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89 Articles

“All the big-hitting series have their latest games reviewed here”

Hello, and welcome to the 336th edition of GamesMaster. It’s another issue packed with games we love, and you’ll love too. You can tell Christmas is almost upon us, as big-hitting series such as Call Of Duty and Assassin’s Creed have their latest instalments reviewed right here. Elsewhere, we recount the fascinating story of Dungeons & Dragons, and how the tabletop RPG would come to shape videogames. Then there’s all the regular madness, with previews of Battlefield V and Days Gone, while RetroMaster takes on the Amiga-powered might of The Bitmap Brothers. In sadder news, it’s my unfortunate duty to inform you that this will be the final issue of GamesMaster. The past 25 (almost 26!) years have seen videogames mature as an artform, changing as they have become a dominant form…

“All the big-hitting series have their latest games reviewed here”

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS This month the team held a games party to toast the mag’s final issue. Ian stabbed in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Miriam built in Dragon Quest Builders, and Rob hooned about in Forza. They’re a sociable bunch. Ian Evenden Installed in the curiously body-hugging editor’s chair just in time for the mag’s final issue, the new ed was looking forward to exercising his newfound power for good, but will now have to take it elsewhere. That is, if the chair will ever let him go… Which mech would you pilot in a brawl? An Imperator-class Titan Rob Crossland The mag’s esteemed art editor was perturbed to discover that Assetto Corsa Competizione doesn’t feature actual Vauxhall Corsas. The RS Cosworth in Forza Horizon 4, however, spoke to his inner boy racer and…

LETTER OF THE MONTH

When we were all younger the thrill of going to a friend’s house or having family round and playing a videogame split-screen or couch co-op was amazing. Fast forward and now with the boom of so many multiplayer-only games why has the option to play with real friends at home disappeared? My son loves Roblox and Fortnite, two games which would be amazing in split-screen or co-op, but instead it’s playing mostly against faceless players over broadband. I found my son being bullied out of games on Roblox just because he wasn’t playing how they wanted him to. That wouldn’t happen as much with local multiplayer. There is definitely place for single-player, online multiplayer, and split-screen, especially with the boom of battle royale style games… it’s a great excuse to connect…

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Rockstar heist I’m an avid fan of all the games Rockstar have made, and have been since I started way back in the day with San Andreas, which is a true classic. Today, however, I’m very worried that their newest game, Red Dead Redemption 2, will not live up to my expectations, not in the gameplay aspect. I’m very excited to get into the open wilderness in gorgeous HD. What I’m concerned about is the business model Rockstar employed with GTA 5 and it’s online, where everything is ridiculously expensive, and missions become a tedious chore. I’m worried that they will bring this method back for Red Dead online, and even worse, implement microtransactions into the single-player. What if they charge you hundreds of thousands for a new horse? What if…

Right from the get go you can tell that what you’re about to play is something special. It’s an immense start to one hell of a blockbuster experience! The web-swinging uses more or less the same system as in Spider-Man 2 on the PS2, and combat is decent, but photo mode is a blast! The environment is lovely, so realistic and chock-a-block with side quests, collectables, towers, bases and photo ops. Voice acting is superb, and the score complements the game well – when diving from buildings or swinging around it makes you feel like a superhero! The story is something we have not gotten before, with iconic characters, but not exactly the way we know them from other media sources. Spider-Man is back, and in force, in one of PlayStation 4’s greatest…

YOUR TOP 5 MOST WANTED

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Format PS4, XO ETA 26 October There’s hardly any time at all until we’re all let loose on Rockstar’s wide open range – and the record for ‘best-selling game ever’ gets smashed… CYBERPUNK 2077 Format PS4, XO, PC ETA TBC Will this game come out before we hit the real cyberpunk dystopia? Our cover feature in GM 333 thinks it’s in with a chance, and might be amazing too. THE LAST OF US PART II Format PS4 ETA TBC At least Naughty Dog’s latest will probably arrive before the actual apocalypse – though we’ve got a PS4 hidden in a bomb shelter just in case. RESIDENT EVIL 2 Format PS4, XO, PC ETA January 2019 A remake of one of the original PlayStation’s greatest games has us all aquiver. The improvements aren’t just to the graphics, you…

YOUR TOP 5 MOST WANTED

SOCIAL GROUSING

Let’s be honest, @GamesMaster was the king. Orange Caution, @orangecaution Why ‘when you were younger’? Was collecting @GamesMaster as a kid and still read them while in my thirties. Great mag. Leigh Way, @ LA_Way The mag is still going strong today and it looks amazing SUPERNERDSUK_gaming, @SNUKgaming [*cries* Thanks, guys!] Arkham Knight/ City are the best combat games when it comes to superheroes. They almost make me want to dig out my bat-suit, start looking for the copies of the Batman: Dark Tomorrow game while shouting ‘WHERE ARE THEY!?!’ Daniel Climo, Facebook My fave game is every single game that ever existed!!! Play on people! Monica Kershaw, Facebook I do like the stealthy elements of Assassin’s Creed Jen McBatcat, Facebook SPEAK TO MEEEEEE SeanGabriel, @SeanGabriel83…

The Witcher 3 is one of the greatest games ever, and if you haven’t played it yet, you ought to remedy that. It looks amazing, and has a fantastic script worthy of Andrzej Sapkowski’s original short stories and novels. Titular monster hunter Geralt and his world have previously been seen in movie and TV form, via a series and film both known in English as The Hexer, but opinion on these is divided. Netflix aims to do better with its in-development series, details of Witcher now starting to come out. Due some time in 2019, there will be eight episodes, four of which are to be directed by Alik “ooh, he directed some of Game Of Thrones” Sakharov. Plot details are understandably thin on the ground, although a script leak temporarily…

Scum is an open world survival game about prisoners condemned to fight, scavenge, and craft their way across a massive island. Think Rust or Ark as you try to stay alive long enough to be the most dangerous thing on the server – although you’ve probably heard of the game because it lets you control your bodily functions. We condemned Leon to hard time testing what it can really do-do. 0 MINUTES I’m not sure what worries me more as I fire up Scum for the first time and begin to build a character – the stern-looking setup of stat points and sliders that defines my skills, or the haunted look on the face of the man I’m creating. It’s a face that has apparently already seen things. Perhaps that’s why he’s…

SENTENCE SERVED

Despite the zombies and mechs there’s a pleasingly grounded feel to Scum as you try to balance nutrition, disease, and trying to stay alive. Its bodily functions are gimmicky, but beyond that it’s surprisingly deep, with RPG elements expanded by sim-like character creation. Stronger people can carry more, for example, but use more energy. The skills and abilities mean there is an in-depth survival game here, one in which who you are is just as important as what you pick up, and the ability to fine-tune a character’s skills, and grow them, is an interesting change to the usual race to collect the best gear. While the learning curve is steep, there’s a lot to work with already.…

NOT A ONE-TRICK SONY

Sony has been busy on the announcement front, revealing something that people have been demanding for years, and confirming something that people have strongly suspected for months. In the ‘please, console Santa’ corner, we have the ability to change your PSN ID – from the comfort of your console, no less. If you’re happy with your PSN ID, great – just enjoy the fact that the option will be there if you need it! But spare a thought, too, for the people stuck with IDs that really, really weren’t the great idea they seemed at the time, and who’ve been desperate for a way to change for years now. If you’re a Mrk00lGuy5768798797, an ULtrakilla618, or something rude-sounding that we’re not going to try to print, hope is on the horizon. The…

