutes

40 minutes

The sandstorm
arrives. Vision is
reduced, but buried
treasure chests are revealed
providing great loot for those
whove bought keys.

124

00 minutes

At the start of every hour, Dry

Top resets. The Favour of the
Zephyrites goes back to
Tier 1, to be filled up
by completing
events.

OCTOBER 2014

Finishing
events not only
unlocks higher tiers,
providing better items
and discounts, but also awards
Geodes that can be spent at
Zephyrite vendors.

filled with events, champions and a

variety of distinct areas.
Continuing ArenaNets experiments
with map-wide meta-objectives, Dry Top
has players cooperate to raise favour with
the stranded Zephyrites. Well, sort of.
Every completed event increases a bar
that, when filled, unlocks new items and
discounts from Zephyrite traders. Its
nowhere near as involved as last seasons
Battle for Lions Arch, where players were
forced to coordinate to simultaneously

dragons sizeable impact on the larger

world. The dialogue of your returning
companions can be almost unbearably
saccharine, however. GW2s main story
highlights the cooperation of the playable
races, but after nearly two years that
relentless optimism is starting to grate.
In the break between seasons
ArenaNet deployed the April Feature
Pack. The most substantial new system
here is the megaserver. Before, players
were separated by server. Now a players

This season the story

more closely embraces a
TV-style format
take down its bosses. In a sense, it feels
like a step back. However, the zone isnt
yet finished, and already it offers some
enjoyable distractions.
Also altered is the structure of the
ongoing story. Last year, ArenaNet
threaded seemingly disparate plot beats
through each new update only tying it
into a full arc after many had tired of what
appeared to be irrelevance. This season
more closely embraces a TV-style format,
a multitude of story instances arriving
with each release. It ensures that each
new update is more focused foregoing
purely event-based updates in favour of a
guaranteed narrative progression.
These episodes are permanent too. Log
in during each updates two-week
window and its instanced missions are
saved to a new story journal to be played
back at any time. Miss an update, and the
episode can instead be bought from the
Black Lion Trading Store, priced at 200
gems. Each episode provides a decent
chunk of content taking roughly three to
four hours to complete.

Lizard king

For the most part the story is engaging,

and closely tied to GW2s mythology,
concerning as it does the awakening of a
new Elder dragon: Mordremoth, scaly lord
of the jungle. Nor is it solely set in the new
zone. Plenty of missions explore the

world choice is instead treated as a

suggestion the game places players
across all the worlds in a region. For
underpopulated zones, this is a boon. It
fills each map with players from multiple
servers, massively increasing the feeling
of life and activity. In a game built around
open-world events, this population boost
means formerly empty areas are once
again a viable destination.
In crowded zones, the megaserver has
less of an effect. Youre still looking at a
significant time commitment to tackle
the games most difficult events. Take
Tequatl one of Guild Wars 2s toughest
world bosses. Its a battle that requires
leadership and organisation, and that
means arriving early so as to be matched
with the most dedicated players.
Most of the feature packs upgrades are
for the better. A new clothing system
makes aesthetic transmutation more
viable, and structured PvP rewards now
offer a viable alternative for those not
interested in grinding dungeons. But the
patch also had a clear omission: class
balance. Its an issue felt in both PvP and
dungeon runs, where certain classes have
a clear advantage, and others like the
poor, neglected Ranger have fallen
behind. If ArenaNet is to continue to push
the non-PvE aspects of the game,
balance must be front and centre of
feature pack two.

The new zones portal provides a muchneeded chance to pose dramatically.

The megaserver means world

bosses always draw a crowd.

The balance issues were clear throughout

the last World vs World tournament.
Here, we fight a sand monster in a
sandstorm. Its pretty confusing.

Jory and Kas are back, for

better or worse.

Mordremoths vines arent of

the six-second video variety.

OCTOBER 2014

125

REINSTALL

CLASSICS REVISITED

A rare moment of humour from

the perennially uptight Phelps.

