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battleborn hands-on: a earn 10,000 achievement beater? points in just 24 hours!

5: guardians

Is this the greatest lineup in history? All the biggest Christmas games reviewed and rated! 4

upgrade rise of the your xbox Tech, Tips and Tricks for an even beTTer assassin’s creed syndicate weapons, ventional uncon e. ter with carnag orld shoo e open-w and massiv elocity mutants, A high-v crazed

Blood and Gore Drug Reference Sexual Themes Strong Language is the trademark and and the INSOMNIAC logo are the Violence registered trademarks of Insomniac Games, Inc. Copyright 2014, Insomniac Games, Inc. All rights reserved. #sunsetoverdrive | xbox.com/sunsetoverdrive Editor’s LEttEr ISSUE #183 / January 2015 EDItOrIAl Welcome to the reviews issue Editor-in-Chief: Matthew Castle [email protected] (live: OXM Pesto) Deputy Editor: Alex Dale as there ever been a better [email protected] (live: ChocoboOfDoom) Art Editor: rob Crossland [email protected] (live: OXM robC) time to leap into the current Production Editor: Emma Davies [email protected] (live: OXM Emma) generation? Xbox One’s new Staff writer: tom Stone [email protected] (live: OXM tom Stone) Community Editor: Joe Skrebels interface is a transformation [email protected] [live: OXM Joe] of Ugly Duckling proportions: writing: Martin Kitts, Chris Schilling, Mark Field, Paul Taylor, Chris Thursten, Tom Sykes, Ben Maxwell, Alice Bell, Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, Jenny Baker Hit’s faster, smarter, and comes with our Elizabeth Elliott BUSInESS hallowed backwards compatibility. And vice President, Sales Stacy Gaines, [email protected] vice President, Strategic Partnerships look at our bulging reviews section: Isaac Ugay, [email protected] Account Director Halo 5, Tomb Raider, Black Ops III, Michael Plump, [email protected] Account Director tad Perez, [email protected] Assassin’s Creed Cockney Edition… this Account Director Austin Park, [email protected] is our most exciting reviews section in Account Director “This monTh we Jessica reinert, [email protected] Account Manager years. It’s a great time to join the Xbox Elizabeth Fleischman, [email protected] have our mosT Director of Marketing One club (note: not a real club) and so robbie Montinola Director, Client Services exciTing reviews tracy lam I tasked the team to compile a feature Director, retail Sales secTion in years” on how to supercharge the machine Bill Shewey PrODUCtIOn Production Manager Mark Constance straight out of the . Whether it’s Production Controller nola Cokely Project Manager Clare Scott cool add-on tech, free games or easy Production Assistant Emily Wood SUBSCrIPtIOn QUErIES Achievements, OXM has you covered. Visit us on the web at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/ official-xbox-magazine-subscription, email us at contact@ myfavouritemagazines.com, call us toll free at 1-844-779-2822, or write to us at Customer Care, P.O. Box 2024, langhorne, PA 19047.

BACK ISSUES to order back issues, please call us at 1-844-779-2822, or visit us on the web at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/xbox- EMAIL [email protected] the-official-magazine-back-issues/ LIvE oxm Pesto @mrbasil_pesto rEPrIntS Please contact us at Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 Meet the… oxm contributors Phone (650) 872-1642 Fax (650) 872-2207 Website www.futureus.com issn 1534-7850 © 2015 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. , Xbox, and the Xbox logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective holders.

Alex dale tom stone Emma davies Joe skrebels Deputy editor Staff writer Production editor Community manager Live chocoboofDoom Live oxm Tom stone Live oxm emma Live oxm Joe twitter @ twitter @ twitter @emcetera twitter @2plus2isjoe sporadicDaler TheTomstrange

emma’s packing for Latvian-australian President, US Charlie Speight There was only one we exposed writing- Berlin as we speak. mash-up ‘uncle’ Joe vice President, Marketing & Operations rhoda Bueno vice President, Product Development Bart Jaworski man with the natural machine Tom to given the german devil- skrebels picked up Finance Director Frederick Alfredo Senior Hr Generalist Mary Mauck charisma and range our special highly may-care attitude to some locomotion tips Future US, Inc. is part of . Future produces carefully of facial expressions radioactive edition of capitalization, carnage from Black ops iii. he targeted special-interest magazines, websites, and events for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by necessary to fill the , in the hope is the only likely now wall-runs up the creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, and smart buying advice, and that are a pleasure to read or visit. ’s boots – of cloning his work outcome. she wants stairs, boost-jumps today we publish more than 150 magazines, 65 websites, and a and unfortunately, he ethic and allowing us to see the Berlin wall, to his chair and growing number of events in the U.S., UK, France, and Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are also published in 30 was on holiday. so we to slack off more. he apparently. er, wait: transforms into a other countries across the world. gave the halo 5 review came back with feet didn’t they knock robot with a fountain to this toad. for hands. oh. that down? pen for an arm.

4 / The oFFiciaL xBox magazine www.gamesraDar.com/oxm XBOX ONE & EXCLUSIVE ALL FOR ONE, OR ONE TAKES ALL

IT IS A TIME OF HEROES IN ALBION. But while every fable needs a hero, every legend needs a villain. Play for free and experience cross-device multiplayer on Xbox One* and Windows 10 PC. FableLegends.com

*Requires Xbox Live Gold membership, sold separately. Game offers in-app purchases. #183 contents features page 62 rise of the 26 get more from Your xbox one tomb raider free games! gamerscore boosting! Killer tech! ain’t no mountain high enough. maximise your new-gen console’s potential. 44 one day in the our tom kept a diary of the and tribulations he faced during his first day in burnt-out boston. previews 36 battleborn 38 everspace 39 40 : mankind divided page page reviews 36 54 54 halo 5: guardians 60 : black ops iii 62 rise of the tomb raider

66 page 68 tales from the borderlands: 40 season one halo 5: Guardians 69 divinity: original – hail to the chief. enhanced edition 70 assassin’s creed syndicate 74 2K16 75 live

76 page page 78 60 70 79 transformers: devastation 80 : director’s cut 82 gear solid V online 83 destiny online need for 84 the witcher 3 – hearts of stone speed 85 disney infinity 3.0 – back to basics, or page rise against the empire back to being basic? 66

85 lego dimensions – OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE (ISSN 1534-7850) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue by Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Phone: (650) 872-1642. Fax (650) 872-2207. Website: www.futureus.com. Periodicals postage paid in San Bruno, CA and at additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Time Warner Retail. Basic subscription rates: one year (12 issues) US: $24.95; Canada: US$29.95. Canadian orders must be prepaid. Canadian price includes post- Pack age and GST #R128220688. PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do not include newsstand specials. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Official Xbox Magazine, PO Box 5852, Harlan, IA 51593-1352. Standard Mail enclosed in the following edition: None. Ride-Along enclosed in the following editions: None. Returns: IMEX Global Solutions, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada. Future US, Inc. also publishes @Gamer, Crochet Today!, Mac|Life, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. Entire contents copyright 2015, Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduc- tion in whole or in part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in Official Xbox Magazine. Reproduction on the Internet of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the prior written consent of Official Xbox Magazine. Products named in the pages of Official Xbox Magazine are trademarks of their respective companies. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

6 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm xbox neWs, analysis, culture, opinion & More

More player-controlled soldiers = more unpredictable variants = more exciting gaming. We hope.

Mo players, Mo probleMs? ALL ABOUT THAT (PLAYER) BASE With winter dominated by multiplayer-focused games, OXM speaks to the developers of Rainbow Six Siege and Battleborn

8 / the Official XBOX Magazine WWW.gaMeSRadaR.cOM/OXM Fallout 4 gets fizzy Mirror’s delayed until May target is selling a mock version of originally scheduled for February, ea fluorescent cancer-drink nuka-cola Dice senior producer sara Jansson says Quantum in celebration of 2015’s biggest the delay to catalyst is so that the team poisoned water simulator. in the uK, can make its open-world parkour game “as carlsberg has concocted a limited run of entertaining, impressive and memorable as Fallout beer (radiation-free, hopefully). it can be”. Here’s hoping it works.

// is releAsing the version of cAll of duty: blAck ops iii without Any single- plAyer At All//

a new multiplayer game from the borderlands team, battleborn is a risk for Gearbox.

e don’t like to think of our gaming purchases having a limited . far fewer Xbox Ones would be sold if they all had expiry dates stamped on the top. it’s just one reason why multiplayer-focused games can be so cautiously received. Pay $60 for The Witcher 3 and you’re Wguaranteed entertaining gameplay every time you take the disc for a spin. But paying the same amount for Evolve? that game’s only as good as the number of players online and, sadly, Evolve’s community is gradually becoming extinct. But that hasn’t stopped a games industry that seems more multiplayer-focused than ever. has Rainbow Six Siege – which, bar several training missions, is multiplayer- only. gearbox is releasing multiplayer shooter/MOBa hybrid Battleborn (full preview on p36), Battlefront is ea’s biggest holiday release, and activision is releasing the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops III without any single- player at all. does this mean players are getting better multiplayer experiences, or risking their money on games that no one may be playing in a year? chris hendry, senior environment artist on Rainbow Six Siege, argues that the focus on multiplayer in their game doesn’t mean players are losing out: “When you look at what we have to offer in terms of multiplayer – the 20 operators, 11 maps, the destructible environments – there’s a ton of replay value in the multiplayer alone.” arguably more importantly, the game has had a substantial beta testing, making sure it’s balanced for online play from day one. “the good thing we’ve seen from the beta already is the game is already in a solid state,” says hendry. “We’ve already looked at it and made some small tweaks but we really need to kind of let the game settle first and then make the appropriate changes afterwards.” Randy Varnell, creative director of Battleborn, agrees this balancing is crucial to holding the player base’s attention. “as soon as we knew we wanted competitive multiplayer to be a significant part of the game, [we had] to start thinking balance,” he says. “the game is actually balanced for multiplayer first, and then we do things to make it awesome in single-player, so we have to keep that in mind.”

@OXM the Official XBOX Magazine / 9 Destiny ace rocks Crota’s world Want to see a Destiny player stove crota’s face in using the drums as a regular controller? of course you do: head to bit.ly/1MZxt2u and marvel at the skill.

rainbow six Vegas was a that could sound like single-player big hit, but also had a community to embrace your game. “We is an afterthought, but focusing on substantial single- hope [Battleborn] goes there. i mean, player campaign. multiplayer is essential for a game of that would be cool. it’s very arrogant Battleborn’s ambition. for example, to say that ‘it’s an eSport’. if people how do you even begin to balance from different perspectives, “so we’re love it, people play it competitively. 25 unique characters, even with a definitely providing the tools to fit that. We want people to love watching the multiplayer-focused development “as for in general, that’s not game. there are some other things period? “With a lot of fear and going to be up to us,” he continues. we really need to do to grow into that screaming! You got to remember “We have to wait, see how the game space, but it’d be awesome – and if it [that] we come from Borderlands… so settles, what people want. We’re goes there, i’d love to go with it.” we’re used to balancing systems that definitely going to see people making Publishers know that when their have big numbers. their own tournaments first, and we’ll game is so reliant on multiplayer “But we are definitely committing go off that once we get there.” success, they’re asking players to at launch to look and watch, listen to Varnell agrees that you can put the take a gamble, and Ubisoft recently the community, watch the numbers tools in place, but you can’t force a announced that all the dlc for Rainbow and kind of discern the truth and make patches and keep the game supported. Make sure it’s balanced and fun for everybody as it can be.” MEAning BUSinESS that level of commitment isn’t cheap, and it’s easy to forget about the fact that the risks involved in multiplayer- focused games aren’t just on the players’ end. But craft a hit and the rewards can be lucrative. activision has been open about Black Ops III being developed with eSports in mind – aiming to make a game that’s as Honestly, we’re looking forward to battlefront’s fun to watch as it is to play. “We have single-player about as the Spectator cam,” explains hendry, much as the empire is to referring to an option in Siege that universal peace. enables you to watch the game live

10 / the Official XBOX Magazine WWW.gaMeSRadaR.cOM/OXM coming to Xbox One Maybe. bandai- announced it’s heading to ps4 this month during , but constant references to ‘home consoles’ suggest xbox one is on its radar. we leArned...

p14

Why mammoths are stomping their way into the Far Cry series.

p16

What could have been, had we been ready for an online Xbox One.

p20 last-gen copies of black ops iii are multiplayer- post-launch,” says Varnell. “that only. Just giving fans always depends on how well received what they want? the game is… if no one buys the game, we’re not going to do anything!” Six Siege will be free. “We’re going to no one was disappointed to hear be having maps for free. We’ll really that Rise of the Tomb Raider dropped pay attention to the game, sticking its predecessor’s weedy multiplayer. that agent 47 has had yet another to it and we’re going to keep adding Why should it be any different when change of murderous plan. content and making sure people multiplayer games dismiss forgettable are still engaged,” explains hendry, single-player asides? gone are the and these maps are already deep in days when a tacked-on deathmatch p development “now that we know how mode was enough, especially in a 21 to make the maps too, they’re going winter where you’re up against the to start coming out a bit quicker and likes of Star Wars Battlefront. faster and be more fun to work on!” arguably, multiplayer games are just Battleborn may have prioritized catering to an audience that demands multiplayer, but the game will launch more sophisticated online experiences. with a full single-player campaign – Without taking the odd risk, we’d one that can be played in split-screen never get the tense shoot-outs of co-op. So even if it fails to build an Siege, the jamboree that is Battleborn, how teens partying alone on an online community, you can always or be spending the holidays on hoth island isn’t always a great idea. kidnap a friend and have a multiplayer courtesy of Battlefront. for those session on your sofa. it’ll be a rewards, multiplayer-focused games substantial game at launch, which is feel like a risk worth taking. Who’s up p why no dlc has been planned yet. “We for another 600 rounds of Warzone? 22 haven’t talked so much about content TOM STOnE //gone Are the dAys when tAcked-on deAthmAtch wAs enough, especiAlly AgAinst Which Marvel superheroes are the the likes of bAttlefront// new kids on the block.

@OXM the Official XBOX Magazine / 11 this month: t en hOw TO crafT The neXT InDIe pro MuLTIpLayer sensaTIOn tips Chainsawesome Games’ Jean simon otis on how Bomberman, Gauntlet and more paved the way for Knight squad

from this, because those are great games – and if people are associating my game to this, then I feel like I’ve done something good. I’m not revolutionizing anything, but if you’re having fun then my job is pretty much done. Identify what makes you different 7While we’re not revolutionizing the genre, we’re still distinctive in our own way. I think having so many power-ups adds a lot, and having so many game modes as well, because it’s kind of dumb. We compare it to Bomberman and Gauntlet but if you consider how it’s built, it might not look like it’s pretty much a first-person much, but Knight squad’s shooter but seen from up top. competitive multiplayer is headbutt-your-best-buddy Build it around levels of hilarious. the controller 8At the studio, we’re big controller fans. I play every single Throw ideas about everything is just one button, you BacKGrOunD game I can play with controllers. To begin with we did a move around, and that’s it. checK So every single game we do, we’re 1super quick game jam with naMe Jean simon otis like “Well, we’ll build it with a no orientation at all and we ended Make it immediate controller,” so it’s not really an up with a prototype that made I showed Knight Squad JOB TITLe co-founder, issue getting it on console. For us think, “Well, it’s Bomberman 4at Game Developers chainsawesome games us, it’s the opposite problem – it’s meets Gauntlet.” That became the Conference, and people will just BIO founded in october actually more of an issue getting base for the game. walk by, grab the controller and 2012 in Quebec, canada, it to work on PC! be like, “Okay, well if I push this chainsawesome games is a Keep the design lean button it does that; if I push this three-man studio consisting Don’t discount When we looked at existing other button it does the same of lead programmer Jean Games with Gold 2multiplayer maze games thing. I’ve got it.” You can reach simon otis, designer david 9It’s a great opportunity to that we liked, we determined more people with games that haré and artist Jade bélanger. just get the game out there and that the ones we liked most were are designed to make sense right otis previously cut his have people playing it. I don’t really simple, where anybody off the bat. programming teeth at local really think it’s hurting in any could just grab a controller and companies such as bkom and way, really, because people get start playing it. Take inspiration from frima studio. the studio’s a free game and if they like the the past… first game was BeatBlasters game it’s just even better, because hallenge competition in 2013. in competition hallenge c Lock down the rules 5It can be difficult to break III, a rhythm/platformer they’re like “God, I didn’t know This was the subject of a lot away from the past and be seen mash-up released for Pc, mac about that game, now it’s free?!” 3of debates. We’d go, “Okay, as your own thing. When people and in 2014. we could introduce this rule,” and start playing Knight Squad, they Don’t let yourself then it would need an additional immediately draw comparisons be pigeonholed won Quebec’s Pixel Quebec’s won button that we had to implement, to other games like -Man… 10 is pretty and we were like, “No, we don’t flooded with [indie] stuff, and want that; we just want to keep …and then embrace it Xbox One doesn’t really have Knight Squad Knight

it super simple” – so we just …but to be honest, I’m no this problem. Right now… eGG trashed it rather than make the 6longer trying to break away you’re treated like any er er

T game more complicated. So it other game, so it’s still a good as e needed to fit these rules so that place to get visibility. OXM

12 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm 2 creeps onto Xbox One You’ve got nine months to strengthen those DAsHbOArD shrieking cords – the horrific Outlast’s sequel is set for release in Fall 2016.

well, it looks like master Chief has his outfit sorted for the Christmas party.

Crystal DynamiC Say hello to the Master Chief Swarovski helmet

n the spirit of giving, Microsoft Taiwan couture veteran. Manik Mercian is well-known winning bidder didn’t just fork out for the teamed up with the Make-A-Wish for crafting the bejewelled body armor, metal seriously sparkly dinner party centerpiece. Foundation this month. Why, you ask? corsets and angel wings flaunted by the They also had to stump up an additional $200 To run an eBay charity auction featuring catwalk models of Victoria’s Secret, so she’s shipping fee. That’s one pricey bit of headgear. an ultra glitzy Master Chief helmet jam- no stranger to ambitious projects – the iconic Of course, this isn’t the first time Swarovski ipacked with jewels, of course. Adorned with helmet features a grand crystals have been used a monumental mega-cluster of Swarovski total of 25,000 Swarovski to create a unique piece crystals and weighing in at approximately crystals in a wide range of // Whatever Will of videogame memorabilia. five kilograms, we can only imagine holding shapes and sizes. Just a few years ago the crystal-clad curio might be similar to Despite its gaudy, be plastered Microsoft Australia cradling a spiky house cat. devil-may-care outer in sWarovski commissioned luxury brand The one-of-a-kind helmet was created by shell, the Master Chief CrystalRoc to embellish Taiwanese cosplayer Hsu Chia-Hao, aka Braid Swarovski helmet sold sparklers next?// an Xbox 360 with 11,520 Clarke, and luxury jewellery designer Jenny for over $34,000. All the Swarovski crystals for Manik Mercian. If you’re wondering why it looks proceeds are set to benefit the Make-A-Wish a promotional campaign – not too shabby. like it’s been lifted straight out of a glossy Foundation, a charity that grants wishes for Whatever will be plastered in Swarovski fashion magazine, that’s because it’s spent children and young people fighting life- sparklers next? The Pip-Boy perhaps? Please most of its time in the hands of an haute threatening conditions. But the generous don’t do that. in numbers > DATAPOinT: news in numbers > DATAPOinT: news in numbers $400m 45m #1 The amount of moolah Halo 5 Number of REQ packs that were Position Halo 5 entered the UK raked in worldwide during its first week on sale opened in that time. That’s around charts – knocking Assassin’s (includes hardware sales). 568 million REQ cards! Creed Syndicate off its perch.

@OXM THE OFFICIAl XBOX MAgAzINE / 13 DAShBOARD

BACk TO ThE BEgInnIng MaMMoths and sabre-toothed tigers versus our... sharpened stick. oh goes back to the origins of man

What’s the story? Why should i care? What happens next? The Far Cry series goes back Prehistoric times feel like the It’s out on 23 February, so we’ll 12,000 years – to a time when perfect setting for Far Cry - soon see if this new direction running around stabbing people crafting weapons from animal pays off. Survival and open-world with pointy sticks was more bones makes more sense when games are crowded genres – socially acceptable. You’ll be you can’t just give up and buy but this has real potential, crafting weapons to defend grenades on the black market. exploring a period of history we yourself and hunt animals, but Starting with nothing, you’ll rise rarely see in games. If it embraces this is 10,000 BC and man is to power until you’re leading the limitations of its setting, much further down the food your own tribe – the usual rather than trying to cheat them chain. You’ll have to work with arc of a Far Cry game, (we’re not interested in crafting your tribe to survive, especially cleverly mirroring the a mammoth-bone sniper rifle, when saber-toothed tigers start rise of humanity as a thanks) this could be the most leaping for your throat. tribal species. immersive Far Cry yet.

E AT, P R E Y, LIVE You’ll hunt animals for food. Obviously food’s important for avoiding that darn ‘starving’ thing in real life, but we’ll have to wait and see how crucial chowing down on mammoth burgers will be for survival TRIBE in Primal. VS TRIBE Unlike 2015, where everyone’s lovely and there’s no world conflict at all, people didn’t care much for each other in 10,000 BC. You’ll attack other tribes for dominance, and also be responsible for keeping your own tribesmen alive.

14 / The oFFICIal xBox magazIne www.gameSradar.Com/oxm uppers & Force is wrong with this one? Red Fly Studio wants to pitch a Darth Maul game to EA after its doWners first attempt to bring ol’ red-head to consoles was canceled. T hi s m o n t h’s The early prototype looked like ninja gaiden with lightsabers. temperature, taken W hAT’S hOT? 1

WALk On ThE SLEEP TIghT WILD SIDE Predators aren’t Thanks to the stupid, and know their prey (you) is more Fallout 4’s headshots prehistoric setting, watching a raider’s eyeballs bounce off there’ll be no guns or vulnerable at night. the walls should be old hat by now, but vehicles this time around. Saber-toothed tigers are Better be prepared to terrifying enough by day, so our inner 13-year-old will always laugh. stretch those legs then, we’re already nominating although rideable the rest of our tribe for animals wouldn’t be night watch. Cowards 2 unexpected… live longer, kids.

moon Studios took home Best audio and Best xbox game at the golden Joysticks. greenlight that sequel already. 3

halo 5’s announcer does anyone enjoy their job quite as much as this guy? The way he purrs “from the grrrrave!” is delicious. W hAT’S nOT? MYSTERIES OF hISTORY 1 The developer admits that this period is a historical gray area, so there’s more freedom to invent how people fought halo 5’s ground pound and moved around the world. most useless move ever? nine times out Don’t expect a history of ten you get sniped out of the sky/ lesson, then, but an beaten to death when you land. interesting twist on core combat. 2

london cliches “Cor, ’av ya seen me top hat, ya bloody wanker?!” Assassin’s Creed continues to perpetrate some cruel British myths.

3

toMb raider’s snoW By definition, ‘not hot’ – even if Crystal dynamic’s powder-rendering tech did get us sweaty under the collar.

@oxm The oFFICIal xBox magazIne / 15 opinion The world wasn’T ready for an online console in 2013. leT’s hope iT is by The Time XboX Two comes down The pipe Alex imagines a world where Microsoft’s dream of an always-online Xbox One came true

ith the new Dashboard With an always-online update hitting console, cataclysmic by the time you scenes such as this read this, the could become the norm. That’s good, right? Xbox One’s wmetamorphosis from the console Microsoft originally envisaged, to the very different one it would eventually become, is complete. So now seems a good time to look back over the events of the past two years and play a little ‘what if?’. How would history have changed if Microsoft had resisted the backlash to its ‘always-online’ blueprint and powered through with its vision for Xbox One? One such feature that would be biggest challenge of all is getting enabling you to play your game Well, I should probably begin particularly welcome, given Xbox their games in front of eyes in the collection without the need for a by saying that the backlash was One’s renewed focus on indie first place. Besides, how many of disc. Considering that Geralt has far from unwarranted; with gaming, is the original proposal you would be more willing to take been wasting away in Skellige fibre-optic broadband still yet to that you’d be able to share a punt on one of the indie scenes’ for a month now because I can’t be rolled out in many areas, the digitally purchased games with shorter, more eclectic offerings be bothered to take season six of world is no more ready for an one of your Xbox Live friends. if you knew you could split the Friends out of the drive, I think always-online console today than Since indies thrive on word of bill? Similarly, it was originally you could make a convincing it was in 2013. More damning mouth, I’d imagine this would intended that you’d be able to argument that the practical still, it seems Microsoft itself be an arrangement smaller devs resell your digital games (at the benefits are easily worth as much wasn’t ready for the demands would cherish, rather than fear publisher’s discretion) – another as the of-navel-fluff trade-in of managing an always-online – most I speak to tell me that the safety net that would have given price you get from most stores. console infrastructure – the you a chance of recouping some Really, though, convenience proposed requirement that of your cash if you splashed out and financial safety nets are one your console ‘check in’ at least on a bad game. thing. But if you really want a gut- every 24 hours was an inelegant The downside – and I think wrenching demonstration of how and punitive form of rights this was the part that rankled good an online-only Xbox One management that threatened to the public more than the worry could have been, wait till your throw the very concept of game that you wouldn’t be able to get eyes get a load of Crackdown’s ownership into existential crisis. a Wi-Fi signal in a submarine or online mode – with its fully But it goes without saying that wherever – is that the DRM setup destructible city, and incredible Microsoft didn’t intend for the Online-orientated titles would have made it difficult, if physics engine only made Xbox One to be an online-only such as Fable Legends not impossible, to trade in your possible because the console can console just to piss everyone off. have presumably had to physical games. A blow, for sure, draw additional power from the Revisiting the original blueprint be heavily revised. but one counterweighted by cloud. The world isn’t ready for reveals a raft of innovative an online-only console yet. Let’s features and ideas that had to hope we are by the time Xbox be flushed down the toilet with Two arrives. the online requirement, and it’s fun – if a little heartbreaking – to //ReSelling digitAl gAmeS neXT monTh What would Xbox One imagine these features existing WOuld give yOu A SAfety net have been like if you could only within the framework of the use ? And only use console we have today. if yOu bOught A bAd gAme// as a screen? And other nonsense.

16 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm Activision crowns itself king has bought Candy Crush DAShBOArD Saga creator, King Digital Entertainment, for $5.9 billion. Candy Crush DLC for Black Ops?

