SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING GAMING, COMPUTER & TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE VOL 15 ISSUE 6

BORDERLANDS 2 COMPETITION Stuff you can’t buy anywhere!

PC / PLAYSTATION / XBOX / PREVIEWS Sleeping Dogs Beyond: Two Souls Pikmin 3 Injustice: Gods among Us

ENEMY UNKNOWN Is that a rifl e in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

ULTIMATE GAMING LOUNGE What your lounge should look like

Contents Editor Michael “RedTide“ James Regulars [email protected] 10 Ed’s Note Assistant editor 12 Inbox Geoff “GeometriX“ Burrows 16 Bytes

Staff writer Dane “Barkskin “ Remendes Opinion 16 I, Gamer Contributing editor Lauren “Guardi3n “ Das Neves 18 The Game Stalkerer 20 The Indie Investigatorgator Technical writer 22 Miktar’s Meanderingsrings Neo “ShockG“ Sibeko 83 Hardwired 98 Game Over Features International correspondent Miktar “Miktar” Dracon 30 TTOPOP 8 HHOLYOLY SSH*TH*T MOMENTS IN GAMING Contributors Previews Throughout gaming’s relatively short history, we’ve Rodain “Nandrew” Joubert 44 Sleeping Dogs been treated to a number of moments that very nearly Walt “Ramjet” Pretorius 46 Injustice: Gods Among Us made our minds explode out the back of our heads. Miklós “Mikit0707 “ Szecsei Find out what those are. Pippa “UnexpectedGirl” Tshabalala 48 Beyond: Two Souls Tarryn “Azimuth “ Van Der Byl 50 Pikmin 3 Adam “Madman” Liebman 52 The Cave 32 THE ULTIMATE GAMING LOUNGE Tired of your boring, traditional lounge fi lled with Art director boring, traditional lounge stuff ? Then read this! Chris “SAVAGE“ Savides Reviews Photography 60 Reviews: Introduction 36 READER U Chris “SAVAGE“ Savides The results of our recent reader survey have been 61 Short Reviews: Dreamstime.com tallied and weighed by humans better at mathematics Fotolia.com Death Rally / Deadlight and number-y stuff than we pretend to be! We’d like 62 The Secret World to share some of the less top-secret results with you. Sales executive 64 : Back in Action Cheryl “Cleona“ Harris / [email protected] 66 The Amazing Spider-Man +27 72 322 9875 68 LEGO Batman 2: 54 XCOM: ENEMY UNKNOWN We’ve played the real X-Com remake. Put your DC Super Heroes Marketing and promotions manager jealousy away and read on, because we’ve got enough Jacqui “Jax” Jacobs 70 Inversion information on its turn-based tactical goodness to [email protected] 72 London 2012: make your eyes bleed sugary joy. +27 82 778 8439 The Offi cial 74 Spirit Camera: Offi ce assistant The Cursed Memoir / Project Paul Ndebele 2: Wii Edition Contact details 75 Harvest Moon: P .O. Box 237, Olivedale, 2158, South Africa Tale of Two Towns Tel +27 11 704 2679 76 Spelunky / Pinball Arcade Fax +27 11 704 4120 77 Dyad / Rhythm Thief & The Subscription department Emperor’s Treasure [email protected] 78 Game of Thrones / Civilization V: Gods & Kings Internet www.nag.co.za www.zinio.com/nag www.facebook.com/NAGMagazine Hardware www.twitter.com/nagcoza 80 Tech News 82 Dream Machine Printing Impress Web Printers 84 Lazy Gamer’s Guide: 031 263 2755 Gioteck PS3 Online Essentials Pack & Xbox Elite Essentials Pack Distribution 86 GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium Me On the Dot chanical Gaming Keyboard Stuart Dickerson / 011 401 5932 88 GIGABYTE GV-N66TOC-2GD 89 HP Pavilion G6 (AMD Trinity) 90 MSI R7970 Lightning 91 CM Storm Quick Fire Pro Copyright 2012 NAG 92 ASUS Maximus V Extreme All rights reserved. No article or picture in this magazine may be reproduced, copied or 93 Sony Xperia S transmitted in any form whatsoever without the 94 GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5TH express written consent of the publisher. Opinions 95 ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editors. All trademarks and mini-PC registered trademarks are the sole property of their 96 ADATA XPG SX900 128GB SSD respective owners. Don’t Pirate NAG! Crucial M4 512GB SSD 97 Acer P238HL / Sapphire Vapor-X

this magazine when you’re fi nished with it. HD7770 GHz Edition

8 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ EDITOR’S NOTE / Reality NAG Here’s a little insight into what happens in the offi ce sometimes.

I’m calling it: The cover signing fi asco of 2012. So, we’re giving away an of NAG memorabilia along with the Borderlands 2 competition this issue… all because we did four covers for the August issue and someone said “Andy Warhol” one afternoon in the offi ce. It’s not because we’re vain or anything like that. So, we had to sign them the other day and this is what happened. I signed fi rst and before I did I asked for a fresh permanent marker, but because someone doesn’t store them tip down my signature is a little feint at the end. I’m also not happy with how RedTide looks (“untidy” my English teacher always used to tell me). Next up was Geoff who chose the salmon cover because he likes salmon and is probably going to play with the dwarf when the game comes out (has a thing for short hairy folk it seems). So, whoever wins this prize: if you look closely you’ll see a very light signature under Geoff ’s real signature because the pen failed (also see the bubbly looking “GeometriX”). Lauren seemed to be above all this fuzzing around with pens and redoing signatures because hers was fi ne – we did hear some mocking comments and she smiled away. Next up was Cheryl, short and sweet and no problem (I didn’t say they were all going to be interesting). FYI, she’s the one who doesn’t keep felt tip pens felt tip facing down and is really the reason why this entire bit of writing exists in the approximately a million bathrooms at the venue so we need fi rst place. Jacqui signed “Jax” – this is her nickname but she to fi nd out which ones are for visitors to the expo and which didn’t actually sign her name (didn’t read the whole memo ones are frequented the most. We know this because of the apparently). Next was Chris “SAVAGE”, he also signed (but cleaning schedule year after year. The Dome people are on two covers before we told him it was for only one), he gave worried about damage and are trying to specify restrictions the felt tip pen a disgusted look and went to his desk and which I don’t agree with because it is my Dome for the he didn’t write his nickname. Neo seemed equally annoyed weekend of rAge and I can do what I like… right? So anyway with the pen and signed anyway, with an extra sigh when after a few more calls and mails backwards and forwards we told him to write his nickname. Then Dane arrived. we’ve reached a compromise. Now the client needs to see if This was almost an entire paragraph in itself as he danced the material can be fl own in in enough time to make it all around the desk eyeballing each cover, undecided on his happen. Now multiply this kind of thing (and this is a simple favourite character. We warned him about the pen and to request compared to some) across all our exhibitors and you press hard and this resulted in even more delays. Finally see why everyone is crazy these days. Thank goodness we we were all done, and this is why when people spend time have amazing people working at NAG or none of this would at the NAG offi ce they can’t figure out how we do a whole ever happen. So rAge is a thing, 5-7 October is the weekend magazine each month. you need to keep clear. We are arranging busses from the Sandton Gautrain station to the Dome that will run the RAGE 2012 whole weekend during show hours. Every hour on the hour It’s now 49 days 14 hours 48 minutes and 43 seconds away… a bus will leave at each end. Keep an eyeball on the website no. 41 seconds. We’ve gone to general panic numerical 3 for more information. Also, tickets to the expo (not the at the offi ce as we wrap up this issue and keep up with all the LAN, but the actual gaming expo) go on sale 1 September at rAge exhibitor demands. And answers emails from people Computicket (see the advert in this issue). Note: there are no begging us for LAN tickets and dealing with typhoons in limits to how many tickets we sell for the expo so you don’t the South China Sea that might delay the DVD and trying to need to rush and panic. Tickers are also available at the door book fl ights for next exclusive cover feature and wondering during the weekend anytime. where to go for a staff farewell lunch (not leaving) and Right, now I need to go and die somewhere quiet. discussing StarCraft II strategies and so on and so on. Here’s an example, someone wants to do a clever marketing thing -RedTide at the Dome in the bathrooms (on the mirrors). There are Editor

