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84 Articles

“The most explosively brilliant games coming this year and next”

The apocalypse isn’t an end – it’s a transformation. In Doom Eternal, demonic invasion turns the world into a playground of hyper-violent action; in Fallout 76, nuclear fire creates a blank canvas, a chance to build something spectacular in the ashes; Metro Exodus makes the Earth a deadly gauntlet you’re challenged to survive at all costs; Rage 2 is about the destruction of all rules, the coming of a wild age of party-punk excess. If this is starting to sound like your induction into a cult, don’t worry – just don your official GamesMaster robes, light a few candles, and read on to find out more about the most explosively brilliant games coming this year and next. We’ve even delved back into past armageddons, too, for two huge retro features, running…

“The most explosively brilliant games coming this year and next”

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS GM is actually designed to survive a worldwide apocalyptic event. A nuke-proof bunker under the office houses both enough paper to last until 2067, and three cockroaches we’ve trained to review games. Robin Valentine For once, our editor has actually booked some time off after this issue. He’s full of plans – painting a Warhammer army, making his own game, maybe he’ll even write a novel. All lovely things to think about while he stares at the ceiling doing nothing. How’s the world going to end? Crushed by an endless tide of Skyrim ports. Rob Crossland Art editor Rob’s been causing trouble ever since he got his motorcycle licence. Listen, we can put up with the noise, the fumes, and even the questionable leather wardrobe, but we draw the line…

LETTER OF THE MONTH

With the recently released masterpiece God Of War, I’ve been able to revisit a genre of gaming that I’ve always loved but feel is fading away! The single-player, story-driven game has always been a staple of the videogame industry, from Metal Gear Solid to Uncharted. Single-player games are some of the best-selling titles in history – games such as The Last Of Us and the Batman Arkham series have won awards and sold millions of copies! However, in more recent years we’ve not only seen a shift towards multiplayer games such as Call Of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront, but also what were once story-driven games prioritising multiplayer such as Grand Theft Auto V with GTA Online. Not only this, but the recent emergence of battle royale as the next big…

LETTER OF THE MONTH

YOUR TOP 5 MOST WANTED

1 RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Format PS4, XO ETA 26 October One gameplay reveal was all it took to shoot Rockstar’s smash-hit-in-the-making back up the charts. Read all the latest on that on p30. 2 ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY Format PS4, XO, PC ETA 5 October Ubisoft’s big fat Greek open world is almost here, and the developer’s claiming it’s even bigger than Origins. So about a million hours of content, then? 3 SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE Format Switch ETA 7 December Nintendo’s Christmas present to you: every Smash character ever, all punching each other over and over. What more could you ask for? 4 SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER Format PS4, XO, PC ETA 14 September Fans of running across things as they collapse under you rejoice: Lara Croft’s latest is out this month! Expect our full review next issue. 5 SPYRO…

YOUR TOP 5 MOST WANTED

SOCIAL GROUSING

The rumours of a new Xbox console in 2020 are all well & good, as long as Microsoft realises that everyone wants backwards compatibility. Jamie Cockshott, @JamieCockshott Resident Evil 4’s Sherry is the best sidekick ever. It started as a rescue mission and could have got really frustrating, but Capcom work magic. Matt Ingy, Facebook People think physical media forms, like magazines, are dying. Although I get my regular fix digitally I wouldn’t be without the one magazine I grew up with for all my gaming info, news, and banter. Don’t ever leave me, GamesMaster – I don’t know how I would cope! Ryan Booth, @TheGeektrovert The first thing I shall do when I buy Red Dead Redemption 2 is put the disc in and punch a cow. Daniel Climo, Facebook I feel like I fell in love…

A TALE OF TWO SONS

Oh, Life Is Strange. We laughed. We cried. We cheated on the bit where Max lost her powers by reloading the checkpoint. It was an unforgettable ride and, by the time you read this, the first episode of the highly anticipated five-episode sequel will be just a few short weeks from release (it crashes onto the scene 27 September). It tells an all-new story with all-new characters, so no more Max and Chloe unless there’s a cheeky cameo. We’re hella excited; how about you? The sequel will again see Dontnod explore a two-person dynamic. Rather than lifelong besties looking out for one another, this time around it’s about brotherly love. The pair in question are Sean and Daniel Diaz, 16 and nine years old respectively. They’ve embarked on a journey to…

A TALE OF TWO SONS

Since the dawn of time the forces of Satan have threatened mankind, held back only by a dedicated breed of demon killers. Leon is not one of them – in fact, he can be a little devilish himself – but we still sent him into Witch Hunt to fight evil. Well, mildly annoy evil. Okay, does ‘slightly get in the way a bit’ count? 0 MINUTES Everything about Witch Hunt punches my buttons. A hunting game that replaces lions and deer with Gothic monsters in an 18th-century setting? So, so in. It’s like The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow with a scoring system, and no-one’s going to come around my house and spray bad words on the garage because I shot a giraffe on holiday. Unless it’s some sort of were-giraffe, which I…

There’s an awkward charm to Witch Hunt, but it’s a frustrating and time-consuming game. What it’s trying to do is a nice idea: it’s basically extending the sort of YouTube jump scare horror fodder into a more interesting structure. But there’s a lot of balancing and tweaking needed. The save system is too harsh, while the combat is more clunky than challenging, and overall it’s a rough experience with a nice atmosphere and a few decent moments. It’s the work of a single person who seems to be hard at work updating it but it might be a while before the more annoying issues get fixed. It’s a great idea and it could one day be a great game – but that time is not now.…

“Far too many villains are depicted as scarred or with an impairment”

“IT LEADS TO AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN VILLAINS, DISABILITY, AND DISFIGUREMENT” Bethesda’s Rage 2 recently came under fire for its use of disfigurements – cleft palates in particular – to distinguish its villains from its heroes. However, this isn’t an isolated incident. Bethesda’s other published games are proof of this. Doom antagonist Olivia Pierce has scoliosis, and in both recent Wolfenstein titles – The New Order and The New Colossus – both Deathshead and Frau Engel have noticeable facial disfigurements. The list goes on with other developers, too: both the Metal Gear and Resident Evil franchises makes use of disfigured villains throughout their games. However, the most blatant link between ‘disabled’ and ‘villain’ comes from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Secondary antagonist Hugh Darrow’s motivation for turning humans and their augmented counterparts against one another…

“Far too many villains are depicted as scarred or with an impairment”

7,600 Number of kills racked up in Call Of Duty WWII by YouTuber ‘TJ The Blind Gamer’. He really is visually impaired, and hunts other players using in-game sound cues. 5m According to developer Rare, Sea Of Thieves has now passed five million players. That’s an awful lot of grog-swigging. 80+ Hours of content, including 40-50 hours of main campaign, in Kingdom Hearts III, claims a representative at Square Enix. 19.67m Number of Switches sold as of 30 June 2018, according to Nintendo. But despite the console’s success, the company’s stock has been a little shaky since E3.…

“Games can evoke strong emotions. Sound is a vital part of that”