NOT A ONE-TRICK SONY

I STREAM OF GENIUS

We’ve always loved videogames here at GamesMaster (as you might have guessed). We’ve always loved silly names, too. Microsoft’s bringing the two together with Project xCloud – hooray! The industry still has a long way to go if it’s to prove that streaming is the future, but this development is interesting, if nothing else. Bouncing around on lots of puffed-up PR phrases such as “empowered”, “gaming experience”, and “minimal footprint”, Microsoft’s announcement revealed that it’s currently testing a system that will bring Xbox games to a wide variety of devices. The idea is that players will be able to access their games on Xbox One, PC… or their mobile devices such as phones and tablets. All thanks to the power of streaming. If you fancy playing Halo on your tablet or Forza…

I STREAM OF GENIUS

Even by Telltale’s standards, the final twist was shocking. This studio of storytellers had, after all, seemed back to its best. Batman: The Enemy Within was considered a vast improvement on the disappointing first season. The Walking Dead: The Final Season, the last bow for the studio’s best-loved character, Clementine, had got off to a stellar start. And yet, on 21 September 2018, four days before the release of its second episode, rumours quickly became reality: Telltale released a statement announcing a “majority closure” and the loss of 250 jobs. Though it said it would retain a skeleton staff of just 25 employees – in theory, to finish its episodic collaboration with Netflix, an adaptation of the studio’s Minecraft: Story Mode – it was, to all intents and purposes, the…

As Telltale began to make it big, it moved into the world of publishing, releasing the likes of Straandlooper’s scabrously funny graphic adventure Hector: Badge Of Carnage and Oxenfree developer Night School Studio’s brilliant Mr Robot tie-in on mobile. But two recently-published games potentially face uncertain futures: the console versions of Beam Team Games’ open-world survival game Stranded Deep will now be delayed at the very least, with its initial October release date already having been missed. However, another open-world survival game, 7 Days To Die, is set to continue, with developer The Fun Pimps confirming its ongoing commitment to supporting the game.…

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space The second of Telltale’s outings for the wisecracking rabbit and his straight-dog partner made the first look like a dry run. It was funnier, better looking, and the last couple of episodes were minor classics. Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent Combining black humour with Lynchian weirdness, this dialogue-led puzzler (which emerged from an internal pilot programme) might well be the studio’s most underrated game. Not a big hit, but a winner in our book. Back To The Future: The Game Capturing the breezy, anarchic spirit of the films, this essentially marked the end of Old Telltale before it started doing things differently. But as a farewell to the point-and-click, it could hardly have been better. The Walking Dead: Season One The studio’s defining moment: a game that established a distinctive new…

“Streaming services are not going to replace physical games”

Burns, because people will still love hardware Ubisoft CEO and co-founder and Yves Guillemot recently stated that in the future “game streaming will replace all gaming platforms”. He’s not alone in that sentiment, with Microsoft working on a standalone streaming device codenamed ‘Project Scarlett’. I’m not going to waste your time by listing everything that could go wrong in a streaming-only future. Just try watching Netflix on a countryside bus service and you’ll become an expert. I will, however, stake my non-existent reputation on the fact that this is all total bobbins. Streaming services are not going to replace physical games, at least not any time soon. Here’s why. When I game, I do it on wired gear. My keyboard and mouse are both wired, as are the controllers for most of…

“Streaming services are not going to replace physical games”

25mbps The internet download speed you’ll need to stream triple-A games to any device using Google’s Project Stream. Oh, and you’ll need to live in the US too, for now. 1in 10 The unusually high proportion of players who collected all the trophies in Marvel’s Spider-Man in the month after release. 2.5hrs The time it took the How Big Is The Map? YouTube channel to walk from one end of AC Odyssey’s map to the other. 1,000 The number of V-bucks you’ll get if you purchase the Fortnite Deep Freeze Bundle on console, which also comes with an ice-themed outfit and axe. Yours for £25.…

“Turning in mid-air to snap Avengers Tower feels like peak Spider-Man”

Few tasks are more menial than sniffing out videogame collectibles. These useless items serve no purpose than to artificially inflate a game’s length. In the case of Marvel’s Spider-Man, however, I’m determinedly tracking down the lot. Throughout New York, Spider-Man’s webbed 55 of his old backpacks to buildings (hey, he had a little time on his hands), and each one contains a nostalgic memento: his bulky first web-shooter; a vial containing the Sandman’s dastardly grains; a business card bearing the details of ace lawyer Matt Murdock, who you might also know as Daredevil. You’re uncovering Spider-Man’s history with each bag you bring in. Selecting any of these collectibles prompts a line from Spider-Man.“A toy designer made this prototype to get me to license my likeness,” he says of a plushie. “Too bad…

“Turning in mid-air to snap Avengers Tower feels like peak Spider-Man”

IAN’S PICK Hitman 2 People around the office know that I’m neither a quiet nor subtle man, but there’s a thrill to be had in becoming the thing you are not. Hitman 2 looks to provide this thrill, with the jungle-set levels we’ve seen providing the perfect playground for poisonings and a lovely locale for liquidation. There’s something about 47’s precise and confident approach to whacking on a chef’s hat and immediately being taken for a chef that we could all learn from – though perhaps in real life we shouldn’t dress as a policeman and try directing traffic. PS4, XO, PC – 13 November ROB’S PICK Battlefield V Although Cyberpunk 2077 is my long-term most wanted, in the short term my heart belongs to Battlefield V. I’m so excited to get my hands on it…

YOU WIN YOU LOSE

Topping the leaderboard this issue DLC TLC 11-11: Memories Retold looks utterly beautiful, if a game about war could be said to be such a thing, and we’re anticipating a good degree of heartstring-tugging from it. Bandai Namco has announced it’s going to release a DLC following two children drawn into the events of World War I. All the profits from the DLC will go to War Child UK, a charity supporting children affected by war. HISTORY LESSON Here’s a museum we’d happily spend a night in: the National Videogame Museum is opening in Sheffield on 24 November. It’s home to the only permanently accessible collection of videogame memorabilia in the UK – get down there and be all cultured! GO WEST Ever looked at a game’s nuclear-blighted wasteland and thought, “I really must go there”?…

YOU WIN YOU LOSE

THE GM TO DO LIST

DIE FAWKES It’s Bonfire Night, so play something appropriate – how about Dark Souls? POKéMON CATCHES YOU Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee! launches, aiming to draw newcomers in to the Pokécult. ENLIST TODAY! Test your scrap mettle, as epic WWII battler Battlefield V arrives in shops. RELIGHT YOUR FIRE And keep that gaming flame burning: Spyro Reignited Trilogy launches today. A FURY TALE Darksiders III launches today, with faster, harder combat and a more intricate world. GUARANTEED HIT Make your stealthy way down to the shops to take out a copy of Hitman 2, out today. FALLOUT BELTER Leave your bunker to snap up today’s big release, Fallout 76. And be careful out there! MECH YOUR MIND UP This issue’s cover star, Override: Mech City Brawl, clanks onto shelves today.…

THE GM TO DO LIST

If you’ve read our past previews, you’ll know that this game has been raising our eyebrows in a good way. Giant robots fighting each other, without the complex controls or crushing weight of a million stats this usually entails? Yes please! We were already excited and now, thanks to extended hands-on time – including exclusive access to the story mode and every multiplayer map – we’re even moreexcited. The fundamental concept is pretty simple: a brawler for two to four players, where every character is a mech, and each limb on a mech is controlled with a different trigger button. In fact, this control scheme came about before everything else. “It first started as more of a tech demo,” says producer Andrew Nguyen. “The developers were actually trying to make a…

We expect a significant number of new players to gravitate toward Metageckon. We certainly did. He’s the stuff of mech battle dreams, a giant metal dinosaur with the ability to shoot laser beams from his mouth – who wouldn’t want a go at that? His short arms mean that his standing punches don’t have quite the range of his opponents’, but he’s still one of the more fearsome characters. One special move sees him curl himself into a ball, and roll around the map with surprising speed; another, activated in mid-air, again curls him up before sending him hurtling to the ground with devastating force.…