10 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ INBOX /

[email protected]

*Disclaimer: Most of the letters sent to this fi ne publication are printed more or less verbatim (that means “we don’t edit or fi x them” for you slow kids at the back), so ignore any spelling or grammatical INBOX errors. It’s not us… it’s you. LETTER OF THE MONTH SEPTEMBER 2012

From: Michael another one to kill some more meat sacks Subject: World Peace Glitch for cash and glory (which of course I Hey NAG mag and all readers of it. A completed with joy) and on my way there couple of days ago I started playing I ran into my friend the wolf. I was happy KoA: Reckoning. Since then I’ve sunk to see it again and wondered why it was LETTER OF THE MONTH just about every free minute I have into diff erent from the rest. As I got near, it its social-life crippling, relationship- howled and ran at me, bearing its teeth. The ‘Letter of the Month’ prize is sponsored by the good folks at threatening black hole of an existence. The wolf attacked me and, sadly, I was Megarom. The winner receives two I’ll admit it’s not a very mentally forced to kill it. So it seems it was just a games for coming up with the most stimulating activity. Or at least it wasn’t one-time glitch, but it makes you think inspired bit of wisdom of cleverness. until a seemingly meaningless glitch got doesn’t it? Note: You can’t change the games or the me thinking. Here’s what happened: I platform they come on. was just frolicking in a fi eld, plated in As a sentient race we have only just armour and generally questing around come down from the trees. Don’t let HARD TECHNICAL STUFF when I saw a wolf running towards me all the computers and jumbo jets fool Land mail: P.O. Box 237, Olivedale, 2158 and, like usual, I swung my greatsword you, at our core we’re still bloodthirsty Better mail: [email protected] with murderous intent. To my surprise, savages living within ridged boundaries Important: Include your details when mailing us or you’ll never get your prize I missed. The wolf ran straight past me set by governments and society if you win… and kept running into the distance. I felt “leaders”. Kick dust over these lines in no need to chase it down so I just went the conscience and throw in a little the other way and turned in my quest for global Armageddon and I’d say within some juicy gold. At this point I wondered two weeks we’ll be killing and eating what the world would be like if we all each other and maybe even howling at gamer, but then it happened! I was on acted a bit more like that wolf. It showed the full moon. Gaming provides a slight a Facebook forum and found myself no desire to hurt me and so there was release from this forced suppression of getting agitated with a new group no fi ght where otherwise there would be our natural animalistic tendencies but member, a person who to all extents bloodshed, death and maybe some health don’t be fooled, peace and calm can be and purposes was in exactly the same potion consumption. It seems people are supplanted by chaos and anarchy at the position I had been 4 years ago. I sat sometimes needlessly aggressive and end drop of an asteroid. Sound like I’m on there reading what I had typed, my up in fi ghts because of it. I have to add the edge, ready to pop – damn right I mouse hovering over the comment that upon turning in my quest I received am – just like you. Ed. button, shocked I exited the page and realised that I had fi nally joined that elitist social structure! I had become a n00b hater. But this then begs the question, what makes us think this way? Why do From: Matthew gaming friends had no hesitation of we feel the need to defend ourselves Subject: The n00b Paradox pointing that out to me. I personally from the trappings of the n00b? I have been a reformed gamer since still count myself as a n00b, or at best 2008. At the tender age of 16 I decided a casual gamer. I ploughed hours into I’ve found that the anonymity of the to sell my PS2 and “grow up”. Needless researching games on the web and it Internet provides two things. One: to say I made the very mature decision was then that I discovered the beauty a safe place to name call and act of spending my hard earned savings of NAG. But one thing that I also like an idiot. It brings out the true on a bass guitar and I had hopeful found was an utter disdain for n00bs, person inside and it’s usually not dreams of one day playing in a band gamers seem to belong to an elitist pleasant. Two: all we have online and conquering the world! Even social structure, a clan that no one can is our nickname and rank/skill/ though I am not currently lining up to enter unless you’ve played an ungodly achievements and smart mouth to receive a SAMA or a Grammy I don’t number of multiplayer show the world who we are. Trying regret it because I at least stuck it out. games, have a handle on the latest to be nice is a waste of time because However, I went to university in 2008 abbreviations and acronyms, or there’s always some idiot from camp and realised that I had a great deal know arbitrary facts like what colour one. The joke is most of the rank of “free time” and needed something underwear Mario wore in his fi rst and “skill” you have equates to how constructive to burn up those hours adventure [one for you Miktar? Ed]. much time you’ve spent in the game. between tests and classes. I decided on I swore to myself then that I would Skill has something to do with it but the 360, I was now thrust back into the never use the word n00b to describe nothing beats experience. So yes, it’s world of FPS, RPGs and MMORPG, anyone, and I would certainly not a complicated world and seems to be I was way in over my head and my shy away from defending the novice fi lled with morons or n00bs training

12 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Letters

ON THE FORUMS to be morons. Well done for seeing Got drunk and said something online you regret? Blame a visiting cousin. the light. But…, I’m not a head doctor Visit our forums: www.nag.co.za/forums Jim. Ed. : What old school game would you remake if you had a full team and all the From: Francois resources needed to crank out a triple-A title? Subject: Thank You NAG I've always wanted to get into game design. I just never knew exactly how to start or begin, until the fateful “Evil Genius. Hands down the coolest game you can day when I decided to buy the NAG ever play. Ever. I would probably end up taking a gap on a whim, as I was paging through I noticed the 'game development' section year just to play a remake of that game.” and immediately thought “this is it!” Griff 3n Sure I've read a lot on the Internet about game design & development but I never expected it to be a viable “Theme Hospital. Because seeing career choice in South Africa. So now a case of Bloaty Head with todays I'm sitting here at home, browsing the web for useful information and using graphics would be awesome!” the GECK (for Fallout New Vegas) to Spindleshanks start making a series of simple mods so that I can start learning. So basically, thanks, it was the article that jump- started me into actually pursuing “Abe’s Oddysee. Why? It had this passion with more than a casual farting in it I think...” glance. Spindleshanks Glad we could be of service. Just remember us when you’re raking in those millions. We have to eat too. Ed. “Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