An exclusive screenshot of Phil Spencer riding to work at the Xbox monolith each morning.

enthusiasm (hey, if you wanna get eaten by monsters, guys, that’s fine Thy KingdOm COme by me). Failing is inevitable, but the game entices you to keep retrying, as you learn a little more about how to (TO xbOx One) keep your kingdom flourishing each time. It looks full of smart ideas and Another acclaimed PC game turns green is beautifully presented, with pixel- art graphics that remind us of the his is blockbuster season for to invest in weapons, including bows wonderful Fez and the not-nearly-as- Xbox One, with Halo 5, Rise and arrows, as a swift day-night cycle wonderful The Deer God. of the Tomb Raider, Black keeps you on your toes. Monsters ID@Xbox, more PC ports and Ops III, Fallout 4, Star Wars attack at night, other indie gems Battlefront and our favourite and it’s easy to get //it reminds us of make for yet Tnew game, Somehow Finding the overwhelmed. more games on a Time To Play all These. But if the big Sound simple the wonderful new-gen machine games rule Christmas, it’s the smaller so far? Good, that finally has titles that have us intrigued for the because none of fez and the its killer lineup. start of 2016. Such as Kingdom, a this is explained to With 2016 just side-scrolling strategy game with you by the game. not-nearly-as- around the corner, surprisingly deep mechanics that’s Kingdom wants we’re as hyped been a hit on PC. you to discover wonderful for Crackdown, The game starts out deceptively everything for simple. You’re a king on horseback, yourself, like how the deer God// and

scrolling from left to right and eating grass improves your horse’s as anyone else, but we’re hoping that hours. 24 just in profitable became game the On PC, chucking coins at people to rally them speed, or how having weapons Kingdom continues the escalating er egg egg er

to your cause and encourage them to ready makes villagers more likely to trend of exciting PC ideas finding a T s A

build structures for you. You’ll have get behind your cause with added welcoming home on Xbox One. e yOu’rE firED! > quOtES Of thE mOnth > BLAh BLAh > hE SAiD whAt? > yADDA

“we will use these few “Being game of the “i’d love to go do a extra months to make sure… year in the eyes of so many xeno-archeological it’s as entertaining, people is a great honor. expedition to the original impressive, and memorable Probably the greatest we halo ring… And it wouldn’t as it can be.” could have.” require shooting.” Mirror’s Edge Catalyst producer Sara Jansson, CDP’s Michał Nowakowski, on The Witcher 3’s Halo franchise chief Frank O’Connor, on the explaining the game’s delay. well-deserved Golden Joysticks win. prospect of a non- in the series.

@OXM The OFFICIal XBOX MaGazINe / 17 dAshboArd

wArring stArs

yeah, our brains are playing the John williams Battle of the score right Battlefronts now, too. Fresh footage of Free Radical’s cancelled Battlefront III has surfaced – between that and the upcoming DICE game, which has us the most starry-eyed?

or Star Wars fans, the a lot shorter. In 2006, it was them all, showing upcoming film has been confirmed that Free Radical swoopy, epic aerial a long time coming – the Design, the studio behind battles over the towering last proper film (we’re hits such as TimeSplitters, cityscape of Coruscant. not counting the Clone was working on a threequel; It makes us pine for what could fWars films) was released in 2005. unfortunately the game was have been, even though EA DICE’s Which, coincidentally, was also cancelled two years later due to new Battlefront is looking, as the last time we saw a Battlefront the studio’s financial woes. But Yoda might say, if he was written game – ’ Star although it never saw the light of by someone who has never seen Wars: Battlefront II, which was day, the occasional footage leak Star Wars, ‘the mutt’s nuts’. released on the original Xbox in whets the appetite for what could So we’ve compared the two to October of that year. have been, and the latest is the see which best captures that But our wait could have been most appetite-whettingest of Star Wars magic.

1 Any good 2 do the lAsers 3 how’s the chArActers in it? go ‘pew!’? AeriAl combAt?

Why yes, all your favorites! We Well, there were around 293 Pretty fun. You can swoop bF2015 know you can play as Luke, million kills with the classic about and shoot people up Darth Vader and Han Solo E-11 blaster in the beta, in iconic fighters, and there’s – and we’ve also seen Leia and each made the proper terrific ambient audio over and Boba Fett. The launch noise. All the sound design your comms when you’re trailer features the Emperor, seems pretty spot on so piloting. There are missions although we’re surprised he’s far, especially TIE Fighters built specifically for aerial a playable as he probably screaming overhead, Imperial assaults and some that mix doesn’t have the cold- Walkers stomping about gun- and dogfights – you can weather booties necessary and, yes, the all-important even hop in the Millennium for Hoth. ‘whoom’ lightsaber noise. Falcon. Just don’t get cocky.

The leaks show Leia (in The audio is missing on some Oh, man. There’s more than classic white dress/Chelsea of the footage, but what you one bit of footage showing buns hairstyle ensemble), can hear sounds pretty great. continuous gameplay with Han, Luke, Vader, Obi Star Wars has an established the player going from the Wan and Yoda as playable sound and the laser blasts, surface of a planet, into a characters, which is pretty space ships, and ominous fighter, right up into space, much the whole classic cast. heavy breathing of you-know- and landing in the hanger of Battlefront III, however, was who are all on point, giving a ship. Can you imagine the still tied to the terrible trilogy the necessary atmosphere. scale of those multiplayer of the ’00s, so Jar Binks is And isn’t that the most battles? It’d be chaos. bFiii in there too. Yep, we’re out. important part? Delicious, delicious chaos.

winner: winner: winner: bAttleFront 2015 tie (Fighter) bAttleFront iii

18 / THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAgAzInE WWW.gAMESRADAR.COM/OXM online studio closes is on a roll, of sorts: following metal gear creator ’s departure, Konami has closed its los Angeles how to studio, founded in 2013 to work on metal gear online. speak Developer // the occasional your guide to footage leak whets translating those the appetite for what interview gems could have been// “we have a creative community of players who are constantly testing the boundaries of our content and sharing the results.” please stop breaking our game so you can post it on .

“we wanted to keep a link to what made the series great, and have something for fans of the original games.” 4 whAt other things 5 whAt About the we’ve done a ‘classic cAn i drive? ActuAl bAttleFronts? look’ dlc with the characters’ old TIE Fighters, -Wings, The beta showed off maps on outfits in it, but hoo A-Wings, AT-ATs and AT-STs Hoth, Sullust and Tatooine (but (the big walking things that we know there are other boy will it cost you. look sort of like dogs and classic settings, such as chickens, respectively), Endor, in the full game). “i’m delighted land speeders – and you They’re really well-designed – to say we’ll be can hop on turrets you find each has a totally different on the battlefield. It’s a look, feel, and terrain shipping the game little early to say definitively, working for or against you. in october 2016!” but that’s a whole lot of Honestly? There’s not we’ll be shipping the fantasy fodder already. much to hate so far. game some time in 2017! What’s the temperature inside When you compare the a Tauntaun? Luke warm! two, the modern Hoth “it’s a great get it? Seriously, though, map looks eerily similar to collaboration you could ride a Tauntaun. the version you can see That aside, there are no in the Battlefront III leaks, of ideas and real absolutes: we know which speaks to a) how everyone shares land speeders and standard far into production and b) the same vision.” fighters were available, but how well-designed it was. none of the teams know no real confirmation of, say, That team knew what it what the others are controlling Imperial Walkers was doing – and it and feeling totally badass. knew Star Wars. doing and i have no idea what the finished winner: winner: game will be like. bAttleFront 2015 tie (Fighter)

@OXM THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAgAzInE / 19 dasHboaRd

updates – new info on tHe big games

You’d look this angry too, if you’d just paid to see that dire new Hitman movie.

update

Publisher / DeveloPer iO intEraCtivE / Format xbOx OnE / eta 11 mar hitman Everyone’s favourite assassin misses the Christmas release target i can’t wait for this one! more levels from launch, looks good. Yet also so it’s launching with sigh… must every game roll on December 8! huh? like what? strangely familiar… just two levels, then? be a sandbox now? We’re going to take a the Paris fashion show Some have observed three – Paris, Sapienza no, but we’re starting to shot in the dark here looked big, but the newly the similarity to villa and marrakesh, hosting wonder how we played and assume you haven’t revealed Sapienza looks borghese, which was the six campaign missions Hitman any other way. the heard about the delay massive. not so much a opening of Silent Assassin between them. Contracts best games in the series – we won’t be seeing level as an entire italian (although obviously, this mode returns with around were the ones that gave this until march 11 now. village, complete with golf is on a much bigger 800 targets for you to you the most freedom Disappointing, but the course, cafes, churches, scale). it could be a assassinate, and then to take out your target game was planning to people just trying to go knowing nod to the past, there’ll be a new sandbox your way. the staggering launch with one sandbox about their day without or even an assurance that stage set in a different scale of that italian village level (the plan being to dying… we wish them luck. this will be going back part of the world added already has us salivating regularly release more). Just because it’s broad to the gameplay of the monthly. in april we get and cooking up dastardly at least when we get it in daylight doesn’t mean ‘proper’ Hitman series, thailand, uSa in may and schemes for how to take 2016, it should be a more there aren’t plenty of after the mixed response Japan in June, assuming out our victims. Keep this substantial package. hiding spots for agent 47. to 2012’s Absolution. there are no more delays. one in your sights.

20 / thE OffiCial xbOx magazinE WWW.gamESraDar.COm/Oxm dialog options range from ‘caring’ to update ‘total asshole’. the dev knows its teenagers.

Publisher / DeveloPer night SChOOl StuDiO / Format xbOx OnE / eta Jan 2016 attractive teens partying alone on an island. What could go right?

oh cool! it’s hang out on she’s tapping into may be the beach simulator! possessing her friends… not quite. from night School Studio, newly founded the horror event of 2016? by ex-Disney and telltale Potentially, but this reminds developers, Oxenfree is the us more of Life is Strange, story of alex. She’s a senior with its teenage characters, who brings her stepbrother subtle dialog options and to a beach party with her focus on storytelling over friends on Edwards island. gameplay (we’ve seen some Some have brought alcohol cave exploring and the radio (gasp!) and cigarettes interacting with objects, but (ban this sick filth!), while that’s about it). alex brought along her radio (appalling!). noooo! i only just finished crying over the ending of Well, nothing’s more hip life is strange! than a pocket radio… Dialogue between the Claws away, reader. alex teens is fun (“Chug! Chug! has a radio for a reason. Chug!”), it has the look of a Edwards island is a cel-shaded point-and-click decommissioned military adventure, and it tonally station, and sometimes they reminds us of coming-of- can hear weird sounds on age classics like Stand by her radio. it starts innocently Me, while still having a style enough, until alex starts of its own. Show us more tuning into something more of how the radio is used for sinister. from what we’ve gameplay, and this party seen, it looks like whatever could be unmissable.

the party starts out fun for the gang. for the sake of a fun game, hopefully it won’t stay that way.

@Oxm thE OffiCial xbOx magazinE / 21 daSHboaRd

updateS – neW Info on tHe bIG GaMeS typical Iron Man – always showing off that suit of his.

update

PubLisher WarNer Bros. INteractIve eNtertaINMeNt / DeveLoPer traveller’s tales / ForMat XBoX 360, XBoX oNe / eta jaN 26 Lego MarveL’s avengers No locked-off levels that force us to buy more toys? Marvel-lous!

hope it’s less dull than based on avengers i thought i was reading so it’s just loads of individual powers? Lego’s last adaptation… assemble? three years oXM, not a film mag… different costumes? aren’t the avengers this’ll hopefully avoid late, surely? our point is you’re getting Far from it, as all the meant to be a team? ’s Probably, but it’s not a lot of Marvel for your individual powers will absolutely, and standing stumbling block of playing just based on the first money, with over 100 be present and correct. next to a fellow avenger it too straight. Avengers movie. We’ll also have characters that weren’t Quicksilver’s speed lets lets you do more powerful features people dressed stages based on the in 2013’s excellent Marvel him run rings around Hydra moves. Have Black as hot dogs, tony stark overstuffed Age of Ultron, Super Heroes. Fin Fang agents. captain america Widow team up with having a slap fight with the unsurprisingly dull Foom, the jane Foster can deflect bullets and captain america for a captain america, and Captain America: The First version of thor, Ms Marvel, frisbee his shield into spin-attack. or bash Hulk finding his soulmate Avenger, the surprisingly scarlet Witch… the Marvel goons. and agent thor’s hammer against in a chicken. the Marvel great Winter Soldier, the Universe is probably coulson has the ability captain america’s shield, movies have always had crappy Thor: The Dark bigger than ours at this to be our favorite creating an energy blast zingers, so feels a perfect World and Iron Man 3. We point, so tt had plenty to despite not technically that bursts everything fit with the games’ humor. quite liked Iron Man 3. choose from. being a superhero. to bricks. Hopefully once we’ve unlocked some villains, we’ll be seeing some more dastardly team-ups too. Much as we’ve enjoyed previous Lego games, their co-op play is far too often used for lame puzzles of the ‘stand on two switches simultaneously’ variety. With so many heroes, and these superhero team up moves, the series might Where’s our the unbeatable Squirrel Girl It’s lazy to slam Hawkeye for not being a real have finally built co-op movie? thanks for failing to enrich our lives. superhero. Let’s laugh at his instead. worth assembling for.

22 / tHe oFFIcIal XBoX MagazINe WWW.gaMesradar.coM/oXM We’ve upgraded

NEW SITE LIVE NOW

Designed to suit every screen Complete round-the-clock news The best PC reviews and features In-depth hardware coverage

THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES love letters, death threats, and some stuff about Messages games… your comments on the mag and on xbox OXM, 5 Pinesway Industrial Estate, Ivo Peters Road, Bath

CONTACT US f facebook.com/oxmuk t @oxm e [email protected] w gamesradar.com/oxm

ith so many great Returning to Xbox One, games out, who has and without the lame soundtrack of the PS4 time for nostalgia? version. Double win! WYou lot, apparently, as we’ve had letters praising the past, even wanting backwards compatibility to original Xbox games. Aha, some Battlefront feedback! We were worried we’d opened 1985’s mailbag…

Indie for the win-die of an entire city going KABLAMMO I recently purchased the fabulous hits the internet, and suddenly Star Letter Instant Indie Collection Vol. 1, for everyone’s harping on about how a bargain price of just under £18. I much they’re looking forward to this hope Microsoft really supports and new game called Crackdown – which Prize: fallout 4 encourages smaller companies to get is the third game in the series! Why do The best piece of correspondence their Xbox 360 games backwards true fans like me get burnt the moment wins a game from Matthew’s goody bag compatible. Some of my favorite games something gets popular? came from Xbox Live’s indie devs Shaun Harrington and XBLA titles. Without the same not thE modEs you’RE lookIng foR pressure to release blockbuster hits, Ah, but when playing online, you’ll have I couldn’t wait to get stuck into the Battlefront Hoth level they release entertaining, charming two games’ worth of experience on those that’s been teased all year. A text box warned me to get and addictive titles, often at a fraction noobs. Burn them. Burn them good. good first, but I ignored that patronising rectangle and of the cost of big-budget games. It’s dived in. I couldn’t have been more confused. How do you great that Microsoft is really pushing Return of the Empire? destroy AT-ATs? Why am I not Luke Skywalker yet? What its ID@Xbox program. I love looking at the old games that the hell’s going on? Grumbling, I tried Drop Zone, and Steve Peach some of you guys play every month found the game I’d been looking for. Stormtroopers! Pew- in the Xbox Extra section. It got me pewing laser blasts! Grenades that sound like mini-raves! We couldn’t imagine our directory without thinking if there’s any chance some of Screw Hoth: Sullust is my new home. fantastic indie Kalimba in our top five. the old ‘first generation’ Xbox games Harriet Price The excellent was one might ever make it into the games of the first essential indies confirmed store. With the excited reaction to We’d judge you for ignoring an amazing mode, but Tom’s for backwards compatibility, so we’re backwards compatibility, it seems that spent less time on Battlefront than he has Pool Nation FX… optimistic for a lot more on the way. even some first-gen games may still be fan favourites. I’d love to see Jade Cracking down on hype Empire in the store! Are there any How DARE people say they’re looking games you guys would like to see? forward to Crackdown after seeing Terrence Mangold that footage? My friends and I bought the original for Xbox 360 Phil Spencer himself said he’d like to (and not just for the beta) and see original Xbox backwards compatibility, played it to death. Ever since a new but the focus (understandably) is Crackdown got announced for Xbox getting our Xbox 360 games running on One, we’ve been excitedly waiting for Xbox One first. But we’d love to see it more news, and trying to ignore all the happen, and Timesplitters 2 would take idiots jabbering about Quantum Break. our most-wanted spot. Give us an HD re- Then, some cloud-computing footage release, damn it!

24 / The official xbox Magazine www.gaMesradar.coM/oxM whaT’s Your Your faVouriTe cod Hot topic VotE MulTiplaYer Map? what film/TV/book characters should be added to Lego Dimensions next?

Adventure Time. Then we could finally see finn and jake in a decent game… liam Johnson

Kingsman: The Secret Service. just for that epic fight scene. (bo) 53% mac dinollie highrise (Mw 2) 22% The Big Lebowski, as a crash (Mw) 18% movie, and the cast of Band Toujane (cod 2) 4% of Brothers as characters. Terrace (aw) 3% Andy Raab

Alien, Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles, Looney Toons, Animaniacs and power rangers! harry obsidian Jones

NuketowN charlie chaplin, hIghRISE this compact, chaotic sherlock holmes and Consisting of two office map was so popular Cast Away please! buildings kept apart that treyarch had to by a vast, vulnerable create a 24/7 Nuketown dylan sarich construction area, playlist just so that Modern Warfare 2’s Black ops’ other My first pick is definitely highrise is an all-time multiplayer maps , but i would also Domination classic. could get a look in. love to see sheriff carter along with some of the cast from Eureka… The Annotated… fallout 4 controller Edwin Cordero Your thoughts on bethesda’s piece of xbox one Vault-Tec Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (er, that’s already a lego game – ed) “it’d look even Carrie henderson better with a rusted “i need This More metal look and the Than anYThing eVer.” scarface and Vault boy on it.” holly Badman darrien lee Wicker “nooooooooo! The godfather. i just dropped tony Po £140 on both Halo controllers and now this?!” lego scooby-doo! (well, Alex Campbell if you buy Dimensions, “i would so get you’ll be in for a nice this. if only i hadn’t already put surprise… – ed) 150 down on the Christopher h Peltz elite controller…” mark halstead The IT Crowd. have you tried turning the game on and off again? Adam Wilson

“give us a Brotherhood of Pirates of the Caribbean Steel controller!” (seriously, did no one play kyle sentz this game?! – upset ed) daniel Ryan

@oxM The official xbox Magazine / 25 feature

26 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm xbox upgrade UPGRADE YouR XBOX

EOXPERNIEENCE the tech, tricks and tips you need to squeeze every last drop of performance from microsoft’s big, black behemoth

o this is christmas / and season’s must-have console, now’s the what have you done? / perfect time for loyal xbox 360 owners or eaten two dozen mince Playstation 3 infidels to start leaving pies / and bought an xbox ‘subtle’ hints to santa that they want to one? as you read this, upgrade. (scrawling ‘get me an xbox one we’re in the thick end of a you tight beardy git’ on your roof in festive season that has reindeer blood should be sufficient to get S given us arguably the the message across.) greatest xbox line-Up in history. (Unless, of and if you’re lucky enough to find an course, it’s July 2016 and you’ve picked up xbox one under your tree this year, then this issue in a dentist’s waiting room. great news – OXM has your back. make those mince pies don’t seem like such a boxing day xbox- day, kick back good idea now, do they?) with killer in front of an open fire as your new bundle exclusives such as Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb of joy happily updates its software, and let Raider, 6 and more besides us tell you how to get the most from your cementing xbox one’s position as this family’s newest addition…

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 27 feature ACHIEVEMENT: GET! Give Bauer 24 hours to stop a terrorist threat and he’ll get results. But to get 10,000 Gamerscore in 24 hours, you’ll need Team OXM’s top tips… 04> 01> THOMAS WAS ALONE (3 hours) There are two easily found collectibles REPLAY (2 hours) per level, worth 60G per level, and 100G on offer just for completing the game. Tons of Gamerscore here, but let’s Best of all, bouncing on Laura 100 stick to the fastest 1,000G. For times earns you Part of the Problem loading each game in the collection (70G). Warning: don’t jump on actual you get up to 15-20G, totaling 520G. women called Laura. Learn from us. Watch the end credits for Curtain Call (30G). Start , wait 40 02> EASILY MISSED in-game days, and you’ll achieve 2 PRESENTS Jump 1,600 times to earn Experienced Long in the Tooth (15G). In Killer FAST & FURIOUS (3.5 hours) Jumper (80G). No, 1,599 times isn’t Instinct Gold, during the character good enough, you inexperienced, flat- bios screen input the following – Finished the opening drive? Have two footed fool. Hop to it! View, A, right-stick right, View, A, Achievements! Then just keep buying X – to unlock Gargos. Play as him for cars as you complete the campaign. ACHIEVEMENT REGRET A Historic Victory (30G). In ’s Chain Reaction (30G) demands a skill- We’re sorry, Thomas, for getting Huge Bad Fur Day, type in cheat code chain worth 50,000 or more, but that’s Success (70G) by letting you perish 100 WELDERSBENCH, unlocking every as it gets. Getting 1,000G here is as times. Is it healthy to cry this much level and Easy Does It (30G). Select easy as deciding not to go and see Vin over the death of a rectangle? ‘The Vault’ level from ‘Heist’ for the Diesel in The Last Witch Hunter. Conker’s Quest (20G) achievement. That’s 645G, without technically EASILY MISSED playing any games. Selfie! (30G) take a photo of the 1970 Still if you must play something, Dodge Charger R/T. completing all the Snapshots (10G each) is fast, as they’re basically ACHIEVEMENT REGRET mini-games. Press ‘fire’ in Gunfright A fine drive and easy Gamerscore. Our 250 total times for Ask Questions only regret is celebrating by watching Later (15G) and spending five the dire The Pacifier. Sorry, Vin. minutes on horseback gets Hi-ho, Panto Away! (15G). Play every multiplayer mode in Conker’s Bad Fur Day five times apiece, for 140G. (100G) to appear. Then run through Die in single-player and you’ll 03> the prison, keeping an eye out for a unlock Conked Out (30G). lift. Ride to the top floor and go to ANOTHER WORLD (3 hours) the window for Explorer (50G). Near ACHIEVEMENT REGRET the game’s end, your partner throws Completing the insanely difficult Well, you’re almost guaranteed you across a gap. Fall down the gap gives you a pathetic to get Determination (100G) for anyway for 75G. 15G. Yeah, thanks. dying a hundred times, and 675G is unmissable while completing it. ACHIEVEMENT REGRET But otherwise… What, can’t complete this easy action-platformer in three hours? EASILY MISSED Don’t write in saying it’s actually Near the start you’ll escape a really difficult and unforgiving. and grab a gun. Wait for a Secret UFO You’re just rubbish.

28 / THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzINE WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM/OXM free games 05> (3 hours)

Explore thoroughly, achieving 200G for witnessing every , and 100G for ‘seeing’ what everything is 09> (follow every sound). Courage (80G) SIXTY SECOND SHOOTER is for feeding a cow (don’t think PRIME (1 hour) that takes courage? Try fighting a cow), and Bravery (60G) is for 07> It takes 60 seconds to complete levels approaching the scary dog. Find all NUTJITSU (2.5 hours) of this twin-stick shooter, but it’ll the butterflies for Attraction (80G), take roughly 60 times that to rinse it. feed the ducks for Thoughtful (60G), “The game might experience a wave of There’s 50G given every five levels, but and sit on a swing for Lonely (60G). popularity due to its easily achievable the toughest challenges are scoring Gamerscore points. 5/10” – OXM, 2014. 1,000,000 in classic and 2,000,000 EASILY MISSED Bring on the wave! This ninja take on in Infinity mode. Adventure (80G) - In chapter 4, feed Pac-Man gives out Achievements for seagulls and cross a bridge. You’ll meeting certain criteria a set amount of EASILY MISSED be able to pick a flower, which Rae times (such as collecting ten acorns). Beyond level 5, surviving the full drops in the water. Cross back over Keep buying power-ups, playing 60 seconds nabs Seize the Minute the bridge, through a gate, over missions and completing levels, and (50G). Tougher than it sounds, as is another bridge, and dislodge the practically all of it will come naturally. Minuteman (50G) for destroying ten flower from the rock in the water. enemies with a single missile. EASILY MISSED Speed Run (100G) Collect 30 acorns with the Ninja Speed power-up.