So much work was put into a

city thats used so sparingly
Detective adventure L.A. Noire is criminally underrated. By Andy Kelly

READ ME
first reviewed
PCG 235, 63%
Developer
Team Bondi
Publisher
Rockstar Games
Release
2011

126

he case that makes you, and the

case that breaks you. So goes L.A.
Noires opening narration,
foreshadowing the rise and fall of LAPD
detective Cole Phelps. Hes a war veteran
turned cop, whom we follow as he
becomes the departments golden boy,
rising in the ranks from beat cop to fancy
suit-wearing vice detective. But
corruption plagues the City of Angels, and
the seemingly untouchable Phelps
eventually falls victim to it. Its a classic
film noir yarn, although as our review
correctly pointed out the game is more
police procedural than Chinatown.
I think of it as the interactive box-set of
a very decent US TV drama. When you
finish one of the 21 cases, which last about
an hour each, you always feel compelled
to play another. The writing isnt perfect,
and some moments are just plain stupid,
but few games on PC are as confidently
stylish and mature.
Set in 1947, it gives you an enormous,
detailed city to explore, in which theres
very little to do. Some critics cite this as a

OCTOBER 2014

discarded weapons, tyre tracks,

flaw, but theyre missing the point. L.A.
footprints. Then you interview witnesses
Noire isnt an open-world game. The city
or people associated with the victims.
is actually a really elaborate backdrop for
This is usually enough to secure a lead,
a linear adventure. I still recommend
such as the address of a suspect, or their
taking the time to walk or drive around
place of work. The order in which you
the sun-kissed streets to soak up the
piece together these clues is non-linear
period atmosphere.
its possible to miss some, forcing
Its a remarkable achievement,
you to find an alternate source
and utterly transporting. I love
of information but youll
how period music drifts
never be backed into a
from car windows as they
ANDY says...
This is one
corner and unable to
pass. Its also great for
of Rockstars
proceed. This freedom is
virtual sightseeing, its
best games.
an illusion, but the smoke
lovingly recreated
Truth, lie,
and mirrors are
landmarks including
doubt?
convincing enough that
Union Station, Pershing
you mostly wont notice.
Square, and Graumans
When you enter a crime
Chinese Theatre. Looking
scene, moody jazz music plays,
back, its insane that so much
and youll hear the tinkle of a piano when
work was put into a city thats used so
youre near something of interest. Its a
sparingly, but Im glad they did it. I often
nicely understated alternative to an
revisit L.A. Noire just to be in that world.
illusion-shattering UI, but you can turn it
The meat of the game is the cases:
off if you like.
these contain its greatest strengths, and
The minimal interface helps enforce
most glaring flaws. You begin a case by
the period setting. Phelps can pick
surveying a crime scene for clues: bodies,

The city is vast and sprawling,

but there isnt much to do.
Building interiors are
insanely detailed.

Sometimes you have to get

your hands, and fists, dirty.
Im not sure, but I think
this guy might be lying.

objects up and turn them in his hand.

When you hit a detail like the serial
number on a gun, the camera zooms in
and its added to your notebook. Its in
here that every clue, address, and person
of interest is stored. But your objectives
are automatically set for you when the
right item is found such as telling you to
visit a bar when you find a branded
matchbook in a suspects bedroom. This
takes away some of the sense of solving
the case by yourself. You rarely feel like
youre doing any real detecting just
nudging Cole in the right direction.
Theres no way to fail a case in L.A. Noire.
The enjoyment comes from doing it right.
Finding every clue, efficiently revealing
leads, acing every interrogation. Its in the
interview room that the games lauded
MotionScan technology comes into play.
This still-impressive technical wizardry
enabled Team Bondi to capture every
nuance of a performance, so that you to
look for tells to see if people are lying. It

creates the most convincing, eerily lifelike

digital characters Ive ever seen in a game.
Throw in a cast of established TV actors
including Mad Mens Aaron Staton as
Phelps, Fringes John Noble as tycoon
Leland Monroe, and many more from
shows such as 24 and Lost and you get a
game with uncommonly good acting. Its
hard to go back to other games after
playing L.A. Noire, because it makes their
characters look like dead-eyed shop
mannequins. Its a shame more games
havent used MotionScan, presumably
due to the expense involved.
The problems arise when Phelps is
promoted to homicide. A twist at the end
of this segment renders everything
leading up to that point irrelevant. The
writers no doubt thought this was a
masterful play on player expectations,
but actually it was incredibly frustrating,
and deeply unsatisfying. I wont say any
more in case youve yet to play L.A. Noire
which you absolutely should if you like