From: Keaton The arcade version. Why? Two Subject: NAG History feature? simple words: Dance Magic.” Flipping through the July issue of CyniKill NAG, I pondered to myself... where have you guys come from? Whilst I have been following you since 2006, apart from my brief one year absence “Heretic. The gothic setting, and subsequent relapses, I actually thought to myself it would be nice to the demons, the magic.” get a feature in NAG on your past 10 echo years - going on 20 sooner or later - of existence. I'm unclear whether it is custom for magazine publishers to do such lack of knowledge. Sometime back NAG is the supreme features, but let's be honest... you're (our tenth birthday issue) we did a commander in the setting; the little not just any magazine, now are you? I feature exactly like that. I’ll see if kids are probably still troubling you personally would really be interested we have any copies left in the back after seeing where all the in reading about the inner workings and I’ll send you one. Next time, younglings were murdered. Worms of NAG, what you've done over the don’t miss issues! It is a good idea is all about choosing who to “play” years, what you've enjoyed, how however and we’ll have another look with (rockets or punches). Dreams are things work, and the employees and at year 15 perhaps. Ed. easy to work out if you know where employers who have come and gone to look. I think they’re just a way for or still remain. Now obviously I'm not From: Michael your brain to sort, store and delete asking you to crack open your vault Subject: My dream information. Ed. of magazine editing secrets - just give My name is Michael and I had a weird us a little biography of the magazine dream last night- You (NAG) as a From: Matthew we all don't-know-that-well-but-still- whole, was (or were?) there, as a 5 year Subject: Praise you or curse you...? love! :) I would fi nd it tremendously old child. There was also all the major Hey NAG, fi rst of all, great magazine. enthralling to read about how you were game development companies- also Well I was bored the last few days established. So I'm a history addict, but as children. Then you (NAG) had to had no internet so I went through all I'm pretty sure your other readers can decide who to play with. I'm playing my old NAG CDs (and new ones) and weather the storm. As an incentive, if Supreme Commander (Gas-Powered watched game trailers and now because you do consider this I might "not" have Games), Star Wars: KotOR (BioWare) of that I have gone out and bought another relapse and neglect to buy you! and Worms 2: Armageddon (Team and pre order most of the games in the So enjoy my R39.47! 17) at the moment, which is a funny game trailers all except Splinter Cell: combination of games. I've also decided Blacklist so far. :( So I don't know if I Clever guy took off the VAT. You that my Sub-Conscious is some weird should praise you for encouraging me only have yourself to blame for your dream maker. to buy so many new games or to curse

www.nag.co.za September 2012 13 / INBOX /

This is the you for encouraging me to spend all my best bit of fan money well my gaming side praises you created artwork and my rational side curses you cause we received now I am a really happy but broke at NAG this month. If you person. :P insert, use or create a piece of The reason we exist is a secret plot by gaming artwork the game and hardware distributors in incorporating the NAG logo South Africa to sell more stuff to the you might also general public. Because most people end up here are mindless sheep they need a single for your three entity they “trust” telling them what to lines of fame. Just don’t go think and what to buy and what to do and stick the (government is a decoy). NAG is that NAG logo on a “trust entity” and you are one of the picture and send mindless sheep. ;) This level of comic Kevin, “The announcement of the Doom 3: BFG Edition sent me swirling into nostalgia. Thus I it in because felt inclined to pay a bit of respect to an ageless classic with the awesomeness that is NAG. that is dumb and honesty is also just here to reinforce It was created solely in Adobe Photoshop CS4.” dumb people the whole system because who would don’t win things. be mad enough to reveal crazy plans like this to the public. Not us. Oh, make sure you buy Call of Duty in November see. Ed. childhood, it feels as if gaming has This is very true. We often talk in From: Joanne grown up with me. Honestly, I think THE the offi ce about the perfect dream Subject: Thanks for the prize NAG personifi es quality journalism SHORTS team designing a game. The problem Thank you so much, I got my prize today. over subject matter better than then: it would be fl awless and blow How did you guys know that I really almost anything one can fi nd on the Extracts of the minds of all gamers thereby needed a new mouse pad? Well it works Internet. Which is why I am willing to destroying the whole industry great and my brother also took the lariat pay for it when I can easily get news n00b from because nothing that ever came out with the rage and Ubisoft logos on it, he on the Internet. Just read Tarryn's NAG letters after the perfect game would be says it’s more his style. Here’s the goodbye piece at the end of the August 2012 worth playing. So sing your praises from the mouse pad: edition and it personifi es exactly “So if the and remember they have to be the glorious, “Oh! Goodbye cruel world”, the pad why I think NAG is still relevant. So victim here for the sake of the whole marvellous says with its cracking vinyl design, “I keep it up, know that part of your and not at all gaming universe. Ed. never knew this world too much, and readership appreciates thoughtful, pompous Editor only watched what happened around well-written cultural commentary on sees it fi tting to me, But I feel free, even though I'm going the phenomenon of gaming. In fact, bestow his witty back in the draw!” The mouse says, “what more of that kind of writing wouldn't and awesome the hell are you talking about? Anyway, be a bad thing – if ever competing comments and ON TWITTER whatever, dude.” with the news and reviews crews sas all over me, then I shall becomes tedious/diffi cult it might be Follow us on Twitter @nagcoza submissively ravel We aim to please, I don’t buy your fake interesting to just give those writers of at his feet and @thepoizone conversation between the mouse and yours free reign for an issue... thank him for it.” Who has started a shopping list for the mat… everyone knows they’re much – WJ closer than this. Ed. Thanks for the kind words. Truth be told, rAge 2012? I’ve started creating one. So looking forward to I never tell my writers what to write in the “I hate you for #rAge2012 cc @nagcoza From: Dirk magazine. This is something they enjoy having the life I wish for every Subject: More needed and I feel it gives everyone the power to @Louw_Michael day. I love you Thanks to you my 67 year old mom started really express how they feel. Ed. @nagcoza Cant wait for for being an reading review/preview's to help with #lanATrAge!!!! Gonna be my fi rst! inspiration to me crossword that you included this month. From: Dave Woop woop to someday live PLEASE do some more it’s really fun. Subject: unsung heroes the life you’re @LiezlSwigelaar If you look back over the past few years living.” Come home, no water, no LOL… This is our sneaky plan to grow there are a number of games that come – Matthew our readership. Ed. to mind that truly stank! electricity... Feel like I’m living in the stone ages. Damn .. All I have , Brink, Harry Potter, “So will you is my @nagcoza mag to keep me please tell From: Ashley NeverDead, to name but a few. But company!! Subject: Why I still read NAG have you ever stopped to wonder me what NAG means?” I'm not a regular reader of NAG anymore, about the people who did a damn good @Gnoblar_agency – Thomas I'll be honest. I started reading NAG job on those games: The Graphics @nagcoza Entelect challenge accepted! many, many years ago when I was still in Designers that spent hours detailing “What do I do school. I've since completed postgraduate your weapons and tweaking the terrain when I fi nish @SaartjieJoan studies but occasionally still read your you walk on. The Sound Engineers those though? @nagcoza @iam_devon Yay for magazine because, unlike most gaming that went through countless objects It keeps me girl gamers!! ;) news publications, yours actually has to fi nd the right sound for a juicy head occupied for a good writers. stomp and the Music Composer that while but then I feel like your group of writers, Neo worked tirelessly to create music that I lose interest. Sibeko, Tarryn van Der Byl, Pippa, Miklós reinforced the atmosphere of the game. Please help?” – Sean (and others I'm sure) are actually all So next time you play a bad game intelligent and talented. It doesn't feel as or even review one, don't forget the if I'm indulging in some remnant of my unsung heroes.