ACHIEVEMENT REGRET This was repetitive to begin with, so endlessly repeating ourselves in the name of Achievements didn’t help. 10> 06> NEVER ALONE (3 hours) MONOPOLY PLUS (2 hours) An educational platformer, which gives God invented videogames so we 350G for just finishing the story. The wouldn’t have to endure this tedium rest are for finding ‘Cultural Insight’ ever again. Still, you’ll get Good Start collectibles. Whenever you hear an owl (30G) and Investor (30G) just for owning hooting, just follow the sound until you your first property/building your first 08> find the object. house. Play a few games and you’ll #IDARB (1 hour) have all the similar Achievements. EASILY MISSED Create a character, then copy it 20 Achieving Insight (200G) requires EASILY MISSED times for 75G. Do the same in the song watching each educational clip Win a local six-player game for and logo creator for another 150G. that comes with a Cultural Insight Champion (50G). Win a game using a Make a team, using your custom logo collectible. Relax. Exit them as soon house rule for Your Way (50G). Just and song. Copy the team ten times for as they load, and you’ll still get the when you think Monopoly cant get any Team Spirit (125G). Scoring a 15-point Achievement. more exciting… it doesn’t. shot nails Boom Goes the Dynamite (100G). Stun an online friend 25 times ACHIEVEMENT REGRET ACHIEVEMENT REGRET for Dealer (100G). Snap We didn’t buy an Xbox One to learn Wipe this from the hard drive and let’s and type #achievement into the chat things. Sorry, brain. never speak of it again. for another easy one. Score exactly 42 points for Deep Thought (100G). B-B-BONUS ACHIEVEMENT!> EASILY MISSED An Alley Oop! (100G) is when you THREES! (3 seconds) receive a pass and score, all in mid-air. Oh Snap! - Snap the game to the side and you’ll get 199G. ACHIEVEMENT REGRET Seriously. Great game, though. #noregrets

@OXM THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzINE / 29 feature 01> ELITE CONTROLLER $149.99

“Oh don’t be such an elitist,” moan the peasants. But how’s being an elitist an insult when you have a controller like this? It has rubberized grips for comfort, and you can swap out the analog sticks, D-pads and finger grip paddles to craft the perfect controller for whichever game you’re playing. There’s an App you can use to reassign buttons however you like, and it works with any PC that has and above. Consider us elitists for life. microsoftstore.com ESSENTIAL XBOX ONE ACCESSORIES We’ve compiled a wishlist that would give Santa a heart attack. Max out the cards, remortgage the house and keep track of when guard shifts change at your bank…

02> BEAT PEOPLE UP PROPERLY $199.99 04> EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE $99.99 Why punch your friends in the face with the wrong controller? Invest in a Razer 500GB of Xbox One hard drive Atrox arcade stick. It has a proper space sounded brilliant. Then game arcade-cabinet analog stick, can take downloads got bigger, patches we a beating and even lets you store the never asked for demanded more and wires inside the box. more gigabytes and now we can’t razerzone.com even read the ‘Xbox One needs an update’ screen without bursting into tears. Luckily, a 2TB Seagate Game Drive for Xbox adds essential storage to your Xbox One for an excellent price. Should last us for at least another three updates. Hopefully. microsoftstore.com

03> 05> USB RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES $12.99 for two THE SOUNDS OF SAVING $79.95

‘Play and charge’ kit? More like ‘pay For great audio quality on a smaller and be overcharged’ kit. Get a couple budget, the Turtle Beach Ear Force XO of packs Moixa USBCell AA batteries ONE headphones have your ears covered. instead. Whenever you’re out of power, They’re not the cheapest option, but plug two batteries into your Xbox One’s excellent for what you get. Light, USB ports to recharge, while using the comfortable and great audio quality other two to continue playing. No more make these a… sound investment. wires, and roughly the same cost. microsoftstore.com usbcell.com

30 / THe OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzINe WWW.GAMeSrADAr.COM/OXM 06> free games REINVENT THE WHEEL $899.90

You’re using a regular controller to play Forza? Proletariat scum, you’re not fit to lick the asphalt crumbs from our tyres. Correct that with a Fanatec ClubSport steering wheel and base. Customizable settings and belt drive make it feel like a real steering wheel, and the big shifter paddles are fully adjustable in distance, width and angle (or taken off to save weight). Fans of driving games will be in petrol heaven. fanatec.com

08> 09> USE YOUR OLD HARDWARE HAVE A SEAT $249 WITH XBOX ONE $24.99 The X Rocker Pro Series Pedestal 2.1 Already have a beloved headset that Wireless Audio Gaming Chair has a you wish could be used for Xbox surround sound system embedded One? This Official Stereo Headset deep in the stuffing, meaning the Adapter lets you plug in the headset sound from your game comes out of of your choice. You can use your own the chair itself – from two high-quality 07> headphones, too, shifting the audio speakers and a subwoofer, no less, A WORTHY TV $5,999.99 output from your TV to the controller so you’ll be more immersed than ever. (meaning none of the eye-strain of Just think! When you get shot in Halo, recently won the lottery? The having to sit inches from the screen it’ll sound like you’ve actually taken Samsung UE65JS9500 has a curved because of stupidly short cables). a bullet to the spine! Isn’t the future 65-inch screen, so your neighbors microsoftstore.com exciting? It’s also ridiculously should find it easier than ever to watch comfortable, the perfect way to television through your windows. 4K enjoy your game. So long as you upscaling means Xbox One games will have no interest in ever getting look better than they do on an HD TV. If up again. you’ve recently stolen $6,000 we can www.walmart.com think of few better ways to enjoy your Xbox One games. Before you go to jail. amazon.com

10> THE BEST HEADSET $300

The Astro A50 is a wireless headset that’s comfortable, has great chat quality and outstanding audio (Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound) that’s great for multiplayer – sounds are easily defined and it’s always clear where they’re coming from – perfect for any FPS deathmatch. An audiophile/multiplayer must have. astrogaming.com

@OXM THe OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzINe / 31 feature 1,057 Hours of free gaming Investing in a solid games collection is all well and good, but most of us aren’t bottomless pits of money. Well, we are but presume you’re not. Freebies? Read on… 03> 01> (23 hours) This is that rarest of things – a free- (190.5 hours) to-play game that you won’t be ashamed to share your addiction to. Those fully invested in this oddball It’s hobbled a tad by pay-to-win bias, shooter about warring races but there’s with full split-screen have sometimes been known support for up to four players – it’s a to simplify its premise down to more than a passing diversion with ‘Destiny, but free’. Considering that some friends alongside you. some members of the team have recently lost their minds, eyes and 04> finger-tendon tensile strength to saltyBet.com (39 hours) ’s grand experiment, that makes this an attractive – and One of mankind’s greatest inventions: a reasonably worrying – proposition. fighting platform that throws thousands of characters into a single, creaking engine and endlessly matches up AI opponents while screaming nerds bet fake money on who’ll triumph. This one’s a bit cheeky, as you can’t fully play (it runs with Flash, which isn’t supported by the browser), but do what we do – stream it on Xbox One’s Twitch app and make your own bets at home. 02> (76 hours)

Xbox One’s first foray into free-to- play is arguably its best, a distinguished take on the old-school fighter with an unusual approach to its roster. Without paying a cent, you can dip in, get up to speed with a new character and earn enough to buy some items. Being forced to eventually switch characters could even teach you a few things. 05> 06> smite (111 hours) sports game demoes (32 hours) Somehow, Smite is the MOBA nobody has really heard of, despite Honestly, we can’t believe that any the fact that is has millions of sports publishers still put up players and massive tournament samples of their games every year prizes. Closer to a third-person – they could probably double their than the genre’s usual sales just by withholding those six weird-RTS style, it fits on to console free teams. Who needs the latest snugly too, with a huge roster of instalment of FIFA? We’ve got 4.46 deities to select from and typically gigabytes of it and we’re happy to arcane systems for you to lose your leave it at that, thanks. social life to. Perfect.

32 / THe OFFICIAl XBOX MAgAzIne WWW.gAMeSRAdAR.COM/OXM free games 07> BroWser games (18 hours)

Your Xbox browser can handle HTMl5 – and sites like PlayBoxie collect free HTMl5 games handily formatted for controllers. Sure, most are total crap, but knock-off is still Tetris, and we’ve been playing it since we were knee-high to a Soviet grasshopper. 11> 13> 08> (63 hours) project sparK (152 hours) The Russian free-to-play sensation has Microsoft’s in-house game-creation XBoX fitness (15 hours) arrived on Xbox One, with even muddier project didn’t go quite as well as mud and more metallic gunmetal. At hoped – but that’s our gain, as it’s Arguably, the greatest game of all first, you may wonder why anyone plays now completely free. Best of all, there’s is staying alive – and this should something so slow – days later, while a huge number of user-created games help you not to lose. Your life, that choosing the perfect track treads, to play once you’ve gotten tired of is. 30 workouts come with the free you’ll wonder how anyone ever stops. making your own. version of this personal trainer, which should be more than enough to keep you from keeling over while you put hundreds of sedentary hours into the rest of this list. Be warned – you will need Kinect.

12> 14> pinBall fX2 (11 hours) neverWinter (104 hours)

designed for you to pay for favourite We cut our teeth on free MMOs back in franchises (for a while, Matthew the day, so Neverwinter brings some couldn’t be torn away from the Star nostalgic flair for more that reason Wars tables), this wouldn’t be on this than its D&D associations. What’s 09> list if it wasn’t for the free Sorcerer’s more, most of the transactions are magic duels: origins lair table. zen’s approach to the classic kept pleasingly hidden, meaning you (87 hours) bar game is so good, however, that you can get to grips with the (surprisingly can spend weeks mastering just that. deep) systems in peace. This is a surprisingly comprehensive, and often generous, introduction to the world’s greatest, most enormous card game. A little under-featured for 15> experienced players, perhaps, but there’s tons for neophytes to get into use Kinect to see if you can detect gHosts here – mainly because it wants you (0.5 hours) to go on to buy the apocalyptically expensive real cards as a result. settings -> Kinect -> What else can Kinect see? These few short commands have led us to literally minutes of pleasure, as we tried to use the Thermal 10> setting to catch out any errant spectres lurking in our houses (à la Paranormal your old XBoX 360 games Activity 4). We are a lonely, if resourceful bunch of people. (135 hours)

As of now, backwards compatibility is coming to Xbox One, with around 100 last-gen games being made available to play on your new console . With most publishers onboard, that number’s only going to grow, meaning you can replay classics or forgotten gems just by keeping hold of your old disc collection.

@OXM THe OFFICIAl XBOX MAgAzIne / 33 34 /T hE oFFICIAl xBoxMAGA Instant ExpErt feature Master the nuances of this year’s three biggest online shooters with our explosive multiplayer tips guides zInE as well as backand remember you canboost left to right B bydefault) forthese moments, and Save your thrusterpack (mapped to opportunity toscramble for cover. fire there’s atiny window only of other shooters –ifyou come under can absorb islessthan in most The amount ofdamage your Spartan 1> five tricksy Arenatips Smarten your Spartan with these Guardians Halo 5: damage than theassault rifle. powerhouse thatdelivers more puny sidearm, buta close-quarters default magnum –it’s not some for the head, andreconsider the smartest. Get intothe habit of aiming shoots the most, but who shoots decided not bytheperson who Firefights tendtobe brief, and 2> aI K EE m for t p mov HE I n

G forth.

HE ad of penning theminto a dead end. explosion, youstand a good chance the firefight. Even if you miss with the and give you anadvantage going into deplete their shields – with luck it’ll a grenade intheirgeneral direction If you spy anincoming enemy, throw 5> of the clamber system. been made redundant by the addition movements. Crouch jumping has also beable to detect your team won’t as you’re moving slowly, the other That’s no longer the – as long to stay off theradar was by crouching. In previous 4> disorientate attacking enemies. new shooting angles, and also to ability to your advantage by creating shot. You canusethis unorthodox in mid-air to stabilisebriefly the and your Spartan will hover actually Aim down yoursights while jumping 3> p Hov crouc roj E E r bot Halo ct H no mor I games the only way way games the only l E HE vom r E I t www.GAMESrAdr. CoM/ox free games

call of duty: 2> GrEat Walls 4> jump for ploy black ops III Your Specialist’s more nimble than you The double-jump is like floating Make your multiplayer Specialist know. while certain walls are clearly through bitumen – it might seem like that bit more special set up to be dashed across, almost a nice way to put off an attacker who any vertical surface can be traversed has the jump on you, but you’ll more – use cliff edges to cross gaps or likely offer them a nice, still target. 1> KnoW your rolEs just use a walldash to freak out your You’ll be better served by staying on ground-bound opponents. the floor and ducking for cover. Your choice of Specialist and the ability they use should completely 3> WatEry GravEdIGGEr 5> your ass Is change how you play, meaning you should unlock a few for use in Most multiplayer maps hold at least Your radar might be noise-activated, different modes. In a deathmatch? one body of water. not only are they but there’s plenty of racket it doesn’t Grab the creeping death of Prophet’s perfect for sneak attacks, but you pick up. Best of all, listen out for Tempest rifle. Playing Safeguard? can also lure enemies after you and breaking glass – not only is it easily reaper’s Psychosis ability will put off hide under a pond’s murky meniscus, done, but there’s often only a few potential killers for crucial seconds. before popping up for an easy kill. places it could be coming from.

star Wars 3> GEt somE pErspEctIvE battlefront The game defaults to first-person, Bend the battlefield to your but it’s beneficial to get to know will with these insights from the third-person option. not only our expert Jedi does it offer a wider view, making it harder for enemies to sneak round and flank, but also camera 1> sHoot from tHE HIp adjustments let you peer around corners and over ledges. As any Star Wars fan knows, it’s all about who shot first. Aiming down 4> pIcK your spots sights is actually a disadvantage: technically, it’s no more accurate Just grabbed a hero power-up? than shooting from the hip and Identify where enemy forces are it actually slows your movement (flashing red radial wedges on the speed. In the split second it takes radar) before activating – there’s to raise the sights, you could be nothing worse than calling luke getting that first shot in. Skywalker into a distant corner of hoth where there’s no one for him 2> Go dlt or Go HomE to unleash the Force on.

Kit the dlT as your primary 5> jump (for my HotH) weapon – it’s solid at long range and has an incredible firing rate. Equip the jump pack as soon as offer it some Star Card backup you have it. It opens a vast number with Thermal Grenades – which of higher ground areas that let you offer great range and are easy to either get the drop on enemies or one-hit kill with – and the Cycler make it to an objective in faster rifle, the latter being able to cut time. Better still, weapon accuracy through energy shields for easy is unaffected by jumping, so rain enemy takedowns. down laser death from above.

@oxM ThE oFFICIAl xBox MAGAzInE / 35 PREviEw

Publisher Games / DeveloPer / Format xbox one Battleborn Where to go when there’s no more Borderlands? Try the end of the universe... un fact! Some day, every Bluffer’s man so muscular he probably uses and archer Thorn – they have weaker star will implode and Guide entire gyms as weights. ISIC, a mech attacks, but can heal allies. For defence the universe will end in The creator of who can surround himself with you want a brute like ISIC, capable of eternal darkness! Hmm, Borderlands shielding energy balls. Like the best shielding and taking massive hits. If 25 F that’s awful dark for a fun gives us shields, these have the potential characters overwhelm you, the fact, but also the premise another loot- to hurt others. Mellka has three attack/support/defend of Gearbox’s new half-MOBA, half- obsessed co-op a clawed left hand, nasty- archetypes are a number you shooter, hopefully all-fun Battleborn. campaign, but looking pistol in her right. ETA can wrap your head around. 25 warriors have gathered to fight over with a massive Benedict thankfully keeps Or not? Characters fit the galaxy’s last living star. The end cast and things simple by just toting feb 9 these roles initially, but of the universe we can accept, but so some of the a gun. Oh, and he’s also a then RPG elements are craziest PvP many characters with unique powers, you’ll find on birdman who can soar through introduced, gleefully mixing abilities and unlocks, all facing off in Xbox One. the skies, Michael-Keaton-insanity- things up. Levelling gives you a choice the same game? Never mind the stars style. Good grief, and that’s not even a between two power-ups. Usually one – our minds verge on imploding just quarter of the total cast. offensive – increased special attack picturing this level of chaos. Fast, furious shooting followed power, say – and one defensive, such The warriors do little to quell our when we tried some of the gun- as a stat boost that can be used on potentially fatal headache. Boldur, a wielding warriors, a reminder that yourself and your allies. Expect to the creator of Borderlands knows how level every few minutes, matching the Metadata to make an FPS. It’s created some combat’s furious pace. Naturally, the Best Bit… excellent melee fighters too, with higher level you are, the more game- the locked first-person perspective changing the unlocks. ISIC’s a bulky making close-quarters combat more defender, slower than someone trying intense. These stabbier warriors are to install The Nathan Drake Collection Every character has a post-kill natural attackers, the clear favorites on their Xbox One. But level him high taunt. Rath licks the katana he’s being sword-wielding Phoebe and enough, and he’ll temporarily be a just slaughtered you with – ooh, spin-attacking Rath (think Crash dual-cannoned death mech, capable of edgy. Another character, Oscar Mike, Bandicoot, but with dual katanas). If blasting the living numbers out of foes. does a press-up. Erm, best work on your burns a bit, Mike. you want to play a support role, pick This is an ultimate ability, unlocked characters like mushroom-man Miko when you reach the level cap of ten.

36 / the official xbox maGazine www.Gamesradar.com/oxm PREviEw

Melee combat’s fine, but never quite matches the impact of a good ol’- fashioned gun blast.

Action gets chaotic. rushing in for the kill. A flap of wings //Fighting other warriors directly Sometimes the overhead has you readying to blast real battle Benedict out of the sky. // is figuring Given the roster size, Battleborn is isn’t always the smartest option out what’s impressively well-balanced. Although These mean the final few minutes of a collection and levelling, with tower- going on. the promise (threat?) of another ten match are often absolute chaos – and defence turret placement, all in a characters joining the 15 we’ve seen they weren’t exactly calm to start with. close-combat arena? It sounds fussy, means that could still become an issue. You’ll learn each character’s strengths but a few rounds in it started to click. But it’s a more accessible shooter/ and weaknesses, but due to everyone It’s also a great example of how MOBA/tower defence/RPG than that restarting each game back at level one vibrant use of color can not only make genre mish-mash sounds. All presented you’re never quite sure what powers a game look distinctive, but also train with outstanding animation in a the player controlling them opted for you how to play. A spin of red means rainbow of color. Perhaps the end of until they’re using them against you. Rath’s blades are incoming. Green the universe won’t be so dark after all. You might expect people to just opt dashing towards you means Mellka is tom stone for offensive powers, were player-vs- player limited to simple deathmatches. Instead, we have modes such as split-screen machine Meltdown where teams of five have Playing in the same room? Witchery! to protect drones as they slowly death “it’s critical for us," says creative director Randy march into an incinerator. You have Varnell, explaining the importance of keeping to ensure they reach the incinerator split-screen in the game. “it requires a lot of safely (so they can, er, burn to death) to work and dedication. We have to dedicate some score points. Fighting other warriors programmers, some engineers. But split-screen isn’t always the smartest option, is so important; we hear that from the fans. and you can instead opt for darting We know so many people who love to play the around the map collecting Shards campaign together. We’ve heard dozens and (in-game currency), buying turrets dozens of stories from our community about and setting up other defences to block that, so [it] was a was big deal for us.” enemy progress. RPG-style resource

@oxm the official xbox maGazine / 37 PrEvIEw

It looks beautiful – but trust us, it does all want to kill you. Publisher Rockfish Games / DeveloPer Rockfish Games / Format XboX one Everspace My god, it’s full of (procedurally generated) stars

Bluffer’s box One might not have Despite appearances, Everspace is space phenomena, along the way. Guide No Man’s Sky to brag something of a , plonking When you die – and, this being a Astonishingly about, but between you in an “ever-changing” universe roguelike, you will die – you’ll be gorgeous space Elite: Dangerous and with a mysterious destination to try to reborn in a shiny new ship. roguelike that now Everspace, we’re reach, and with lots of pirates, traders, Unlike most , Everspace prioritizes doing pretty well on the wormholes, derelict ships and other isn’t overly mean. Upon death, action over X space front. While the galactic entities standing… er, floating you’ll be able to use your universal simulation. former is more of a simulation, offering in your way. To jump from system to space-bucks to improve your starting Figure out why a vast universe filled with trading system, and bring yourself closer to conditions, grafting on permanent you keep being opportunities, politics and complex your goal, you’ll need to upgrade upgrades that will make each reborn, while docking, Everspace, well, isn’t. your ship, and scavenge fuel new run slightly easier over trying not to die in the What it is, however, is a stonkingly to power your jump drive – ETA time. Moreover, dying will first place. pretty action game – featuring all the and you can do this in pretty reveal new story titbits – lasers, nebulae, explosions and other much any way you desire. you’ll have to die to learn glowing spacey things you’d expect Want to rob traders of their 2016 what the heck’s going on. from a team that made a game called precious supplies? Or would Beginning the game as an Galaxy on Fire. The Newtonian physics you prefer to plunder wrecked amnesiac, you’re given a new model is nowhere to be found; instead, spaceships? You could spend ages endpoint each time you’re brought we should expect a game that’s easy to mining asteroids, if you prefer. Don’t back to life, keeping any acquired pick up and control straight out of the worry: there’ll be plenty of blueprints or story progress. Rockfish docking bay. dogfighting, and tussles with freaky promises a non-linear story, and indeed a bigger story component than in many similar games. // When you die – and you will – You can upgrade your ship on the fly to stave off death for a little you’re reborn in a shiny new ship// longer – by sticking a cloaking device on your trusty vessel, for instance. Or you could improve your laser so you The final frontier can bypass their shields. Or you could Taking roguelike to uncharted territory paint your ship a lurid Xbox green. Though the (successful) The words ‘space’ and ‘rogue’ tend to conjure up campaign has ended, Rockfish is images of Han Solo or Mal Reynolds, so often is continuing to raise money on its inflicted on terra firma. Everspace website, and it’s just got enough cash shakes things up, first by shifting the action to to add a Hardcore mode. While this outer space, and then by changing the view so that you’re exploring each brave new universe hasn’t been detailed in its entirety, the from a cockpit view. You’ll restart each time you developer promises permadeath and die, but as with the similarly progressive Rogue other “nasty surprises” – so if you like Legacy, you can apply permanent upgrades to your roguelikes old-school, Everspace improve your starting loadout over time. is gunning for you, too. Tom Sykes

38 / the official XboX maGazine www.GamesRadaR.com/oXm Whatever’s under that PrEviEW sheet, we probably don’t want to see it.

Publisher / DeveloPer BlooBer Team / Format XBoX one Layers of Fear A masterpiece of horror… about a masterpiece of horror?

Bluffer’s o be trapped forever create one last great painting through There are little clues scattered Guide by your own tortured very dubious means. throughout the house – mainly in A creepy psyche: surely there’s There’s some truly fantastic design the form of old diary entries and first-person no worse fate possible? on display here, with recurring newspaper articles – that hint at horror game It looks like Layers of themes subtly set up early on (rats, a horrible backstory involving where you Fear is really going to alcoholism, fire, memory, reflections) disfigurement and obsession, but they explore a T put that to the test. It’s that are drawn further out as you can be tough to find. Almost every terrifying oozed its way out of the collective explore the house. Each turn you drawer and cabinet can be opened maze of a psyche of indie developer Bloober take around the once-grand family using analogue tweaks as surrogate house, and Team, and, if the Xbox preview version home renders it increasingly hands, but most of them don’t don’t look too we’ve played is anything to go by, it’s grotesque, as you begin have anything inside. It would hard at any of the paintings. an ambitious, clever and strangely looping back on yourself and be nice to find the pieces of beautiful horror game. revisiting the same rooms, ETA story more often. Layers of Fear is, for want of a better gradually losing any grip You’re also plagued by term, a first-person walking simulator on what is and isn’t real. TBa ghosts in some fun jump – but one that takes you on a jaunt The whole environment can shocks, though the antagonist through romance and ghosts. change with just a move of the we’re more worried about is a It does so via the twisted insanity camera. Turn around and you may sinister and hulking pursuer (who may of a once great artist, a man now find the room is totally different – a or may not represent yourself ) who seemingly stuck exploring his own fountain of broken dolls heads may appears a couple of times, dragging creaking mansion and in a quest to have erupted, for example. Shudder. his feet with a heavy step. Although Layers of Fear is a strictly non-combat game, the sense of real could be // The environment can change easily ramped up a bit if he made more frequent showings. We’d happily settle with just a move of the camera// for the vague threat of him, with those footsteps heralding his arrival like the stomp of a T-rex rippling water. Putting the pain in paint Layers of Fear does tend to lean More than your average finger painting on horror clichés, too. It is, after all, pretty standard for murderers and/or Layers of Fear’s protagonist is an artist, and so psychopaths to daub their thoughts drawings and paint are a big feature of the over the walls – but you would have game. Often paintings will morph as you look thought that in a painter’s house it at them, and more than once they trigger a would be done a bit more creatively. change in the entire environment, or hide a clue to help you progress deeper into the mansion. That aside, this is shaping up really They’re also universally unsettling. We don’t get well, with excellent use of sound, to see how the artist’s final masterpiece turns color, and movement all coming out yet, but it’s a shoo-in that – by the time the together in a very layered experience. game’s finished – it’s going to be horrifying. Oh, right! Layers of Fear. Got it. Alice Bell

@oXm The official XBoX magazine / 39 PrEviEW

Publisher Square enix / DeveloPer eidoS Montreal / Format xbox one Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Our hands-on aug-urs well

Bluffer’s dam Jensen begins craft your own non-violent paths. It’s of break-and-enter success – each is Guide his new outing – the purposefully linear, with only a couple meant to represent a potential course The sequel to first returning role for of sneak-some vents, and a single Jensen could have taken in the game the great a Deus Ex lead – in a optional objective along your way. By up to this point. Stealth offers us a reboot of contemplative mood. making your only real choice that of tranquilizer rifle, the ability to turn the most “Sometimes you just how you proceed, not where, you’re invisible, and the Tesla arm upgrade, revered name A have to let go,” he says, immediately drawn to trying out as which fires arcing EMP darts into in cyberpunk with a voice like a sexy living tree, “and many colorful tactics as possible. any mechanically aided adversaries. chin-strokery. embrace what you’ve become.” The After being attacked by separatist Combat plonks two big guns into the Will you fight problem is, Ad, that means precisely group the Augmented Rights inventory and drops the Titan shield a bleak future nothing, because you can become Coalition, and watching the building – which turns you into a walking with violence, stealth, or a anything. Human Revolution’s lofty begin to collapse as the Mad Max- polygonal statue – into the aug wheel. good chat? goal of allowing you to play through grade sandstorm you’ve been A more balanced loadout is the entire game ( battles excluded) admiring on the horizon perhaps the most interesting in any number of different styles was strikes, the level ends. – it comes with a Battle Rifle more or less a success, and our hands- Seemingly, so too does ETA that can be modded with a on with Mankind Divided reveals that Adam’s ability to harness a Feb 23 scope to become an effective that’s not just the continued focus, but full game’s worth of powers. sniping tool, but offers a seemingly the entire point of the game. Typhoon attack that fires stun We begin our demo in 2029 Dubai, a Theater of screams gas, taking down close-range blackly comic take on the world’s most Which leads us to the Dvali Theater, crowds without a single casualty. obviously unfinished city – it never got a mid-game story mission set in Each offers some obvious optimal finished, and is now being swallowed an eastern spit of the game’s huge routes through the level, but what on both sides by creeping desert and Prague hub world. Here, we’re given becomes most interesting is how much yawning sea. This is the game’s tutorial a far more open mission – get into work has been put into making each level – drops in from the seedily repurposed building (a approach’s weaknesses a fundamental a jump-jet filled with his new Task gang runs some bleak, Taken-style part of the design. The temptation Force 29 buddies, a yammering group operations in here) and into a local with a combat build is to simply wade of colonial marine knock-offs tasked crime boss’ basement office by any through a sea of blood to the objective with keeping the (world) peace, and means necessary. It’d be easy enough – but the theatre’s also patrolled by sets about making things difficult for – you can enter any window on the robotic guards, who take an absolute the local Jinn crew, one of the game’s ground floor, there’s a ventilation pounding, giving every other guard many warring terrorist factions. shaft on the roof, a wall that can be the time to hide and take potshots. It’s a Prime-style tease of a broken through on the first floor and, Stealth’s Tesla ability makes short, first level, granting Jensen many of his of course, you could just use the front silent work of these, but once you’re late-game upgrades, letting you get a door – but it’s incredibly well-guarded. into the main building, all cramped feel for the multiple play styles – from For the hands-on, we’re given backstage areas and guard-packed Typhoon-aided destruction, to using three different sets of equipment and box seats, every tranq dart becomes active camo and mighty strength to augmentations to use in our pursuit precious, and you begin to watch your quickly drained energy bar like a hawk, saving juice for the moments Word on the street where you absolutely need to switch Why can’t we all just talk this out? on your Glass-Shield Camo and make a dash across occupied territory. In order to preserve the secrecy of plot points In the first couple of runs, finding (and also, presumably, because it would be our way safely through the warren- really hard to show in a small section of the like building takes an hour and a half. game), our hands-on contained barely an ounce Come our tenth, we can speedrun it of Mankind Divided’s other main gameplay in four minutes. The message is clear. system: conversation. We’re told, however, that the ability to manipulate, intimidate or charm Become something, learn everything the world’s NPCs is deeper than ever – and you can about the abilities you choose the effects of even small events can resonate to use, then embrace it. It seems that throughout the whole game. Adam has a point. Joe Skrebels

40 / the oFFicial xbox Magazine www.gaMeSradar.coM/oxM Upgrade your hacking skills enough and you can disable electronics remotely, with a golf game swing-style activity.