We’re not sure what inspired Pescado’s pilot to design their mech in such a way – a half-man, half-fish wrestler with star-shaped nipples – but we presume it involves a traumatic childhood event. Disadvantaged at a distance, he’s possibly the trickiest mech to master – and a favourite of the developer. “We like that he’s kind of self-punishing,” says Nguyen, referring to the fact that mistiming many of Pescado’s moves leaves you wide open to attack. “His entire body is a hitbox. Anywhere on the body will do damage.” So don’t be shy about bodyslamming your way to victory!…

TWENTY ONE PILOTS (OR FOUR, ANYWAY)

Override allows one to four people to play in a match together, with or without AI. But that’s not all. You can also have up to four people in the same mech. How does that work? Why, with much hilarity and many passive-aggressive suggestions, of course! With two players, one is the pilot and the arms, the other the legs. With three players, there’s one pilot, one controlling legs, one controlling arms. With four players, it’s one for legs, one for each arm, and one pilot. We found this worked surprisingly well, though communication between players becomes essential when there are three or four of you in one mech. Playing 2v2 in this way, we managed to dodge attacks, and even retreat underground on the Egypt map to avoid an Ultimate.…

TWENTY ONE PILOTS (OR FOUR, ANYWAY)

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BETA

The game’s closed beta provided the team with valuable feedback. And they were looking for player comments, as Nguyen explains. “You never know what the game’s going to be like, and how balanced it is, until you get thousands of people playing it! […] we knew that we needed feedback, but that word ‘beta’ these days, people don’t know what it means per se, because a lot of the time it’s just like a glorified demo. “We got a ton of good feedback from folks. We tried to address the most popular points of feedback. We got something like 2,000 responses. Pretty good, super-helpful for us.” As you would expect, this led to the devs making various tweaks, balances, and nerfs. However well-balanced the final package turns out to be, the…

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BETA

Appearing to have been inspired by the gazelle, not an animal known for its ferocity, you might expect the streamlined Vidar to be pigeonholed into the ‘fast but weak’ type. Well, you’d expect wrong, as there are no such predictable fighter types here. She’s certainly the best choice if you prefer an agile playstyle, though. Her grappling hook can close distances more effectively than a dash, and her double jump can prove to make a crucial difference on maps that offer higher ground, such as Brazil. If you’re playing against her, beware her Ultimate, a storm of arrows that will stun if you get caught dead centre.…

“THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS LURK IN LAIRS AT THE END OF THE GAME’S DUNGEON-LIKE LEVELS” Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher THQ Nordic Developer Gunfire Games ETA 27 November There are, traditionally, four horsemen of the apocalypse: War, Death, Famine, and either Conquest or Pestilence depending on which drugs the revelator has been taking. Darksiders has already chewed through War and Death, so a game in which you play as one of the others wasn’t out of the question when Darksiders III was originally mooted back in 2012. What we’ve got, though, is something rather different, at least in terms of the protagonist. In Darksiders canon, War and Death have a sister and her name is Fury (there’s Strife too, being saved for later). Fury is aptly named, being partially on fire and carrying…

Chain whip Soft, strong, and very, very long (okay, we’re lying about the ‘soft’ bit), the chain whip can also be used as a grappling hook for crossing gaps. Once you gain the Flame Hollow it can transform into nunchucks. Hammer Purple-haired Force Fury’s secondary weapon, the hammer hits hard but is distinctly slower, like something War would have used. Fans of the previous two games will enjoy smacking away with it. Daggers Fire Fury’s secondary weapon is a quick knife attack. Her strikes are so fast the weapons blur through the air and you might never see them properly – but look at the fabulously fiery trail they leave behind.. Fire The special attack in Flame mode burns everything around Fury, but you’ll need a full wrath meter to unleash this kind of devastating attack. Needless…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer SIE Bend Studio ETA 22 February 2019 Until a couple of years ago, the zombie genre was saturated to near-pandemic levels. But things have slowed to a shamble lately, sadly earmarked by the closure this month of the studios behind the Dead Rising and Walking Dead series. Has the zombie bubble finally burst like a crumbling skull? Sony’s open-world zombie (okay, ‘Freaker’) adventure Days Gone should have a few things to say about that, though we’re still not sure what that is. In fairness, playing a couple of separate sequences probably isn’t the best way to get a feel for an open-world game. Our first task was to retrieve some bits and bobs for our motorbike – the main means of transport around the Oregon wilderness where…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA DICE ETA 20 November Battlefield 1’s War Stories campaign was one of the most pleasant single-player surprises of 2016, showing a sensitivity we had no reason to expect from a multiplayer-first shooter, making observations about the tragedy of war amid its vast set-pieces. Battlefield V gives this elegant treatment to World War II. There are four stories in Battlefield V’s War Stories campaign, focusing on less-explored parts of the war. Nordlys follows a Norwegian resistance commando looking to take out the Axis heavy water supplies, Tirailleurs is about the unsung sacrifices that Senegalese troops made for France, Under No Flag pits you as a cockney criminal recruited for the British Special Boat Service, and The Last Tiger charts a German tank commander stuck…

Format PC Developer ZA/UM Studio Publisher Humble Bundle ETA 2019 The simplest way to describe Disco Elysium is that it’s an isometric RPG inspired by old-school pen-and-paper roleplaying mechanics. But when we’re already having a conversation with our own subconscious, and the enigmatic choices get weirder and more disorientating, it’s clear that this isn’t like any game we’ve ever played. You’re a detective sent to a coastal town to investigate a murder. Before that however, your task is simply getting dressed after you wake up in nothing but your pants while suffering from alcohol-induced amnesia. We’re still missing a shoe when we finally stumble out of our hotel room. Disco inferno The developer describes this world as an urban fantasy relatable to our own reality, albeit with a mixed-up timeline – for instance, rock…

HEAVEN’S VAULT

Format PS4, PC Publisher Inkle Developer Inkle ETA 2019 Making 3D games is complex, and even the biggest studios have trouble producing convincing character models and animations. However, Inkle Studios has come up with an elegant solution, which is immediately striking when we go hands-on with Heaven’s Vault. It’s a 3D open world but its characters, including protagonist Aliya, are depicted as hand-drawn 2D art, with over a thousand individual frames that fade into each other as she moves or when the camera rotates. Sidestepping 3D character modelling, this mesmerising comic-book effect allows for a variety of angles and expressions. The game itself reminds us of The Witness. Rather than grappling with puzzles, it has you deciphering an alien language. As an archaeologist, you find inscriptions in the ruins, and are given a…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Square Enix Dev Avalanche Studios ETA 4 December During our hands-on session with Just Cause 4 we sit down with the man himself, the game’s director, Francesco Antolini. As he shows us the game, he’s constantly talking about his love of open world games – Just Cause 2 is the one that got him to join Avalanche Studios, after all. He speaks with passion about some of his recent favourites: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild; Metal Gear Solid V; and Assassin’s Creed Origins (the man himself used to work at Ubisoft). “There is actually one thing I’m seeing, where all good open worlds are going,” Antolini notes. “It’s this attempt at making the world itself more plausible and more able to communicate about status…

Format PS VR Developer From Software Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment ETA November It says a lot about Hidetaka Miyazaki’s creative clout that he’s famed for creating Dark Souls, but when he comes out with a walking sim about fairies in a traditional British boarding school, you’re all-in to see how it pans out. On the evidence of the half-hour demo we played of Miyazaki-san’s VR fairy simulator Déraciné, it’s going very beautifully indeed. At a glance, Déraciné looks like a walking sim, though hands-on it actually feels more like an old point-and-click adventure. The segment we play lets us move around a large chunk of the beautiful Victorian-era boarding school, but movement is entirely based around teleporting. This sacrifices some immersion in favour of negating motion sickness, but it also suits the…