14 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ BYTES /

I, Gamer The World of It’s noob time again TOMORROOOOOW! All about Black Ops II’s multiplayer mode

I haven’t been excited for a piece of hardware in a while, all of Duty: Black Ops II’s far greater customisability as you’re but there are two offerings on the horizon that have recently released multiplayer never forced to bring along items piqued my interest. Both will see the light of day thanks Ctrailer tantalised our taste buds you never use. To go along with this, to Kickstarter, and both have the potential to shake and made us feel warm and squishy Treyarch has introduced Wildcards things up a bit or turn out to be spectacular failures. I inside, and now that everyone in – optional loadout items (that use am referring to that $99 OUYA console and the more the games industry has gathered in up one of your ten points) that give recently unveiled Oculus Rift. Both have smashed their Cologne to show off their stuff , we you even further control over your Kickstarter goals; clearly I’m not alone in my excitement. managed to get our sweaty paws on kit, like the Perk Greed card that lets The OUYA represents the closest thing contemporary the game for a few minutes. you take an extra perk, or Gunfi ghter consoles have had to an antithesis. For a start, it’s Much has changed in Black Ops that allows you to strap on a third going to be the cheapest way to get a console hooked II’s multiplayer mode, but, as we’ve attachment to your primary weapon. up to your HDTV. It’s already got an exclusive title in seen so often in the past, a lot of that The more Wildcards you use, the more the making, Square Enix has announced that the Final change comes in the form of shuffl ing unpredictable you can be in battle, but Fantasy franchise will be available, and game streaming around existing concepts. The biggest the fewer weapons and perks you’ll company OnLive is securely onboard. While that sounds adjustment hits you before you’re even have access to. very similar to what current consoles have to offer, into the game. CoD’s age-old class In the interest of balance and hardware developed by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony is loadout system has been shaken up fairness, upgradeable Pro Perks traditionally locked down tighter than a vestal virgin. and renamed “Pick 10”. The concept are out, as are those perks that The OUYA, however, aims to be a wanton slut willing to is simple: choose up to ten items modify the way weapons behave. give up its hardware and systems to anyone wishing to from the pool of unlocked weapons, Item unlocks have also been vastly have a go at it. The system is designed to be hacked and equipment and perks, and place them simplifi ed. Now, throughout your rooted, which poses an interesting question: will game into your loadout grid, with each item levelling to 55 and over (and over and developers want to put their game on a system that’s costing a single point. This allows for over) again, thanks to the ten levels of designed to be hacked? Indie developers are frothing at the mouth for the OUYA because it represents the most indie-friendly way to get a title to market, but they’re also the developers that are most vulnerable to piracy. It’s almost a catch 22 situation: the OUYA will allow indie developers to get their game onto a universal platform and into your living room; that Let’s try that again same platform’s open nature means it could become a haven for software pirates as well. How the developers of OUYA intend to combat piracy remains to be seen, but perhaps the console’s low price will be echoed by low game prices? Somewhat similar to those sales, people might willingly pay for the games because they cost less than if you were to buy them on PC or competing consoles. Fifteen years ago there was a science and technology showcase at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. It had all sorts of neat things like GyroGyms, lasers, robotics and Internet connectivity that was, by today’s standards, laughable. My enduring memory of that place was being able to play Quake with a virtual reality headset. At the time, the headset weighed a ton and was little more than one elongated screen jammed straight in front of your eyes. There was no head tracking, and player movement quare Enix’s last foray into the This is neither sequel nor reboot; was an awkward affair thanks to a shoddy motion-control online gaming space, Final it’s a bit of strange cross of the two, device you operated by tilting your wrist. In retrospect it SFantasy XIV, was considered or, perhaps more accurately, it’s was terrible, but for me it was the first taste of VR – and it by most to be an utter fl op. We Square’s way of scrapping the entire blew my 15 year-old mind. would’ve weighed in on the matter fi rst attempt at FFXIV and trying Considering how fast technology improves, it’s odd that when the game was released, but again. They’ve said that A Realm I’ve had to wait another 15 years for something like the unfortunately we couldn’t get Reborn has been rebuilt from the Oculus Rift to become a probability. I completely get John our copy to work at all, let alone ground up, with an entirely new Carmack’s fascination with the idea of being able to literally experience the many world and storyline to explore, as block out the real-world and completely immerse yourself issues that plagued the title. well as “visually stunning graphics” in a game. For me, the Oculus Rift is one of the most Proving that Square isn’t ready and a design that both PC and exciting gaming developments since the dawn of peripheral to give up entirely, the company PS3 gamers will fi nd appealing. All graphics cards. If Oculus nails their product, and aff ordable has confi rmed that they’re having we really want is for them to use VR gaming becomes the norm, then I’d consider myself another crack at the idea with the a diff erent payment gateway that dangerously close to being able to die happy. upcoming release of Final Fantasy allows us to actually get into the - Miklós Szecsei XIV: A Realm Reborn. game. Here’s holding thumbs!

16 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Prestige, you’ll gain an unlock point have individual ranks, much like in per level, with each unlock costing StarCraft II, and, while we’re yet to just one point. That means you see this in action on our own shores, can unlock any weapon or piece of players will be match-made with equipment you want, whenever you competitors who are at their own level want. We’ve been told that there are of skill – in theory, at least. The game more items than total available points will also support live shoutcasting per Prestige, so you’ll have to choose (commentating) with two dedicated carefully with each point. shoutcaster slots available in each There are a few entirely new game. On every platform, players will features, such as the massive shift be able to live stream their casts to the to support the eSports community community as well as save them for way of doing things. Players will now later viewing.

Wii U version of DEL TORO’S Smash Bros. will be AMBITIOUS HORROR familiar, focused TRILOGY CANNED asahiro Sakurai, director of the upcoming, much- anticipated instalment of the Smash Bros. series Some time ago, struggling publisher on and 3DS, has revealed some interesting M THQ decided details on the game’s design philosophy. Sakurai says to team up with that the game will keep things focused and fresh without Mexican director completely redesigning the base mechanics or hugely Guillermo del Toro expanding the character list. for the fi lmmaker’s Speaking with IGN, Sakurai admitted that because the fi rst foray into video franchise has proven so popular, the core gameplay is game development. exactly where it needs to be and thus won’t change all that Now it’s been much. “The game system itself is complete,” he says, “so we revealed that the project has fallen don't want to make it 3D or introduce complicated controls through the cracks just for the sake of it.” Still, the Wii U’s new GamePad of THQ’s wafer- controller will reportedly be used, but without altering the thin budget, and fundamentals. all assets have On guest characters from other, been taken out non-Nintendo franchises, Sakurai of the hands of thinks “Snake and Sonic joining were developers fantastic,” but he’s reluctant Incorporated and to stray too far out of given to del Toro. Meanwhile, Volition Nintendo’s trusty stable of have been freed characters for fear of losing the up to dedicate “focus of the game.” So what’s themselves to this all mean for new features then? Saints Row, with the The team is apparently conjuring “ways planned DLC Enter [they] can introduce a slightly diff erent, the Dominatrix now fun experience all the while keeping the being lumped into a usual frantic game play.” full-blown sequel.