While Eidos has abandoned much of the iconic black ’n’ gold color scheme, it will return in thematically appropriate areas.

insta-swapping ammo types and upgrades on weapons makes you feel like Judge Dredd – and is thus the best feature in the game.

The Tesla’s a silent option, but ammo seems as limited as it was for the Typhoon in the last game.

@oxM the oFFicial xbox Magazine / 41 Mild Lyrics Mild Suggestive Themes Mild Violence Open it up in a truly massive open-world. From day to night, dirt to pavement. Connect and race with friends in the most realistic—and unreal—driving game out there with more than 200 of the world’s greatest cars. Get the demo now on Xbox One.

Features and requirements subject to change. Features vary between Xbox 360 and Xbox One version of game (each sold separately). Xbox One games for use only with Xbox One systems. Games made for Xbox 360 will not work on Xbox One. Xbox LIVE Gold membership (sold separately) required for online multiplayer; multiplayer between Xbox 360 and Xbox One not supported. On Xbox 360, some cars require download from Xbox LIVE (ISP fees apply) and a hard drive. For Xbox 360 4GB, Arcade and Core consoles (hard drive sold separately). Demo available for Xbox One only. Download from Xbox LIVE. 12GB required. ISP fees apply. feature 1 day in the

wFallout 4 is finally here.as All teland of Boston, begging to be explored. Only question is... Where in hell do we go next?

Writer: Tom Stone

44 / The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine WWW.gAmeSrAdAr.cOm/Oxm fallout 4 wasteland

ands up, who remembers the story of ? liam neeson? Water supplies? daddy issues? no you dolt, we mean the real stories – running off the beaten track, discovering the wonders/ horrors of the wasteland, H occasionally surviving to tell the tale. Fallout 4 is no different. Because by now we all know how this starts. 2077, at home with your wife, child and robot butler, codsworth. Just another day, until: “Master Tom! You might want to come and see this! “ never listen to anyone who tells you flattery won’t get you anywhere, as codsworth referring to us by our actual name instantly wins Fallout 4 game of the year. codsworth is an absolute delight, and easily “The iMpacT of The my favorite member of my family. Sure, my wife flatters me too, but she never calls me by name, so this is clearly on the rocks. She suggested boMbs’ desTrucTion has going on a trip to the park. The news suggested running for our lives before we’re destroyed by never been so visceral” nuclear annihilation. We decided to go with the latter option.

@Oxm The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine / 45 “ helped feature iMprove The shooTinG and boY does iT shoW”

a stunning view of the... Hang on, what’s a skyscraper doing here?

tIMe 12:00 13:01 14:20 14:30

unleasH tHe Beast! > on seConD tHouGHts, Put tHe It’s a Blast > Beast BaCK In tHe GrounD > 200 years & one Hour later... > n Screw the small guns, i just n after 200 lonely years, found my first suit of power n Just like that, a deathclaw n Saying what happened in my heart pines for human armor. entered iron man-style, crawls out to meet me. it wipes Vault 111 would be delving into companionship. so when i first it makes me strong enough out raiders with single hits, but spoiler territory. But the initial see another person, i punch to rip a minigun off a downed those are just snacks – i’m the bomb drop was a stunningly him in the back of the head and airship. i then leap off the roof main course. Gulping, i spray executed set-piece, and the steal his gun and clothes. and down into the city streets it with minigun fire, watching view as i first left the vault, a id software helped improve (power armor stops you taking hopelessly as my lead whittles couple of centuries later, was the shooting, and boy does any falling damage) and make off mere atoms of health bar. breathtaking. Juxtaposed with it show. Weapons feel more bloody mincemeat of the raiders deathclaw blows send my robo- the bright suburban landscape satisfying, shots feel meatier below. Their shots fail to even body flying backwards, the you saw only (real time) minutes and vaTs no longer feels like cause scratches on me, while raiders long since forgotten. ago, the impact of the bombs’ cheating (well, not as much). my minigun fire sends their “but i’m wearing power armor!” i destruction has never been so instead of freezing time, vaTs limbs flying. i feel invincible. i whine. uncaring, the deathclaw visceral. One of the brownest now slows it down, meaning feel cocky. Surely nothing can tears me in half. series in gaming (and it’s you’re still getting shot, beaten interrupt this feeling? a quick reload and i am up against some pretty stiff and chased while trying to ready for the attack this time. competition) has finally figured decide which limb to blow off. naturally, i die again. stop out how to make nuclear it’s a more limited advantage, sniggering: deathclaws are one annihilation look enchanting. forcing you to act faster, of Fallout’s deadliest enemies. resulting in hectic gunplay Gigantic, ferocious beasts that’s far and away the best with like a tank, no weak this series has seen. a brilliant points and even less . My example of how small, smart minigun out of ammo, i leap out changes can make an old of my power armor and run for experience feel fresh again. the hills.

46 / The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine WWW.gAmeSrAdAr.cOm/Oxm f o u r neon signs add coMpanIons some welcome color judged to the wasteland. - – Dog, Treat Enthusiast fallout 4 Man’s best friend, if you’re a loser of a man who can’t make human friends. Will call your attention to items and loot corpses for you. Still never as adorable as a cat, though. 6/10 - Piper – Journalist, Good Liar The editor of Publick Occurrences is also good in a firefight. Has a list of printed responses to letters her newspaper has received, followed by a private list of much nastier responses she wishes she could have printed. If she ever wants a job editing our Messages page, it’s hers. 9/10 - Strong – Super Mutant, Slow everything else A brutal melee brawler, but one that can get in the way when we’re trying to line up our headshots. Also doesn’t give You can even four essentIal much back in a conversation. craft your own cHeMIcals Frankly, you’d be better off talking ammo. Highly - to the dog. 3/10 recommended. ultra jet - 1 Bloodleaf + 1 Codsworth – Robot Butler, fertilizer + 1 jet Optimist + 2 plastic British, charming, capable of gives you 15 seconds of saying our real name and loyally slowdown time and maxes waited two centuries for us to out your action points come home. He’s like an Android – perfect for sprinting away or unleashing total version of Alfred, only better. The Vats domination. perfect companion. 10/10 - oVerdrIVe 1 acid + 1 nuka cola 14:40 15:10 16:23 + 1 psycho for eight minutes, you’ll Born to run. lIKe a CoWarD > you Call It ‘MolDy’, We Can I Play too?> deal an extra 25% damage. Call It ‘Free’> Better yet, there’s a n Sprinting is swifter, but n Fiddling with the Pip-Boy 25% increased chance of my enemies are much faster. n i visit an abandoned radio taps into a police station scoring a critical – and fallout 4 is never more Feral ghouls literally leap at super-duper mart, and help distress signal. i swing by, satisfying than when you – that’s how desperate myself to plates of moldy food. take out a few ghouls, and heads pop and blood pours they are for a taste. great for hacking a terminal lets me impress the station’s leader, over the screen. don’t map navigation, this shot of free a protectron. changed its Paladin danse. i agree to look at us like that. adrenaline also means this settings first, just to be sure it join him on a mission, but - is a wasteland that’s never didn’t celebrate its newfound soon regret it. danse has psYcHo jet felt more openly hostile. i’ve freedom by killing me. an irritating habit of running 1 jet + 1 psycho always feared Super mutants, luck runs out when ghouls ahead and playing Fallout 4 for fifteen seconds of but now mere mole rats are start clambering through the me, blasting the baddies while slowdown time, a 25% damage boost (and +35 giving me the screams every windows and sprinting for me. i’m still rummaging through damage resist), plus 40 time they scurry towards my come on guys, no need to eat filing cabinets for bottlecaps. bonus action points to legs. All creatures, great and me, plenty of moldy food for danse thanks me for my play with. small, feel like they have a everyone. This negotiation help, having somehow failed - fair chance of finishing you. tactic didn’t go over well (“but I to notice i was as helpful as orange Mentats Between the deadlier enemies, have ten points in charisma!”). a concrete parachute. he 1 asbestos + 3 carrots the refined VATs that removes luckily, the protectron steps in, even offers me a place in the + Mentats mid-combat pausing and sprint laser-blasting the ghouls while Brotherhood of Steel, with these probably taste cooldowns, Boston now feels i cower behind. Make a mental free power armor. i turn him awful, but are worth it for the eight minutes so dangerous, i’m starting to note to invest in new gun power down, not ready to commit to of improved perception suspect hidetaka miyazaki is perks and kiss the protectron Brotherhood life. Fifty ghoul and 10% Vats accuracy the one who dropped the bomb. gratefully on the cheek. flee bites to my undefended flesh boost you get. actually, before it retaliates to my lips later, i regret that decision. carrot pills? forget we with burning laser fire. said anything.

@Oxm The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine / 47 feature

this gentleman asked us to tone down the gore. He was punished accordingly.

four essentIal sIdeQuests - Vault 75 Make sure you search every school you find. one has a secret vault underneath, the pretence being it was to save the children and their parents (if they could afford it). the truth is far more horrifying, even for this series, and that’s really saying something. - trouBle BreWIn’ 17:11 18:00 19:05 It’s not all and gloom in the wasteland, “I’M lIstenInG” > as this charming WelCoMe to lIFe, KID> adventure proves. n paladin danse takes my salvage a beer-brewing rejection well, considering i n a child offers me a tour of robot, while wondering if was barely listening to him. vault 89 if i pay him a handful of Bethesda come up with the pun first, then write the brilliantly, if you turn subtitles “Pleeeeease let Me In!”> caps. use my high charisma to quest after. We’re not on and skip through the text, refuse paying him. not only do i judging. that’s how 90% your character will say non- n discover Vault 89. it is sealed get the tour and keep the caps, of oXM is brewed. committal ‘sure, i’m toooootally shut and well guarded, with i also earn experience points. - listening’ phrases between a stubborn asshole on the The karma system is gone, so out of tHe fIre sentences, regardless of intercom who (understandably) finally we have a Fallout that stop impressionable what’s being said. leading to won’t let strangers inside. rewards you for ripping off kids. youngster jake from conversations like this: But he is no match for the ten The tour’s pretty beneficial, joining sinister perk points i’d funneled into raider gang the forged. especially if you steal as much seriously, these “The raiders have slaughtered charisma, meaning i can charm stuff as i did (no karma system, guys are truly evil. our village!” my way into the vault with this so who cares?) Good voice feeding-people-eyes-for- immortal line: “But i’m a fellow acting and a wide range of sleeping-on-their-shift “uh huh.” vault dweller! can’t you just let characters help sell this as a kind of evil. me in?” don draper, eat your community on the mend. but - “They’re coming back! Tonight heart out, because this actually i didn’t play a Fallout game Here KIttY, KIttY they shall dine on the flesh of works. never underestimate the to hang out in a vault, and rescue erin’s cat. look, our elderly, washed down with terrible power of whining. soon abandon the people of you’re going to commit some truly horrible the blood of our children!” 89 for the fresh radioactive sins in the wasteland. air. celebrate my return to the least you can do is “sure.” the open-sky by killing some return this lost kitty. people so i could sleep in their think of your soul. it’s always good to stay calm in beds. no karma, no problems. a crisis.

48 / The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine WWW.gAmeSrAdAr.cOm/Oxm sit, relax, enjoy a drink, f o u r stand up, essentIal run, run for Weapons your life... - fallout 4 JUNK JET At last! A weapon that fires all those useless rusty tin cans we’re always accidentally picking up. Will launch any junk loaded into it and the longer you hold down the trigger, the more powerful the impact. Means it’s now possible to defeat a shotgun wielding raider with a pair of safety scissors. - SYRINGER RIFLE Craft poisons at chemistry radiation poisoning benches, then fire them into means it’s no longer your enemies. Highlights include safe to drink seawater. one that makes them bleed out shame, we used to love for an agonising 30 seconds, or doing that. a shot that makes them think you’ve vanished into thin air. You know, just like people do all the time. Idiots. - When stabbing ELECTRIFIED SWORD just isn’t Bring a big knife to a gunfight and enough, go the Super Mutants will rightfully electric. giggle as they minigun you to shreds. Burn off their laughing gobs by crafting an electrified blade – it’s the closest you’ll get to wielding a lightsaber outside of Battlefront. - ANY LASER WEAPON Does disintegrating an enemy into red, steaming particles ever get old? No. No it does not.

20:20 21:00 22:08 23:02 let tHere Be lIGHt > Fallout 3.5? > “soMetHInG WICKeD tHIs Way CoMes” > n i investigate one of Boston’s n cities have more explorable subway tunnels. it’s far brighter buildings than ever, and Trinity n The trapped human, rex, than the often pitch-black Tower rises over all. A distress is an actor/idiot who thought Fallout 3 – i haven’t even not one For InseCtoPHoBes> signal from someone trapped he’d try to teach the super used the torch yet. Another inside means i can’t resist Mutants culture by strolling feral ghoul attack occurs like n after my humiliating subway investigating. The lost soul into the building with a copy clockwork, but by now i’ve defeat, i decide to vent my doesn’t mention anything of Macbeth. Yeah, didn’t go found a weakness to exploit rage by shooting some bugs. about a reward, but that’s so well. but it had worked on – blast their legs off and they but laugh off insects at your why god invented blackmail. one super Mutant. his name shamble uselessly along the peril, as everything has a fair it’s an action-packed ascent, is strong, and he tells me the floor. i’m feeling pretty smug shot of killing you in Fallout the Super mutants guarding distress signal was a trap. about this, until the glowing 4. bloodbugs are particularly the tower refuse to go down With a new wave the super One emerges, a neon green nasty, sucking out your red easy. A top-floor tussle with a Mutants incoming, i jump in a undead who is a bastard to stuff and then spitting it back minigun-packing brute leads cable car and start descending kill. leg shots won’t cut it, in your face. even dracula to a particularly tense stand- rapidly down the side of the headshots don’t fare much would think that’s a little oTT. off. But improved combat tower. now this feels new- better, and my weeping only as for performance bugs, handling aside, this all feels a gen – rain lashes down, while makes it stronger (probably). they’ve been surprisingly little overfamiliar. Are we really i minigun-blast floor after floor i soon abandon the subway, rare. The occasional dip in the seeing anything that wasn’t of super Mutants, a pretentious having once again been framerate and mismatched done just as well in the mighty actor quoting Macbeth on my punished for my cockiness. subtitles are uncommon Fallout 3? right, as the cable car hurtles never mind the plastic Pip-Boy, enough to be ignored, meaning towards the ground. forget that this game should come boxed this might be the best-running Michael fassbender nonsense, with a thick slice of humble pie. bethesda game i’ve played. this is the modern adaptation Which is almost a compliment. William would have wanted.

@Oxm The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine / 49 feature

a shopping centre run by robots. and they say the future is bleak...

0:01 01:01 02:20 03:00

HollyWooD Horrors > leGenD oF tHe sIlver sHrouD > tHe leGenD enDs > n i happen upon Good n Kent makes me an incredible n Spot some nice-looking neighbor, a town populated by offer – to become the new leg armor. in my haste to put ghouls, with the novel twist silver shroud! he’ll broadcast it on, i fail to notice that this that none of them are trying to news alerts on the radio, then removes my Silver Shroud eat me. CreatIve DIFFerenCes > i’ll track down the criminal and costume. Wasn’t until much i visit Kent, drug addict and exact machine-gun flavoured later, when VATs showed me in massive Silver Shroud fan. n Terminals reveal bitchy notes justice, long after the crime has the third person, that i realized The Silver Shroud was a radio between the producer and been committed and it’s far too i’d been exacting justice in show about a crime fighter in a writer about the direction the late to save the victim. Genius! my underwear. So, er, if you dapper coat who killed baddies pilot was going in. The writer’s no one eludes me now. i am read about a naked superhero with a silver machine gun. Kent desk is littered with mentats, the man who shrouds. nothing in Publick Occurrences this wants the costume they used a cute detail that is absolutely feels more like justice than month, bear in mind that it to film the doomed pilot for a not relatable at all. Fallout is murdering thieves, then looting was an honest mistake. Silver Silver Shroud Tv show. after always best when it just gives their corpses. someone offers Shroud, away! my reputation bleeding him dry for caps (or you a location, fills it with to join me in the fight against in tatters (probably, i am too cutting off his drug supply, corpses and clues, then lets crime, but i refuse. The silver scared to check the ), i depending on how you look at you join the dots to figure out shroud works alone. Mainly wander the streets, the rain not it), i head over to where they what happened. i find the Silver because the silver shroud helping my melancholic mood. filmed the pilot. Shroud costume, but also nab invested in a perk that lets him mainly because i get caught Gotta say, back in 2077 they a comic book that promises me carry 50 more weight when he in a radioactive thunderstorm. really knew how to make quality an extra 5% damage with alien works alone. sorry kid, but you lightning jolts from the murky television. These ghoul props blasters. Oh Fallout 4 you extra- can’t fight crime with me. You heavens and my rad levels rise are so realistic, it actually feels tease-estrial, did you just hint make the silver shroud feel fat. fast. i dart into the first building like they’re eating my face! ah, that aliens are incoming? i see, the friendly-sounding the magic of . hallucinogen inc.

50 / The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine WWW.gAmeSrAdAr.cOm/Oxm four tIps for leVellIng up - LET’S COOK Almost every creature you meet fallout 4 drops some sort of irradiated meat. See a campfire, and you can cook almost all of it for free – and receive some XP every time to boot. If only actual cooking was this rewarding! - LOCKPICKING Even if finding out what’s in that toolkit/safe/cabinet doesn’t interest you, successful decapitated heads lockpicking gives a hit of XP, with are horrifying none of the death risk. Just don’t initially, but blame us for the rage you’ll feel you grow to upon breaking your last bobby pin. appreciate seeing - a friendly face. EXPLORE You get XP every time you discover a new location, so simply sprinting across the map can level you up a few times. Just make sure to quicksave regularly. Burnt-out Boston isn’t the safest place for a gentle jog… - FINISH IT It’s easy to accidentally start a quest (e.g. finding a valuable item before you’ve met the person who wanted you to fetch it). Have a regular read through of the quest log. Often you’ll see that you just have to hand over something you picked up without thinking this robot asked us what to complete a quest – always love is. We like where resulting in a huge XP spike. this is going...

04:34 05:40 06:15 07:18

We’re not a BaD Person, PeaCe at last> BloWn to PIeCes > rIGHt? > Creatures oF tHe DeeP > n i use every radaway i can n hear more guests arriving. n it’s good to be safe from the n Successfully running away, find, which takes most of the Then i hear gunfire. Several storm, in a nice, dry building i start exploring nearby docks, radioactive out of my armed Synths are now inside full of mysterious gas that’s hoping for some relative safety. stupid swim. but my health the building, shooting to kill making people try to kill each A boy excitedly tells me he’s is painfully low. luckily, i and blocking the only exit. other. intrigued, i explore spotted a monster in the stumble upon a care home Synths are -style further. sneaking past the sea. Yeah, cheers kid. i don’t run by several Mr handy units. cyborgs created by the shady gunners and raiders isn’t so know what he’s so excited after charismatically lying institute and feared all over hard when they’re too focused about, considering mirelurks that i’d booked ahead, handy Boston. Spotting me, they on slaughtering to say, “hey! (mutated crab-beasts a.k.a gives me someone else’s room open laser fire. i return a few isn’t that the naked superhero actual sea monsters) are found key and i limp off for a much shots, blasting off metal we used to respect?” everywhere. nice try, sonny. call needed recovery nap. but plates to reveal the intricate i find a room where i can me when you spot a mermaid. the first room has a corpse circuits and cold inhumanity test hallucinogen inc’s many Oh, who am i kidding? i have to in it where the bed should’ve underneath. An enemy that weapons on the floor below. know more. Sometimes you’ve been. ”Typical,” i tut, walking gets creepier every time you There’s a lot of people on that just got to take a deep breath into the next room only to find successfully shoot it? Brrr. floor, but they’ve all gone crazy and go for a relaxing dip in the another skeleton sprawled Why are the Synths here? anyway. surely the immoral +10 radiation-a-second waters. across the bedspread. had i’m still clueless, and even thing to do would be to not don’t be alarmed if i emerge i been a paying customer, i with 24 hours of exploring test the weapons? This is what with a new set of gills. would’ve been straight onto behind me, so much is still happens when you get rid of Trip advisor with some stern yet to be uncovered. now, can your karma system, bethesda. words. luckily this used to be someone mark The institute on i’ve lost all sense of morality, a retirement home, so there’s my map so i can start sprinting so i test all the weapons. it’s no shortage of medication. in the opposite direction? extremely satisfying. Good ol’ old people.

@Oxm The OFFiciAl xBOx mAgAzine / 51 subscribe & sAVe 77%

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84 75 68 WWE 2 k 15 WWE 2 k 16 WWE 2 k 14 r aw 2007 Smackdown vs

Chief Vs LoCke

20% Missions you pLay as Chief

80% Missions you pLay as Mr CharisMa

WHaT cITy WE’d lIkE Halo 5: aSSaSSIN’S crEEd TO ‘dO’ NExT: Matthew: dubrovnik Guardians alex: Mumbai Spartans Locke and Chief collide in Xbox Emma: Berlin One’s biggest, most epic shooter (p54) Tom: lubbock, Texas

THIS MONTH WE…

Augmented ourselves silly p60 Braved p62 Stacked spoilers sky-high p66 Shredded our fingers to bits p75 Battled the jolly green giant p79

@OXm the OffiCiaL XbOX magazine / 53 The Spartan dodge technique allows Master Chief – or whichever Spartan you’re manipulating – to duck out of gunfire with an instant speed splurt. review

54 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm PublisHer microsoft stUdios / DeveloPer Format xbox one / release Date oUt now Halo 5: GuarDians Xbox’s most iconic series comes home – but as a hero, or a traitor?

ere’s the secret to your own sensibilities) Halo lore can be experiencing Halo 5: in places, it’s undeniably handy to have Guardians at its brilliant, a squad that acts like an audio guide to belligerent best – play it remind you why you’re traipsing around outside of your comfort the galaxy in the first place. zone. Usually play on storyline conceits aside, blue team and normal? crank the dial osiris are along for the ride to facilitate to heroic. heroic is your Halo 5’s very modern ‘drop-in, drop-out’ default difficulty? ratchet that sucker up co-operative play, with ai spartans filling Hto legendary. already intending in the blanks where necessary. to begin on legendary? oh man, it’s a tidy way of allowing human good luck with that. players to drift in and out of if you ignore that advice, other people’s games without then in all likelihood you’ll breaking the game’s fiction, but spend the first two-thirds of the reviewer it’s also forced 343 industries campaign wondering whether alex Dale to make several alterations to 343 industries has soiled the live chocoboofdoom Halo’s tried and tested design, proverbial bed. the reasons the @sporadicdaler and during my first playthrough campaign mode doesn’t hit the of the campaign on normal spot initially all stem from the tHe knowleDGe difficulty, i felt it’s hamstrung fact that during the single- wHat is it? the flow of the action to such a player campaign you’re flanked sends master degree that i couldn’t help but by three spartan team-mates, chief a message, wonder if it was a case of the setting off a chain which can make your life a little of events that puts tail wagging the dog. too easy at times. two spartans on a the most notable twist is that when the narrative calls for collision course. there’s now a revive mechanic. master chief to take center wHat’s it like? Unless you do something truly stage (which is nowhere near a flawed but cretinous, like tumble into a as much as i suspect fans are fun campaign is bottomless pit or squat in a going to like), he’s accompanied bolstered by the ghost until it explodes, death by his blue team, a team of best multiplayer is no longer necessarily the skilled spartans with names since . end. instead, you’ll lay prone plucked straight from your wHo’s it For? where you carked it, and your mom’s facebook friends list. xbox one owners, team-mates have a good (fred! linda! You just know they basically. after recent 10-15 seconds to reach you share minion memes, don’t you?) splutters, this is and scrape you off the floor. newcomer Jameson locke, master chief back on which doesn’t sound like long meanwhile, mobilizes his top form. but, trust me, it’s an eternity fireteam osiris squad to track in the supercharged world of down and capture the blue team, who Halo. given that an entire team has to have supposedly gone renegade, and it’s die before you’re sent packing to the last through their visors that we experience checkpoint, you can understand how i the bulk of Halo 5’s story. managed to power through the first nine given the amount of screen time locke levels on normal without ‘properly’ dying and his gang receive, it’s obvious 343 has once (pit mishaps notwithstanding). big plans for them in the future, which i feel this is something of a misstep. makes the lack of meaningful character one of the most important ingredients to development over the course of the story the Halo formula, for me, is fear: the lung- doubly disappointing. during quieter sucking terror that comes from scanning times osiris appear to be little more than the battlefield and spotting, in the corner exposition devices on legs, although given of your eye, an energy sword-wielding how weighty/baggy (delete according to elite rushing in on your position.