SPACE CHANNEL 5 VR KINDA FUNKY NEWS FLASH

Format PS VR Publisher Sega Developer Grounding Inc. ETA 2019 It’s kind of a miracle that Space Channel 5 still exists. The rhythm game, set aboard a ’60s-styled space station beset by aliens who can be overcome by the power of dance, feels like a relic of the Dreamcast days. And yet here it is, right at home in the ultra-modern medium of PS VR. We play one level of Space Channel 5 VR, zapping aliens by mimicking their movements, aided by the catchy voice of series heroine Ulala. We pull off left and right moves, where one arm goes across the chest while the other stretches out, as well as thigh-burning squats, and finally the iconic ‘Choo’ that zaps aliens at the end of a sequence (sometimes preceded by twirling the…

SPACE CHANNEL 5 VR KINDA FUNKY NEWS FLASH

TEAM SONIC RACING

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC Publisher Sega Developer Sumo Digital ETA Winter 2018 We’re on the final lap and down in seventh position. We’re not going to finish in first, that much is clear, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to sit back and go through the motions. You see, there are three of us in a team, and if we can just knock Knuckles, who is one place ahead of us, off his stride, we may just clinch the race for our team. That’s the essence of Team Sonic Racing’s spin on the battle racer. It’s a game of teamwork, won by having the highest joint score in a match (defined by finish position and also rings collected, which you can get by attacking other racers). Adding some depth to this…

TEAM SONIC RACING

Why make it a team game? With the recent trend for team online games like Overwatch and Splatoon, we also wanted to create something where you share the thrill of victory with other people. Free DLC? Lootboxes? Customisation? No lootboxes! No DLC planned yet either. Because it’s an online game we’ll provide plenty of stuff for players to distinguish themselves, including accessories and cars with different specs that will affect gameplay. Will voice communication be important, or will on-screen info be enough to co-ordinate with teammates? There’s lots of info on-screen, such as the items your friends are carrying, but there will be voice chat too – handy for things like the Slingshot move, where you need to follow your teammate closely to get a speed boost. There are no Sega All-Stars here. What’s happening to…

THE BRADWELL CONSPIRACY

Format PC Publisher Bossa Studios Developer A Brave Plan ETA 2019 Whether you’re starting work at a police station in the midst of a zombie outbreak or a science lab conducting fishy experiments, first days on the job never pan out very well in videogames. Usually, disaster strikes so early that we end up missing out on an essential procedure at any workplace: the corporate induction. In first-person adventure The Bradwell Conspiracy, our silent protagonist doesn’t even work at the titular tech company but assumes the identity of a new employee after an explosion occurs in its offices, leaving us trapped after everyone else has already been evacuated. Help is at hand in the shape of an AI guide and a fellow survivor, Amber, who’s in another part of the building. Equipped…

THE BRADWELL CONSPIRACY

UNTITLED GOOSE GAME

Format Switch, PC Developer House House Publisher Panic ETA 2019 It’s been a year since this game was first announced, and developer House House still hasn’t given its goose simulator a proper name. But when you’re playing a sociopathic character that for once isn’t using its skills to grimly murder virtual victims but just to behave like an absolute nuisance, we can’t really complain. Causing trouble in a quiet village as a jerk of a goose is an idea that hasn’t lost its charm and hilarity since its first reveal. Following its surprise appearance in a Nindies presentation, we’re delighted to try the Switch build, even if we’re just playing the same garden level seen last year. Top billing Taking control of the feathery menace, we have a prettily written checklist to hand, with…

UNTITLED GOOSE GAME

ASSASSIN’S CREED REBELLION

Format Mobile Pub Ubisoft Dev Behaviour Interactive ETA 21 Nov We don’t know a great deal about this upcoming mobile game, other than it looks to be Assassin’s Creed’s answer to Fallout Shelter, sharing as it does both a developer and the home-base-that-sends-out -explorers schtick with Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic spin-off. The assassins’ hideout is more like XCOM HQ than a vault, however, with separate rooms that can be constructed and used to train a band of hired killers you’ve recruited from across time. Killers they may be, but they’re also cute, with a large-headed kawaii look that makes them appear like especially threatening Amiibo. Missions are represented as a series of rooms, with obstacles and enemies tailored to the skills of your three-strong team. GM Instant Reaction THRILL-O-METER Because you can’t spell ‘cute’ without ‘cut’.…

ASSASSIN’S CREED REBELLION

BORDERLANDS 2 VR

Format PS VR Pub 2K Games Dev Gearbox ETA December You have to do more to a game to make it VR-friendly than slap on a new control scheme, and Gearbox has supplied this by retooling Borderlands 2 – a four-player co-op open world ARPG – into a pure single-player experience. There’s also a new mode, Bad-Ass Mega Fun Time, that will slow time when triggered for bullet-dodging moves. Vehicles are becoming first-person as well, with head-aimed weapons, which sounds like a recipe for motion sickness to us. Elsewhere, the cel-shaded graphics and insane weapons and characters look like being the same as they’ve always been.…

BORDERLANDS 2 VR

THE LIGHT KEEPS US SAFE

Format PC Publisher Big Robot Developer Big Robot ETA TBC No sky, just killer robots that hunt in the darkness. It doesn’t sound like a jolly videogame pitch, but perhaps it’s not meant to. Developer Big Robot has previous in this area, having released Sir, You Are Being Hunted four years ago. In that game, aggressive British robots hunted humans through a procedurally generated countryside before stopping for tea. The Light is similarly unravelled from a mathematical formula, rather than having a set map, but whereas Sir had the murky grey skies you associate with a weekend in Bognor, The Light covers everything in darkness. It’s a stealth and survival game, but one that cleverly inverts the way we’re used to being unseen, by making the first-person player run from pool of light…

THE LIGHT KEEPS US SAFE

DIABLO III: ETERNAL COLLECTION

Format Switch Pub Warner Bros Dev TT Games ETA 2 November We assume the name means it’s a collection that will last you an eternity rather than that you’ll be collecting things for ever, but even though (2012 PC game) Diablo III, its expansions Reaper Of Souls and Rise Of The Necromancer, and some exclusive extras sounds like a package that’ll keep you playing for a long time, there will still be a lot of loot to collect. The loot is at the heart of Diablo, and with four-player local multiplayer as well as online, there will be plenty to go around as you crawl dungeons, bash skeletons, and take on demons.…

DIABLO III: ETERNAL COLLECTION

Format PS4, PC Pub Square Enix Dev Square Enix ETA 5 March 2019 A shooter and survival game set in the Front Mission universe (that’s one populated with big stompy robots, if you’re not already a fan), Left Alive comes from the metallic brains of Toshifumi Nabeshima, the man behind Armored Core V, and Metal Gear designer Yoji Shinkawa. There are three paths through the game, each taken by one of three characters, and their choices along the way have an effect on the story as it unfolds. While you will be fighting mechs, there will be infantry and vehicles to take care of, and you can do it with traps, stealth, or lots of guns.…

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub Nightdive Studios Dev Nightdive Studios ETA2020 A playable, though glitchy and enemy-free, alpha version has been released to backers of this remake of Looking Glass’s influential game. It’s looking like the update will be staying extremely close to the original, with wall textures and map layouts that look just like what we played in 1994, just with massively increased resolution, and much better lit. The claustrophobic nature of the space station setting – either the ceilings are really low, or the player character is surprisingly tall – brings to mind Alien Isolation. It’s a long wait until 2020, but we’re glad this is still getting made.…