www.nag.co.za May 2012 17 / BYTES /

The Game Stalker Next generation within An iPhone also eighteen months? makes phone calls? t seems like it’s almost every month Xbox codenamed “Durango” and is I have an iPhone. Yes, I said it, and I’m not going to we report on rumours surrounding aiming for a release window of late justify myself in any way. Okay, that’s not entirely true Ithe next generation of home 2013 (just in time to confi rm the because that’s kind of the point of this column. consoles, but a recent batch of slips, rumoured next gen), and the Czech Many people have tried to convert me to Android... leaks and analyst theories suggests wing of has reported that and technically I can see the merit in taking that route, that an offi cial announcement on the Mafi a 3 is in development for the next but there’s something about my iPhone that I love. matter is just around the corner. Xbox and PlayStation 4. 2K Czech Initially it was the easy interfacing with my Mac laptop It began with an apparently was reportedly aiming to get Mafi a (which I now no longer have). My home machine is a misunderstood report from The Verge, 3 out the door in time for the next PC and my work machine, yes is a Mac but since it’s not following an interview with Microsoft generation’s launch, but the studio technically MINE, I avoid syncing my iPhone with it. general manager Brian Hall, during seems to be struggling to re-staff So why have I not discarded my iPhone in favour which Hall referred to a “new Xbox”. after it cut loose some 40-odd team of something more customisable? My iPhone isn’t MS’s army of spokespeople later members last year as part of a cost- even jailbroken, so I can’t claim that it’s because I can swooped in to clarify the statement, cutting drive. customise it in that manner. The iPhone is limiting in saying that what Hall meant to refer many respects, which is something that Apple users to was merely the next iteration of pretty much just learn to live with. I once heard it said the console’s operating system. that Apple doesn’t make flaws, they make “features”. The funny thing is, around the same Oh come on Apple fanboys, it’s funny ‘cause it’s true! time, Microsoft posted a job listing And this is coming from a fangirl – I loved my Mac just (which has since been deleted) that because (although I’m sure PC fanboys will give me a states “Over the next 18 months, million reasons why I shouldn’t), but I will admit that I Microsoft will release new versions of prefer playing games on a PC. all of our most signifi cant products, I can give you a million reasons (read justifications) as including Windows, Offi ce, and to why I stick with my iPhone: I find it user friendly; it Xbox.” We already know that there’s takes good photos, it syncs easily with iTunes, it backs a new version of Windows, Offi ce up easily, I like the games released on iOS blah, blah and and Windows Phone, as well as the blah. But the real reason I stick with it is because I’m Surface tablets, on the way within obsessed with photo apps and random iOS games. the next six months, so an eighteen Let’s begin with the photo apps – WHY would you month window would strongly rely on the iOS built in camera when you can filter the indicate something more signifi cant. uh... yeah, that... out of your photos? Now I don’t think Something like, say, a new hardware that just because you add a filter to a photo that makes iteration from the Xbox stables. it all “arty” but just being able to adjust the saturation While all of that was going on, and contrast a little makes for a better photo than the two big titles have been confi rmed standard settings on the camera. Plus I like apps that as destined for the mysterious next allow me to share directly to Twitter and Facebook. generation of hardware. Eidos Much as we might mock it, there’s a great deal to be said Montreal has told OXM UK that the for Instagram which appeals to my visual nature – it’s development of Thief 4 (or “Thi4f” like Twitter, but in pictures. With more food and photos – ugh) has shifted over to the new of people’s feet. Then there are the games. Okay it helps that I get a fair bit of developer code to test pre-release games but some of the most interesting and unusual games are often released with little fanfare on the App Store. And I don’t know why it is that so many indie games seem to “When we’re doing an be released on iOS before they hit Android, but it does seem to be the case. I can only assume it has something action game, we make to do with the difficulty of developing for more than one Android device at a time. For an iPhone game addict the second level fi rst. however, especially an indie game one, this is complete heaven. We begin making level 1 Does this really justify my devotion to Apple, at least where phones are , however? Probably not, but I suppose it’s because for me the thing I use my phone once everything else is for least is calling people. And now I have only three words for you, which if you don’t recognise then... well, completed.” I might be an even bigger dork than I originally thought. Ticket To Ride. - Pippa Tshabalala - Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and Donkey Kong

18 September 2012 www.nag.co.za IsoChronous R100K CHALLENGE plays with time CATCH-UP Entellect’s R100K n interesting new indie strategy title has arisen challenge (challenge. with its core concept centred around manipulating entelect.co.za) has Atime to best your opponent. As described by been running for a Indiegames.com, IsoChronous is an “action-strategy month already. We game for Windows that boasts a unique time-layering caught up with the studio to see how mechanic.” What it means is that you play a head-to- it’s coming along, head battles in four time layers. Each layer lasts 30 and we’re happy seconds, and rewinds back to the beginning of the battle to say that there’s at the end of each layer. been quite a fl urry of Each new layer brings a new unit for players to control, interest around the while previously deployed units from previous layers competition. remember their past actions and repeat them, so you “The response can eff ectively use the new unit you obtain with each has been quite new layer to support struggling units, or to employ new broader than we had expected,” strategies to bolster previous eff orts. With each layer’s said Entellect’s new units aff ecting the battle diff erently, this sounds Tim Kroon. “We’ve like it could be an initially complicated, but intriguingly had closer to 300 eccentric bit of bite-sized strategy fun. At the time of hundred individuals writing, there’s no release date for the title. express their intention in entering the completion. What that relates to in fi nal entries we’ll only be able to tell after the closure Resi ups its game date.” Although there f you thought that Resident Evil 6 was reaching into was some initial unfamiliar territory after reading our preview in last confusion and Imonth’s NAG, more details have been released that clarifi cation needed now confi rm that the title is pretty much trying to be on a few technical absolutely everything to everyone. issues, most of that A new multiplayer game mode called Agent Hunt has been cleared up with the addition has been detailed, in which players can jump into the on an FAQ on the campaigns of other players and take on the roles of website – so be the infected and all their varieties. Using machetes, sure to check that claws, fi rearms and various mutated limbs, players out if you still plan will attempt to kill civilians and their friends’ hero on entering. And, if players. It’s certainly an interesting idea, and could you’re worried that add plenty of replayability to the single-player mode there’s a clear winner if you’re a sucker for punishment or fi nd the game already, don’t be too easy. put off . Kroon told us that “there are If it still doesn’t sound like you’ll have plenty of defi nitely a group game time with RE6, Capcom also revealed that a of individuals so fi fth campaign, in which you play as Ada Wong, will far who appear to be unlocked once you’ve fi nished the game’s four understand the primary campaigns. Ada uses a crossbow with various problem better than bolt types, and her story will reportedly clarify a others,” but he stated number of mysteries encountered during the game. that it’s still far too early to tell who’s on top. When asked for a fi nal piece of advice for potential entrants, Kroon said “don’t take anything for granted. You don’t know what strategy you’re up against and this means there isn’t a guaranteed win strategy. Think about what would happen if you went up against yourself.”