“SOUND IS A VITAL PART OF DRAWING OUT THE STRONGEST, MOST ELUSIVE REACTIONS” As anybody familiar with videogames will know, when done right, they are capable of evoking some very strong emotions. I’m not talking about “How did they headshot me from there? Are they aimbotting?” screaming anger, but something more nuanced. A skilled developer can draw out the strongest, most elusive reactions. And though we sometimes don’t realise it, sound is a vital part of that. Fear is one example. Anything from a sudden jump scare to a constant, nerve-shredding sense of unease is dependent on audio cues so masterfully implemented you don’t recognise them for what they are. This often means only minimal use of sound. How much impact would that dog scene from Resident Evil have had if there…

“Games can evoke strong emotions. Sound is a vital part of that”

ROBIN’S PICK Dying Light 2 Nothing gets me more excited about a game than a bit of ambition. Techland is promising a sprawling, detailed cityscape that reacts and changes drastically based on your decisions, and its grand vision sounds fascinating. Am I convinced that the studio will be able to actually pull off such big ideas? Not necessarily. Am I intrigued to see it try? Very much so. And with RPG superstar Chris Avellone on writing duties, I’m hopeful this sequel will tell a more nuanced and interesting story than its predecessor, too. PS4, XO, PC – 2019 ROB’S PICK The Division 2 I can’t wait to spend 1,000+ hours in the Division 2 roaming around Washington. We learnt a lot from the first Division, players and developer alike, so I’m expecting the gameplay and depth…

YOU WIN YOU LOSE

Topping the leaderboard this issue CHINESE TAKEOUT We’re big fans of BAFTA-award-winning studio The Chinese Room, developer of the beautifully eerie Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture. And it looks like Sumo Group feels the same way, because the Crackdown 3 developer has bought the studio. Co-founder Dan Pinchbeck is staying on as Creative Director, so it’ll be interesting to see how its atmospheric work fits in with Sumo’s action-packed roster. UNSTARTED It’s got a director (Shawn Levy) and a star (Tom Holland), and even a script. Now Levy has hinted that the Uncharted movie, a prequel to the games we all love, is nearly at the point of shooting, telling The Playlist, “The closest to the starting line is Uncharted…” DEAD AHEAD Telltale’s released the schedule for The Walking Dead: The Final Season. The first episode…

YOU WIN YOU LOSE

THE GM TO DO LIST

07/09 SPIDER-MANIA Marvel’s Spider-Man swings into shops, kicking off blockbuster game season in style. 14/09 THE CROFT OPTION PlayStation’s premier diva reveals her dark side in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, out today. 14/09 SOUNDS INTRIGUING Use the power of echolocation to explore a creepy mansion in VR thriller Blind, out today. 25/09 GLORY HUNTER FIFA 19 is out today, giving you the chance to win footballing fame without touching a pitch. 25/09 BATTLE STATIONS Valkyria Chronicles 4 lands in shops, so prepare to take to the battlefield. 29/09 BATTERED VEGETA Critically-acclaimed brawler Dragon Ball FighterZ is released today for Switch. 02/10 FORZ GEAR Walk down to the shop and drive away with the day’s big release: Forza Horizon 4. 04/10 SEEING RED(FIELD) Issue 335 of GM is out today – including a new hands-on with Resident Evil 2!…

THE GM TO DO LIST

“DOOMGUY IS NOW SPIDER-MAN WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER” Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Bethesda Developer Id Software ETA TBC Doomguy has a massive fricking energy sword. Sorry for blurting straight in with that. We’ll get to the more thoughtful critique in a moment, we promise, but it’s very important that you know about the energy sword. If there’s one moment that typifies the furiously excited crowd reaction to Doom Eternal’s ever-escalating reveal at QuakeCon 2018 (and really, there are many), it’s the moment The Angriest Marine That Ever Lived popped a huge, eldritch light-blade and got ready to wade in on a colossal demonic warrior. It’s not just the sword that gets such a colossal, WWE-style crowd pop, of course. It’s the foundation of glorious, unbridled, relentlessly evolved ferocity that has led to…

Scenes of carnage

Hell on Earth The primary setting shown off is Earth. Mixing large-scale urban devastation with searing Hellish intrusions, it feels fresh and familiar all at once, and gives the Meathook room for an energetic work-out. Phobos The Martian moon of Phobos is still somehow home to a functioning UAC base, populated with people who aren’t corpses. It’s unclear what’s going on here so far, but it’s definitely not right. Better wreck it. Hell We’re going back to Hell at some point. Maybe a lot, given the amount of lava-strewn artwork we’ve seen. Given the “Doom universe” ambition, it’s likely we’ll learn more about Hell’s inner workings. ??? We don’t officially know what this decidedly more fantastical, almost Lord Of The Rings-esque place is yet. It’s definitely not Earth, but it looks too cool and airy for Hell.…

Scenes of carnage

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Bethesda Developer Bethesda Game Studios ETA 14 November Director Todd Howard is clear: “80% of it is the Fallout everyone is used to, and the other 20% is really different,” he tells us during Fallout 76’s big gameplay presentation at this year’s recent QuakeCon event in Dallas. But as the demo goes on, it becomes clear that some of that 20% cuts right to the heart of the Fallout experience. No doubt about it, this is a Fallout game. The shift to an online, multiplayer environment hasn’t changed that, whatever the knee-jerk commentators of the internet might have wanted you to believe around E3. It’s instantly recognisable, from the folksy decay of the post-apocalyptic, West Virginian setting, to the hulking great mutants that roam the landscape, to…

Fight! Or don’t “When you shoot somebody, you do a little bit of damage. You don’t do full damage. It’s like slapping somebody in a bar. So you do little bits of damage. If [they] engage, thenyou’re doing full damage.” Spoils of war “There’s a cap reward based on the [opposing] player’s level. So if the player [you take down] is really high level, you’re going to get more caps from them than if they’re at a lower level.” Fight fair “The player that kills somebody that didn’t want to engage in [combat] then becomes a wanted murderer. You get no reward, no caps, no XP. You get nothing for becoming a wanted murderer.” Crime doesn’t pay “They appear on your map as a red star. Everybody sees them, and they have a bounty on their head.…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Bethesda Developer Avalanche Studios, Id Software ETA Spring 2019 Keeping the wonderful feeling of an Id shooter was the key thing that we needed to carry on. Then pushing it further and making insane, crazy, over-the-top action. Really, that was the only requirement that Tim [Willits, Id studio director] had when we started. ‘It needs to be an Id shooter’.” So we’re told by Rage 2’s director, Magnus Nedfors, at QuakeCon 2018. We chat to the Avalanche Studios developer a few times over the course of the show, and each time we get a slightly more infectious sense of what Rage 2’s dream-team co-production is shaping up to be. Physically created by Just Cause studio Avalanche in Stockholm, with serious FPS design oversight from Doom creator Id,…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Deep Silver Developer 4A Games ETA 22 February 2019 When the nuclear bombs dropped school was not only out for summer but out forever. That’s the origin of the tribe we run into while playing through our latest hands-on demo. We’ve lost the Aurora, our locomotive home on rails, and find ourselves being dragged from a river by Olga, one of the mysterious ‘Children Of The Forest’. Friend or foe? That’s something we’ll have to discover somewhere in the valley ahead. As we stumble from rotting dormitories on the outskirts of a crumbling summer camp we pick up clues about what happened. This was once a Young Pioneer camp – think USSR scouts meets Camp Crystal Lake with a dash of Leninist indoctrination… and now a whole…