Format PC Developer Paul Helman ETA Spring 2019 Web bit.ly/gm_horace Paul Helman would like to think of his debut game as “a triple-A SNES title,” and to play it is to understand why. It’s an old-school platformer with plenty of contemporary bells and whistles that belie the fact it’s been assembled by just one man. “I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO GET HALFWAY THROUGH AND YOU’VE SUDDENLY GOT FLAMETHROWERS” Despite the console influence, from the start it pays homage to a host of vintage games: there are blink-and-you’llmiss-them nods to Emlyn Hughes Soccer and The Last Ninja during the opening scenes, while there’s a (thankfully brief) Spectrum loading screen flash as the eponymous robot boots up. And its title screen music will be instantly familiar to players of a certain vintage: it’s Beethoven’s Moonlight…

The 60 Second Pitch

“This is literally the first time I’ve had to speak to a real person about the game, so god knows! I guess it’s a 2D cinematic platform adventure. “I’m concentrating on story and general atmosphere, which isn’t necessarily missing from a lot of modern indie games, but it’s often very much put to the side with more gameplay-focused titles. I really wanted more of a balance between the two because I still play a lot of retro games, and I find unless they have incredible gameplay – you know, like Mario – within an hour or two there’s nothing to keep me going. So I felt something with a story to help push the gameplay along would work well. “When I sat down to write the story I wrote it with branching…

The 60 Second Pitch

Format PC Developer Gwen Frey ETA 2019 Web bit.ly/gm_kine The breeziest, bounciest, happiesttrailer we’ve seen in a long time belongs to Gwen Frey’s Kine, an ingenious new puzzle game featuring a trio of sentient musical instruments. “There’s just so much negativity in the world that I knew I wanted to make something light-hearted and joyful, that makes people smile,” Frey says. As founder of The Molasses Flood, Frey was at a loose end after the studio’s gorgeous survival game The Flame In The Flood shipped. “I started prototyping and pitching things at work and one of them had this kernel of something interesting, which was the way that a character could move in a 3D grid,” she says. “I just liked the way this character moved. I thought it looked funny.” With…

Small… But Perfectly Formed

MACHINARIUM Amanita Design’s gorgeous, hand-drawn point-and-clicker is as rich in life and detail as any blockbuster: you’ll click on everything because you’ll always get a response. And despite the rusty environments it’s anything but creaky, streamlining puzzles and offering hints. A gem. STEAMWORLD DIG 2 No joints need oiling in this slick Metroidvania, which places a Nintendo-like emphasis on feel and certainly benefits from it. As the optimistic Dorothy, tasked with looking for original game protagonist Rusty, you’ll carve your own path downward: it’s a joy, and subtle design tricks ensure you’ll never get truly lost. GROW HOME Developed by a tiny team at Ubisoft Reflections, this casts you as BUD, a little robot who must plant seeds and climb their shoots to reach new heights. BUD’s toddler-like movements as he makes his way up…

Small… But Perfectly Formed

#3 BOYFRIEND DUNGEON

Format PC Developer Kitfox Games ETASeptember 2019 Webbit.ly/gm_boyfriend Unless you’re the staunchest of pacifists, you’re bound to have a favourite videogame weapon. Whether it’s Hyper Light Drifter’s shotgun, FEAR’s, er, shotgun, or Resident Evil 4’s… look, we clearly have a thing for shotguns, okay? Anyway, this successfully crowdfunded dungeon-crawler goes one step further, by letting you go on dates with these so-called ‘bae blades’. Well, if nothing else, its pun game is already strong. In this wonderfully weird piece of hack-and-slash-fiction, you’ll first have to liberate these weapons from chests scattered around the isometric stages. Your stylishly-designed blade – whether it’s a dagger, glaive, or lawsuit-avoiding ‘lasersaber’ – will transform into an equally stylish sentient being, and you can start chatting them up. Despite the title, you’re not limited to hooking up with…

#3 BOYFRIEND DUNGEON

Format PC Developer Els White ETA TBA Web bit.ly/gm_retrace Scary movies tend to thrive under limitations. Many of the horror genre’s most influential films made a virtue of their low budget: classics like Hallowe’en, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Evil Dead were made on a relative shoestring, and delivered scares despite a lack of effects. The same is true of interactive horror: very few expensively-made games can compete with the fertile imagination of indie studios. The likes of Detention and Stories Untold – heck, even Five Nights At Freddy’s – have all belied their meagre resources. “BLENDS SLOW-BURN EXPLORATION WITH GORY ACTION” Last month, World Of Horror became another case in point, and this month has brought us a similarly narrative-led adventure. Retrace tips its hat to the Corpse Party series, as well as…

DICING WITH DIGITAL

Videogames and tabletop gaming are indisputably intertwined. The classic pen-and-paper games’ idea that certain characteristics can be represented by numbers is at the beating heart of everything from the most classic fantasy RPG, to sports and racing sims. Without those dice-lobbing classics like Warhammer and D&D, this hobby of ours would never have existed. Whether it’s your wizard’s intelligence determining how much damage her spells do, or Lionel Messi’s shot accuracy enabling him to take a long-range stab at goal, the principles (and heritage) of tabletop gaming are always present. “WITHOUT THOSE DICE-LOBBING CLASSICS LIKE WARHAMMER AND D&D, THIS HOBBY OF OURS WOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED” To tell this story, we have to go back to the early ’70s, when a couple of guys named Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were beginning to…

DICING WITH DIGITAL

From console to tabletop

Dark Soles A guessing game in which you turn off the lights and see if you can guess which celebrity’s shoe-print you’re touching. League Of Legends: The Board Game A party game where the purpose is to be as verbally abusive to the other team as possible. Metal Gear: The Gathering Collect as many cards as you can before Konami announces a new set that replaces the deck you just spent £500 on. Call Of Duty Of Cthulhu An eldritch horror RPG in which you investigate an illness that’s causing millions of people to buy the same game every year. PaRappa the Rapper Mahjong This can be basically anything because nobody really understands what mahjong is anyway.…

From console to tabletop

Honourable mentions

Dungeon (1975) It’s disputed to this day what the first ever CRPG was, but most people agree it was Don Daglow’s Dungeon that started it all. D&D: Shadow Over Mystara (1996) This game cleverly took the feel of D&D and melded it with the mechanics of an arcade beat-’em-up. Warhammer: Dark Omen (1998) Total War might be the king of epic battles but Dark Omen really pioneered this kind of large-scale warfare. Neverwinter Nights (2002) Not to be confused with the 1991 release of the same name, NWN had a very strong modding community. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (2004) Almost unplayable on release, but after years of fan patches it’s now the best bloodsucker out there. Divinity: Original Sin 2 (2017) Has a GM mode which allows four players to run through an adventure controlled by a fifth ‘game master’.…

Honourable mentions

0-39 Awful Avoid it as you would a bullet with your name on. 40-59 Poor Major issues here that won’t be solved with a hug. 60-69 Decent A mixed bag filled with sweets and sharp stones. 70-79 Good Some flaws, but still a very enjoyable experience. 80-89 Excellent Buy it, love it, thank us when you’re done. 90-100 Outstanding A rare and essential piece of brilliance. The small print: We rate games in comparison to what else is available on the same system, in the same genre, and for the same format at the time of release. So this year’s FIFA might score less than a FIFA from three years ago, but still be a better game. Because time, and our expectations, move on. Hey, you’re smart, you get it… Not awarded based simply on score, but…

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Québec ETA Out now Players 1 The reinvention of Assassin’s Creed continues apace. Following Bayek’s Egyptian adventures in last year’s fantastic Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft Québec takes the series back another 300 years to Ancient Greece at the onset of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It’s certainly a bold choice, Spartan-kicking any notion of the assassin-versus-Templar soap opera at the heart of the series’ mythos off the nearest cliff. Yet the setting of an Assassin’s Creed game is often its most crucial aspect, and this inviting world is worth exploring to its fullest. “EVERY INCH OF ODYSSEY’S ANCIENT GREECE CONTAINS SOMETHING WORTH SEEKING OUT” Taking a gander at the map in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey doesn’t quite tell you how mammoth this sprawling open…