www.nag.co.za May 2012 19 / BYTES /

The Indie Investigator Key staff ers leave Irrational, but Levine and co. soldier on Formalising the community ollowing the announcement of its said Levine in an interview with . One of the greatest challenges facing the local dev scene right unexpected delay a few months “We never like to see a guy like Nate now is the perception that making games isn’t a legitimate Fago, news on BioShock Infi nite leave because he's been here for a long “thing”, at least for South Africans. Sure, we have a pretty broad has since been eerily silent. It’s now time, but it's been 13 years and I think (and keen) audience for Angry Farmers and Bejeweled 2: Jewel been revealed that key personnel at sometimes people want to spread their Harder. And there’s always going to be people fl ooding out developer Irrational Games have left the wings. I'm not going to stop people. expos like rAge or reading opinion columns in special interest studio to pursue other ventures. These We love Nate and I think we’ll remain magazines. Recognising the development process itself, four former members of the team friends. After 13 years he sort of fi nished however, is a little more diffi cult. are art director Nate Wells, principal his work on BioShock Infi nite, as you The actual process of game creation doesn’t always attract systems designer Kenneth Strickland, will be able to tell when you see the the spectacle of a Battlefi eld clan tourney, and speaking to design lead Jeff McGann and director game again... I think Nate's moving on established businesses, venue owners or investors currently of product development Tim Gerritsen. to something else.” bears the additional weight of that broader social “non- Of those employees, Wells is the most Sinclair’s replacement of Wells brings recognition”. It can be a struggle to persuade strangers surprising departure, having been with to light a very impressive fact: that that you’re part of an established and carefully-organised Irrational for nearly 13 years after joining every member of the original BioShock movement instead of, you know, just some dude who really, the team in September of 1999 (the team is still at Irrational Games, really wants to make video games (even though the latter studio’s System Shock 2 days). Wells tirelessly working at making this cloud- would be pretty much true, anyway). has been replaced by Scott Sinclair, art faring sequel as incredibly poignant an We have a growing local industry that isn’t yet well-recognised director for the original BioShock. experience as the original game was. enough to be making its most meaningful impact. There’s no Wells’ departure comes as a shock “As far as the team itself, the lead artist, formal register of local development studios and the Film and not only to the public, but to industry the art director, the creative director, Publication Board technically doesn’t have a way to parley with legend and founder of Irrational Ken the lead eff ects artist, the senior sound game designers as game designers. Levine as well, although he’s defi nitely guy, the lead programmer and the lead A recent game development meet-up in Cape Town not letting any of the departures bring AI programmer from BioShock 1 are highlighted problems like these and discussed on-going eff orts him down. “In a company of 200 all on BioShock Infi nite. I don't think to draw up and present a proposal which could legally defi ne the people you're going to have turnover,” there's a single senior BioShock team local community. In basic terms: set up a government-approved game development association. Creating such an entity will help local developers in several key areas: - Better community promotion. The obvious benefi t of galvanising the community under a legally-recognised banner is an explicit “beacon” provided for isolated developers. Until The fat lady has sung for Amalur recently, the formal community has been somewhat fractured (although this obstacle has become steadily less problematic), e’ve told you before they still managed to default on and it’s always helpful to have a clear go-to. about the tragic story a lot of payments (including the - More support for formal studios. Tax and other government- Wof Kingdoms of Amalur salaries of their 400+ employees). related business benefi ts can be meaningfully applied for, and how developer 38 Studios As it stands now, the company’s helping local start-ups exist long enough to start squeezing out was forced to close shortly after possessions, including all Amalur profi t. Professional game development is risky and often needs a releasing it, but a few new details licences and assets for both reasonable capital investment to work properly. of the awful management of the Reckoning and the axed MMO - More street cred. When it comes to organising community company by founder Curt Schilling codenamed Copernicus, belong to events, sponsors, strippers or whatever else the local industry tells a scary story of how not to run the State of Rhode Island. They’ll as a whole needs right now, it’s far more legitimate-sounding a game development studio. likely be sold off to another studio or to approach with the authority of a socially-recognised Right from the beginning, publisher in the attempt to recoup at association that presumably knows a little about what it’s former Major League Baseball star least a portion of the lost loan. doing. “Really enthusiastic bunch of people” doesn’t carry Schilling was spending too much quite the same punch. money in all the wrong At the time of writing, the application to defi ne this new places, reportedly coughing association of game developers was still in progress with up $118 million over the plans for the fi rst offi cial AGM to be held at the A MAZE. studio’s lifespan of just fi ve festival in Johannesburg. More information can be found at years. During that period, the Make Games SA (www.makegamessa.com) which, if you’re company earned no revenue not in the know, is the most recent evolution of the local and was supported initially by community. With a simple and eff ective online presence Shilling’s personal stash, and later (involving lots of baby blue box borders) and a strengthening by a $75 million loan from the offl ine presence at talks and events, it’s currently tied in with Rhode Island government and a lot of South Africa’s established studios and is looking to a small injection of cash from communicate with others. Electronic Arts for the completion The website itself also provides information about monthly of Amalur. Right up until the community meet ups in Johannesburg and Cape Town, so company’s dying breath, 38 if you’re in either of those cities and can keep a free evening Studios was haemorrhaging US towards the end of the month, look them up! taxpayers’ money at a rate of - Rodain Joubert over $5 million a month, and

20 September 2012 www.nag.co.za member that isn't here, which I think supposedly seen two players working is amazing and a testament to their together to complete various missions. commitment to the studio.” The loss of multiplayer is no big deal As for news on the game itself, it to us, since the fi rst game didn’t need turns out Infi nite came very close to a tacked-on multiplayer component shipping with two multiplayer modes to shine. to accompany what’ll undoubtedly be Despite what may on the surface a remarkable single-player narrative. appear to be troubling times for the Both modes have been cancelled. studio with all this news, the game One, a tower defense-style mode, is is still in track for its February 2013 said to have not worked well at all by release date and Irrational’s been the folks at Irrational. The other mode quick to assure that there’s no need was a cooperative mode that would’ve for panic.

ASSASSIN’S Blizzard cites Diablo as reason CREED III PC ARRIVES IN for decline in WoW subscriptions NOVEMBER

So how’s about that Assassin’s Creed III? Lookin’ spiff y ‘ey? If you’re planning on spending a bit of quality assassination time out in the Americas using your trusty personal computer rather than those newfangled console thingamajigs, we n February of 2012, Blizzard’s MMORPG megalith now have a release World of Warcraft sat comfortably at 10.2 million date for you. The PC Isubscribers. At the time of writing this, subscriber version of the game numbers had dipped to 9.1 million; still comfortable, but will arrive three ever so slightly less so. 1.1 million subscribers less so, weeks after the if you’re counting. Blizzard was quick to point out that console versions, rd peak subscriptions of MMOs are cyclical in nature, and on November 23 . Start sharpening that it’s still the most popular subscription-based MMO that tomahawk out there. Subscriptions fell before Cataclysm and now, now, and prepare with the release of yet another expansion looming (Mists yourself for what of Pandaria), subs have dropped again: but they will is guaranteed to surely rise as soon as the expansion lands. Interestingly, be universally Blizzard also pointed at Diablo III as a reason for the hated DRM being decline in subs numbers. And with over 10 million copies attached to the of Diablo III sold, it’s highly likely that some of those are game to spoil all WoW players who’ve let their subscriptions lapse while our frontier fun. they tackle Diablo’s Prime Evils.