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS IIII

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Activision Developer Treyarch, Beenox ETA 12 October If you were shocked to hear that Activision’s Destiny has killed off a much-loved character, you probably forgot that Call Of Duty has killed off the entire concept of a story campaign . It’s no exaggeration to say that this needs to be the best online experience the series has ever offered. Despite all the changes made, play feels distinctly COD within seconds. Movement and shooting flow just as you’d hope and, this being Black Ops, sliding along the ground is back (albeit significantly nerfed at time of writing) Rather than being handed out like highly explosive sweeties, grenades now need to be unlocked and equipped (and frag grenades come at level 29). That button instead triggers your character’s special ability…

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS IIII

OVERRIDE: MECH CITY BRAWL

Format PS4, XO, PC Developer The Balance Inc. Publisher Modus Games ETA 4 December This game caught our attention last month, because (a) it’s about giant robots hitting each other until one of them explodes, and (b) we’ll gleefully admit that we’re excitable kids trapped in adult bodies here when it comes to giant robots hitting each other until one of them explodes. Having now had some hands-on time with the game, our excitement remains at an unreasonably high level. The available maps are disappointingly flat with the exception of Egypt (which is a little hilly, and even has a small underground area), but smashing through buildings with no consideration for any potential civilians within is great fun, and makes up for the lack of varied terrain. The story mode is being kept…

OVERRIDE: MECH CITY BRAWL

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Format PS4, XO Publisher Rockstar Games Developer Rockstar Games ETA 26 October Holy cow(boy) there’s a lot to unpack in Rockstar’s huge gameplay reveal of its upcoming open-world Western. Choice and consequence-driven scenarios; bonding with your horse; train robberies; stories round the campfire; saloon punch-ups; chinwags with diva theatre actors; incredible vistas; Detective Vision-esque hunts; slow-mo shooting; virtual testes! If the execution of Arthur Morgan’s Wild West sandbox matches the sheer breadth of its content, Rockstar has another outlaw masterpiece on its hands. With less than two months until Red Dead Redemption 2 gallops onto shelves, Rockstar hasn’t been shy about serving up plenty of fresh frontier details. The latest footage promises not just what’s likely to be the largest world the studio has ever made, but an environment that’s “deeper, more…

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher 505 Games Developer Remedy Entertainment ETA 2019 As Remedy breaks from Microsoft exclusivity, can it be a coincidence that it’s called its latest game ‘Control’? A new partnership with 505 is allowing the team to do what it does best — make something new. Few studios are as devoted to making new IP. “We wanted to put ourselves into a position where we have more control of the games we create,” explains Thomas Puha, the firm’s head of communications. “With Control we want to retain the uniqueness that we’re known for,” Mikael Kasurinen, the game’s director, tells us. “But at the same time find a more gameplay-oriented way of tackling it.” Unique is one word for it. Remedy has often explored bizarre secrets hidden in real-life settings…

TOTAL WAR: THREE KINGDOMS

Format PC Publisher Sega Developer Creative Assembly ETA 2019 Look at the response to any Total War game and you’ll see the balancing act Creative Assembly plays with each new release. Should the dev apply old systems to a new time period? Or try something different and risk upsetting fans who just want Medieval 2 remade in a fresh setting? Three Kingdoms, the forthcoming strategy game set in China during the turbulent second century, attempts to do both. There are two modes for the campaign: a standard mode, which works like a normal, historical Total War game, with realistic units and no superpowered generals; and the mode based on Luo Guanzhong’s Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, which has all the dash and high drama of the flamboyant source text. This also reflects…

TOTAL WAR: THREE KINGDOMS

Format PC Publisher Coatsink Developer Bit Loom ETA 2019 The joy of Phogs lies in its simplicity. Two players wrap their hands around the controller (it may be on PC, but the developer recommends you use a pad), thumbs placed on the analogue sticks and fingers on their side’s triggers. Then all each person has to do is control their side of a two-headed dog, stretching out its sausage-y body and grabbing things with their assigned mouth. The goal, of course, is to feed fruit to huge snakes so they’ll let you travel through their bodies. That’s how you move between levels, though later you’ll be getting them to open their mouths in different ways. Okay, maybe the game is not so easy to grasp in that sense. The bizarre, abstract levels floating…

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC Pub Headup Games Dev BTF ETA 2018 This point-and-click adventure hasn’t so much been developed as crafted. Each of its picturesque backdrops was originally created as a physical diorama, before being scanned into the game. The result is a charmingly hand-made look, reminiscent of stop-motion animated films, that perfectly evokes the small-town feel of its rustic 1960s German setting – the eponymous village of Trüberbrook. The game begins with protagonist Hans Tannhauser (inexplicably American, despite the name) arriving at the remote tourist spot, having won a competition he mysteriously doesn’t remember entering. As you might expect, all is not quite as it seems. Odd locals speak cryptically about the village, and from his first night in Trüberbrook Hans is plagued by supernatural events. Twin Peaks is an obvious…

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub THQ Nordic Dev Mimimi Productions ETA 2019 Remember the real-time strategy stealth genre? It’s not exactly thriving these days, but developer Mimimi Production did make a strong case for it with 2016’s Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun. It’s only fitting, then, that the studio should be tasked with resurrecting one of the first series in the genre. As a small team of gold-hearted ruffians – just two in our demo, though later missions allow more – you’ll make your way through the Wild West one stealth takedown at a time. Though you might be tempted to charge in, revolvers blazing, subtlety is the name of the game, and cautious play is rewarded with Hitman-like opportunities to take out your targets in inventive ways. It’s tense, cerebral…

SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE

Format Switch Pub Nintendo Dev Bandai Namco, Sora Ltd ETA 7 Dec Nintendo is still revealing more characters. Simon and Richter Belmont, of Castlevania fame, are joining the roster ready to whip everyone else into shape, and they’re bringing with them a spooky stage, complete with Dracula cameo. Even scarier than that, though, is the addition of Donkey Kong’s long-lost nemesis King K Rool. “Maybe I should have spent a bit more than five minutes coming up with his slightly rubbish name,” lamented his original creator, Gregg Mayles, on Twitter after the reveal. Quite.…

SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE

JAGGED ALLIANCE: RAGE

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher HandyGames Developer Cliffhanger Productions ETA Autumn It’s been a strange decade for Jagged Alliance. While the original games were hailed as strategy classics, 2012’s two attempted revivals – Back In Action and browser-based MMO Jagged Alliance Online – weren’t exactly a hit with critics or fans, and subsequent DLC and expansions for the former failed to win players round. Though publisher HandyGames is keen to manage expectations by making it clear this is a smaller-scale spin-off rather than a full sequel, Jagged Alliance: Rage is a clear attempt to kick off a new era for the series, and make a clean break from recent titles. The tactical turn-based combat harks back directly to the beloved original, and the cast draws from its roster too, even depicting its…