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

WANTED: DEAD OR… WELL, DEAD

Engage in enough combat and you’ll eventually garner the attention of someone willing to pay to snuff you out. Once your notoriety goes up, the bounty hunters come out to play. This works similarly to Shadow Of Mordor’s Nemesis system, as a near-endless array of rival mercenaries with their own backstories and loot come looking to collect the bounty on your head. They’re often a chaotic wild card, showing up at the least opportune time to spoil your plans. Fighting them is a thrill, and their presence makes the world feel more reactive.…

WANTED: DEAD OR… WELL, DEAD

PREPARE FOR GLORY

The ongoing conflict between the Athenians and Spartans is generally left to stew in the background throughout Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s narrative. Instead, the protracted war is confined to its own mode, dubbed Conquest Battles. Each region in Ancient Greece is controlled by one of the two warring factions. You can stroke the flames of war by dismantling a faction’s influence in a particular area by burning and stealing its resources, killing its soldiers, and assassinating its leaders. Once their influence has been sapped, you can trigger a large-scale battle between the two forces wherein you can choose to fight for the defending faction or the attacking one, with your final reward varying depending on your choice (and we’d advise you to pick off the commanders for best results). These sizable battles are…

PREPARE FOR GLORY

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

The most bizarre addition in Forza Horizon 4 is that of a Halo Experience Showcase. It’s basically a big excuse to drive a Warthog round the rolling hills of the home nations while suited up as Master Chief. Even so, it makes for a fun few minutes. Cortana provides a humorous commentary on the perplexing nature of modern-day Britain throughout the race (heck, modern-day Britain perplexes us and we live here), which sees you competing with Banshees and other Warthogs as you sprint to the finish. If you’re a Forza fan, you’ll remember the Warthog was also included in Horizon 3, and like in that game, you can optionally choose to unlock it for casual driving outside the Showcase event.…

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

FORZA HORIZON 4

Format XO (reviewed), PC Publisher Microsoft Studios Developer Playground Games ETA Out Now Players 1-12 For the first time in its six-year history, the Horizon festival has made its way to Great Britain. Yet unlike real life, there are extended periods of sun, the motorways aren’t jammed with traffic, and your car won’t disappear if you leave it down a dark alley. The perfect getaway, then, particularly when you factor in the seamless mesh of arcade and simulation gameplay, set amid an expansive and gorgeous-looking sandbox that would satisfy everyone from Jenson Button to James Bond. “YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF REACHING FOR PHOTO MODE AT PRACTICALLY EVERY TURN” Horizon’s take on Britain favours lush landscapes over city life for the most part, offering a unique representation of the island. It’s largely separated into…

FORZA HORIZON 4

Starlink manages not only to squeeze in the entire Star Fox crew – Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy – but makes their presence in the Atlas system feel surprisingly organic. They’re on a mission to hunt down longtime nemesis Star Wolf, which brings them into the company of the main cast, and supplies Fox with his own side-quests. It’s hard to spot the seams between these missions and the base game, and their slightly cheesy Saturday-morning cartoon voice acting fits in perfectly. And yes, that immortal barrel roll-related catchphrase get deployed the first chance the game gets.…

STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS

Format Switch, PS4, XO Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Toronto ETA Out now Players 1-2 It’s hard to talk about Starlink: Battle For Atlas without mentioning all the games it borrows from. Playing it, you can practically smell the whiteboard in Ubisoft’s Toronto office, marker-pen lines linking ‘No Man’s Sky’ with ‘Destiny’, and a big circle drawn around the words ‘toys to life’. Because, yes, like Skylanders and Disney Infinity before it, this is one of those games that comes with plastic models – in this case, controller-sized spaceships and their tiny pilots – which can be connected to unlock their digital counterparts. “LIKE ITS SPACESHIPS, STARLINK IS MADE UP OF COMPONENTS THAT SNAP NEATLY TOGETHER” Let’s talk about those toys first, because they are really lovely. Each of the six ships has a…

STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS

The practice of making a television series or film specifically so it can produce a lucrative toy line is common enough that there’s a dedicated word for it: toyetic. But Starlink kind of goes the other way. The game and its accompanying toys are so lovingly created, so well thought out, it feels like they’re begging for a proper TV adaptation to back them up. The game’s cutscenes have the stylings and production values of a computer-animated kids’ show – and we mean that in a good way. There’s not a lot of blue sky between the crew of Starlink’s Equinox, with their personalised spacecraft, and the residents of Tracy Island, except that Starlink’s cast are individualised in a way that far exceeds ‘the one with the green sash’. There are…

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher 2K Sports Developer Yuke’s, Visual Concepts ETA Out now Players 1-6 The most focused, craziest fans are WWE fans, Kiss fans, and Star Wars fans. They complain, but they love it, and they’re there for life,” declared wrestler Chris Jericho on a 2017 episode of Larry King Now. While that statement may ring true, recent WWE games have struggled to enthral the millions of fans they did in their heyday. This year’s effort feels like a milestone moment, rewriting many of last year’s wrongs while laying foundations for the future. After five years, 2K’s take on sports entertainment is finally realising its potential. “THE DEVELOPER HAS LISTENED TO THE FANS, IMPLEMENTING MEANINGFUL UPGRADES” If you’re familiar with current-gen WWE games, you’ll know what to expect between the…

Format PS4 (reviewed), PC, PS Vita Publisher Chucklefish Developer Lunar Ray Games ETA Out now Players 1-2 Considering this game involves time travel shenanigans (in terms of both plot and gameplay) it’s appropriate that it looks like it was made in 1994. An action platformer in the Metroidvania style, with retro pics for your pixel fix. About time. You play as Lunais, a young woman chosen to travel through time in order to save her village from the Lachiem Empire. This is achieved via the unoriginally named, but highly effective, Timespinner. Somewhat inevitably, Something Goes Wrong, and she’s forced to salvage events as best she can. “THE MORE WE PLAY, THE MORE WE REALISE THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING TO COME BACK FOR” This being a videogame, the extremely complex and multifaceted situation Lunais finds herself…

0-39 Awful Avoid it as you would a bullet with your name on. 40-59 Poor Major issues here that won’t be solved with a hug. 60-69 Decent A mixed bag filled with sweets and sharp stones. 70-79 Good Some flaws, but still a very enjoyable experience. 80-89 Excellent Buy it, love it, thank us when you’re done. 90-100 Outstanding A rare and essential piece of brilliance. The small print: We rate games in comparison to what else is available on the same system, in the same genre, and for the same format at the time of release. So this year’s FIFA might score less than a FIFA from three years ago, but still be a better game. Because time, and our expectations, move on. Hey, you’re smart, you get it… Not awarded based simply on score, but…

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Activision Developer Treyarch ETA Out now Players 1-100 “WITH BLACKOUT, TREYARCH TURNS AN ENGINE BUILT FOR SPEED INTO ONE CAPABLE OF ENDURANCE” You can’t feed today’s hunger with yesterday’s meal, and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 knows this all too well. For the first time in the series’ history, there is no traditional single-player campaign to the games. It’s strange to boot it up and not see a story mode waiting for you on the menu screen. Even more strangely, after all the fuss that was made about the game releasing without the usual single-player mode, its omission feels like a safe choice. Welcome to our post-single-player world. It does not feature a ludicrously lifelike digital version of Kit Harington. In recent years the campaign moved from…