www.nag.co.za May 2012 21 / BYTES /

Miktar’s Meanderings But moooom, Thank you for the game innovation is tough! So I’m reading Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball), a Japanese manga (comic book) about a high school basketball his’ll likely enter the history sadness or love, things that drive the team trying to make nationals. I like reading manga books as one of the most movies,” said Hartmann. “Until games because of its genre maturity. T controversial strings of words are photorealistic, it’ll be very hard to Generally, Eastern manga covers a much broader range of to exit the mouths of gaming’s open up to new genres. We can really genres and topics than Western comics and graphic novels: infamous executives, if the response only focus on action and shooter titles; everything from sports, romance, science-fi ction, fantasy, from gamers, journalists and cute those are suitable for consoles now.” business, horror, sexual comedy... even cooking. In Japan, fl uff y pandas everywhere is anything He continued, “To dramatically change manga tends to be grouped into shojo (comics aimed at girls) to go by. This particular sequence the industry to where we can insert a and shonen (comics aimed at boys), and each has a distinct of misguided fl uff was born of 2K whole range of emotions, I feel it will style. But saying manga is specifi cally aimed at boys or girls head Christoph Hartmann, who has only happen when we reach the point is incorrect. seemingly confused “innovation”, that games are photorealistic; then we For example, the boxing manga Hajime no Ippo, which “experimentation” and “inspired will have reached an endpoint and that has been running continuously for 23 years since 1989, has invention” with “stuff that looks real”. might be the fi nal console.” a huge following in Japan of not only men, but women, kids Here’s the quote that caused the Now, Hartmann does bring up a few and grandparents as well. The story itself is easy enough facepalm, from an interview with interesting points. Photorealism would to understand, and the characters appealing enough for Games Industry International: undoubtedly aid certain games in their own sake, that it breaks through the usual boundaries “Recreating a Mission Impossible specifi c categories: particularly ones Western culture tends to erect around content. experience in gaming is easy; recreating that rely on creating as convincingly Hajime no Ippo goes through multiple genres. At times emotions in Brokeback Mountain is emotional and human an experience it is action-packed, shojo style, usually during a bout. Using going to be tough, or at least very as can be done, as with something like dynamic angles and subjective motion, the reader is inside sensitive in this country… it will be very . But it is not a requirement the action as it happens. But the story also slows to “slice hard to create very deep emotions like for evoking powerful emotions. of life” speed at times, focusing more on the interactions between characters, their personal stories and issues. But it’s always cantered around the main pillar of boxing, the sport of it, and the lifestyle surrounding it. Consistency, and slow, realistic character growth, are hallmarks of most rises again long-running manga that aren’t overly focused action, such as the fun and utterly ridiculous One Piece, which focuses on s well as the expected massive to play as one of fi ve characters in adventure instead. LAN and excessive Carmack the campaign, each with their own Except for Cerebus the Aardvark (which ran for 27 years Aworship, this year’s QuakeCon special abilities. The game will include from 1977 to 2004), a bizarre outlier in Western comics, was host to a surprise that’s sure to an all-new soundtrack that’s been there are almost no analogues to stories such as Hajime no delight anyone who called themselves a “forged in the fi res of heavy ”, Ippo. Okay, there is Prince Valiant, which has been running PC gamer in the ‘90s: Rise of the Triad is but players will have the ability to keep as a Sunday newspaper strip since 1937, but that’s a diff erent being remade. it real with the original 1995 audio, kettle of fi sh. The 3-powered should they so wish. ROTT will also Back to Kuroko no Basuke. At the end of a basketball remake will faithfully recreate the be fully moddable, as you’d expect of match, in the manga anyway, both teams would consistently original game with HD textures and a UE3 title, and the developers have do something: stand in a line facing each other, bow, and say 3D models, and will be available promised that the game will receive “Thank you for the game!” It didn’t matter who won, or who either through Steam, or directly from post-launch DLC which won’t cost a lost, both teams would thank each other for the match itself. developers Interceptor Entertainment cent. Currently, the only feature not It reminded me of the gaming culture equivalent, the “good in DRM-free form. Both versions will confi rmed for launch is co-op play, game” or “GG”, which was once considered the polite thing to cost just $15 (R125), and will include but it’s right on top of the studio’s to- do. Nowadays I’m not so sure anymore. the full single-player campaign as well do list, so expect it to come knocking Especially if you play 2, when one side says “GG” as multiplayer. Players can choose shortly after release. (usually the winning side), the other side more often than not says “BG” or “bad game”. I’ve seen people take “GG” as an insult, no doubt reading into it a sarcastic goad. And there’s always that one jackass who, if on the losing side, says “n00b team”, attempting to absolve himself from any and all reasons for losing, while simultaneously insulting the very people he just played with. Now, I know most people are sociopaths, in corporate business, and in online gaming. Play enough MineZ, a server-side that turns Minecraft into a version of the permadeath -survival ARMA2: Combined Ops modifi cation DayZ, and you’ll quickly start thinking in the binary of “kill them before they kill me”. But still. Win or lose, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was thankful for having been able to play in the fi rst place? - Miktar

22 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Merely watching videos of 2K’s very own BioShock Infi nite (a game that is by no means photorealistic, but has a potently developed art style) is enough to get us feeling very real attachment to characters and their predicaments within. The idea of a “fi nal console” is certainly a believable endgame that gaming might be marching toward. And yet, we certainly haven’t needed said console to create new genres, or to craft games that make us feel something: games like Dear Esther and Braid. Books have certainly gotten by without it, perpetually managing to send emotions bubbling to the surface without the need for visual fi delity.

HOW NOT TO PLAY COD

A teenager in Columbus, Ohio has sought to teach all of us a very valuable lesson in video games HAX! and the playing of f you haven’t already been prompted to update your Battle. them, acting as a net password, now’s a good sort of unwitting I guinea pig in an idiocy time to do just that. As revealed by experiment. After a Blizzard, their all-encompassing four-day gaming binge online service was hacked, and a in which the fi fteen- large amount of data was stolen. year old did nothing There’s no need to panic just but play Call of Duty, yet – the US servers were hit the he eventually collapsed hardest and, unless you’ve engaged and had to be taken to in some regional fi nagling, you’re hospital due to severe likely on the Euro servers. But dehydration. The boy’s mother anyway, here’s the list of stuff reveals that her son stolen: From US servers: email addresses, answers to security only briefl y exited his questions, encrypted passwords (they need to be cracked cocoon during his before they’d be usable), and authenticator information. four-day session to From the EU servers, only email addresses have been stolen, get the occasional so at worst you’ll have a bit of extra spam in your inbox. snack and to use Regardless of what’s actually been taken, this is a the bathroom. We huge blow to Blizzard and will no-doubt have some salute the young long-running implications. Hackers have their eyes on man for putting his health on the line so the company and, even though more stringent security all of us could learn systems have been put in place, they’ll likely continue an important lesson their attacks on the company’s servers. Additionally, all in “how not to be Blizzard digital authenticators (like the kind you have completely stupid.” on your phone) will require an update soon to comply The mother has since with the increased security. Physical authenticators are confi scated her son’s apparently still good. Xbox.