JAGGED ALLIANCE: RAGE

Format TBC Pub Chucklefish Dev Hidden Layer Games ETA 2019 From the publisher of Stardew Valley comes a game that could not be more opposite in tone… This ghoulish adventure oozes grim atmosphere despite its pixel art style, taking place in a near-monochrome world where twisted shadow monsters stalk mankind. Described as a “story-driven puzzle platformer”, it puts you in the shoes of not one but three protagonists (probably spares in case one or two die horribly…), each with their own unique abilities, and tasks you with exploring a spooky castle filled with traps and monstrous creatures. Shudder.…

TORCHLIGHT FRONTIERS

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub Perfect World Dev Echtra Games ETA 2019 Torchlight’s original developer Runic Games sadly closed down last year, but the series lives on. Headed by Echtra Games, Frontiers promises to be an online, MMO-like take on the Diabloaping action, expanding on Torchlight II’s co-op with a shared, Destiny-esque world. The change of dev and cartoonier style do have us a little concerned, but Echtra was created by one of Runic’s original founders, and boasts a number of former members of that studio, along with some ex-Blizzard veterans, so this could prove a worthy successor.…

TORCHLIGHT FRONTIERS

Format PC Pub Abbey Games Dev Abbey Games ETA2019 “Create your own religion,” promises this game from the creators of Reus and Renowned Explorers, in which you command a tribe of impressionable worshippers to spread your choice of values across the land – whether that’s war, love, gluttony, witchcraft, cannibalism, or one of many others. There’s always something tantalising about god games, and this one looks intriguing, but they so often disappoint, and the studio’s previous effort, Reus, though visually impressive, was a tad too dry in practice. Hopefully Godhood is a little more divine.…

THE CONSOLE PORTS

Doom has been ported to everything, including, quite literally, a printer. (Look it up.) But it was the consoles that saw a vast array of different versions – the Mega Drive’s 32X add-on saw a valiant effort ported across, while the SNES saw a frankly ridiculous version, in that it shouldn’t have been possible at all. We kept on getting ports, and it wasn’t until the PS3/Xbox 360 generation that we got ones perfect to the PC originals. But it was two from the ’90s that stand out as truly special: Doom for PlayStation, and Doom64. The former was a cut-down version of the Ultimate Doom, with levels and enemies missing – but it added so much of its own, including one of the best renditions of a Doom soundtrack ever…

GM Special Exclusive Feature! THE ROAD TO HELL

You know Doom – not the firstfirst-person shooter, but the defining one that changed gaming forever (and made a lot of politicians and parents angry along the way). It’s a legendary series, one of the finest in memory – and with Doom Eternal on the way, we thought we’d have a look back at its greatness. DOOM Format PC Publisher GT Interactive Developer Id Software Released 1993 The very first Doom didn’t come out of nowhere – Id had made Wolfenstein 3D the previous year, and anticipation (read: ‘hype’) was very much present. When Doom was released via the University Of Madison-Wisconsin’s FTP server, the system crashed as thousands of people tried to download the game at once. Back in 1993 it wasn’t the immediate world-beater it would become, but the first game…

GM Special Exclusive Feature! THE ROAD TO HELL

DOOM RPG What’s the one genre that you’d always expect to work perfectly for Doom? If you said ‘turn-based role-playing in the style of Dungeon Master, and only on smartphone’ then you’d be absolutely right. Doom RPG shouldn’t have worked, but it absolutely did, turning a fast-paced shooter into a slow-paced exercise in patience and cunning. Levelling up by punching demons is never not fun, and it’s a genuine surprise we haven’t seen more spin-offs like this one popping up over the years – maybe a Doom take on Fallout Shelter could work? DOOM RESURRECTION The capabilities of the iPhone were never in doubt, and the game was five years old by the time it hit Apple’s device, but there was still something eerily spectacular about how well it was able to run…

The point where the mood started to change towards Doom came in 1996 – we had been inundated with map packs and add-ons (mostly unofficial), and media attention had absolutely saturated the world with Doom. It even got a mention in Friends, ridiculously. It would have been the right call by Id to say there and then, “That’s it, no more Doom”. But Final Doom didn’t come from Id – it was made by a team of modders, contracted by publisher GT Interactive to craft dozens of extra levels for the series, with nothing else new about them – oh, bar the fact they were ludicrously difficult. A rather unnecessary entry in the Doom canon, then, though not without its sadistic charms.…

BRUTAL DOOM The mod of mods, Brutal Doom is still being regularly updated to this day, and changed the superb original into something all of its own. Weapons fired more realistically, gore flew around the screen and saturated the ground, and you even got to ride in tanks. It was one of the best mods of anything, ever. As long as you were old enough to play it. CYBERDREAMS A mod that showed it wasn’t just about adding in movies or big guns to make people take notice, Cyberdreams instead presented you with a series of situations that you had to escape. Not blast or annihilate – run away from. This was done by smart use of your spatial awareness, navigation talents, and ability to avoid the Cyberdemon’s incoming rockets. ALIENS TC There were plenty…

Bethesda might be claiming otherwise, but the next Fallout isn’t the 76th in the series. That’s a joke that’s about as old as the series, actually – so let’s take a look back at everything the post-apocalyptic RPG franchise has been through. From the early, niche days, through to the modern world-beater, much has changed over the years… FALLOUT Format PC Publisher Interplay Productions Developer Interplay Productions Released 1997 Living in an underground vault isn’t all smooth sailing – eventually, decades after a nuclear war, your water chip might break, putting everyone in said vault at risk of dying of dehydration. Which would suck, having managed to avoid atomic armageddon. That’s what happens in the original Fallout, by the way, and is the setup to push you into the ruined outside world, to…

FALLOUT TACTICS Focusing in on Fallout’s combat encounters, Tactics boiled down the experience in a satisfying manner. Fans of the freeform interactions of previous FO titles were let down by the game, sure, but those of us who loved the turn-based combat systems behind the first generation of post-apocalyptic RPGs were spoilt. It was a shame the sequel never arrived, as it was the ideal approach to a non-core Fallout – and these days it’s not an approach that would work at all. FALLOUT: BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL It was inevitable that consoles would get their own version of Fallout – and this being the pre-Bethesda days, Brotherhood Of Steel was… lacking, let’s say. Linear, no NPC interaction, an inability to customise your character, real-time combat – while the latter element appeared from Fallout…

The CANCELLED GAMES

Unsurprisingly for a series so popular, Fallout has had its fair share of cancelled games – throw in a failing publisher in the shape of Interplay and you get even more fun. Lesser-known cancellations come in the shape of Fallout Extreme (a squad-based console shooter cancelled pre-development), Fallout Tactics, and Brotherhood Of Steel sequels (those two cancelled owing to external factors). But it’s Fallout Online and the original Fallout 3, Van Buren, that got the most attention. Both were being made by Black Isle, the series’ original development team (though much changed personnel-wise), and both garnered a fair bit of hype. Both were ultimately cancelled thanks to Interplay going under, the Fallout licence transferring to Bethesda, and a lot of other generally confusing elements. Neither will ever see release, sadly.…