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4

Battery Working in the field of explosions, Battery’s ability is a bouncing grenade launcher called War Machine. Her equipment is a looping cluster grenade that spits out more grenades. It’s designed to flush enemies from cover, blow them up, and then blow them up again. Bonus feel-good points if you manage to stick someone with it. Firebreak Area denial is Firebreak’s stock-in-trade. He’s got a flamethrower as his ability, and this scorches enemies at close range – making it perfect for burning bunched-up foes. His equipment is a reactor core that emits a damaging radiation field wounding enemies within its radius, even if they’re on a balcony or behind a wall. Nomad Nomad is an ambush kinda guy, partnering with a battle-scarred pit bull terrier that you can command to follow or set to patrol…

Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ETA Out now Players 1 While the likes of Link, Solid Snake, and fellow platforming pal Mario have completely changed tack to better fall in line with the expectations of gaming audiences over the decades, Mega Man has remained staunchly close to his ’80s roots. The Blue Bomber’s long-awaited 11th outing dishes up an experience that’s much the same as the series has been providing for the last 30 years, but with a refined recipe – including a few new ingredients – that’s been cooked to platforming perfection. The most apparent of those new additions is the game’s overhauled visual style. Gone are the flat and outdated 2D graphics, replaced with a modern styling that’s seriously snazzy. The visual overhaul, a blend…

TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION

Victory in a boss battle doesn’t just offer bragging rights, it also gives you access to a brand-new weapon. Once unlocked, these can be switched on the fly using the shoulder buttons and Mega Man’s armour changes depending on what weapon he’s currently got equipped. 1 Scramble Thunder lets you unleash balls of electricity that cling to solid surfaces to give enemies a shock. 2 You wouldn’t think throwing rubber balls at an enemy would be entirely effective, but Bounce Ball is devastating. 3 Make enemies hot under the collar with Blazing Torch, which launches a fireball diagonally into the air. 4 Pile Driver is a fetching orange and yellow ensemble that lets you charge forward and spike enemies. 5 With Acid Barrier, Mega Man can encase himself in a ball of acid that protects…

TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Ubisoft Developer SpectreVision ETA Out now Players 1 Imagine What Remains of Edith Finch, PT and Layers of Fear met in an escape room, and you’ve got a pretty good mental image of this horror-tinged thriller. Developed by Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision, it combines filmed footage and puzzle-led exploration in a short but atmospheric adventure that suggests Frodo has a bright future in games. In filmic parlance, it’s a three-hander – but the central trio aren’t actually present. At least not in body: you’re inside their minds, part of a simulation that lets users inhabit other consciousnesses. It’s a bit like a first-person Animus, except you’re not controlling anyone of historical significance, but an American family: a scientist dad (played by Blue Ruin star Macon Blair), a musician…

ASTRO BOT: RESCUE MISSION

Format PS VR Publisher Sony Developer Asobi Team, Japan Studio ETA Out now Players 1 If you were somehow able to ignore Astro Bot’s VR elements, you’d be left with a robust but unspectacular platformer. But setting aside the ways Asobi Team’s game uses the technology is all but impossible: this simply couldn’t and wouldn’t exist without it. It’s been built not to be augmented by VR, but to use it to its fullest, and the benefits are enormous. Sometimes literally so: Rescue Mission works minor miracles with scale, with levels that inspire genuine wonder, from vistas that stretch into the distance to gargantuan bosses that tower unnervingly over you. It might use familiar ingredients, but it makes them feel new and vibrant again. “WHEN YOU ENTER A NEW LEVEL, YOU’LL WANT…

ASTRO BOT: RESCUE MISSION

LIFE’S SWITCH TAPESTRY

One of Super Mario Party’s headline features is the introduction of minigames that utilise two Switches at once. There are just four of these in total, off in their own corner of the hub. Banana, Split is the only game that actually requires two to play – it shows halves of bananas on each screen and challenges you to line them up by moving the Switches around. But the highlight is Shell Shocked, a fairly straightforward top-down tank battle game where the way screens are arranged on the table dictates the shape of the map. There’s a genuine magic to shuffling in-game space around as you move each Switch.…

LIFE’S SWITCH TAPESTRY

SUPER MARIO PARTY

Format Switch Publisher Nintendo Developer Nd Cube ETA Out now Players 4 What does the word ‘party’ mean to you? Fizzy pop, bouncy castles, and tails pinned on donkeys? Heavy basslines, inept dancing, and a lot of morning-after regret? Or perhaps a cheeseboard, a bottle of something nice, and conversations on the latest bit of prestige telly? In the Mushroom Kingdom, parties are none of these things – instead, they’re a sacred and time-honoured way of settling arguments. So, a familyparty . “WON’T SMASH PRECONCEPTIONS, BUT IT DOES PROMISE A BIGGER HOOTENANNY THAN EVER BEFORE” In the case of Super Mario Party, the argument is about who is the greatest superstar in all the land. It could be Mario, Peach, or Yoshi; but equally it could be Bowser or one of his cronies.…

SUPER MARIO PARTY

GM Review The Final Verdict! 428: SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE

Format PS4, PC Publisher Koch Media, Spike Chunsoft Developer Abstraction Games ETA Out now Players 1 This remaster of a decade-old, cult classic visual novel never before released in English may be a hard sell for some. Like most titles in the genre, Scramble is text-heavy, but if you stick with it through its plodding default text speed, you’ll find these eggs are far from an omelette gone awry. In broad strokes, the story follows multiple characters over the course of one hectic day in Shibuya. Knotting these disparate threads is a kidnapping you’ll need to get to the bottom of by navigating a number of story decisions. But in Shibuya, no man is an island and your decisions have a far-reaching ripple effect. For example, a wrong move early on from…

GM Review The Final Verdict! 428: SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE

SPACE HULK: TACTICS

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Focus Home Interactive Developer Cyanide Studio ETA Out now Players 1 (online multiplayer) The Space Hulk board game came out in 1989, halfway between the second and third Alien movies. And the venerable Warhammer 40k board game really feels like a splice-child of the two. It’s a game of claustrophobic spaces, of tactically opening and closing doors to crowd-control the alien threat, and of heavy firepower clashing with vicious predatory instinct – and this latest videogame iteration sticks to the rule book. “GUIDE TERMINATORS DOWN DECREPIT CORRIDORS WHILE ALIENS SWARM IN FROM THE DARK” Space Hulk is a tactical game designed around confinement, with attacks played out by dice rolls. Each map is a grim grid of single-tile corridors and 3x3 square rooms, brimming with obstacles like gun…

SPACE HULK: TACTICS

LIFE IS STRANGE 2 EPISODE 1

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub Square Enix Dev Dontnod Entertainment ETA Out now Players 1 After bringing Max and Chloe’s story to a conclusion, Dontnod introduces two new protagonists to its acclaimed franchise. Part two is not about great power and responsibility, but explores what could happen to two boys who have lost everything. A lot in the first few minutes of Life is Strange 2 is familiar. A teen uses 2000s pop to soundtrack his life, and the banter sounds like it was written by someone who should spend more time around actual teenagers, but there is genuine warmth. As you control Sean Diaz, a picture of a likeable guy with a tight-knit family emerges. Of course the table turns: one moment, Sean’s problem is where to get some booze for…

LIFE IS STRANGE 2 EPISODE 1

1 ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY PS4, XO, PC Exploration mode brings a big change to AC. Instead of setting off in a straight line toward my target, I’m actually using the roads as more than ambush points. Ian Evenden, Editor 2 FORZA HORIZON 4 XO, PC Thrashing an Audi around the Lake District in autumn turns out to be a lot of fun, especially when the game’s easygoing enough to reward you for just about anything. Whoever built all those dry stone walls: I’m very sorry. Ian Evenden, Editor 3 ASSETTO CORSA COMPETIZIONE PC This is in Early Access, and the potential is here, though it’s not Assetto Corsa yet. With force feedback working on my Fanatec wheel it will be sweeter. Rob Crossland, Art Editor 4 BLOOD BOWL 2 PC I played the board game when I was a youngster, and I wasn’t disappointed…