slow-paced, story-led games, and arent

expecting GTA with hats.
Theres an overarching conspiracy
narrative, but its less interesting than the
smaller, self-contained moments. The life
insurance letter in a stiffs pocket; the
suspicious pink slips; the rigged boxing
match. Digging into the stories behind
these clues is what I love most.
Uncovering sinister plots and confronting
the perpetrators. The confident writing
and professional acting only add to the
sense of intrigue. Its no True Detective
(what is?), but its pretty damn good.
This is the game that made, and broke,
Team Bondi. Its development was fraught
with problems, and staff who worked on
on it painted a less than flattering picture
of director Brendan McNamara, but that
unfortunate legacy aside, L.A. Noire is a
daring, adult adventure game that
doesnt always hit the mark, but is worth
going back to, if only to walk the streets of
that amazing city just one more time.

LIAR, LIAR Which of these characters is telling porkies?

6
Answer: All of them.

OCTOBER 2014

127

MUST PLAY

Have an adventure

W
NE TRY
EN

W
NE TRY
EN

Take command

DONT MISS OUT ON THESE LEGENDS

Shoot things

Company of Heroes 2

The Wolf Among Us

Borderlands 2

ALTERNATIVELY XCOM: Enemy Within,

Total War: Rome II, Civilization V

ALTERNATIVELY Skyrim, Assassins Creed

IV: Black Flag, Watch Dogs, Resident Evil 4

ALTERNATIVELY Metro: Last Light,

Battlefield 4, Left 4 Dead 2, Far Cry 3

www.companyofheroes.com
Theres never been a better time to get
into this WWII-era RTS. Western Front
Armies returns it to more familiar
frontlines, and introduces the US Forces
and the German Oberkommando West.

The

www.borderlands2.com
Shooty scavengy Borderlands 2 will
always hold a special place in our hearts
due to its striking visuals, sharp writing
and, of course, that bajillion-strong
catalogue of weapons.

Live another life

W
NE TRY
EN

Get something for nothing

www.telltalegames.com
With the five-episode series concluded,
nows the time to experience this pointand-click fairytale noir as a complete
work. Enact revenge on pesky cliffhangers
by binge-playing the whole lot in one go.

Greatest

World of Tanks

www.worldoftanks.com
The free-to-play action MMO continues its
competitive multiplayer domination, each
week introducing new challenges,
tournaments and events. Eighty million
players cant be wrong.
ALTERNATIVELY League of Legends,
Hearthstone, PlanetSide 2, Tribes Ascend

Games
on PC

The Sims 3

www.gb.thesims3.com
Since The Sims 4 is omitting both pools
and toddlers, why not relive the glory days
in its pool-and-toddler-containing
predecessor? While youre there, check out
the excellent Exchange.
ALTERNATIVELY DayZ, World of Warcraft,
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Read the manual

Overcome all odds

Euro Truck
Simulator 2

Dark Souls II

Rust

www.eurotrucksimulator2.com
This month Andy regaled the office with
the time he steered a hauler packed with
explosives down a narrow country lane in
France. Im oot of control! he yelled.

www.darksoulsii.com/us
Dark Souls II, Dark Souls II, oh you are so
grand. Your eyes a-shining like diamonds,
your skin like several snowflakes. How you
are the worlds best thing, without which
the days grow dark and dull.

ALTERNATIVELY Farming Simulator, Rise

of Flight, X-Plane 10, OMS

ALTERNATIVELY Spelunky, Kerbal Space

Program, Dwarf Fortress, Dark Souls

ALTERNATIVELY StarCraft II, Dota 2,

Payday 2, Frozen Synapse

128

OCTOBER 2014

Compete online

www.playrust.com
Competition is hotting up in the surviveand-make-stuff genre. Of them all, Rust is
one of the most enjoyable thanks to its
experimental potential, constant
updates, and naked man butts.

SEE GAMES DIFFERENTLY

ORIGINAL REPORTING

GAME CULTURE

HUMOUR

WWW.KOTAKU.CO.UK
@Kotaku_UK

Facebook.com/KotakuUK

ITSALLOVER
ALLOVER...
ITs
H o r se
(E v o lVE D)

HORSE

A horn

hite
Its w

UNICORN

Lightning
horns

Ass head
(secondary)

ck
Jetpa
Laser eyes

hide
glazed
y
e
n
Ho

Original tail
becomes
beard

DOUBLE-ENDED HONEYG

LAZED LASER STA LLION

...Until September 25
130

OCTOBER 2014

9000

9015