The CANCELLED GAMES

#1 THE LIGHT KEEPS US SAFE

“AUTOMATED DRONES WILL REACTIVATE MACHINES YOU’VE PREVIOUSLY SHUT DOWN” Format PC Developer Big Robot ETA Spring 2019 Web bit.ly/gm_safe Big Robot has a wonderful knack for picking evocative titles for its games. And yet the team behind The Signal From Tölva and Sir, You Are Being Hunted had a very different name for its latest project. “The working title was Bleak As F***,” says the studio’s Jim Rossignol. “We wanted to go and do something really dark, which was actually quite difficult because we’re quite chirpy fellas, really.” The Light Keeps Us Safe seems to have followed hard on the heels of Tölva’s substantial Polar Expansion, though it’s actually been in development since last summer. Programmer Tom Betts had been working on several prototypes, and Rossignol went through them all with him until…

#1 THE LIGHT KEEPS US SAFE

The 60 Second Pitch

“Basically, the story is that you wake up in a bunker with the narrator [Burnistoun’s Louise Stewart] talking to you. As you start exploring the world, you discover that everyone else has “gone into the light”, as she explains – and she tells you that you should try to get there, too. As you explore the initial bunker area, there’s no food or water, and you’ll find places that have been locked off by various hazards that you can’t get to, including a strange machine which is now dead but looks like it could be just what you need to get out of there. And as the game unfolds, there is a series of events which makes you less certain that this is what you should be doing – or at least…

The 60 Second Pitch

Format PS4, PC Developer Hairy Heart Games ETA 2019 Web bit.ly/gm_yucatan Now for something completely different – and we mean completely . “It’s primarily a racing game,” says developer Joe Bain, but that doesn’t come close to describing the hypnotic neon fever dream that is Yucatan. It’s a Metroidvania in a car, full of looping tracks, lazy drifts, and stomach-fluttering flips, set to a shouty punk/grunge soundtrack – not to mention the talking skulls. Yes, it’s a racing game. But it’s not like any other racing game we’ve ever played. There’s no track select screen, because technically there’s only one track – or, rather, a series of interconnected sections. In each of these you’re asked to reach the finish line before the timer runs down: in the current demo there are loads…

Small… But Perfectly Formed

THE LONG DARK Whether you prefer passive exploration, a deeper narrative focus, or a more hardcore survival experience, Hinterland’s wintry survival game feels wonderfully primal. Its snowbound world is thick with mystery and danger; even in such extreme conditions, it begs to be explored. SUBNAUTICA It’s amazing what a change of scenery can do for familiar ideas. Subnautica follows a similar rhythm to many survival games, in the sense that you steadily eke your way towards self-sufficiency. But the underwater world – gorgeous, mostly peaceful, and just a little scary – is a joy to swim around. THE FOREST Being alone in the wilderness is unnerving enough, let alone when you’re being tailed by a group of cannibals. Endnight Games’ horrifying walk in the woods is not without flaws, but its AI is disturbingly brilliant.…

Small… But Perfectly Formed

Format PC Developer Psilocybe Games ETA 2019 Web bit.ly/gm_artificer Magic and science tend to be viewed as opposites. Since magic seemingly involves forces beyond nature, it would appear to be incompatible with a world underpinned by science. Which is partly why the premise of this new survival game is so intriguing: here is a place in which the two co-exist. You play as Raymond Everett, whose spacecraft has been destroyed, conveniently near an oxygen-rich planet called Alcor. But while he can breathe unaided, it’s still a fairly hostile environment. Venture towards the signal your handheld communicator has alerted you to, and you’ll soon find yourself under attack from the local fauna. You’ve got your usual checklist of early objectives: secure drinking water, construct a temporary shelter, use your communicator to locate other survivors…

“ENGROSSING NARRATIVE-LED STRATEGY IN A DESOLATE GALAXY” Format PC Developer Alt Shift ETA December Web bit.ly/gm_crying Oh, bother – there’s an outbreak of flu on our ship. It appears to be a new strain, too, but we haven’t really got the time to investigate further. We opt to treat it as normal. Bad move. We’re not medical professionals, but we’re sure any transmission that ends with a flunky muttering “They were eating their brains, sir,” is never good news. That brain-munching outcome is just one potential scenario in this engrossing narrative-led strategy game, set in a desolate galaxy. Your job, as a clone awoken by an artificially intelligent machine, is to explore a variety of procedurally-generated planetary systems and discover why it’s fallen into ruin, flitting between satellites and planets and dealing with…

Gaming has a rich history when it comes to poking around the scene of the crime. Ever since 1983 murder mystery The Portopia Serial Murder Case we’ve solved all kinds of grisly goings-on, from the gentle deductions of Professor Layton to the Batman’s gadget-laden investigations. Here are seven of the best titles to play Poirot in. “YOUR WATCH PROJECTS 3D HOLOGRAMS OF CRIME SCENES RIGHT TO YOUR CONTACT LENSES” THE DIVISION Format PC, PS4, XO Publisher Ubisoft Developer Massive Entertainment Released2016 Ubisoft’s New York-set MMO has a novel way of inserting you directly into its crime scenes. ECHOs, or ‘Evidence Correlation Holographic Overlays’, are essentially reconstructions of past events using recordings mined from surveillance cameras and smartphones. In the game, your watch uses this data to project 3D holograms of crime scenes right to…

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…

“YOU’RE TOLD EXACTLY WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO AND WHO TO TALK TO. IT’S MINDLESS” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Gearbox Publishing Developer Compulsion Games ETA Out now Players 1 During our 25 hours with We Happy Few, we’ve filled in for a male model on the catwalk, thrusting our hips while flashbulbs popped. We’ve listened to German jokes on the radio for ten minutes straight in an underground tunnel. We’ve choked out a policeman for whistling the national anthem too loud, slipped into a rubber catsuit to infiltrate a kinky cattle prod party, and pulled the trigger on a gun that literally fires bees. It is, at its best, a bizarre series of unlikely events. Unfortunately, what happens between those events is inescapably – almost offensively – boring. It’s set…

Sally has a baby, and due to the rules of the city, has to keep the little one secret – while still keeping her healthy and happy. At first this seems an interesting twist, but the game’s flawed survival systems soon undermine it. Keeping young Gwen alive means periodically rushing back from missions to cuddle her, feed her milk, and change her nappy. That, in turn, requires crafting materials: metal rods for the water filters, or duct tape for the nappy. Layered on top of Sally’s own needs, this responsibility soon becomes an annoying distraction in a game already full of busywork.…

Every time you step onto the streets in Wellington Wells, you risk the wrath of the authorities. They’re on the lookout for any abnormalities, including whether the clothes you’re wearing fit in with those around you. Most people, including police, are easy to fool, but machines like the one pictured above are tougher. You’re supposed to be taking the drug ‘Joy’ all the time to make sure you’re happy in your ’60s psychedelic dystopia, but in reality that’s not practical. If you keep taking Joy you’ll overdose, with heavy penalties. Thankfully, people won’t notice if you’re off Joy – a so-called ‘downer’. Machines, however, will still catch you out, and sound a siren. The police set up various checkpoints across the islands, which you can only pass through if you’ve recently taken…