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 55 The increased Spartan count is review counteracted by more vicious enemy formations – clean up the grunts while team-mates focus on elites.

team-mate who’s too far away. again, at first sight this seems a wild misfire. early on it’s possible to order your team to do the brunt of the work for you while you prat about on the sidelines, which is anathema to the classic Halo concept of the player as general. but then, after six hours of effortlessly swathing through enemy forces like a hot knife through brute, and almost before it’s too late, Halo 5 suddenly, majestically finds its feet, counteracting the increased spartan count by throwing new, aggressive configurations of enemy forces at you in ways that test your combat and teamwork skills to their limits. extra sauce a dash of difficulty has always been the secret sauce that makes Halo Halo it might seem weird to eulogize the does, as an example, there are times The Battle and, as it turns out, all Halo 5 needs to one-hit kill, but in Halo, the prospect where Halo 5 comes close. of Sunaion, bring out the flavours of its interlocking of several minutes’ hard graft being the team orders, too, tarnish as seen at systems is a little extra. that’s why i suddenly and fatally undone by a single the purity of the gunplay on lower 2015, occurs urge you to skip the initial malaise and direct hit from a wraith, or a solitary difficulty settings. they are issued surprisingly begin Halo 5 outside of your comfort swipe of an energy sword, is a vital entirely with up on the d-pad, which late on in zone. with the difficulty upped, battle the game. part of the game’s balance, adding should give you some hint as to the arenas that seem sparse and baggy on much-needed stakes to skirmishes system’s complexity, and basically a first playthrough reveal their hidden that the player, cast in the role of a involve drawing your team’s attention tactical depths, with multi-layered cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier, to whatever your reticule is pointing at. designs that challenge you to find new, is designed to dominate. although You can order your team to concentrate inventive ways to engage the enemy. it never quite feels like a battle of their fire on a specific target, pick up Halo’s appeal has always stemmed attrition, like the original BioShock a specific weapon, or revive a downed from its epic-scale warfare hosted

56 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm review

Meet the the upward mobility to move around warden these environments unfettered, and eternal. He the level designers constantly find “Skip the initial malaise and begin turns up so mischievous ways to challenge you to often he’s chain these skills together, both in and less a boss, out of combat. it pays to poke around outside of your comfort zone” more a new enemy type. every last nook and cranny – not only in vast, sweeping arenas, so it isn’t first-person shooters in 2015. but this are there gameplay-altering skulls necessarily the larger size of Halo hasn’t been implemented in a gimmicky to be found, but also one-time use 5’s battlegrounds that make them way. instead, it’s designed to give you special weapons with cool names such distinctive – it’s the way they’re the agency to control the distance as ‘blaze of glory’, too. constructed. interestingly, many you engage with the enemy, as the in combat, Halo 5 is at its best when battles begin by allowing players weapons you happen to be carrying at it has the confidence to throw the to seize over unaware the time dictate. mid-air boosts and a kind of odds at your team that would enemy patrols, scouting nearby rock new clamber system gift your spartan overwhelm a solitary spartan. You’ll formations and vantage points for the ideal location from which to jump down and kickstart the fight. this test of your Sandboxing team’s initiative is an omen of things clever to come, with open-ended arenas The large-scale, that boast multiple entrance/exit 12v12 Warzone mode points, and destructible walls that can has become an office be knocked down by getting a good lunchtime favorite. It’s run-up and ploughing through them, basically a mash-up of opening up new routes and revealing everything good about hidden goodies. (exploration, even Halo, with objective-based mid-battle, often pays dividends – in multiplayer skirmishes one stage, for example, i stumbled interrupted by periodical upon an underground tunnel that drops of and allowed my team to entirely bypass a Promethean thugs. Matches have a pleasing tricky wraith section). sense of escalation, layouts are more vertical (read: thanks to the requisition taller) than they were in previous Halo system (see ‘Get REQed’). titles, reflecting a more general trend in

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 57 review

encounter more hunters – the giant, for recalibrating, and while they still Multiple feel substantially different to the armoured gestalts that can only be lack the charisma of the covenant, entrance/ last. and so long as you’ve selected a killed by attacking their vulnerable subtle tweaks to their various forms exit points difficulty setting that doesn’t instruct backs – in Halo 5 than probably in and functions – such as reducing the allow you them to pull their punches, you’ll no the rest of the Halo series combined. amount of damage it takes to kill them to pick a longer groan at the telltale glow of it makes sense that they feature so – mean it’s far more enjoyable to wage route that Promethean soldiers converging on the suits the prominently, as the need to draw war with the glowing goons. horizon – now their forces deliver some guns you’re their attention and then flank them the revamp means the Prometheans lugging of the most frenzied skirmishes we’ve naturally lends itself to teamwork, but behave more like a collective unit around. seen in a Halo game. it sometimes feels as if the game leans this time around – like the covenant, on them, and their Promethean near- they’re an assortment of different Design sense equivalent Knights, a little too heavily. fighting styles and types that in the midst of these firefights, design speaking of Prometheans, after their complement each other perfectly decisions that seemed barmy on clumsy debut in , 343 has taken and which the game designers can normal begin to make perfect sense, the robo-faction back to the garage remix endlessly to make each fight such as the way your spartan can’t move or fire while he’s waiting to be revived. it’s a punishment that Get REQed dissuades you from rashly jumping Piggybacking off the into danger. collapse at the feet of a success of FIFA’s Ultimate Promethean Knight, and the chances Team packs, REQ Packs are that you’ll lead your team-mates to are earned in-game across their doom one by one as they attempt all three game modes, to rescue you, like some kind of Pied or you can stump up Piper of incompetence. enemy tagging, actual money for booster too, becomes less a luxury, more a packs. Inside you’ll find necessity later on as snipers, manned customisation options turrets and those horrible watcher (visors, assassination things that heal their Promethean animations and so on) and team-mates sprout up like they’re one-time use vehicle/ going out of fashion in the game’s weapon cards for Warzone. bombastic closing stages. Die and it’s gone forever, so use your ultra-rare if single-player is a bold reinvention, cards wisely. then multiplayer is classic, streamlined old-school Halo – and it’s all the better

58 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm review

The hulking Hunters are actually made up of millions of tiny slugs. eeeeeek!

everywhere fears that 343 industries was you look steering Halo away from its trademark in Halo 5 battle rhythm and towards a reliance “It’s far more enjoyable to wage war there’s on Call of Duty-esque set-pieces a sea of (eventually) prove unfounded, then. vibrant with Promethean soldiers now” oranges and indeed, one of my biggest gripes about purples. Halo 5 is that it doesn’t find a dramatic for it. in an age where most online Call of Duty nonsense stripped, Halo or memorable moment for its titular shooters are aping the heady chaos 5’s maps are pleasingly tactical – by 1,000-foot tall guardians to partake in. of Call of Duty, with its endless perks, studying the sound of gunfire and nonetheless, Halo 5’s story hits all the weapons, killstreaks and whatnot, Halo your team-mate’s positioning, you can emotional highs we’ve come to expect 5’s arena mode is refreshingly pure; instinctively pick up where the other from the series, and has an incredible four on four, everyone starts with the team are, and what range of weapons twist which – no spoilers – finally gives same guns, with maps seasoned with they’re likely to be packing (handy as rise to the iconic villain the haloverse weapon upgrades that tempt players the radar is severely limited). luck, has been craving for years. into open, hazardous areas. breakout in as much as it can be in this sort after a rather flat spartan vs spartan – Halo 5’s team-based elimination of thing, is almost stripped from the marketing campaign for Halo 5, this mode – is particularly mischievous on equation. thus, a multiplayer that at reveal should suitably whet the palate this front, coaxing players into pushing first appears slight soon reveals the for Halo 6, but for now, Halo 5 offers a forward for the best weapons, and kind of nuances that come from good new, dynamic challenge that you’ll be rewarding players who force the issue design, rather than loud design. it’s an revisiting for years. Just remember to instead of sitting back and picking instant classic – xbox one owners are crank that difficulty setting up before their spots. with all the extra-curricular likely to be playing this for years. you begin, spartan. oxm The OXM verdict THe rivalS BeST wHaT HaPPeNS COMPleTiON Overall PriCe NeXT? ClOCK No Campaign The slavish devotion to : ULTIMATE ED 9 DLC is co-op can cause Halo 5 as $ currently much grief as reward, but planned, CALL oF DUTy: BLACk oPS III 8 ? 7 when it works with rather 59 but 343 promises amazon.com hoUrs than against its teamwork 15 free new mechanics the result is an 7 multiplayer maps by June 2016. epic, high-octane shooter. 9

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 59 Save your Specialists’ abilities for the perfect moment – they charge slowly enough to become game-changers. review

puBlISher ACTIVISIOn / Developer TREyARCh / format XBOX 360, XBOX OnE (REVIEWEd) / releaSe Date OuT nOW Call of Duty: BlaCk opS III revIewer The series’ latest operation is a triple bypass Joe SkreBelS live OXM Joe aying that each new Call of endlessly customizable heap of modes, packed, occasionally infuriating. @2plus2isjoe Duty is, in fact, three different stretching all the way from dumb Gun Take the campaign. The series’ first the knowleDge games is beyond cliché. Game matches to MOBA-style drafting; customizable lead character (well, Campaign, multiplayer and Zombies is a return to Treyarch’s roots, sort of – you get two genders and an what IS It? The little sub-series Zombies are now expected by which we mean it’s screamingly assortment of haircuts) heads up a Sheads on Activision’s cash-belching tough and satisfyingly obtuse, story that reaches far further than its that could, returns with another near- Cerberus. Black Ops III does not fly the rewarding many, many replays. increasingly gung-ho predecessors, future explosion-fest. nest – on the contrary, it builds on that What’s particularly notable is how riffing on the likes of Code, what’S It lIke? nest, fashioning a spacious, three- little they have in common. Zombies Black Mirror and (gasp) real-life issues have you heard of room apartment, each stuffed with is the obvious outlier, brilliantly as it posits a future where soldiers who Call of Duty? It’s that. unique and shiny trinkets. relocated from Black Ops’ near-future have all their limbs torn off get turned But also with a bit of In the context of an industry to an alternate-history Age. But into Robocop’s militarised siblings and MOBAs, sci-fi films that prefers to sell major games in multiplayer – commonly designed to be have tech-sistential crises. and (shock) Destiny. piecemeal fashion, it’s an almost an extension of the main story – brings It’s worthy of respect, even getting who’S It for? absurdly generous package. Each with it different powers, an entirely into some booming psychedelia as the Everyone. honestly, prong offers more than ever, each distinct cast of characters, and even barriers between reality and virtuality it’s absolutely in different ways: the campaign changes how you move on a base level. break down – it’s also one of the enormous, you’re secrets massive chunks of bonus The upshot of this is that Black worst-told videogame stories in recent sure to find content behind what’s already a Ops III is an unwieldy, dissonant memory. It seems pretty clear that something. lengthy sci-fi romp; multiplayer is an thing: often brilliant, always feature- whole sections have been dropped, and the exposition used to paper the cracks is laughable – as is the juvenile New world focus on gory mutilation scenes amid a Shooters are a different place these story that purports to be Very Serious. days. Call of Duty might be a veteran From a game perspective, there are series, but it’s still keeping up. There’s similar problems. Major glitches forced MOBA-style character drafting and us to restart missions twice. One dull equipment bans in eSports-friendly Hardcore multiplayer modes, and tank enemy type makes up about 90% Codcaster mode returns to aid those of the ‘boss fights’. Cyber Cores – who want to be shoutcasters. which augment your usual weaponry with ersatz superpowers – are a neat

60 / ThE OFFICIAl XBOX MAGAZInE WWW.GAMESRAdAR.COM/OXM The zombies are familiar, although they have a weird habit of screaming “Yes! Yes! Yes!” for no reason. review

“regrets. familiar. The initial campaign is a brassy i have a few. Like how tale of four ne’er-do-wells pulled into i’m about a part-Romero, part-lovecraft horror. “It posits a future where soldiers to become Scattered shrines allow members of corpse- the team to turn into the Cthulhu-like have tech-sistential crises” chow.” Beast, which has a short time to one- hit-kill the undead and see secrets idea, but are annoying enough to at a time). It’s a decidedly post-Destiny the rest of the crew can’t. It’s hard to switch between that you’ll end up just touch, and one that’s sure to raise judge at this point (partly because the sticking with the ones that kill certain questions about balance, but we feel it story will be told over a dlC season), enemy types instantly. works beautifully. but it’s a vibrant extension to Zombies’ Essentially, it’s good old CoD It adds an almost -like playful lineage – not least because reaching too far and somehow coming frisson – you need to understand what Jeff Goldblum is unbelievably funny up short – odd when you consider that enemies can do as much as you do as the team’s magician gone rotten, multiplayer attempts the same trick your own capabilities. There’s nothing Goldblumming harder than ever. and succeeds brilliantly. This is the like recognizing a Specialist and Black Ops III is by no means perfect, twitchy, feisty game of old (ditching successfully adjusting your tactics to but its sheer enormity is its saving AW’s thrusters, but keeping double- account for their skills. grace. Where other franchises pour jumps and wall-running), with some The worst we can say about manpower into making colossal very modern touches. multiplayer is that we have some experiences that simply repeat ideas Most obviously, we’re introduced to quibbles with the general map design. over increasingly enormous spaces, Specialists, the lineup of nine named despite all the extra mobility, Black Ops Treyarch has made something more supersoldiers you now play as. This III’s levels still feel squat, covered in substantial. yes, Call of Duty is three doesn’t affect the returning Pick invisible walls to stop you from trying games but, for the first time, it really 10 loadout system – instead, each out more outlandish ambush tactics. feels it could have been sold on three Specialist brings with them two unique despite getting the most impressive discs. And yet here it is: massive, abilities (only one of which can be used visual overhaul, Zombies feels the most uneven and quite delightful. oXm The OXM verdict THe DiFFereNCe ON… KeY iNFLUeNCeS wHaT HaPPeNS OveraLL XBOX 360 NeXT? The last-gen version Treyarch Treyarch might not always of the game drops to goes into hit its targets, but this 30fps, won’t get any 85 10 5 hiding, and remains a genuinely fresh future DLC and, most ? one of Acti’s take on an old sub-series oddly, doesn’t include bevy of devs will in an even older franchise. the campaign mode at 85% Guns & Ammo magazine reveal the next all. Not the biggest loss, 10% William Gibson novels non-Black Ops CoD. A game as well-oiled as its that last one. 5% Destiny Yay, franchises! cyborgian characters. 8

@OXM ThE OFFICIAl XBOX MAGAZInE / 61 A prologue flashback whisks Lara to Syria and a taste of tombs to come. This one tastes of hidden spike pits and water level puzzles. Delicious. review

62 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm Publisher square enix / DeveloPer crYstal dYnamics Format xbox 360, xbox one (reviewed) / release Date out now rise oF the tomb raiDer It’s not all tomb and gloom in Lara’s survivalist sequel

hen did survival for arrow shafts can rely on survival games become a caches liberally buried across the land. ‘thing'? surviving, crafting feels like an organic skin for by its very nature, what came before. You still explore nooks isn’t hugely fun – and crannies in massive hub areas, but it’s a means to an rather than it ending with a box of generic end. You survive salvage you get to chip explosive minerals the snowstorm so off cave walls or pin rabbits to the floor you can go home and binge on Pringles. with arrows. it’s only in combat that WYou survive a bear attack so you can live scavenging diligence shines through, as to enjoy season four of House of Cards. special ammo and health can be made to survive is to earn a shot at eventual from your pickings. Prioritizing items from happiness, which makes it an limited ingredients lends this a odd focus for a videogame – a frisson of risk, but it’s felt more medium that is, for many of us, by raising difficulty to seasoned a reward for surviving a day in raider. the default setting the rat race. it’s bother enough offers auto-heal in battle, managing our own warmth/ revieWer sapping the tension of dwindling thirst/hunger meters, without mattheW Castle herb-encrusted bandages. worrying about a virtual victim. live oxm Pesto for a more potent sting, Rise of the Tomb Raider @mrbasil_pesto survivor mode removes auto- certainly sets us up for a the knoWleDge healing entirely, creating a struggle. where most sane What is it? constant hunt for medicine as humans would take the horrors accident prone the screen grows more blood- of the first game’s Yamatai heroine hunts for flecked with every tumble. this island as an invitation to find a immortality. Probably panic is heightened with fewer safer line of work, croft opts to for the best, really. resources, costlier upgrades pursue mystical doodads in the What’s it like? and a price to light campfires snowy siberian wilderness. an Platforming, puzzling (where said upgrading occurs). avalanche strips her equipment and pummelling with in a world where ‘difficulty’ is (her flares conveniently survive a dash of Metroid’s often shorthand for ‘stretch the for purposes of show-off drip-feed of gadgets. enemy health bar, shrink the lighting effects) and a quick Who’s it For? hero’s’, survivor’s rules create a scan of her skill-tree picks series fans, bear genuinely more cautious game. out a concerning number of grylls wannabes and lazy habits – over-relying on references to crafting and those dreaming of a poison arrows, for one – no white christmas. resources. You’d be forgiven for longer hold up, and you begin thinking you’re in for a chore. to favour sensible skill upgrades, such as so it’s good to see the rise of a more xP boosts, over flashier gimmicks. like the relaxed kind of survivor. all the talk of moment you’re grown-up enough to know lara’s struggle against the elements you should be buying brown bread instead amounts to little more than basking in of white, it’s sobering stuff. staggering snow particle effects and for this reason, survivor is best left to light-refracting glacial tech. likewise, a second playthrough. like the reboot foraging for upgrade materials rejects before it, Rise should primarily be enjoyed the crafting simulation of Don’t Starve or as a cinematic romp – even more so than Minecraft for something more simplified its predecessor, in fact, due to it starring and videogame-y. common resources fall the empowered heroine who emerged under eight categories, and those who from Yamatai’s baptisms of fire/lead/ don’t want to hunt deer or snap saplings wolf teeth. gone is the lady who quietly

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 63 Note the guard on the left, wilfully ignoring the death gurgles of his strangled friend. Poor show. review

wept over a murdered deer, replaced stealth bent sees her slinking through reaching the the story against the clock, with score with, weirdly, the world’s greatest bushes and scampering up trees to hidden tombs multipliers for chaining kills, shooting bomb-maker, building them from liquor unleash ferocious instant kills on can be a real targets and grabbing blobs of magic , walkie-talkies, jam , tin oblivious guards. there’s a hint of mission – how flames dotted across the level. using cans, dead bodies… they should call it squad ai – lara’s returning ‘instinct did builders those pick-ups to try to maintain a get there to Rise of the Boom Maker. mode’ reveals when guards are out of combo meter as you sniff out a racing begin with? it’s semi-ridiculous – who left liquor sight – but it’s generous stuff, with line that balances speed and severity in a seemingly untouched tomb? – but idiot soldiers failing to notice noisy reminds me of xbox 360’s underrated her toys do lend fights an aggressive deaths performed meters away, or The Club – only where that murder-race forward-momentum. it also makes investigating thrown bottles despite suffered for being a standalone game, for prettier slaughter, as molotov fire their pals vanishing mere seconds expeditions is a meaty add-on to an bounces off the wet stone catacombs before doing exactly the same. it may already substantial story mode. as in a way that makes you go ‘ooooh’ seem mechanical and lifeless in the extras goes, it’s far more welcome than as the victim goes ‘aaaargh’. combat post-Phantom Pain age, but it does Tomb Raider’s middling multiplayer. is surreally beautiful throughout Rise, fulfil the power fantasy of clearing out Rise ticks many in terms of in fact, whether it’s the sight of laser camps with clockwork efficiency. don’t building on its predecessor: prettier, sights ominously swaying through fog like it? one gunshot is all it takes to deadlier, bigger. which makes it or the searing, rainbow pyrotechnics turn a scene into an action set-piece. a shame crystal dynamic’s much- that kick in during the more mystical vaunted tomb renovations don’t quite final hours. the lighting’s arguably the the great expedition cut it. the challenge tombs look more best we’ve seen this generation. if anything, stealth lives a happier life like forgotten temples than the first bombs are but one page of lara’s outside of the main game, in expedition game’s raggedy cave squats, but guerrilla warfare handbook. a new mode. this has you replay sections of they’re often single-puzzle affairs that are over in minutes. the riddles require fun lateral thinking around distinctive House of cards concepts – pulley-steered rowboats, Expedition mode, like 99% of all modern rising water levels, explosive gas – but games, features a collectible card fail to escalate to any grand puzzling element. Here the cards act as modifiers crescendos. if you played Underworld, for score attack runs, adding bonus you’ll know crystal dynamics can build points for using nasty cards – ones that bigger and better tombs than this. set all guards on fire, for example – and subtracting them for using beneficial it’s also a shame that the majority of items such as, er, chicken bombs. these ancient structures are consigned to optional side tasks, leaving the

64 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm Poison arrows are crafted from fungi, scaring a whole new generation of kids off eating mushrooms. review

Lara’s a bit ultimately, for all crystal dynamics of a killjoy: focuses on smartening up its underlying all those systems, it’s its eye for environmental “The final hours smash together ziplines and spectacle and the surprise set-piece not a single that stick with you: the mad dashes to “wheeeeee!” the fantastical with the bombastic” freedom through crumbling masonry, or emerging from a tight glacial cavern first chunk of the story to play out grappling wire – the game really hits to observe vast wonders stretching out in wilderness and military facilities its stride. a stodgy section tending to below. gameplay is always king, but that, while smothered in all-new leg- a village of noble tribesmen (marginally there’s no shame in having a gorgeous engulfing snow, often echoes our time less annoying than her jerk friends from xbox one exclusive to ogle over. and in on Yamatai. make no mistake, this is the first game) is followed by hit after a christmas line-up sagging with 100- a vast graphical leap but déjà vu does hit: a substantial tomb built around hour time-hogs, there’s also something kick in. this is more prevalent in the ancient napalm; preying on guards to be said for a game that crushes its first ten hours, where lara’s gradual through cracks in the ice; a daring thrills into a dense 20 hours instead. discovery of returning equipment can’t arctic rescue; not to mention stealth maybe it’s all the virtual snow i’ve help but mimic the similar beats of sequences that finally allow you to try ingested, but Rise feels like a great Tomb Raider. the reboot did such a out those horrible moves you’ve been holiday season game – a chance to good job of constantly handing out new learning. the final couple of hours are tuck up nice and warm and conquer the toys and tricks that simply repeating everything you want from Tomb Raider, digital cold. at the very least, it’ll offer that process feels slightly unambitious. smashing together the fantastical with welcome respite from those squabbling thankfully, once lara has her old the bombastic in a way that can’t help family engagements. now that’s my equipment back – joined by a snazzy but leave you with a giddy smile. kind of . oXm The OXM verdict PrOS/CONs PrO TiP wHAT HAPPeNS OverALL NeXT? Not quite the evolutionary ✔ Lara’s jiggling ✖ Tombs never quite DLC will add hair – it’s hypnotic find their bite more animal leap we’d hoped for, but this combat, a ✔ ✖ beautiful and bombastic TV-speaker- The story won’t new tomb rattling gun blasts win any prizes ? adventure remains one of based around the the most purely entertaining ✔ Lighting so ✖ Too easy to Baba Yaga , good it’ll make over-rely on Turn off Survival Instinct to stop highlighted and an extra-hard things you can put in your the sun jealous Survival Instinct objects solving most of the puzzles for you. Endurance mode. Xbox One this Christmas. 8

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 65 Street lighting is varied in hue and brightness, but even this doesn’t delineate the city enough. review

publiSher / developer GhoST GAMES / Format XBoX oNE / releaSe date oUT NoW Need For Speed reviewer Ghost takes NFS out for another spin and stacks it into a wall alex dale live ChocoboofDoom or many, It’s a sharp change of direction before plunging into blackness again, @SporadicDaler series doesn’t exist prior that’s only surprising for the fact that its glistening streets illuminated by the kNowledge to 2003’s Underground it’s come from the same studio that countless streetlights. It’s an initially installment. Nearly a decade’s delivered the sun-drenched Californian striking aesthetic, but the constant mix what iS it? A reboot of the long- worth of supercar-focused, roadways of Rivals, but this is a series of gloom and glare becomes wearying. Fwinding-open-road-based racing that’s no stranger to shifting its focus Worse than that, it makes recognizing running, and many tentacled, Need For games preceded it, but EA Black Box’s – consider the touring car violence of the various parts of the city difficult. Speed series. smart decision to steer the series into Slightly Mad’s ShiFt efforts compared We passed a waterfall several times what’S it like? illegal street racing warmed the hearts to Criterion’s -emulating hot before noticing it was there, such An atmospheric take of a of baseball-cap-wearing Pursuit, for example. This is Ghost’s is the shroud that’s draped over the on illegal racing Nova owners – all of whom put what attempt at rebooting the series and world. NFS does a good job of conjuring that’s unfortunately little money they had that wasn’t tied cohering all those loose threads. up the atmosphere of underground let down by poor up in disproportionate exhaust tips and The result certainly looks the part. racing, but you’ll wish there was more execution. neon under-lighting right where their Ghost has ditched Xbox 360 and let variety to take in along the way. who’S it For? mouths were. Now, two years since DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine, the chassis It would be easy to overlook this Fans of Need For Ghost Games first took the series’ of this game, really stretch its legs. sense of encroaching homogeny were Speed: Underground keys for the underwhelming Rivals, The game’s setting, Ventura Bay, is the act of throwing the game’s cars who’ve wrung the Swedish studio is attempting to a city locked into a perpetual drizzly around Ventura Bay’s sinuous and the Crew dry and rekindle Underground’s hooning purity nighttime that just about reaches all-but-deserted streets a pleasure. are willing to compromise. with the subtitle-less Need For Speed. that pre-alarm early morning light Unfortunately, they feel curiously lumpen, weighed down by a heavy- handed physics model that seems to Solo drive sap the joy out of every manoeuvre. A While the player count has to well-designed tuning system allows eight, you can’t fast-travel to anyone’s you to turn any of the game’s vehicles position and the world feels no more into a rubber-shredding, constantly populated. But when you do encounter sideways deathtrap or, if you prefer, someone else, you can challenge them to impromptu races and drifting a grippy, high-speed cornering challenges, and invite crew members to deathtrap, but whichever end of the participate in missions with you. spectrum you favour, the game’s handling model never quite sparkles.