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC Pub Inertia Game Studios Dev Inertia Game Studios ETA Out now Players 1-4 Well, it might be true that in space no-one can hear you scream, but the same cannot be said when you’re on board the USS Couch, which is where Catastronauts’ up-to-four-player co-op is best played. “Space” isn’t the only S-word that’ll be passing your lips. But it’s the one we can print. Like a mad cross between Overcooked and FTL, your crew has to take on enemy ships across 30 levels, all while efficiently piloting your own spacecraft. Each level has you manning different craft, and unfortunately most of them seem to have been designed by unevolved alien bacteria. You’ll be manning ships that have two halves only connected by a single teleporter; switching…

We love the pulp heroes in Strange Brigade. The newest is Hachiro Shimuzu, who you can get in the Japanese Naval Officer Character Expansion Pack. Later this month you can also welcome Anjali Khan to the Brigade in the Maharani Huntress Character Expansion Pack. But that’s not all: if you want more thrills for your Brigadiers, three-part campaign The Thrice Damned should deliver the goods. Part one, Isle Of The Dead, and part two, The Sunken Kingdom, are out now, so get on board and prepare to conquer part three, Pyramid Of Bes, again later in November. Spiffing, eh? 3D anime arena fighter My Hero One’s Justice has only just launched but you can already get your mitts on a brand-new fighter. Endeavor was available as a bonus to everyone who…

THE CHAOS ENGINE

Developer The Bitmap Brothers Publisher Renegade Software Released 1993 Format PC, Amiga CD32, SNES, Mega Drive, Amiga, Atari ST Get it Steam, GOG, eBay, car boot sales Thumping techno; blasting hand-cannons; working with your sibling, friend, parent, guardian, enemy, grandma; chanting along with the voiceover man as he proclaims ‘EXIT OPEN’; dying repeatedly because it’s way too difficult – The Chaos Engine has gone down in history as an impactful game for many a reason. All of them are shared experiences, while at the same time they’re all deeply personal – the Amiga game is a legend for far too many reasons to count. The origin Someone at The Bitmap Brothers had played Gauntlet when they were younger and liked it quite a lot. Enough, in fact, that they decided to make a game using modern hardware…

THE CHAOS ENGINE

Studio Spotlight

1 Xenon PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64 – 1988 The very first game from the Bitmap Brothers wasn’t its best – it’s not even the best game by the Bitmaps called Xenon (the sequel, released the very next year, was far better and featured an acclaimed theme tune by Bomb The Bass). But all good things have to start somewhere, and Xenon proved to be a bar-raiser in some ways, effortlessly bringing a high-quality shooter to the Atari ST (and ported to every format under the sun) seemingly out of nowhere. It was well-received at the time, though, and from humble beginnings, a development legend began… 2 Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe PC, Mega Drive, Game Boy, NES, Amiga, Atari ST – 1990 The best game ever made? No. But a legend to anyone who was…

Studio Spotlight

SIX OF THE BEST… STEAMPUNK GAMES

The Chaos Engine (see the past couple of pages) got us thinking about all things steampunk. You know: Victorian (ish) setting, steam engines that power machines far in advance of what they should be able to produce in said time period, people wearing rather fantastic outfits involving goggles… Steampunk’s been pretty much a constant through the past 30 years of gaming, and it makes for a great aesthetic – it’s defined enough that there are accepted ideas on thematic form and function, so it’s clear to everyone what’s expected and what’s involved. But it’s woolly enough around the edges that there’s more than enough room for experimentation within its subgenres. What that means for us is, there are plenty of steampunkstyled games, and they absolutely run the gamut of genres. SKIES…

SIX OF THE BEST… STEAMPUNK GAMES

Awesome Boss! Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura Format PC Developer Troika Games Released 2001 An overlooked RPG gem on PC that should get mentioned in the same breath as Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and Planescape Torment. Ahead of its time, brilliantly written, and – yep! – still fun to this day, we highly recommend you hunt down a copy. Classic Moment! Wild Guns Format SNES Developer Natsume Released 1994 It’s cool to think you’re playing a Wild West game that recreates a non-stop shootout, but going into Wild Guns with no prior knowledge can prove a surprising move. First it’s the machine guns, then it’s the little robots randomly running into battle – finally it’s that first boss, who pops up and makes you realise… this isn’t an authenticWild West shootout: it’s steampunk. Remake Request! Jeff Wayne’s War Of…

MAKING THE CRUELLEST MODS

Fallout 76 is fast approaching, and with it, Bethesda is poised to redefine its post-apocalyptic wasteland. However, thanks to a thriving modding scene, the series’ fourth instalment has mutated and survived, much like we’re hoping to in 76. From expanded settlements to exceptional weapons, mods can vastly extend your stay in the Wastleland after you’ve combed every corner of its vast open world. Among the best is The Lost Vault, created by Anthony Piraino, also known as Spiffyskytrooper. This narrative-driven dungeon offers something distinctly different – an atmospheric, disturbing escapade through the labyrinthine halls of an abandoned vault. “When I first started the project, I actually had no intention of finishing it,” recalls Piraino. “I had already begun working out details for a story, but I never really intended for the…

MAKING THE CRUELLEST MODS

HEAD RAP When it comes to headgear, they don’t get much more recognisable than PaRappa the Rapper’s orange beanie. Despite the game being released over two decades ago, officially licensed hats are still being sold to this day, so you can channel the paper-thin dog and lay down some sick beats. Warning, rapping ability not included. STYLE LEVEL UP If there was an award for the coolest hat in gaming (and there should be) it would undoubtedly go to League Of Legends’ Veigar. The Tiny Master Of Evil’s pointy blue number offers both comfort and style. Pair with a blue cloak for maximum badassery, and be mindful of low ceilings. HAT’S MORE LIKE IT The complexity of animating hair on ’80s console hardware resulted in videogames’ most iconic hat resting on Mario’s head. Made in…

Not sure which games to grab? Trust the experts (that’s us) to shine a light of clarity through your fog of confusion. Over this spread you’ll find GamesMaster’s 100 per cent scientifically accurate and indisputable list of the greatest games on modern machines – updated monthly – as well as the top five most vital exclusives on each of the major platforms. Pick one of these up and, buddy, you’re going to have yourself a good time. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD Switch / Wii U Nintendo casually revolutionises the open-world genre with perhaps the best launch title ever. Explore, fight, and cook your way across Hyrule. GRAND THEFT AUTO V PS4 / XO / PC / PS3 / 360 Rockstar’s most detailed, immersive cityscape yet serves as the backdrop for a brilliantly…

THE TOP EXCLUSIVES

1 FORZA MOTORSPORT 7 2 HALO 5: GUARDIANS 3 KALIMBA 4 QUANTUM BREAK 5 GEARS OF WAR 4 1 THE LAST OF US REMASTERED 2 SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS 3 HORIZON: ZERO DAWN 4 UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END 5 GOD OF WAR 1 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD 2 SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY 3 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE 4 MARIO + RABBIDS KINGDOM BATTLE 5 ARMS 1 DOTA 2 2 TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II 3 GUILD WARS 2 4 THE SIMS 4 5 CRUSADER KINGS 2 1 POKÉMON SUN AND MOON 2 FIRE EMBLEM FATES 3 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW LEAF 4 MONSTER HUNTER GENERATIONS 5 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS 1 HEARTHSTONE 2 DEVICE 6 3 80 DAYS 4 SORCERY 4 5 MONUMENT VALLEY…

THE TOP EXCLUSIVES

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