While playable versions of Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua On are highlights in Kiwami 2’s arcades, another game from Sega’s vault takes the piddle. In Sotenbori, you’ll find Toylets, a series of minigames played using an interactive urinal with an LCD display and the strength of your bodily fluids – controlled by the analogue triggers. Naturally, there are conditions for being able to play, which is why a drinks vending machine is conveniently nearby. It might sound like peak Japan but some of the most popular interactive urinals are created by UK-based Captive Media. You could call it their number one speciality.…

YAKUZA KIWAMI 2

“GETTING SUCKED INTO ODDBALL SIDE-QUESTS REMAINS THE MOST APPEALING PART OF YAKUZA” Format PS4 Publisher Sega Developer Sega ETA Out now Players 1 It’s hard to say goodbye. Which is why after supposedly watching Kazuma Kiryu disappear into the sunset in Yakuza 6 earlier this year, we find ourselves back on the streets of Kamurocho, kicking butt, taking names, and being a good samaritan like always. In a way, the series is currently split into two timelines, one where the Dragon Of Dojima’s story is over and awaiting another hero to take up the mantle, while the other is for the latecomers finally catching up with its weird and wonderful charm after prequel Yakuza 0 inadvertently became the series’ coming-out party in the West in 2017. It’s the latter who are catered to…

YAKUZA KIWAMI 2

Given the ridiculous masculinity on display, it’s hard to ignore the lack of female characters in Yakuza who aren’t presented as victims in the story or play objects in the more eyebrow-raising minigames. To an extent, Kiwami 2 fares better than other entries so far with a few women in more prominent roles. Chief among these is Osakan police detective Kaoru Sayama, nicknamed ‘the Yakuza Huntress’, who’s introduced smashing up a two-bit yakuza’s office before having her boys take him in. She’s also a capable brawler when she’s accompanying Kiryu – there are even a couple of heat moves you can pull off with her around – while her backstory and developing relationship with Kiryu are a highlight in this story. Other notable mentions include Yayoi Dojima, acting chairwoman of the Tojo…

RANDOM DOCTRINE

As with any great game encouraging endless runs, there’s a healthy dosing of randomisation here. The maps for all side-missions and even some story missions are drawn from a vast pool. According to the developer, you shouldn’t see the same map twice for at least one-and-a-half 40-hour campaigns, which is impressive. All the agents have randomised backgrounds and appearances too, except for the main campaign characters who you can customise with some rad ’80s wear (including brown aviator glasses, trousers pulled up too high, and a ciggie/pipe permanently stuck in their mouth).…

RANDOM DOCTRINE

PHANTOM DOCTRINE

“YOU’LL FEEL YOUR TRUST OF ANYONE EVAPORATING INTO THE GAME’S NEVER-ENDING NIGHT” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher CreativeForge Games Developer CreativeForge Games ETA Out now Players 1 From Solid Snake to Sam Fisher, videogames have always revered the action end of the spy genre. But what of the Tinker Tailor stuff? The interrogations, the defections, the grey-suited men with suave glasses poring over dossiers and informants exchanging code-words on autumnal park benches? Phantom Doctrine is the most earnest attempt since Sid Meier’s Covert Action to capture it all. It’s 1983 and the Cold War is at its frostiest; every cargo shipment, submarine movement, and unaccounted member of defence staff is a source of suspicion. You enter this pressure-cooker environment, taking charge of either a CIA or KGB spy cell. There’s no difference…

PHANTOM DOCTRINE

“IT’S THE VIDEOGAME EQUIVALENT OF BURSTING BUBBLE WRAP, AND WE COULD DO IT ALL DAY” Format PS4, PC, Mobile Publisher Annapurna Interactive Developer Ben Esposito ETA Out now Players 1 DK the raccoon works in a doughnut shop, but doesn’t appear to know what a doughnut is. Whenever a customer orders one, he doesn’t send a frosted treat. Instead, he sends a giant, moveable hole to their garden into which tumble cars, bunnies, deck chairs and, eventually, the customer. These customers are now gathered in an underground cave that they must escape from – but first, you must slip into each of their memories to find out how they fell into the depths. Basically, it’s an excuse to control the holes, and that’s all we wanted, really. In each level, your hole starts…

RUSSIAN SUBWAY DOGS

“YOU MUST RUN, JUMP, AND BARK BEHIND COMMUTERS TO MAKE THEM DROP THEIR FOOD” Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed), PS Vita Pub Spooky Squid Games Dev Spooky Squid Games ETA Out now Players 1 Art imitates life, and while it often captures the most brutal parts of our existence, sometimes it can draw on a wholesome feat of nature and create something unique.This indie title seeks to gamify the very real plight of the stray canines that have mastered the Moscow Metro. Sleeping in the quiet stations and stealing dinner from the central stops, thousands of hounds play the system daily to escape the cold and survive. Luckily for Spooky Squid Games, the dogs’ unorthodox methods translate into a compelling arcade experience that’s oozing with charm. The gameplay is deceptively simple. As the…

RUSSIAN SUBWAY DOGS

DRAGON QUEST XI: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE

Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Square Enix Developer Square Enix ETA Out now Players 1 In Japan, the Dragon Quest series has a well-established and devoted fanbase, not unlike that of Final Fantasy. In Europe, its release history is patchy, making Dragon Quest VIII: Journey Of The Cursed King the most widely-known part of the series. Dragon Quest XI marks a number of firsts for the series – it’s the first single-player release for PlayStation since part VIII, initially released back in 2006. It’s also the first main line title to release for PCs. Mostly, however, Dragon Quest XI stands out for all the things it does exactly the same way as its predecessors. Welcome to JRPGs of days past. Here we still enjoy turn-based combat and completely silent heroes travelling the…

DRAGON QUEST XI: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE

Make your gear At camps, you can use the fun-sized forge to bash up a bit of new hardware. Recipes for weapons are littered throughout the world, and creating them at the forge is a fun way to get rare gear or save money on equipment. Even though the materials you need are hard to come by, the process of making your own stuff is very satisfying. Steal stuff Simply walk into someone’s house, open their wardrobes and smash their pots. Hey, if Link can do it, so can you – don’t tell us it’s not the sort of thing heroes do. Additionally, teach your team mate Erik the skill to steal from monsters, which he can use as a regular ability or during a special attack while pepped up, for some more…

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Motion Twin Developer Motion Twin ETA Out now Players 1 You’ll love Dead Cells. Most of the time, at any rate . But it’s those brief, intermittent moments of hatred that’ll make you really appreciate its stranglehold on your psyche. How would you feel if, after 40 minutes of balletic slashing and dodge-rolling, your irreversible death came at the nip of a green maggot that caught you unsighted? Maybe, if this were another game, you’d vow to never play again, but in this case you’ll always come back for more. After a year and some months of the smoothest conceivable Early Access run on Steam, Dead Cells has slinked into version 1.0, a finished release. It’s testament to the game’s polish that the differences between…