66 / ThE oFFICIAl XBoX MAGAzINE WWW.GAMESrADAr.CoM/oXM Forget the weird handbrake – drifting is best done by pushing too much power through the rear wheels. review

we wish we via an in-game phone, which you can had enough access at any time. It’s a clever system money to for delivering missions, and you can “Cars feel lumpen, weighed down scuff up an choose to ignore incoming calls. other F40 and still mechanics aren’t as well thought walk away by a heavy-handed physics model” smiling. through, however. Starting missions requires you to come nearly to a stop Things improve slightly once you’ve shoot off at the lights, you can enjoy and be facing in the right direction upped your hatchback horsepower the harrying rubber-banded pests’ even though most events begin with a output into four figures or saved up uncanny ability to stay right behind rolling-start cutscene. And there’s no for one of the more modern machines you for as much of the race as you can way to quickly restart an event if you available, but any gains made here manage without making a mistake. fail it, either – if you do hit the restart are quickly clawed back by opponent At least there’s some personality button during a race, the game simply AI whose lack of charisma is only in the game’s vaunted live action warps you to the starting spot and asks matched by regular bouts of stupidity. . Starring a cast of really you to trigger it again. Cars will often end up facing the wrong rather good actors, blended with CG There’s fun to be mined from way during events (often managing to cars and sets, and doing their best customizing and modifying your cars, zero in on your bonnet in the process) with a script that tries a little too hard but so much of this supposed fresh and some rather over-zealous rubber- to be cool, the intermissions make start feels too much like a backwards banding ensures you rarely feel like for an enjoyably hammy narrative step and any nuggets of pleasure you you’re racing anything more than a and a welcome change of pace from uncover are quickly tarnished by the pre-recorded Scalextric session. The the uniformly murky racing. Inviting game’s user-unfriendly design and laudable focus on tuning becomes the you into their crew, these individuals overly prescribed physics. It’s all the unwitting enabler for a difficulty curve each specialize in a different type of more disappointing for the fact that that you simply pay to ascend. Can’t driving – speed, style, build, crew and so much of Rivals’ promise has been beat a race? Just whack in better parts outlaw – and invite you to participate in tossed out of Need For Speed’s tinted and rather than watch your opponents their preferred types of driving events windows in the process. oxm The OXM verdict PrOS/CONs PrO TiP COMPleTiON Overall ClOCK ✔ Innovative use of ✖ The samey A disappointing start to live action footage environment NFS’s next epoch that while benefiting from a distinctive ✔ Some wonderful becomes wearying use of lighting and ✖ Slightly clunky 20 character, can’t compete rain effects handling hoUrS with other open-world ✔ Powerful ✖ Excessive Tune vehicles for particular disciplines to driving games like Forza customization tools fist bumping avoid messing with sliders between events. Horizon 2, or even The Crew. 6

@oXM ThE oFFICIAl XBoX MAGAzINE / 67 revieW

PubliSher / develOPer TELLTALE GAMES / fOrMaT XBOX 360, XBOX OnE (REVIEWED) / releaSe daTe OUT nOW TaleS frOM The reviewer JOe SkrebelS live OXM Joe bOrderlandS: SeaSOn 1 @2plus2isjoe Telltale’s telling of tall tales tails off The knOwledge whaT iS iT? Five episodes elltale has defined its recent memory of series baddie, Handsome get an out just because they’re not of high-gloss, output with a single question: Jack – and Fiona, a lifetime conwoman traditional gun-toting Vault Hunters. loud-laughing what do you think the best caught up in the scheme of, well, a As ever, Telltale’s engine (in need of adventure-comedy. thing to do is, right now? lifetime. Each finds themselves on the retirement, ASAP) can barely cope with whaT’S iT like? Whether that’s giving a racist hunt for a Vault Key. Unfortunately, the most frenetic scenes, but even Any other Telltale Tsome chocolate or stoving a Lewis almost everyone wants one. Our heroes that can’t quite spoil the spectacle. game, but with a Carroll character’s head in, its games meet friends, betray competitors, scar One of the chief criticisms of wry smile and constantly force you into moments enemies and meet a bevy of the series’ Telltale’s work is that your choices bigger guns. that ask you to question whether what most memorable existing characters don’t add up to much. Tales from the whO’S iT fOr? you’re doing will help you survive. Tales (thankfully more fan-service than in- Borderlands, in appropriately cheeky Everyone. from the Borderlands shifts that focus jokes). In more sedate circumstances, fashion, sidesteps that to an extent. Borderlands fans will slightly – your characters are in almost TftB could be gaming’s first sitcom. By making comedy its chief concern, love the homage; constant mortal peril, so the idea of But this isn’t a sitcom. It’s Telltale’s you’re not looking to change the world adventure fans will survival never really matters. Instead, trickiest, most action-packed project. – you’re looking for the best punchline. love the storytelling. you start asking yourself, “What’s the Twists come at a rate of about three When one of those hits unexpectedly, funniest thing I could do, right now?” per episode, and fight scenes run it feels more rewarding than almost any Taking place almost entirely in the gamut from slapstick to shocking Momentous Decision. It might not have flashback, it follows the unwillingly violence. It’s a worthy homage to the emotional heft of the developer’s entwined lives of Rhys – a smarm- Borderlands’ hyperactive run-and- better projects – but that doesn’t mean laced Hyperion exec in thrall to the gunning, and Rhys and Fiona don’t it isn’t Telltale’s best game. OXM The OXM verdict The besT biT COOlesT CharaCTer WhaT haPPeNs Overall NeXT? hugO vaSquez No spoilers, A funny, thrilling, quietly Vasquez is the but the subversive take on the well- best slimeball ending worn Telltale formula – this businessman ? teases the feels like a genuine step since the guy possibility of a forward for the genre. But, who says second season in Every episode opens in spectacular style, “Hans! Bubby!” rather odd fashion. more importantly, it’s just with licensed music to back it up. Classy. in . We’ll take it. good fun, almost constantly. 9

68 / THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzInE WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM/OXM Can’t be bothered to swot up? Don’t expect to immediately understand what’s going on here, then. review

PubLisher FOCUs HOME InTERACTIvE / deveLOPer LARIAn sTUdIOs / fOrMaT XBOX OnE / reLease daTe OUT nOW diviniTy: OriginaL sin – reviewer Chris ThursTen Live Exitwarp enhanCed ediTiOn @cthursten Dig out your dusty old robe and wizard hat The knOwLedge whaT is iT? his is an old-school top-down electricity. Blood conducts electricity, strong, refreshing streak of Pratchett. An old-school RPG RPG that packs an enormous too, so think twice next time your It makes it more fun to play in co-op, with unusual levels of amount of ideas into every lightning wizard is up to his knees in too, whether split-screen or online. player freedom. square inch. Most games orc bits. This philosophy also applies The downside to all of this freedom whaT’s iT Like? like this owe something to to questing. Your first adventure is is that Divinity is a complicated game. Complicated but Ttabletop role-playing, but Divinity: a murder mystery. You can follow a There is a lot to learn, both for you charming, rewarding investment with a Original Sin feels like playing around a breadcrumb trail of clues if you like, but and your co-op partner. If you haven’t light-hearted table with a dungeon master in a way break into the right house and discover played an old-school RPG before then fantasy romp. that few RPGs manage. Playing solo, the right thing at the right time and you’ll need to read and consider every whO’s iT fOr? you create and control two custom the game will happily skip you ahead. tutorial message that pops up. The RPG fans looking to characters as part of a maximum party A lot of effort has gone into enabling developer has done as well as can be try something deeper of four. The fantasy world you trek you to improvise solutions – something expected to get a game like this to than the norm. through is governed by consistent rules we wouldn’t normally expect to find work on a pad: the UI is slick, clever that allow you to solve problems as outside of tabletop. and helpful. But it isn’t a pick-up- directly or as laterally as you wish. Tabletop role-playing tends towards and-play game – you won’t enjoy it as A blazing fire in your way? Move funny rather than serious and so does much unless you pay attention to the a of water nearby and break this. While the plot concerns a dire instructions. On that basis, this feels it with your sword – or cheat and threat to time itself, Divinity never destined to be loved passionately by a create a rain cloud. Wet from the rain? takes itself particularly seriously. It’s dedicated group of people. It’s worth Congratulations: you now conduct a little cheesy in places, but it has a seeing if you’re one of them. OXM The OXM verdict prO Tip KeY iNFlUeNCeS beST Overall priCe A surprise gem, particularly in co-op. Be prepared to 50 35 15 $ put in a bit of learning time, but it’s well worth it so you 57.74 can appreciate the unusual 50% Dungeons & Dragons AMAzOn freedom at your fingertips. Get a character with the ‘Pet Pal’ perk, 35% Discworld so you can talk to animals. 15% XCOM Also: you can talk to dogs. 9

@OXM THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzInE / 69 review

70 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm PubliSher Ubisoft / DeveloPer Ubisoft QUebec Format xbox one / releaSe Date oUt now aSSaSSin’S CreeD SynDiCate Ubisoft Quebec knocks up a pretty tasty Frye-up

hould the pressure be on, ramshackle and grubby as they probably it doesn’t show. Assassin’s should be. although some might be Creed Syndicate is a game disappointed that this isn’t a warts-and- with a spring in its step and all rendition, it wouldn’t fit the general a twinkle in its eye, and yet tone: Syndicate is pitched as a light- it could have been so very hearted romp in a world where horse- different. in its first time at drawn carriages are capable of drifting the helm of the thundering around corners. Yes, really. Creed locomotive, Ubisoft Quebec has Assassin’s Creed has always been silly; Snot only had to deal with the fallout of its this just happens to be the year it properly predecessor’s obvious technical failings, acknowledges it. dickens and darwin but plenty of negative pre-launch buzz turning up is to be expected, but there’s besides. there are no game-changing also florence nightingale and Karl marx – additions here, but if the hefty blobs of the latter introduced during an argument grease applied to its inner workings aren’t with a station guard who rudely points out quite enough to prevent those cogs from that he looks like a hobo. self-referential grinding on occasion, the machine runs humor is always a tightrope, but smoother than you’re probably expecting. Yohalem negotiates it with nimble grace. an industrial evolution, if you will. “not enormously subtle, is it?” remarks Syndicate is set at a time of one character, as evie plays significant change, of course, a piano melody and a stone but without a single era- floor reveals an underground defining event to tether itself passageway. and on one of to, this is an episodic kind of the rare occasions you’re reviewer adventure – the machinations whisked , ChriS SChilling of the templars underpinning there’s even an apology. live rockin stroll a series of missions that are @schillingc a likeable alexander graham otherwise loosely tied. as such, bell, meanwhile, is your da it’s a little lighter on its feet the knowleDge Vinci surrogate, taking time out than usual: unbound by the what iS it? from inventing the telephone to weight of historical tragedy historical stab-’em- equip our heroes with electricity or conflict, Jeffrey Yohalem’s up reaches Victorian bombs and a rope launcher script flits about amusingly, london. no, it’s not that allows them to batman up stuffing recognizable names really . to spires and rooftops. it’s not into a condensed 19th-century what’S it like? integrated with quite the same london until it’s groaning at the all the better for elegance as in Arkham Knight, seams. twin assassins Jacob taking itself less but it’s still a fun and fast way and evie frye are your fictitious seriously. of getting around. likewise, chaperones to the vaguely who’S it For? the coaches – london’s a big factual figures, inserting People who were place, and negotiating it all on themselves into key events like disappointed with foot simply isn’t an option for for mostly Victorian forrest gumps with all but the most patient player. technical reasons. cane-swords and kukri blades. reaching vantage points this is certainly a romanticized vision of opens up a fast-travel option, but 1868 london. You’ll see chimneys belching loading times mean that’s something of smoke, sure, but its skies are often a misnomer. You’re better off getting your blue, and thoroughfares are unnaturally grapple on, or hijacking a carriage and clean and wide. even the slums aren’t as cracking the reins.

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 71 review

Dynamite can be placed to blow up Blighter cargo. There’s even a perk so you’ll find more.

You’ll rarely be able to reach your shove towards side quests, but it’s Kidnap in the bare-knuckle fight clubs, and destination entirely peacefully, mind. undeniably satisfying to successfully missions ask if occasionally you only feel partly london’s been taken over by a red- lead your rooks into a gang war, you to bundle responsible for the bone-cracking coated gang who call themselves the prompted when all of a borough’s crims into finishers, there’s a thrilling high-wire blighters, and they’re an aggressive activities have been cleared and its carriages for act to stringing together a combo. bunch. liberating each borough from snarling leader emerges. the police. indeed, almost every time we had They’d prefer their control is a matter of freeing ironically, you’ll have to spill quite a choice between the two leads we them alive, children from workhouses, kidnapping a bit of claret to ensure london’s a so be careful plumped for evie. Jacob has a certain key personalities or simply taking little less red. combat is brisk and who you’re roguish charm, a ruffian with a heart down a given number of blighters to brutal, lacking some of the heft of stabbing. of gold whose bludgeoning approach allow your green-garbed followers, the previous games, with the trade-off of is rather at odds with evie’s smarter, rooks, to move in – all variations on improved responsiveness. the timing more measured tactics (indeed, she familiar themes. if you’ve not already for counters may be absurdly generous, increasingly has to deal with the fallout spent your money on weapons and but you’ll be glad of it when you’re of his attempted good deeds). Yet he’s gear, you can invest in gang upgrades assaulted from all sides: the blighters just not as fun to use as his sister. that toughen up your recruits, bolster might not be the smartest opponents, what a pity, then, that the game’s third their vehicles or simply put more of but they make up in number and force act sidelines her for long spells. them on the streets. some asides what they lack in intelligence. – particularly those that ask you to again, it’s not quite up to identical twins destroy contraband or hijack cargo – rocksteady’s peerless fluidity, but for all Ubisoft Quebec’s efforts to are generously remunerated, further it’s particularly gratifying to let evie differentiate its two leads – evie tempting you from the main missions. loose. her take-no-prisoners style is favors stealth, where Jacob prefers some players will resent a firmer perfect for battering brutish chumps to go loud – the pair’s skill trees are remarkably similar, with only a trio of unique abilities for each. still, it’s Chuffing great understandable that Ubisoft might want Evie and Jacob get a mobile hub in to cater to multiple playstyles, and if the form of a train, whose interior the missions don’t necessarily play grows more luxurious as your influence to their individual strengths, at least spreads. You’ll need to return every so forced stealth is rare. if the prescribed often to empty your safe or to accept sneaking tasks induce clammy-palmed missions from a handful of travelling allies, although most of its functions tension, it’s not always by design. You are available in menus elsewhere. fear failure not because punishments are harsh or checkpoints unfair – far

72 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm review

Carriage handling is more responsive than in real life, but you’ll be glad of it.

The ability plays out like a 19th-century Frogger. to zipline time limits and a damage meter turn a down to sedate carriage journey into something “Evie’s take-no-prisoners style is street level resembling Assassin’s Crazy Taxi. means fewer it still creaks and groans around swandives the edges, the result of an approach perfect for battering chumps” into hay carts this time. to game design that prioritizes from it – but because restarts take an focused mission in which you’re asked quantity over quality. and yet any excruciatingly long time. to remove evidence and hide a corpse time Syndicate’s overstuffed world missions generally seem of shorter under the nose of dull-witted cops. threatens to come apart, there’s length than usual. Perhaps that’s partly templar assassinations are the most always something to drag you back in. down to the speed of locomotion, handsomely staged, usually offering it might be the spry score, folding in but even multi-part set-pieces rarely up to three infiltration routes. storming elements of classic british songs like outstay their welcome. which isn’t the tower of london with a consort of Rule Britannia. or perhaps the verbal to say that quality control isn’t an guards might not be the most elegant sparring between two oddly good- issue, of course. it may simply be a of entrances when you can pilfer keys, natured murderers. maybe it’ll even reality of having so many different but there’s something to be said for be london itself, prettier and more studios involved, but invariably some chaos as a distraction technique. welcoming than it’s ever been. parts don’t hang together as well as elsewhere, optional objectives Assassin’s Creed could still benefit others. on the one hand, poor dickens enliven what might ostensibly seem from a year off, but this rattles along accompanies us to the least scary routine. the thames is comically with enough energy that most players, haunted house we’ve ever visited; on dense with boats, but attempting a like a certain dickensian favorite, will the other, there’s a terrific stealth- crossing without touching the water happily appeal for another serving. oXm The OXM verdict THe BeST BiT THe wOrST BiT wHaT HaPPeNS Overall NeXT? The season Syndicate plays fast and pass offers loose with historical fact, Jack the but can’t quite escape the ? Ripper DLC - series’ lingering problems. It even given that it’s gets by on the breezy charm set 20 years later, it Pursuing a carriage by zig-zagging No inside-out faces, but the Thames traffic could be a bit of a of its leads, its sprightly between buildings with the rope launcher. caused instances of flipbook framerate. tonal mismatch. score and winning script. 7

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 73 revieW

Publisher 2K GAMES / DevelOPer YuKE’S / fOrMAt XBOX ONE / releAse DAte OuT NOW wwe 2k16 reviewer The granddaddy of them all AleX DAle live ChocoboOfDoom y favorite thing about WWE stopping near-falls and finishing moves end the match prematurely, even if @SporadicDaler 2K16 turned out to be the that never quite manage to finish you’ve dominated up until that point, thing that I initially liked the people off. Bouts between two evenly which can infuriate. the knOwleDge least: the pin system. It’s matched players in WWE 2K16 are just Mode-wise, Steve Austin’s Showcase whAt is it? been reworked into a kind as pulsating – no matter how much of a is a predictable highlight, chronicling The biggest WWE Mof Tiger Woods swing-o-meter, and I’ve licking you take, there’s always a small, his glory days from 1996- game ever celebrates yet to encounter someone who hasn’t green window of hope. Absorbing a 2001. There are also unexpected the biggest WWE star of all time – ‘Stone been completely flummoxed by it on top-rope finisher, but still somehow bonus matches that break the mode’s Cold’ Steve Austin. their first kick-out attempt. The idea managing to dig deep and raise your chronology and take you back to whAt’s it like? is to stop the meter within the green shoulder at the last second, is an air- highlights from his pre-WWE career. All-round control and area, which gradually shrinks as you punching moment and one that sees Indeed, if you’re a wrestling historian animation tweaks absorb damage until it’s little more the WWE series finally nail that balance there’s plenty to get stuck into, with mean it’s slicker than than a slither. You get three cracks at between technique and luck that has a series-high 100+ grapplers to pick ‘slick’ . it: on the one-count, at the two-count always driven its gameplay. from, ranging from ’80s stars to NXT whO’s it fOr? and at 2.99999 recurring, for those Disappointingly, I can’t sing the up-and-comers. Couple the wealth of The bulging roster dramatic last-gasp escapes. same praises for the submission content with all-round refinements and and restored match But once you get into the groove, system. It’s the same cat and mouse a superior pinning system, and you’ve types will satisfy you’ll realize how brilliantly it reflects mini-game from last year, but the got a winner – as long as the sticky those burned by 2K15. the contemporary WWE house style, balance is all wrong. Getting trapped submission system doesn’t make you with its matches loaded with heart- in routine submission holds can easily tap, of course. OXM The OXM verdict THe beST biT COOleST CHaraCTer WHaT HaPPeNS Overall NeXT? sting The season Iffy submission system WCW legend Sting pass kicks aside, this is the smoothest is finally in a off with the and most authentic WWE WWE ring! Choose ? 2015 Hall of game to date. But there’s a between his Fame class, with ceiling for a game that takes 2015, 1999 and rare bouts featuring We love the authentic WCW/ECW retro 1991 beach bum , Alundra control out of your hands so arenas. Check out Bash at the Beach ’94! iterations. Blayze and more. often, and that ceiling is… 7

74 / ThE OFFICIAl XBOX MAGAzINE WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM/OXM review

PubLishEr ACTIVISION / DEvELOPEr FrEESTYLE GAMES / fOrMAt XbOX 360, XbOX ONE (rEVIEWED) / rELEAsE DAtE OuT NOW guitAr hErO LivE rEviEwEr The series is back in black… and white EMMA DAviEs Live OXM Emma re you okay?” asks a stage It’s a welcome break from the finger like the world’s most versatile session @emcetera hand, as band members gymnastics of before, which had you musician – the real meat is found in psych themselves up. A desperately trying to recall how far the new Guitar Hero TV online mode. thE knOwLEDgE roadie thrusts a guitar into down the fretboard you’d moved. Now, Here, you’ve got the option to strum whAt is it? your hand, then suddenly with just a little practice, even the along to channels of proper music A revamped rhythm- Ayou’re up in front of a huge crowd. tone-deaf can pull off chord transitions , competing against others. It’s actioner with As the title suggests, this Guitar that feel at least vaguely authentic. a pseudo-DLC means of padding out an entirely new controller. Hero revival sets you in front of an In terms of multiplayer, it does lag the game’s 42 on-disc tracks. You’ve audience of actual, live-action people. behind Rock Band. You can add in a got the option to insta-select tunes at whAt’s it LikE? Wrong notes draw boos from them Stripped-down, second guitar and a mic, but both fret- the cost of one ‘play’. You earn these but closer to real and disgust from your bandmates. It’s botherers are playing the exact same by levelling up, or can buy them with guitar-playing than simultaneously exciting and stressful. riffs – it’s a straight head-to-head than in-game currency (won by completing ever before. An even bigger shake-up is the new camaraderie-heavy co-op. And while tracks)… or, of course, with real money. whO’s it fOr? guitar controller. Out is the line of five the decision to strip away the other It’s a shame not to have the choice of Those sick of color- rainbow-colored keys, in favour of instruments has led to a more refined buying tracks, but it is at least possible coded clacking, six buttons arranged in three pairs of guitar experience, we miss the variety to access these extras without or without enough black and white. This simplifies the of being able to hop between roles. spending a dime. It may not please a mates to make Rock interface – notes appear in one of Given the slight, rather disjointed crowd like , but Guitar Hero Band a worthwhile three lanes, and are color-coded to tell nature of the career mode – you play in Live has made some big, brave and purchase. you which button (or both) to press. various bands spanning pop to metal, ultimately successful changes. OXM The OXM verdict PrOS/CONs The wOrST biT whaT haPPeNS Overall NeXT? ✔ New guitar layout ✖ …but often left us A new Rock A strong reimagining of the feels more authentic feeling passive Band has Guitar Hero series that does also just enough to differentiate ✔ Guitar Hero TV ✖ Our controller come out, greatly increases quickly developed a ? itself from both past entries so could we see a the tracklist squeaky strum bar and its closest rival to resurgence of the ✔ Live-action ✖ No option to When your hands start to feel like arthritic rhythm-action war remain relevant. A Bowie- footage is detailed… purchase tracks crab claws after a few solid hours of play. of the mid-’00s? esque reinvention. 8

@OXM THE OFFICIAL XbOX MAGAzINE / 75 review

PuBLisher SquArE EnIx / DeveLoPer DOnTnOT EnTErTAInMEnT / format xBOx 360, xBOx OnE (rEvIEWED) / reLease Date OuT nOW Life is strange reviewer How slow-burn drama blossomed into one of 2015’s best games Chris sChiLLing Live rockin Stroll eing a teenager is an altercation in the restroom of the After five years apart, it’s naturally @schillingc simultaneously rubbish and elite academy where Max is studying a tentative kind of reunion. We see the knowLeDge brilliant. It’s a period of your photography. Witnessing the fight, more than a hint of Max’s jealousy as life where everything feels Max suddenly finds herself able to she discovers Chloe found another what is it? An episodic huge; the hormones whizzing rewind time to save Chloe, but soon friend in the interim who meant every Baround your body convincing you learns there are consequences to her bit as much, if not more. In turn we see drama about teen friendship and that bad times are literally the end temporal meddling – and we’re not just Chloe’s envy at Max’s comparatively . of the world and good times are the talking about the odd nosebleed. cushy life coupled with resentment what’s it Like? greatest moments of your life. You Max’s powers make for a neat at her departure. Equally, the two Occasionally care far too much about most stuff, narrative hook, and factor into a few share a bond that can’t be so easily scrappy, but and not enough about the things you clever puzzles and a subplot that broken, even as Chloe’s behavior rich, moving and probably should. If Life is Strange is assumes greater importance as the threatens to drag Max outside her deeply involving only remembered for one thing, let it series unfolds. This leads to some of comfort zone. They’re an odd couple in throughout. be that it captures these sensations of Life is Strange’s biggest surprises, many respects: Max is dorky and shy, who’s it for? adolescence better than any game. and yet it’s not as interesting as the Chloe confident and prickly. But they Anyone who’s ever If there’s a second thing, though, process of simply watching Max and share enough common ground that experienced the surely it’ll be the central relationship Chloe resume their friendship as the their friendship is convincing, sharply horrors and delights between protagonist Max and former former struggles to negotiate the perils observed and often moving. of teendom. BFF Chloe. The latter careens back and pitfalls of senior high-school life in Scenes between the two unfold in into Max’s life when she is shot after a social media-savvy world. a fuzzily wistful, golden-hour haze that somehow recreates that feeling of magical moments shared with Playing percentages someone for whom we deeply care. So There are dozens of smaller decisions much so, in fact, that it’s not nearly spread throughout the five episodes, as ruinous as it could be when the some of which you might not have even characters’ mouths move with all the noticed unless you’ve spent some time grace of a wooden marionette, or when in the Choices menu. There are birds to rescue and messages to erase, and – dialogue often lands with an almost perhaps most importantly of all – audible clunk. On occasion you can house plants to keep alive. practically hear the voice actors wince, but it says much that the conversation

76 / ThE OFFICIAl xBOx MAgAzInE WWW.gAMESrADAr.COM/OxM review

Poor Alyssa frequently finds herself in harm’s way – happily, you’re usually in a position to save her.