Why are the animations in Dead Cells so good? There’s a bit of trickery going on: while the backgrounds are hand-drawn, all the character animations are 3D models smushed down to 2D. This was partly due to time restraints, but also because the results are impressive. 1 A rudimentary 3D model is made. It can afford to look ugly because it’ll be squashed to the size of a 2D model. 2 The model is shrunk to around its eventual size and rendered without antialiasing, giving it a jagged pixel look. 3 The model is given animations, cut down to the minimum frames, and interpolated to look ‘flowing’. 4 Each frame is exported into a png file with the normal map, then rendered with a toon shader. 5 A couple of blend modes are thrown in…

SWORD LEGACY OMEN

Format PC Publisher Team17 Developer Firecast Studio, Fableware Narrative Design ETA Out now Players 1 We’re certainly not lacking in choice when it comes to high-quality, isometric RPGs. Whether it’s Pillars Of Eternity or The Banner Saga, our options are varied and tantalising. Now a small team of Brazilian indie developers have thrown their hat into the ring, too, introducing a macabre reimagining of Arthurian legend. Sword Legacy Omen takes place in the fictional realm of Broken Britannia; a land burdened by strife, where technological advances are derived from alchemy and crude science. You play as the rugged Uther, a disgraced knight-commander on a journey to acquire the mythical, long-lost sword of Excalibur in the hope of using it to defeat the malevolent Duke Of Wessex and avenge your fallen Lord. Throughout your…

SWORD LEGACY OMEN

Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Daedalic Entertainment Dev Daedalic Entertainment ETA Out now Players 1 Bringing together ideas of robotics, memory, and virtual reality, you can’t say this sci-fi narrative adventure from Daedalic Entertainment isn’t ambitious. Invoking transhumanism amid brewing unrest between man and machine, the game takes a lot in its stride within its comparatively small mystery. However, some odd pacing and clunky dialogue prevent it from being as compelling as it could be. Richard, a grumpy journalist in 2048 Berlin, wakes up from a car accident in hospital with little recollection of what happened. Returning home to learn his wife and son have disappeared, he ventures out into the city to find them, into a world where the increased use of databasing and android automation is leading to…

Some of the original’s colourful cast make a comeback, including Calaca’s old compadre Flame Face. Having given up his bad guy ways, he’s opened a chain of Fight-A-Toriums which you can visit to hone your wrestling skills. Simply chain together the on-screen combos and you’ll be given a cash reward for your efforts. Juan’s goatman mentor Uay Chivo also appears, but not just the once. This time, you’ll meet Uay Chivos from all different timelines. Each has their own peculiar personality (definitelypeculiar), but none are too happy with you breaking their Choozo Statues to unlock your special abilities.…

Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Drinkbox Studios Developer Drinkbox Studios ETA Out now Players 1-4 Juan Aguacate’s quest to save the Mexiverse from evil skeleton Carlos Calaca in the original Guacamelee! provided one of the best Metroidvania-style platformers on the market. Now, our favourite luchador returns to the ring for another round of Mexican-themed hilarity that offers new special abilities, more demanding platforming, killer combos against a greater array of enemies, and even more chicken-based chaos. Seven years after he bested Calaca, Juan is slightly older, and significantly plumper. He’s given up his luchador ways and settled into married life – but, inevitably, the story sees him called to don his magical mask once again. This time around, he’s on the trail of rival luchador Salvador, who’s gunning for some sacred guacamole.…

FEARSOME FOURSOME

The game allows for local co-operative play for you and up to three spandex-clad amigos. It works a handy via drop-in/drop-out system that allows players to instantly get in on the action, and vamoose whenever they’ve had enough. There’s a nice variety of characters to choose from too. The mysterious female luchador Tostada, the guardian of Juan’s mask, makes a return, sporting a vibrant new red ensemble. Other starting characters include Uay Chivo, Juan’s cantankerous friend and teacher, and X’tabay, the fiery female baddie from the first. You can switch to whichever one you like, even in single-player, with an even greater array of characters available as unlocks. It’s fair to think that playing together wouldn’t work in a game like this, but the developer has come up with an ingenious way…

FEARSOME FOURSOME

Format PC Publisher Wadjet Eye Games Developer Wadjet Eye Games ETA Out now Players 1 There’s a general attitude towards point-and-click adventures that, much like a fine wine or a Star Wars movie, the old stuff is the best stuff and anything post-1998 is a waste of time. Yet those of us who love the genre know just how untrue this is. Everything from Double Fine’s Broken Age, to Wadjet Eye’s previous work on Gemini Rue and Technobabylon serves to prove that the good old point-and-click is alive and well. The titular Unavowed are a secret society of sorts, operating out of an old terraced house in the heart of New York. Sworn to protect the city from supernatural threats, they include a djinn named Mandala and a fire mage in a…

THIS IS THE POLICE 2

Format PC Publisher THQ Nordic Developer Weappy Studio ETA Out now Players 1 In the quiet streets of this little town, corruption and violence hide around every corner. Unbalanced customers attack retail workers, bank robbers run heists, drug dealers stash huge quantities of heroin under the floorboards of rickety shacks, and even the police force is a veritable den of infamy. Welcome to Sharpwood. This Is The Police 2 is a game of real-time strategy, resource management, and turn-based combat. It continues the story of the protagonist of the first game, former Chief of Police Jack Boyd, as he flees the consequences of his corruption and ends up the right-hand man to the inexperienced Sheriff of Sharpwood, Lilly Reed. The gameplay has a simple cycle: allocate your officers for each day, respond…

THIS IS THE POLICE 2

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, Switch, PC Publisher Team 17 Developer Planet Alpha Game Studio ETA Out now Players 1 This indie debut is clearly meant as an homage to the sci-fi cinematic platformers of yesteryear – games such as Another World and Heart Of Darkness that offered a slower, more methodical alternative to the frantic platformers dominating consoles at the time. And we can see that it’s a passion project from some very talented artists and designers. But all the good intentions in the world aren’t enough when your final product suffers under the weight of poor level design and frustrating puzzles. Planet Alpha is an adventure platformer played in a 2.5d perspective, a creative decision that allows for some incredibly dynamic environments. Every scene is bursting with a sense of movement…

FINDING ANSWERS ON PLANET ALPHA

Planet Alpha isn’t a solely linear experience. Scattered across its many chapters are these glowing portals, which seemingly offer an escape from the many horrors infesting the planet’s surface. Step through one and you’ll find yourself in what appears to be an entirely different dimension, with floating platforms and bottomless pits (so, ultimately not thatmuch different from what you usually encounter). The purpose of completing these hidden sections isn’t made all too clear, but they appear to have something to do with achieving the game’s ‘true’ ending. So, if you’re eager to learn the whole story, you’ll need to be on the hunt for these particular pulsating doorways. Which series of films feature slug dinosaur hybrids? The Land Before Slime…