The pair’s affection for the supporting characters, meeting too. After the first episode you’ll have with the pigeonholed most of them, but it’s “It captures these sensations of unpredictable unlikely you’ll feel the same way by Frank can the end. Through Max’s interactions play out with them, we get the rare opportunity adolescence better than any game” multiple ways depending to experience issues and scenarios surrounding the first episode centred bravura set-piece of dreamlike horror on earlier with which most of us can identify or on the sometimes clumsy writing and as Max’s doubts and fears are brought choices. empathise, from bullying and social- yet still most players were excited to into sharper focus. Beyond that, we media shaming to the simple desire to see what came next. are in danger of straying into ruinous fit in and to connect with others. And, aside from a monumentally spoiler territory – suffice it to say that Yes, in the fullness of time, we tedious -hunting mission in a the final choice has almost divided may come to mock Life is Strange’s junkyard, it’s the second chapter where players right down the middle, despite awkwardness, uneven script and Life is Strange really tightens its grip. one of the two endings suggesting infrequent tonal missteps. But there After a few hours testing the extent of Dontnod expected most of its audience is an emotional potency and maturity Max’s powers in a variety of interesting to lean that way. It’s a choice similar here that is missing from so many of its and playful ways, there’s a moment to those we’ve made before in other peers, and that is undoubtedly worth of stark realization that they might games, but here it’s determined by your celebrating. Indeed, there’s something just have limits, exploited superbly feelings about that central relationship, fittingly adolescent about the way it in a sequence of almost unbearable and how you were able to shape it with chooses to express itself, and it’s that tension. From then on, through to your responses throughout the story. disarming openness and honesty that Episode 4’s cliffhanger ending, Dontnod Either way, most players will be sad helps set it apart. Ask yourself this: keeps ramping up the dramatic stakes. to wave goodbye to Arcadia Bay and can you think of a portrayal of teenage As the finale begins, it seems the its residents. For all that Chloe and friendship in games more powerful and developer might finally have dropped Max’s friendship is the beating heart affecting than that of Max and Chloe? the ball, but it recovers in time for a of Life is Strange, you’ll likely feel an We’re not sure we can. oXm The OXM verdict The beST biT KeY iNFlUeNCeS COMPleTiON OverAll ClOCK Much more than the sum of its parts, this is absorbing 40 35 25 whether forcing us into 16 tough choices or capturing the joy of the mundane. It’s 40% My So-Called Life hOurS Max confronts her innermost fears in 35% Gone Hone not perfect, but you won’t arguably the game’s most daring sequence. 25% Donnie Darko forget it in a hurry. 9

@OxM ThE OFFICIAl xBOx MAgAzInE / 77 revieW

PubliSher BIGBEN INTERACTIvE / develOPer GAMEs / fOrMaT XBoX 360, XBoX oNE (REvIEWED) / releaSe daTe ouT NoW wrC 5 reviewer Handbrake turn, over crest and into the pits Paul TaylOr live Paulus McT hould you have failed to pay rally game to do. There’s the one- but noticeable screen-tearing. In a @mynameispt attention to real-world WRC manufacturer J-WRC league in FWD lower-specced car it’s not so bad, but for a while, you’ll be surprised Citroëns, the mid-range WRC-2 class progress up to the 300HP+ beasts and The knOwledge to see that the beefy WRXs and the full-beans WRC, yours to race the game feels too slow. whaT iS iT? and Evos of yore are now across 14 countries over mud, gravel, Go skittering off the course into the A very official, slightly Scomparatively smaller boxes. Just as sand, snow and asphalt, with (sort of) scrub or forest and occasionally you’re tuned-up rally game their physical size has diminished, so variable time and weather. automatically placed back in the middle with licensed drivers, stages, etc. too has the videogame equivalent. Fancy a quick spin? No problem – of the road – bearable (if unusual) for ’ DiRT series went you can jump straight into the hero car those who want instant gratification, whaT’S iT like? very dudebro for a while, trading A slightly dented- and inevitably ding it on the first corner. but for rally fans it’s insulting. And all in version of Colin authenticity for rapid-fire thrills, and Take your time, progress through the that’s a pity, because there are some McRae Rally back Milestone trod a narrow path with the career and you’ll learn the subtleties of wonderfully thought-out stages that in its heyday. official licence. This year, Kylotonn how each class of car handles. They’re are equal parts technical, punishing whO’S iT fOr? has done what it can to reinvigorate all different, and Kylotonn’s done well and joyful, and there are plenty of Rally obsessives the series – WRC 5 embraces the spirit to make them unique. But. You’ll need moments when the game really sings. who can look of the sport wholeheartedly, and it’s to readjust your eyes if you jump on While the real WRC machines may be past the scrappy probably the best WRC’s been for a this after playing Forza 6. Despite there smaller than you’d like, they’re no less presentation. while – despite many shortcomings. If being only one car on the road, WRC potent. WRC 5, however, feels like the nothing else, it ticks the boxes of what 5 is very lumpy, lurching around in 30 turbo’s fallen off and is only firing on you’d expect a modern and authentic frames per second with infrequent half its cylinders. OXM The OXM verdict PrOS/CONs The beST biT WhaT haPPeNS Overall NeXT? ✔ Cars have a great ✖ …but your WRC eSports The best off-road game on sense of weight co-driver is begins your Xbox One until Forza thoroughly robotic decides to do something ✔ Inventive and mid-January, engaging stages ✖ Framerate is ? in which about it or leaves frequently choppy you can compete PC. Low-budget, yes, but ✔ Great engine in multiplayer and environment ✖ Inconsistent Finland. Helter-skelter stages on gravel, tourneys in line there’s a beating heart here sounds… off-road spawn at night, in a forest. Watch us go! with the 2016 WRC. behind the technical misery. 7

78 / THE oFFICIAl XBoX MAGAzINE WWW.GAMEsRADAR.CoM/oXM There are five autobots to choose from: sideswipe, revIeW Grimlock, Optimus Prime, Wheeljack and bumblebee.

Of the five, only Grimlock with his brute strength plays much differently.

Publisher ACTiviSiON / DevelOPer PlATiNuMGAMES / fOrMAt XBOX 360, XBOX ONE (rEviEWED) / releAse DAte OuT NOW trAnsfOrMers: reviewer AleX DAle live ChocoboOfDoom DevAstAtiOn @SporadicDaler The robots’ latest outing proves such heroic nonsense the knOwleDge whAt is it? h, Transformers! Pretty lets rip into a horde of Seekers with dictates the way you play - deliberately , but much every kid who grew his iconic glowing axe, G1 fans will be positioning your ’bot in harm’s way, in the skin of the up in the mid-’80s will enthralled. Half the fun is seeing who looking out for telltale glints that ’80s Transformers cartoon. Bayonetta in fondly remember leaving the rocks up next – Megatron’s brought indicate your opponent is about to disguise, if you like. theatre shellshocked after all of his mates with him in his latest attack, and then using it to give Athe Decepticons brutally wiped out half attempt to trash Earth for giggles, yourself the time and space you need whAt’s it like? Fast, furious and their toy collection in the opening five including a few you might not expect. to launch into a vicious combo. The energetic scrapping, minutes of the movie. And now you can There’s little time for sentiment fighting is not as nuanced or finessed but feels a little rusty bring that underlying childhood trauma when you’re in the thick of the action, as Bayonetta’s sublime systems, but outside of combat. back to the surface with Devastation, however. After the disappointment of it’s got enough depth to condemn whO’s it fOr? which is by my calculation the first true its first licensed title, The Legend of button-mashers to the scrapyard. A little slight for G1 Transformers game on Xbox. Korra, the usually excellent Platinum Outside of combat, Devastation’s hardcore Platinum Devastation might lack the gloss of has designed Devastation in the low-budget roots begin to show; fans, but enough of High Moon Studios’ Cybertron games, but image of its acclaimed beat-’em-ups. platforming is Dinobot levels of the dev’s magic still it more than makes up for its bargain- Not a bad template to work from, by clumsy, and there isn’t enough variety shines through. bin feel with authenticity. This is almost any means. Bayonetta in particular is between the five playable Autobots to completely faithful to the source clearly a big influence; the ‘Witch Time’ encourage replayability. But while this material, as much as trademarks and mechanic (which slows time if you isn’t Platinum’s finest or most lavish voice actor availability allows at least, duck an attack at the last second) has game, there’s no, ahem, disguising the and from the moment Optimus Prime been lifted wholesale, and as before, it quality that lies underneath. OXM The OXM verdict The besT bIT PrO TIP COMPleTION Overall ClOCK Much of Devastation’s appeal lies in being reunited with childhood heroes, but 6 scratch beneath the surface HOurS and there’s a deep game that gives out as much as Plundering iconic Decepticon weaponry, Synthesize weapons frequently – your such as Menasor’s sword – for yourself. existing gear quickly becomes useless. you’re willing to put in. 8

@OXM THE OFFiCiAl XBOX MAGAziNE / 79 review

Publisher InXILe enTeRTAInmenT / develoPer InXILe enTeRTAInmenT / Format XboX one / release date ouT noW Wasteland 2: revieWer matt Gilman live G-maniacal director’s cut @Gmaniacal Born to survive, if not to thrive the knoWledGe What is it? Sequel to gaming’s ay back when, in the feels a touch familiar. You take on the section or attempt to solve rudimentary first proper post- decidedly bleak age role of a freshly recruited squad of puzzles. The first of these three apocalypse. when trendy kids were Desert Rangers, four of them to start additional ingredients is by far the most What’s it like? doing the Locomotion with. The immediate locale of Arizona delectable. From the outset you’re able eating a meaty while Police Academy 5: requires a crew of hardy types to head to imprint your crew with personality, steak that looks as WAssignment Miami Beach played in the out into the titular irradiated landscape via an initially off-puttingly in-depth appetizing as a slab background (we’re talking about the to, initially at least, investigate the array of stats and traits. You can build of bison underbelly. bowels of 1988), a subset of PC owners murder of a veteran Ranger. What a sniper who’s great with animals or an Who’s it For? were sampling gaming’s first proper follows is a spiralling series of minor engineer who’s as adept with a wrench People keen on post-apocalypse. Think of how many storylines, weaving around one another in a fight as he is when fixing… uh… numbers, toasters, of those we’ve fought, shot, snuck as you steadily get to the bottom of toasters. We especially appreciated and who like filling in and crafted our way through since. that first mystery and the implications the talents of our team surgeon who bio sheets for made- From Rage to 2033, all the way that those discoveries entail. was amply skilled when putting our up characters. up to Fallout, the first Wasteland can What you actually find yourself pals back together post-brawl and had be said to have influenced them all. doing, however, is chatting up colorful enough points in the Smart-Ass skill Wasteland 2 is the Kickstarted return locals on your travels, pondering to ensure he always had some suitably to the epicentre of the end times’ your way through conversation trees brash response ready when faced with proliferation through game-dom. brimming with juicily written dialog, one of the world’s many troublemakers. Thanks to the myriad inspirations occasionally stopping to tinker with Gear plays a huge part in all of this, that the first game spawned, the setup your squad, battle through a combat too. This gear evolves through neatly delivered degrees of necessity. First you’ll learn to survive the turn- and Far side -based combat, with weapons Wondering who the ‘director’ is for this that jam when you least expect it Director’s Cut? Why, it’s , the and a ragtag sense of always being very same chap co-responsible for the a knife-edge away from failure (and original Fallout, The Bard’s Tale and, permadeath makes that prospect erm, Hunted: The Demon’s , among many others. We’re fairly sure a potent one). After that, you find he’ll forgive you for having forgotten yourself keeping tabs on an ever- that last one, mind. growing inventory of pistols, rifles, melee weapons and more, steadily

80 / The oFFICIAL XboX mAGAzIne WWW.GAmeSRADAR.Com/oXm review

You can select from active or usable skills at any time with a press of the triggers.

There’s a satisfying sound that plays as your team reloads collectively after a fight, which is delightful to hear.

if you are was so high this month (it was the born with a giant white frustrated grinding what did it). circle under Time can make these elements “Steadily peeling back the layers your feet, you bearable. The same can’t be said of are destined the game’s general visual quality. It is an RPG purist’s pleasure” to be an rPG looks oppressively bad, but not like it character. was designed to be. Character models increasing your team’s individual muddy icons and awkward prompts share the same brown palette as proficiencies. Get all that nailed down make navigating the menus a huge almost everything in the environments. and you enter the realm of weapon chore. If you’re going to bury a tonne For all of the personality you attach crafting. There’s loads to get to grips of complexity in menus intended for to these malleable minions, none of with, and carefully peeling back the pad-based navigation, you need some that feels fleshed-out visually in how layers is an RPG purist’s pleasure. uniformity. Diablo III has it nailed, with they’re represented on-screen. There’s a real sense of survival radial menus that are mirrored across Those aforementioned environments against the odds, too. Your crew different areas of the uI. In Wasteland do vary, but none can be said to develop injuries over time and healing 2, trying to find your way around each be impressive, or to entice in their resources are scarce. There’s a mildly tab on your menu is like sticking your design. It’s a tough ask, to make a effective water mechanic, forcing you head into an assortment of beehives. landscape as alluring as it is grim, but to keep hydrated, but the magic really one particular bugbear is that that’s what needs to happen if we’re lies in the palpable sense that your during combat the font revealing to plug our eyes into it for the full ability to overcome what’s thrown at your percentage chance for a strike 60+ hours required. It’s a factor that you hides in smart tinkering. to hit is both tiny and rusty red, will see many people bounce straight unfortunately, there’s a mutated making it near-illegible at times. off of Wasteland 2, which is a huge fly-beast lying legs-akimbo in the Throw in a camera prone to leave these shame. even as its progenitor did way Wasteland 2 soup dish. The interface essential nuggets of info out of the back when, there’s a unique blend is about as smoothly implemented as frame and you can perhaps of survival combat here which others a pineapple suppository. Its tiny fonts, understand why our dentistry bill could and should learn from. oXm The OXM verdict PrOS/CONs The rivalS COMPleTiON Overall ClOCK ✔ Deep, satisfying ✖ A UI so ugly a Proof that PC-based RPGs character-building mother would heave DIABlo III: UlTImATe eVIl eD. 8 can work on pads – and how not to implement ✔ A core sense ✖ Not the best of survival of lookers HAND oF FATe 8 60+ their weighty UIs. Visual generally, either mediocrity will push many ✔ Tactile weapons houRS ✖ away, but trudge on through that feel suitably Camera can go off 2 7 beat on one, on occasion and there’s much to love. 6

@oXm The oFFICIAL XboX mAGAzIne / 81 online reviews

You can save a chum from extraction by popping the Fulton balloon with lead.

PubliSher Konami / deVeloPer Kojima Productions / ForMat xbox 360, xbox one (reviewed) / oriGinal Score 10/10 Metal Gear Solid V: the PhantoM Pain Giving a whole new meaning to ‘boss fight’

reViewer we Said it’s a really clever twist on if impatient team-mates are Matthew Castle By reining in his madness, Kojima otherwise well-trodden ground. a persistent pain – running in liVe OXM Pesto lets his ideas breathe, resulting in even better is cloak and like rambo, getting schooled @mrbasil_pesto one of the finest stealth games ever. dagger, a mode where teams take like dumbo – it’s nothing turns to steal data discs from compared to the unbalanced eabagging is dead, hanging from a balloon is the other side. the Metal Gear-y might of the defenders. not grabbed by the properly shaming, as you beg for wrinkle here is that robbers wear only do they benefit from easy throat by a solider help with preset quotes – “lend stealth camouflage that briefly camping opportunities but their as another runs up me a hand!” this is vital to bounty deactivates whenever a single lethal equipment is horribly and pops a cap in its hunter mode, where fultoning a member of the squad is attacked. overpowered. c4’s a real problem face. this humiliating foe on a killstreak (earning them do you gun it for the disc, relying – you place it by the data disc tnew tag-team ritual is the result the titular bounty) wins back the on team-mates not to blow your and the second the announcer of transplanting The Phantom lives they’ve taken from your cover? or do you edge between calls out a robbery you detonate. Pain’s big boss into an online team’s depleting pot. as bounties the shadows to minimise risk? the boom. one dead boss. by all mode: all the abilities gleefully build with consecutive kills, star answer, we find, is to let idiot lone rights, defenders should win every unleashed on ai soldiers are players can become liabilities wolves get gunned down in the round; outfoxing them provides a suddenly unleashed on you. You and a simple team deathmatch first minute and use the ensuing genuine heart-in-mouth thrill. can be grabbed, interrogated, evolves into a defensive scenario. peace to make your own move. there’s less ingenuity in the have your throat sliced or be final mode, comms control. choked out and extracted by stripped of the fulton/stealth fulton balloon, the latter netting “Outfoxing defenders provides emphasis, this simple King of the other side bonus points that the hill variant reveals MGO’s can act as the decider in a draw. a genuine heart-in-mouth thrill” limitations more clearly. despite

are we haVinG Fun yet? Our first hour rendered as a wavy line…

BiG Boss Why is everyone Ah, so that’s Manage to mini-Boss rushing about what it feels like Fulton a guy Dude really Hey, it’s that like it’s CoD? to be Fultoned. A sneaky Cloak with a level takes his Boss hoGG freaky face we and Dagger 9 bounty. time cutting made in the first victory. my throat. BiG dross cutscene! Minutes 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

82 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm sunbreaker Titans rule the Crucible. when you hear review that clang of metal-on-metal, run.

only a madman would hide in a cardboard box in MGo. You stand out like a sore thumb (hiding in a box).

Different times of day/weather types lend slightly new flavors to maps. PubliSher activision / deVeloPer bungie / ForMat xbox 360, xbox one / oriGinal Score 9/10 deStiny: leGendary edition is The Taken King’s honeymoon over?

reViewer we Said with special emote animations Chris Thursten Destiny still demands your time, available for small sums of silver, liVe Exitwarp but the reward is one of Xbox’s a new premium currency. this @cthursten most well-rounded games. is fun and harmless at present. many fear a slippery slope, having three character classes, he Destiny community modes. it was particularly bad however, with bungie having their unlock trees do little to has a complicated shortly after the release of The to fend off a million conspiracy differentiate them; scouts relationship with the Taken King, and still continues theories about nefarious future benefit from sniping (if they game’s developer. to annoy despite bungie’s uses for the store. can adapt to the weird sway it’s hard to shake the insistence that it’s a top priority. microtransactions are, it says, not present in single-player), tnotion that bungie is unusually there have been some a way of ensuring future content but many players gravitate responsible for the happiness incredible bugs, too, including updates can be free. this is towards assault rifles no matter of the hundreds of thousands of one that lets the hunter amazing news if true, another what their class. and with only people who log in to shoot space class use their super ability paradigm shift in Destiny’s five levels, it’s not long before guns at every hour of every day. forever. in severe cases like accessibility and value to the matches begin to blur together. The Taken King was an act of this bungie has been quick average player. bungie’s ongoing this isn’t to mention a myriad divine benefaction, an update and communicative about a responsiveness to problems will of technical problems, from that smoothed out old bumps fix, although it’s been typically give us the measure of this. it’s weirdly unresponsive cQc to and made a well-trodden, cautious about making balance time for it to step up and prove unbalanced team numbers well-loved experience new and changes even as a new, one- the benefit of paying for the to the lag and sudden match rewarding. it was a beautiful sided competitive metagame game in a new way. quitting that comes from not couple of weeks before a few old emerges. at the time of writing, a few months in, The Taken offering dedicated servers. concerns reasserted themselves the Taken King’s titan sunbreaker King is still brilliant. i don’t think there’s plenty of gripping stuff and a few new ones emerged. subclass rules the crucible to an the problems that have emerged here, not least those manly let’s start with the old. the undesirable degree. take much away from that. it’s arms around your throat, but return of the iron banner event on to a fresher concern: simply that Destiny is still a work Metal Gear Online is in need of highlights Destiny’s year-long microtransactions. Destiny in progress, no matter how good polish and more modes. oXM lag problem in competitive now has an in-game store, it gets. oXM

The oXM verdict The oXM verdict

Smart ideas, but Destiny is still too often feels fantastic, like a game but it’s also from 2007 still an MMO: attached to problems one of the best The iron Banner acts as a stress test for both the continue to games of 2015. 6 community and their internet connections. come and go. 9

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 83 AlSo releASeD on the download From best to worst, latest add-ons and indie games rated the latest additions to Xbox Live Marketplace

Possibly Geralt’s finest quest, and he even manages to have some fun along the way.

1 PROJECT CARS – JAPANESE CAR PACK Hate cars? This isn’t for you. Price: $3.49

2 GEARS OF WAR: UE – ESPORTS SEASON 1 WEAPON SKIN Proceeds go towards eSports prizes. Maybe PUbLIShER bandai namco / DEVELOPER cd ProJeKt red / FORMAT xbox one / REVIEWER tom stone / PRICE $9.99 you’ll win the money back? Price: $4.99 ThE WITChER 3: WILD hUNT – hEARTS OF STONE 3 MINECRAFT – STAR WARS The sidequest king pulls off an extraordinary epilog PREQUEL SKIN PACK eralt of rivia has saved it begins with a traditional it also does a great job of 50 prequel trilogy character skins inspire many lives. he’s saved monster hunt (one of a few subverting narrative tropes. at us to say something nice about it for once. villages from monsters, tough boss fights), that goes first the ghostly manor you visit Price: $2.99 saved captives from very, very wrong. soon, geralt seems haunted only by tiresome criminals and now is locked into a sinister pact jump-scare clichés. but it soon Ghe’s on his most crucial saviour to complete three seemingly becomes a far more interesting quest yet – to save the game. impossible tasks, involving journey into the flashbacks of seriously, save Hearts of Stone a wedding, a heist and a a dying relationship. it’s sad, over and over, and keep a few haunted manor. don’t expect scary and even somewhat 4 backups too. it’s possible the a gameplay revolution, simply funny – an outstanding wedding PURE POOL – SNOOKER PACK dlc’s many glitches – one the same strong sequence We didn’t buy a game called Pure Pool so progress-destroying, as this combat, puzzle- will have you we could play snooker… //we have a Price: $4.49 critic unfortunately discovered solving and fun grinning for – will have been patched by the investigating of strong contender weeks. we time you read this. Until then, the main game. for expansion of won’t spoil how, backup saves are a must. what is new the year// except that otherwise, Hearts of Stone is a refinement the developers is unmissable. it manages to of the excellent storytelling finally lighten up grumpy old juggle comedy, horror, intrigue, 3’s best sidequests gave us. geralt. that even this comical brutal violence and tragedy recruiting from a choice of quest manages moments of 5 METAL GEAR SOLID V: ThE with the skill of the best Game criminals for the heist may be intrigue and horror without PhANTOM PAIN – TUXEDO of Thrones episodes. look past the toughest part, because feeling tonally inconsistent Dress Solid Snake up in a Tux and star in the glitches and we have a the characters are so strong just goes to show how far the the remake of your dreams. strong contender for expansion throughout Hearts of Stone developers’ storytelling abilities Price: $0.99 of the year. you’ll want to bring them all. have come. OXM the oXM Verdict Arguably, Geralt’s greatest quest yet. An excellent tale, 6 FARMING SIMULATOR – confidently told OFFICIAL EXPANSION (GOLD) Geralt dancing with this hip-thrusting gentleman? and at a bargain 20 pieces of equipment/vehicles! That we swear this all makes sense in context. price. essential. 9 have to be paid for again in-game! Price: $14.99

84 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm han’s sarcastic, but don’t expect any decent zingers and the Sentry turret – this still never matches lego Star wars humor. minifigs are superbly realized. reView

FORMAT xbox one / REVIEWER tom stone / PRICE $34.99 FORMAT xbox 360, xbox one / REVIEWER PaUl randall / PRICE $29.99 DISNEY INFINITY 3.0 - RISE LEGO DIMENSIONS – AGAINST ThE EMPIRE PORTAL LEVEL PACK PLAY SET PACK he campaign may have Valve’s saga rather than just starred a Portal level, but another Lego game level. e were pleasantly if they’re achieved with the same TLego Dimensions was one moment you’re hurling surprised by Disney decent platforming and satisfying severely lacking a Portal level. companion cubes to activate WInfinity’s first star wars combat as last time. spaceship sure, its walls were white and switches, the next you’re instalment earlier this year – a combat is surprisingly immersive triggered the titters, but slopping repulsion and tight platformer with fun hack- and easy to pick up, and barrel- where was the hopping in and out Propulsion gels around to bridge and-slash lightsaber combat. rolling the millennium falcon to of orange and blue space-holes chasms and solve puzzles. but it was let down by a short avoid laser blasts will make even created by your trusty aperture it’s a glorious addition to run-time, too-large levels and the most jaded fan smile. science handheld Portal device? chell’s story, then, but a brief dull star bores story. Infinity 3.0’s plastic stand is what happened to sweetly one, with the level polished off a lot’s improved for Rise still just a holder for your figures. serenading the ever-dependable inside 90 minutes (even then Against the but you can pressure plate- some parts of Empire, a loose complete all presser, the it are locked). retelling of the //one gentle jog of Rise’s new companion cube? //the test of course, the original trilogy. and you’re trashing levels with this add-on chamber trek feels Portal toys Planets still Jabba’s palace the included box changes all like a true part of are also the have the great leia and luke that, containing only means sense of scale, f o r c r e di t s// figures. a chell minifig Valve’s saga// of unlocking but now they’re it’s short for as well as sentry the sprawling more focused, and less walking is its price, and adding more toy turret and companion cube adventure side-world, which required to get to the really juicy box-tat still isn’t enough to make models – all superbly realized extends the amusement a little stuff. one gentle jog and you’re that mode more than Rise of the in toy form bar the Portal gun, with an open, mazy slice of trashing Jabba’s palace. Generic Platformer Generator. but which has a soft rubber handle aperture’s offices, but this fails but ‘collect 2,000 credits’ or if you want a family-friendly Star unbecoming a lego piece. and to offer meaningful content fetch-and-carry quests are still Wars game, based on the real the accompanying test chamber beyond the usual gold brick too frequent and uninspired, even films, this is ideal. OXM trek feels like a true part of puzzles in the other hubs. OXM the oXM Verdict the oXM Verdict Should be at least A very expensive $10 cheaper, escapade, but it but it’s still the feels like a true best children’s Portal add-on Star Wars with three videogame since great toys for lego’s take. 7 collectors. 7

Indie roundup / The latest hidden gems and DIY disasters

bLOCK KING 2 AIRPORT ANARChY FIRST SOUTh bEER LOOTFEST 360 GEOLOGY bUSINESS Be the last block standing as the redefine ‘anarchy’ with this dull Awful, with horrible presentation. looks nice but this pretty 3D ‘Tap X to mine rock!’ over and floor fades beneath you. For Block plane-landing sim. If you dream of like drinking a warm beer and platformer is duller than watching over. Handy if you need to break a King 3, how about some fun? working at an airport, we pity you. finding a cigarette in it. a painting dry of the grass growing. controller/thumb quickly. * **** ** *** * **** ** *** ** ***

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 85 next month

year of the dragon? platinum’S beaStly brawler leadS our monSter 2016 preview iSSue

the oxm awardS: we crown 2015’S beSt fallout 4’S maddeSt SecretS revealed rainbow Six and reviewed

ON SALE 01/05/16 SUBSCRIBE ON ll contents subjectto change. Sorry about that. a PAGE 52

86 / the official xbox magazine www.gameSradar.com/oxm Squeezing more from your machine every month

page 90

88 OXM Investigates We make like Frankenstein (he was the scientist, you know) and build our dream game from disembodied Xbox parts.

page 90 Now Playing: Batman: Arkham Knight 88 Louise delivers brutal justice to the contents of the much-maligned season pass. 92 Now Playing: THE Assassin’s Creed Unity ULTIMATE Alice discovers that when you start playing GAME badly, it adds a certain je ne sais quoi. 94 Live Spotlight Halo’s shields + Did you know Metal Gear Solid V has a second Doom’s guns = game buried deep within its code? Elsewhere, gaming nirvana. we’re still looking for the game in Tony Hawk 5. 96 OXM Replay Last month, we revisited Deus Ex reboot Human Revolution. This month, we revisit that other Xbox Deus Ex game. The one you forgot existed 98 17 Halo multiplayer crazes that could be the next teabagging Fairly self-explanatory this one, we feel.

page page page 92 94 96

@OXM THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAzINE / 87 xbox extra

oxm INVeStIGateS The

Uncovering the other side of xbox gaming ulTimaTe game We’ve taken the best bits from a dozen games and augmented them into something perfect

hat would you change you’ve built something perfect? A about yourself, if frankengame, if you will. you could pick one In the spirit of Deus Ex, we’ve Wthing? We’d get gills, augmented the perfect game, by obviously, which would go great stealing from Halo, , with our go-go gadget legs. But Sunset Overdrive and more, and what if you could change one grafting everything together like thing about each of your favorite that inspirational dude from The games? Or, better yet, take the Human Centipede. You’ll never best parts of all of them until need another game again…

Setting hero villain

The human mind from daud from diShonored’S dlC gladoS from PorTal Perhaps this one is cheating, but what better Corvo Attano was something of a cipher: a Who else could it be, really? GLaDOS is the place to set a game than in the mind? Our mute protagonist who represented the player, true star of Valve’s devious Portal series: brains can take us anywhere, from deepest but who wasn’t exactly memorable in his own a rogue AI who gets a sadistic kick out of space to the creepy collection of haunted right. Daud – head of the assassins’ guild and testing humans in the name of science (and domiciles featured in The Evil Within. It’s a star of the DLC – was infinitely cooler. He’s sometimes killing them with lasers). She’s evil, world that defies logic, but one that feels gravel-voiced, world-weary and the perfect yes, but hilariously petty with it – we could consistent, atmospheric and horribly alive. guide for pretty much any destination. listen to her insult our species all day.

88 / tHe OffICIAL xBOx mAGAzIne WWW.GAmeSrADAr.COm/Oxm enemies Story Weapons

The naziS from The WiTCher 3’S griPPing PloT doom ii’S graTifying arSenal We hate these guys, and that’s probably why CD Projekt reD knows how to tell a story, and It’s been years since Doom II, and while we’ve it feels so good to turn them into pâté. they’re in The Witcher 3 it’s managed the rare feat had the odd gun that’s felt satisfying since, one of the few guilt-free enemies – the of a compelling narrative in an open-world few have come close to the meaty weapons other being the undead – which is why CoD’s environment. It’s down to the characters, of id’s classic fPS. the BfG and chainsaw are zombies is so appealing. the intelligent kind who feel real even as they chug potions and both devastating, but it’s the chunky double- are rarer, and far more interesting to fight. swat monsters. Welcome aboard, CDP! barreled shotgun that takes the grisly biscuit.

gimmick Stealth system health system

ShadoW of mordor’S nemeSiS SySTem meTal gear Solid v: The PhanTom Pain halo’S reCharging Shield Critics predicted that Shadow of Mordor’s every good game needs a stealth system, Bungie’s classic didn’t invent recharging celebrated nemesis system would be stolen which is why shoehorned-in stealth sections health, but it did arguably perfect it. take too by every game going but those idiots were are always greeted with such approval. But many hits and the Chief will be as vulnerable wrong. So it falls to us to filch the game’s best which game to copy for that level? MGS V, as a fluffy kitten, meaning you’ll need to hide feature: a living hierarchy of warlords that you obviously. Its stealth is creative, chaotic, somewhere to give it time to recharge. It’s an can disrupt to your tactical advantage. generous and a lot of fun. often agonizing delay that instils panic.

art design Color palette Soundtrack

The exquiSiTe ori and The Blind foreST SunSeT overdrive’S viBranT CiTy BaSTion’S exTraordinary muSiC Ori is a cartoon come to life: it’s as simple as there used to be colors, but over the previous Bastion as a game wasn’t too much to write that. While most good-looking games sacrifice generation they were slowly stolen from us home about, but its exquisite soundtrack mechanical depth in favour of prettiness, this by 3. thankfully, this console made its world of floating islands and is a smart, tough puzzle-platformer as well. generation has them coming back in a big way collapsing cities feel incredibly rich. So obviously we need moon Studios’ art team – and few games are as astonishingly bright Supergiant’s action game uses vocals at key to draw every single game from now on, as Sunset Overdrive. Its vibrant city packs in moments to tug at your heartstrings, and our including our magnum opus here. more colors than a Glidden truck. game could do with a bit of emotional depth.

@Oxm tHe OffICIAL xBOx mAGAzIne / 89 xbox exTrA

n o w plAying

the games we’re still going back to, and why

The season pass is almost enough to make you miss those Arkham Knight- narrated mandatory stealth-tank sequences. Almost.

90 / the official xbox magazine www.gamesradar.com/oxm Louise Blain is playing… Batman: xbox exTrA arkham Knight

beCAUSe… “it’s time for some justice when it comes to the season pass”

Loving The hipster joys of the new photo mode Hating The fact that none of the new cars are functional

y gotham is safe. well, as to play the A Matter of Family dlc, it felt DetaiLS come in black?’ tumbler is in exactly safe as it ever gets in the like all my dreams coming true. okay, it the same batboat. big. beautiful. caped crusader’s home turned out to be made by wb montreal, Released beastly. and utterly unusable when it town. why anyone ever but… a creepy amusement park! barbara Jun 2015 comes to assisted takedowns or ar chooses to actually live in gordon! Yellow boots! and it was all of Dev tank challenges. back to photo mode i the same ziP code as 40 those things until it finished 40 minutes go. there must be more to life than an rocksteady Msupervillains we’ll never know but, for in and unceremoniously (yellow) booted empty gotham, endless skins and the now, gotham has been neutralized. and me back to the menu with no way to play Pub waynetech equivalent of instagram. don’t worry: there’ll be no arkham Knight as babs in the main game. ouch. if that warner bros even the releasing of all ‘exclusive’ spoilers here. he’s long gone from my isn’t just an electricity-stick to the jaw. interactive pre-order dlc in the shape of the harley game. the streets are empty of tanks, Perhaps the new skins for the Format xbox one Quinn and red hood story packs doesn’t all bombs have been defused and the would be better? oh yeah, i’ll help matters. while the Joker’s favourite gotham Police patrol the skies. given show those goons who’s boss with my Score 9/10 baseball-bat wielder’s story might be that there’s only so many times you can 1989 burton-style awesome-mobile. Recap short but reasonably sweet, red hood’s turn off the music, put on hans zimmer’s except, no, i won’t, as Keaton’s sleek in the is brutally limited. effectively just two Dark Knight soundtrack and swoop monstrosity doesn’t have any of the final act of rooms, it’s the essence of everything around, it’s about time that the season- functionality of rocksteady’s, so all rocksteady’s that’s wrong with retailer incentives. it’s pass content arrived. or is it? you’ve got is a couple of themed races. trilogy, the twice as insulting in the season pass. a rocksteady batgirl game already not to mention the chance to develop Dark Knight is is this what i paid $40 for? almost as had its own dedicated shrine in a an unhealthy obsession with taking up against all much as Arkham Knight itself? after the of gotham’s hannibal lecter-style palace in my mind. pictures of it in the rain in the newly villains, heady heights of the game, each dlc this meant that when i finally sat down added photo mode. nolan’s ‘does it headed drop has become a sad affair. at least up by the nightwing’s GCPD Lockdown is linked to mysterious the story, but it all feels painfully tacked- // there must be more to life than an Arkham on. Perhaps the incoming Catwoman’s empty gotham and the waynetech Knight. Revenge will fix all ills. for what we paid, we both needed and deserved more. it’s equivalent of instagram// a sad end to the Knight. ■

ignoring the batmobile for a second, all of those trees are nightmare before Christmas references.

@oxm the official xbox magazine / 91 XBOX EXTRA

NO w PlAYiNg

Arno Dorian, blending in perfectly in the urban camouflage look from the ‘Spring 1789’ collection.

Alice Bell is playing… Assassin’s Creed Unity BECAUSE… “A useless Assassin is more fun than a competent one”

Loving The Assassins’ natural showmanship HAting The yokel English accent that every Parisian inexplicably has

uring November 2014, I frontman Arno Dorian is now an abjectly DetAiLS can’t be detected if there’s nobody left played Assassin’s Creed terrible Assassin. I cannot overstate how to do the detecting, and have been Unity for an entire week much fun this concept is to me. Released slaughtering the guardsmen of France before I got distracted. But Cower before Arno! Arno, the Nov 2014 out of this necessity. The other day, Arno Syndicate is now sitting in my strong right hand of the Assassin Dev killed five men just to steal some wine. hard drive and, pressed to order, reaching out across Paris and Ubisoft Fortunately, Unity allows me to Dfinish Unity so I’m up to date with the plummeting to the cobbles below as he Montreal embrace this audacious angle. I’ve tangled story, I’ve slunk back to my completely misjudges a jump. See the Pub dressed Arno in the most flamboyant French paramour like the regretful ex Parisian peasants marvel as he forgets clothes I can find, with the most eye- Ubisoft she’d do better without. where exactly he keeps his smoke watering color schemes available. He I’ve encountered a problem, though, bombs and randomly throws them in the Format Xbox One now resembles a murderous Maypole because I can’t remember a thing about street! Watch as he alerts every guard Score 8/10 dancer, and his instant blending into how to play the game – and although within a half-mile radius and has to run Recap crowds requires such huge mental Assassin’s Creed has some reliable away, dragging a tail of enemy soldiers Your backflips from witnesses that my glee control defaults, I am now abjectly behind him like a frilly-shirted comet! favourite is unconfined. “Where’s the murderer?” terrible at even the most basic moves. Arno’s adherence to the titular Creed historical “Beats me, Pierre. I’m sure the heavily This has happened to me before, is now passing at best, especially the parkour-and- armed man dressed head to toe in but with Unity it’s actually enjoyable, tenet of hiding ‘in plain sight’. Together, stabbing- canary yellow doesn’t know either.” because it follows that smoldering he and I operate on the basis that he adventure I am an admitted fan of Assassin’s tours the Creed: despite any technical issues, French I’m with it to the end. But now the Revolution. //I operate on the basis that Arno unfortunate truth is that I never had as can’t be detected if there’s nobody much fun with an AC game as when I started playing one badly. I think I might left to do the detecting// start doing it on purpose from now on. ■

92 / THe oFFICIAl xBox MAgAzINe WWW.gAMeSrADAr.CoM/oxM XBoX EXTRA Martin Kitts is playing… Halo 3 BECAUSE… “Teabagging is the greatest online taunt ever devised”

LoVIng Tag ’em and bag ’em. It’s the only way to be sure HatIng Where did all the players go?

alo 3 was probably the first DetaILS might happen to it. Two: unlike most real online ‘event’ game. We’d other games, the ragdoll physics weren’t waited years for it. I remember Released turned off when you died. And three: hooking up with friends on Sep 2007 neither was the controller vibration. launch day and there were Dev Bungie So when that post-kill rush of H1.3 million players online. Finding a Pub Microsoft testosterone hits you, and you stand match wasn’t exactly difficult. I played Studios over your foe and – thumpthumpthump it again recently and found only 864 Format Xbox 360 – your opponent has to watch his own hardy left. Alas. Score 10/10 corpse jiggle with the impact. And feel it One of my favorite things about Halo 3 through his controller. Force-feedback! is the one thing no other game thought vigorously, the action resembles the It used to send some people crazy. to steal. Even subsequent Halos seemed dunking of a teabag. It can be seen in The red mist would descend and they’d to forget about it. Was it an accident? A pretty much any online FPS with a crouch go on a suicidal vendetta, repeatedly side-effect? An embarrassment? button, but three things about Halo 3 rushing headlong for revenge and most I’m talking, of course, about made it particularly enraging. likely the same fate as before. teabagging: Halo 3’s darkest art. For One: you couldn’t just respawn Many, many people rage-quit on me. the uninitiated, it’s the practice of instantly. For several long seconds, you Yes, I was that guy – responsible for at squatting over one’s victim and lowering were given an extended third-person least some of Halo 3’s lost players – but I one’s balls onto their chin. Repeated view of your corpse and anything that had my fun and am unrepentant. ■

Alex Dale is playing… Ultra Street Fighter IV BECAUSE… “It looks like it’s time to oil up!”

LoVIng Rolling around like a rocket-fueled Zangief HatIng Uh, he’s not exactly the most ‘aspirational’

ire up the player-select screen So maybe it makes sense that a DetaILS Hakan, a gross, oil-drenched wrestler. and you’ll find no less than 44 new wave of fighting games are opting Heck, you’d pay money to get that freak pairs of eyes blinking back at to launch with more austere roster Released off your roster. But add a little elbow you (well, 43 pairs and Sagat, numbers that you can expand by only Jun 2014 grease of your own and you’ll discover but you get what I’m saying). buying the fighters you intend to use Dev Capcom he has a fighting style that makes him FThe choice is overwhelming, like being – so you don’t have to pay just to have Pub Capcom distinct from the rest of the pack. in a Willy Wonka factory of national weirdos like Rolento on the subs bench. Format Xbox 360 Hakan is, in effect, Zangief with speed stereotypes, each one pleading a It’s a smart idea, but it’s also a little and range – his oily exterior causing Score 9/10 different case why you should make self-fulfilling. A huge problem with Street him to slip and slide, enabling him to them your champion. Fighter is that people tend not to drift close the gap on his opponents out of their /Ken comfort zones, quickly and lethally. The trade-off is and paywalls are only going to further that to remain effective, he has to discourage them. I’ll admit that I’m as constantly , time-consumingly, ‘oil up’. much a Ken-fiend as the next guy, but in He’s a batty, brilliant character who an attempt to broaden my horizons I’ve offers a gameplay twist that even recently tasked myself with learning a many veterans won’t have experienced new fighter every month. – and if USFIV had adopted the This month’s misfit is essentially the microtransaction model, he would surely poster child for the above argument: have been left to dry up completely. ■

@OxM THE OFFIcIAl xBOx MAgAZInE / 93 xbox exTRA

L i v e SpoT- LighT

Reports from xbox’s biggest communities

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 You’d have more fun cleaning an actual skatepark. With your tongue

Details Dev Robomodo / Pub Activision / Reporter Tom Stone go. In good THPS games, your biggest fear was bailing. Now it’s whether the he single-player was about game will actually acknowledge the rail’s as fun as a spine transfer, on THe clock existence. Other user-created levels are but user-created content has How we spent our full of these glitches, like falling through saved many a bad game from time in the game ramps, or getting stuck in place. total mediocrity. Sure enough, You can put challenges in your park, there are some inventive such as combo letters and a hidden DVD. Tskateparks to be found, built by online We put our DVD high in the air, making players who know more about what sure it was impossible to reach. The Fun, forever locked away. Why makes a fun skatepark than Robomodo game let us upload this level anyway, would you do this to us?! (almost a compliment). But they’re meaning there are potentially hundreds trapped in a mode that’s even more of challenges online that literally aren’t broken than the regular horror show. 20% Filling our possible to achieve. So even if somebody In Create-a-Park, you can fill your park with rails created the perfect skatepark, it still level with ramps, rails, obstacles and 30% Breaking wouldn’t be fun to skate in. Why bother even double-jump power-ups, if you’re Tony’s back going for the high score, if your combo a cretin who wants to ruin a skating skating into rails could be broken by a glitch? Why go for game. We built a rail that went from one 10% Trying to combo letters, when there’s a chance side of a room to the other. Hardly the stop our eyes they can’t actually be reached? One Sistine Chapel, but still more than Pro getting sick after level we tried was dull and empty, yet Skater 5 could handle. We tried grinding witnessing the we glimpsed a more interesting-looking framerate along it several times. Sometimes it skatepark. It was behind a fence, one 40% Watching threw us off randomly, or we’d just that couldn’t be jumped. So we were left online skaters stop grinding for no reason. We almost try our park, then standing out in the cold, staring through gasped upon being granted the honor ragequit. Wise the chains at the fun that could’ve been. of grinding down the whole rail in one Sums up Pro Skater 5 perfectly. ■

// Why bother going for the If you Do one THIng In THPS5 THIS monTH, make IT… Trying our level high score, if your combo ‘OXM’. If you manage to snatch the Some of the crumpled bail DVD, we’ll give you a copy of Halo 6. landings amuse, at least. could be broken by a glitch?//

94 / THe OffICIal xBOx magazINe WWW.gameSRaDaR.COm/Oxm xbox exTRA

Not sure who he thinks he’s impressing with that weapon…

Don’t snigger at the graphics – this is actually what videogames used to look like. Really.

Project Spark metal gear Solid V: microsoft has freed the DlC, but has The Phantom Pain it freed our imaginations? “That’s the murder victim in this case, boss. Dev Team Dakota / Pub Microsoft Studios / Reporter Chris Schilling He probably doesn’t need an alibi”

roject Spark owners recently awoke to the news that Dev Kojima productions / Pub Konami / Reporter Tom Stone it would be “transitioning to a free incubation engine”. Translation: we’re not making any more DlC, and you e thought they were crazy. They probably are crazy, but can have all the previous packs for free. The reception they’ve still done it. The Metal Gear community have dug has been mixed. early adopters who spent a fortune are deep into the code, and found a retro game hidden deep Punderstandably angry, especially as only those who downloaded within The Phantom Pain. It’s a 22-year-old title called The premium packs after the end of July qualify for a refund (don’t get Portopia Serial Murder Case. a point and click murder mystery too excited; it’s only Windows Store credit). Others are concerned Wwith an , suspect interrogation, non-linear gameplay, dialog that this is the end for Project Spark: it’s not, but those at Team choices and alternative endings – standard for 2015, but way ahead of its Dakota responsible for making stuff have been assigned new roles time in 1983. Think LA Noire, but with slightly less sophisticated graphics. on other microsoft projects. Those who remain will curate existing Parts of its code have been found in Ground Zeroes and The Phantom content and release title updates that refine the existing toolkit. Pain, and fans are already trying to get it running. Not just to get their This is microsoft’s hands on a free game, but //even the best stages way of admitting its //Standard for 2015, in the hopes of finding more big user-generated secrets. forums are buzzing have player numbers in experiment hasn’t really but way ahead of with those convinced that the low four figures// been the success it had its time in 1983// this isn’t just a humble hoped. even the best easter egg, but something and most heavily featured stages have player numbers in the low more – perhaps even a vital clue towards unlocking MGS V’s secret real four figures; most creators can expect tens rather than hundreds. ending. Okay, definitely crazy. But then, if any developer would put the Perhaps that will change as more people are tempted to try it out, ending of his xbox One game in a two-decade-old NeS title… but talk of 200,000 creators and 300-400 new game uploads per Kojima’s referenced the game as an inspiration before, and you can day are misleading to say the least. It’s a pity. clearly see its influence on Metal Gear. It has a character constantly Whether this incubation engine will birth a fresh of budding referring to you as ‘boss’, tons of unnecessary (but entertaining) dialog, world-builders remains to be seen, though the existing community and ends on a twist so ridiculous it’s kind of amazing. Spoiler alert: your will no doubt welcome Team Dakota’s decision to double the terrain assistant who’s worked hard to help you solve the murder… did it! and prop limits. This should encourage creators to dream a little But even with all the online sleuthing, no one’s figured out if this holds bigger – and hopefully that’ll mean more than just a series of deeper secrets. Never underestimate the mysterious innards of a Hideo sprawling open-world adventures starring Conker. ■ Kojima game – the internet hive mind might finally have met its match. ■

If you Do one THIng In PRojecT SPaRk THIS monTH, make IT… If you Do one THIng In mgS V THIS monTH, make IT… Somehow playing Creating a game without Conker or dragons. Please. The Portopia Serial Murder Case. Maybe it’ll inspire you, too.

@Oxm THe OffICIal xBOx magazINe / 95 You can choose xbox extrA protagonist Alex D’s sex and appearance.

t h e o x m replAY

Revisiting the resolutionally- challenged

Deus ex: invisible War Andy Kelly revisits the ambitious, but flawed sequel to one of the best games ever

he original Deus Ex is a ‘equalize’ the human race, and you can in Invisible War and it works in any masterpiece. Deep stealth decide whether to help him or not. The weapon – from a pistol to a rocket systems, huge multi- fact that you’re both named Denton launcher. This is another example path levels, and a brilliant isn’t just a coincidence. of the game being simplified, and is conspiracy-laden story have As is Deus Ex tradition, Invisible just really dumb. There’s probably Tsealed its place as an all-time classic. War sees Alex traveling around the an explanation in the game’s dense DeTails But its sequel? Not so much. globe as he embarks on missions for mythology for it, but I can never take Dev It isn’t a terrible game: just one various factions. His travels take him it seriously. No game has attempted it Pub Eidos that is, unfortunately, cowering in to Egypt, Germany, New York City and since, and with good reason. Interactive the shadow of its predecessor. It’s a even the Antarctic. Built on the second Being able to switch allegiances Released first-person RPG with a focus on choice version of the Unreal engine, the object mid-game and work for other factions Dec 2003 and creative play. The protagonist, physics and real-time dynamic lighting is a cool idea, but it makes the story scored 9/10 Alex Denton, can be upgraded with were hugely impressive at the time. feel messy. It’s possible to miss entire nano-augmentations, letting you tailor But, even back in 2003, the characters sections of the plot by working for him (or her, should you prefer) to your looked like lifeless, dead-eyed robots. the wrong faction, and the ease at own play style. This essentially means The biggest complaint about Invisible which you can switch undermines the you can shoot everyone you meet or War is that it feels dumbed-down importance of your choices somewhat. simply sneak past them, but with a lot compared to the original. City hubs are It’s a much more open-ended story of granular variation in between. much smaller – a product, some say, than in other Deus Ex games, but at the Set in a grim cyberpunk future of having to squeeze the game onto expense of consistency and a strong where corporations rule the world, Alex the Xbox – and the RPG elements were narrative hook. finds himself caught between several severely reduced. It’s not nearly as rich And when it comes to making a factions with different ideas about or deep a game as the first one. But final decision at the end about which how to fix the planet. The hero of the compare it to other Xbox games of the faction to side with, deciding the fate previous game, JC Denton, wants to era and it’s impressively ambitious. The of the world in the process, none of bio-modify the world’s population to variety of ways to complete objectives, them feel like the right choice. Maybe including talking your way out of that’s the idea, though. Deus Ex’s trouble, was a rare thing on consoles future has always been bleak and //Pick up ammunition and it in the early 2000s. hopeless. But it leaves you with a bad works in any weapon – from One of the most controversial design taste in your mouth, and a feeling that decisions is to implement a universal you’re leaving the world in even worse a pistol to a rocket launcher// ammo system. Pick up ammunition shape than you found it.

96 / THE OffICIAl XBOX MAGAzINE www.GAMESRADAR.COM/OXM xbox extrA

Sure, this interface might look all glowy and futuristic, but you still only need one type of bullet to power it all. ETTE GAME ROUL Every month, OXM dips into its Games Cupboard of Doom and plucks out a random game from Xbox history. will it be a classic or a howler? let the balls decide... This monTh… BinaRy Domain

xpectations were lower they crumble apart in a hailstorm of than a snake’s nutsack shrapnel, as the armor is plucked as we went into this one. from their bodies until they look like That boxart! like a Harlequin the last turkey left in the shops the influenceD By… influence on… romance novel gone rogue. day before Thanksgiving. It’s not Deus ex Human RevoluTion eAnd that name! Sounds more like just ridiculously satisfying – it’s ripe The original classic that some elements made it something Staples would call its for tactical exploitation, too, as you this fails to better. into this superior sequel. internal newsletter than a sci-fi take out their legs to incapacitate third-person shooter epic, them, or attempt to take out as methinks. And so much of their But, hey, at least Invisible War is a did a great many // Your robo-enemies metallic bodies better shooter. The fPS combat in the of youthinks, as possible first game was horribly basic, and you’d because crumble apart in a before going for find yourself avoiding fighting people Binary Domain hailstorm of shrapnel// a coup de grâce just so you didn’t have to endure the sold about as headshot, so as weedy gunplay. But the sequel makes well as chocolate cakes made to harvest the maximum amount of turning to open violence a much more out of poop. But yet, from the credits on offer per kill. enjoyable, and viable, option. Invisible moment you first squeeze the And talking of feedback – what War’s environments – including seedy right controller trigger, it’s clear other shooter allows you to respond bars and the neon-drenched shopping that you’re actually dealing with to your teammates’ questions with malls of the future – are also much something a little bit special. zingers such as ‘you idiot!’ or ‘I love prettier, and just about hold up today. feedback is the x factor that you’? Binary Domain was criticized Ion Storm had one more great enables Binary Domain to break in some circles for being a very game in it before it sadly closed shop out from the rest of the pack. Your Japanese take on the third-person in 2005 – the superb Thief: Deadly robo-enemies don’t just fzzt and shooter genre – but that’s exactly Shadows, also available on Xbox – but keel over when you shoot them – what makes it so great. Invisible War would be its last Deus Ex game. Now, thanks to Eidos Montreal, the series is on good form again, and Mankind Divided looks like an improvement on the already fantastic Human Revolution. Invisible War is the black sheep of the series, but it was a brave – if ultimately foolish – attempt to streamline the complicated original for consoles. ■

WhaT haPPeneD nexT it was eight entire years until the next game, Human Revolution, was released – and it was great. Phew.

@OXM THE OffICIAl XBOX MAGAzINE / 97 the final countdown 17 crazes that could be the next teabagging Halo players are renowned for their friendly, respectful competition and jolly post-kill humour. But since teabagging is all a bit 2006, how will Guardians experts demonstrate their wit, creativity and superiority following a particularly inflammatory kill?

K/D ratio if you and your friends line up in the centre of the I’m gonna make this all arena and shuffle round on your about you, honeybunch… hands and knees, connected at… er, we’ll presume you already know the drill… until the timer runs out. Crisping 07 Sympathy card 01 Your killer Your killer writes a note stuffs a fistful to your next of kin, explaining of cheesy potato chips how he’s sorry for their loss but into his mouth and war is war and he was honestly crunches loudly into the just doing his job. microphone. Yo sucker, CoD noob The smoothie you’ve been crisped! 08 The other player suggests 11 Hunched over your corpse, the other player in no uncertain terms that you slowly rotates and clicks both of their analogue go back to playing Call of Duty. sticks while saying, “Mm-hmm, that’s right baby. You 02 Remembrance service He later kills you in Call of Duty Other players gather to and tells you to go back to like it like that, huh.?” form a congregation while your playing Halo. murderer delivers a sermon 12 The Macarena your own teammates will scatter about how much he enjoyed 09 Cocking a leg (Shotgun Mix) at the sight of you. Don’t touch killing you. The act of marking one’s Whereby the killer stands astride him; he got dogged! territory via urination, in the your corpse and performs ’90s 03 Kiss chase canine manner. Any other player dance atrocity The Macarena. 15 Dutch master A player hits you once to who later passes the spot will The epic payoff line (heyyyyy The winning team poses remove your shield – but rather sniff excitedly and howl. macarena!) is punctuated by a in the style of a painting by than finish you off, he runs wholly unnecessary shotgun Rembrandt or Vermeer. To save around in a circle, giggling and 10 Autopsy blast to the balls. face, the losers must quickly shrieking. Chase me! Chase me! A thorough post-mortem identify which 17th-century dissection is conducted on 13 The wormy dog masterpiece is being portrayed. 04 Adoption your fresh corpse in order to Your killer sits on the floor, Your killer obtains legal determine the cause of death. lifts up his feet, and drags his ass 16 Motherphone adoption , obliging you The results are announced at a across the ground, encircling Your killer contacts you to call him ‘Daddy’, and to show public inquest six months later. your corpse. After which even via private chat and demands him some goddamn respect while that you pass the headset to your you’re under his roof. Ghost fairies mum. What is said during the 14 Any player who kills rest of the match is for your 05 Autographing mum, and for her alone. Showing deft control of an you puts a sheet over automatic weapon, a player signs his head and runs around 17 Lucky biscuit his name in bullet holes on the going “wooooo!”. Once every Your nemesis hands you floor next to your body. opposing player has a sheet, a fortune cookie revealing your you must send a group message exact respawn location and the 06 Human centipede saying you believe in fairies in method by which he’ll kill you A dominant team offers order to make them stop. next. After it comes true three to spare further injury to your times in a row, you quit in terror.

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