FINDING ANSWERS ON PLANET ALPHA

THE WALKING DEAD: THE FINAL SEASON – EPISODE ONE

Format Switch, PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Pub Telltale Games Dev Telltale Games ETA Out now Players 1 No-one who’s come this far with Clementine could fail to get a lump in their throat on seeing that word ‘Final’. The pressure’s on, then, for this to be a worthy send-off, and the good news is the first episode bears that baggage well, introducing just enough tweaks to the formula to breathe new life into it one last time. Clementine’s a few years older and wiser than last season, still caring for AJ, who’s now more capable and independent, though desperately in need of guidance. Stepping back into her shoes is like reuniting with an old friend, and smart changes to player movement make controlling her smoother than ever before. The visuals are surprisingly…

THE WALKING DEAD: THE FINAL SEASON – EPISODE ONE

MOONLIGHTER 1 PC The shopkeeper-by-day, dungeoneer-by-night loop is brilliantly compelling, but you know being editor is getting to me when a game about working two jobs is how I relax… Robin Valentine, Editor DEAD CELLS 2 SWITCH Take your eye off the ball in this light-speed roguelike, even for a second, and it immediately does you in. You’ve got to respect that kind of ruthless efficiency… while you shout swear words at your Switch. Robin Valentine, Editor NO MAN’S SKY 3 XO My first few hours have mostly been spent dying – freezing, suffocating, falling, getting shot… At least now I’ve found a warm underground cave to hide in. Time for some mining. Rob Crossland, Art Editor GRAND THEFT AUTO V 4 PC GTA Online is such addictive mayhem – this month I’ve bought a night club, taken over a motorcycle gang, and… been…

Format Switch, PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Pub Team17 Dev Ghost Town Games ETA Out now Players 1-4 If the first Overcooked was a delicious chocolate cake, its new sequel is… well, another chocolate cake. Just as well-baked, just as nice to share with friends – but we’re still pretty full from the last one. Though it certainly doesn’t lack for quantity, this sequel is so similar to its predecessor as to feel more like a standalone expansion. For anyone unfamiliar, that means a succession of co-op challenges that see you and up to three mates preparing, cooking, and combining ingredients to fill a never-ending stream of orders. As ever, the frantic teamwork brilliantly evokes the stress and chaos of a high-pressure restaurant kitchen – except Gordon Ramsay never has to make meals…

In the mood to watch a beloved videogame character get his head blown off? You’re in luck! Bungie’s got you covered with its Cayde-offing new expansion for Destiny 2. Out now, Forsaken includes not just android executions, but also a whole new area, the Tangled Shore, a field of asteroids crudely lashed together that serves as a shady meeting point for outlaws and pirates. You also get to battle in the PvE-meets-PvP Gambit mode, which sees two teams of four racing to beat AI enemies the fastest – and messing with each other by spawning extra gribblies for their opponents, or even warping into their area to take them out head-on. A little later this month, on 14 September, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 dives back into history in Torna – The Golden…

Laser fire riddles the background and foreground as you, the meek scientist hero of our tale, try in vain to blast your way through the energy shields ahead of you. One beam strikes a hostile, immediately vaporising the alien creature, leaving only a kneeling skeleton, which then explodes. You don’t know what you’re doing this for, or even where you’re going. But then, this is Another World. The origin Working on the graphics for one of Delphine Software’s earliest releases, time-travelling adventure Future Wars, Eric Chahi was part of a studio known for pushing the boundaries of what games should be. It wasn’t churning out classics, but it wasn’t afraid to experiment with form – and make things decidedly Gallic at the same time. After completing Future Wars, Chahi found himself faced with…

Studio Spotlight

1 Future Wars (PC, Amiga, Atari ST – 1989) A time-travelling adventure game, Future Wars was intended to be the first in a series of travails for an unnamed hero (originally a window cleaner), but sadly that wasn’t to be. Still, we got a great alternative to Sierra and LucasArts’ point-and-click titles in Future Wars, and the stylish Parisian flair set the scene for plenty of Delphine games to come. 2 Cruise For A Corpse (PC, Amiga, Atari ST – 1991) A period whodunnit set aboard a cruise liner, Cruise For A Corpse was the Poirot simulator we never actually knew we wanted. With its rotoscoped graphics and rich atmosphere, it cemented Delphine as a studio with cinematic chops. The game itself was largely forgettable, admittedly, but there’s no doubting the ambition of this point-and-click…

Studio Spotlight

SIX OF THE BEST… SPACESHIPS

Spaceships are strange things – they might seem at first to just be vehicles for pootling around the vast vacuum of emptiness. In a lot of games, they are, but many are also something you end up loving deeply, because a good ship becomes a character all of its own. But the spaceship can be even more than a vehicle and a character. Great gaming ones can serve as home bases, a source of employment (get out and trade with the universe!), or even the setting for a whole game – after all, games and science fiction aren’t limited by mundane things like ‘space’ (the other kind) or ‘realistic dimensions’. So here’s to six of the very best gaming spaceships, whatever their purpose may be. Without you, life would be…

SIX OF THE BEST… SPACESHIPS

It’s Still Good! Resident Evil 2 Format PC, Dreamcast, N64, PS1 Developer Capcom Released 1998 A lot of chat these days is about the Resident Evil 2 remake – and with good cause; it looks and plays brilliantly. But we shouldn’t discount the original release, because it holds up well… if you can get past a few elements uniqueto the series. Tank controls and fixed cameras be damned, though, OG Resi 2 is still worth a play. Classic Moment! The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Format PC, PS3, 360 Developer Bethesda Softworks Released 2006 The ‘reveal’ has been a big part of Bethesda’s epic RPGs for a long time, but it was Oblivion that nailed it. Emerging after a journey through jail cells, hidden tunnels, caves, and a sewer, players were met with a gorgeous vista. Never before…

THEY KNOW WHAT THE LADIES LIKE

When the Halo series stormed onto Xbox in the early 2000s, it changed the face of first-person shooters forever. With revolutionary features such as a dual analog control scheme and regenerating shields, it became the benchmark for the genre. So successful was the series that its protagonist, Master Chief, was propelled to superstardom, becoming the mascot for Microsoft’s games machine. However, for a series that’s had such an impact on console, Halo has made relatively small waves on PC. We’re catching up with a team of steadfast Halo fans who are hoping to change that. That team is Soon Studios, and its mission is to recreate the multiplayer experiences of Halo games from the Bungie era (2001-10), for PC. The game, Installation 01, is being built using the Unity 5 engine…

THEY KNOW WHAT THE LADIES LIKE

LIQUID COURAGE This special edition of Prima’s Dark Souls III guide comes with a real-life replica of an Estus Flask. However, it’s not as helpful as the virtual version; this model flask is sealed, so, sadly, nasty wounds will have to be sorted with medical attention rather than a magical healing potion. LARA LOVE Lara needs a lot of energy for running around those ancient ruins, and Lucozade is clearly her soft drink of choice. In fact, she’s guzzled so much of the stuff they’ve even rebranded the sparkling soda ‘Larazade’… or, you know, it’s part of a promotion for Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. BOTTLES OF FUN Grab a bottle of this limited edition Nuka-Cola Quantum from Jones Soda and prepare to roleplay your very own post-apocalyptic scenario. It’s available in a refreshing and…

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…

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