www.nag.co.za May 2012 23 / BYTES /

DISTRIBUTORS Could Valve have a Apex Interactive 011 796 5040 ASUS SA 011 783 5450 engine 2 waiting BT Games 0861 4 GAMES in the wings? Compuseed 011 781 FIREFALL 8880/2/3 WANTS ALL OF YOUR Comstar 011 314 5812 ESPORTS Core Gaming 011 535 9000 Red 5’s free-to-play Corex 011 655 8800 online multiplayer EA South Africa 011 516 8300 shooter Firefall is looking slick. It’s Evetech Solutions 012 326 6547 now been revealed ESET 0860 313 872 that the game will launch with Frontosa 011 466-0038 a strong focus on encouraging Incredible Connection 0860 011 700 eSports interest Intel Corporation 011 806 4530 thanks to its “eSports toolkit.” It Look & Listen 011 467 3717 on 011 704 2679. boasts two modes Megarom 011 361 4800 for shoutcasters to NAG take advantage of, Microsoft 0860 225 567 helping them keep track of the action. Musica 0860 687 422 f freshly uncovered scripts and fi les engine version. If key doesn’t doesn’t The standard Nu Metro Interactive 011 340 9300 buried within the innards of the exist, assume ‘Source’, otherwise observer mode, Irecently released invalid — assume next-gen ‘Source 2’.” which is available to Phoenix Software 011 803 5437 are anything to go by, then Valve might Meanwhile, another group has all players, lets you Prima Interactive 011 799 7800 currently be fi ddling with an updated discovered a set of icons labelled watch any match version of their Source engine. Source, “Source 2 tools”, which is assumed from a top-down Rectron 011 203 1000 originally used to power Half-Life to be preparation for Source viewpoint, or from the perspective of Samsung 0860 726 7864 2 and Counter-Strike: Source upon Filmmaker’s eventual Source 2 any player on the release back in 2004, is still a mighty integration. As a fi nal piece of Silverscreen Trading 011 794 9749 map. impressive engine after all this time, evidence, Valve cheekily made a Elsewhere, Sonic Informed 011 3145800 capable of delivering striking visuals in stealth update to their business specifi cally If your company isn’t listed here, phone Ster Kinekor 011 445 7700 games like 2 many years later. profi le on their website. To the end approved Entertainment Still, we’ve long wondered when the of the section that details the Source broadcasters will aging engine would see a true update, engine, they added a single line: “And get their own set of beyond the incremental upgrades that it’s about to get even better.” tools that’ll grant Valve have applied to it over the years. Naturally, this has all caused a huge them more options All this sudden excitement was stir within Valve’s zealous following. for viewing and commentating brought about when Valve-related Cries of Half-Life 3 ring out across on matches – like news wagon Valve Time went for the Internet once again. And we can’t the ability to fl y a dip in Source Filmmaker’s code, help but get excited by the prospect, around the map, or SUPPORT LINES where they discovered more than 60 because there’d be no better time to to watch diff erent references to “Source 2”. The most announce Half-Life 3 than with a new cameras from the Got a legal boxed game and need some revealing of those lines was this one: engine. Who knows what’s really going game at the same technical help? Before you call please time. According do the following. Update your system “’Return an str with the current on here? Valve. That’s who. to developer Red software, drivers and have a look online for a game patch. Just these simple tasks 5 Studio’s Morgan eliminate 93% of all problems – it’s a made Romine, they’re up statistic but probably close enough. doing everything “I am thinking of bringing the they can to make Publishers: Activision / Blizzard 2K Games eSports a priority for Rockstar / Ubisoft Codemasters original Blood game back. I would Firefall, continuously NC-Soft / Namco-Bandai tweaking things like E-mail: [email protected] the core movement Number: 0861 987 363 also make it work on all platforms, speed of characters Publishers: Microsoft Xbox not just PC. My goal of course is and the classes Number: 0800 991 550 within the game for this all to be free, and all about to get the game Publisher: Electronic Arts optimally balanced e-mail: [email protected] gameplay and fun. You can rest for competitive play. Telephone: 0860 EAHELP/324357 Romine revealed assured that I have the resources to to PC Gamer that the goal is to “have bring Blood back properly” an FPS that has the long-term viability - Jace Hall, founder of Monolith Productions of a Counter-Strike.”

24 September 2012 www.nag.co.za PRE-ORDER your games at Top CD and get up to R150 discount to spend on any Game, DVD, CD or Book of your choice*

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CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS 2 BORDERLANDS 2 ( Includes 1st Access DLC ) WoW  MIST OF PANDARIA EXP TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 ( PC ) R499.95 ( PS3, 360 ) R699.95 ( PC ) R329.95 ( PS3, 360 ) R599.95 ( PS3, 360 ) R699.95 ( PC ) R499.95 25 September 2012 14 September 2012 13 November 2012 21 September 2012

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Dial 08610 Top CD (08610 867 23) to speak to your nearest Top CD *Top CDs standard Ts & Cs apply: Loyalty and Discounted or sale items do not apply. Prices and release dates are subject to change. Stocks are limited. / BYTES /

Zynga and EA get their claws out Pre-orders www.lookandlisten.co.za BACK TO THE STARTING ocial games GRID champions Zynga PC Well here’s a thing: are no strangers to S Borderlands 2 September 21st Codemaster’s copyright infringement Dishonored October hugely celebrated lawsuits, but when 2008 racing title one comes in from EA, Hitman: Absolution October 12th Grid is set to receive protecting one of their a sequel, upholding most prolifi c franchises, all of the ideals that then it’s time to sit up made the fi rst game and get serious. The NHL 13 September 14th such a hit among suit claims that Zynga racing fans. Built in FIFA 13 September 28th the latest version blatantly ripped off gameplay mechanisms from EA’s Resident Evil 6 October 2nd of Codemasters The Sims Social to make their own Facebook-based Racing’s engine, life sim The Ville. It’s worth noting that some of the executive producer similarities are so utterly obvious that it’s a wonder the PS3 Clive Moody told case hasn’t already been settled out of court. To give Eurogamer that the you an example, the skin colour options available during Far Cry 3 September 7th team is aiming to “make street, track character creation are exactly the same in both games, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale October down to specifi c RGB values. and road racing Assassin's Creed III October 31st As expected, Zynga has taken a defensive approach to exciting again.” “The core design the allegations, and even took the opportunity to call out philosophy for Grid EA on SimCity Social’s “uncanny resemblance” to Zynga’s 2 is that we treat the CityVille, and that the publisher “clearly demonstrates a lack Wii race as a character, of understanding of basic copyright principles.” Ouch. not a consequence Apparently employees within Zynga aren’t quite as Just Dance 4 October 2nd of simply putting confi dent as the company’s lawyers, and the studio’s Skylanders: Giants October 31st cars on tracks,” COO John Schappert resigned soon after the lawsuit said Moody. WWE 13 October 31st went public. To curb the expected mass exodus, Zynga “Everything that is reportedly handing out stock options to all full-time goes into the game impacts on that employees, but with the company’s share price at an all- 3DS second-to-second, time low (less than one-third of where it was at when it fi rst in the moment, Sonic & All-Stars Racing November listed in December 2011), somehow we don’t see that as a blockbuster drama Transformed terribly enticing off er. – the feel and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 2012 personality of the Ben 10: Omniverse 2012 race.” The game will on the Animal handling model Do Western developers put seen in the original with what they’re Crossing graphics before gameplay? calling the “TrueFeel Handling System” hile 2K’s Christoph Hartmann is (perhaps – which promises 3DS details misguidedly) touting the powers of to use real physics Wphotorealism and its proposed eff ect on to balance the he 3DS version of insanely addictive real-time village gaming’s future, Hideaki Itsuno (game director for game comfortably sim Animal Crossing (a series of games that see you upcoming DmC: Devil May Cry) is quietly observing between arcade purchasing a home in a village populated by animals that Western developers tend to put graphics before and simulation. T Grid 2 will span and then, well, essentially just living there – you can do gameplay. The Devil May Cry reboot is in itself a clash three continents anything from fi shing and digging up fossils to buying of East meets West, and Itsuno has picked up a few (North America, furniture and planting trees) has had some of its features trends in Capcom’s collaboration with Ninja Theory in and Asia) teased by . It’s been previously reported that your developing the game. and will boast races Animal Crossing: Jump Out (the game’s full title) character “I think this speaks to the diff erences in the core of how set in locales like will eventually become mayor of your town, overseeing Western games are developed compared to games in Paris, Abu Dhabi its development if you so choose, but we now know that Japan,” said Itsuno in an interview with Siliconera. “Well, and Miami across there’ll also be a few other fi rst-time features for the series. at least at Capcom because we can’t speak for everyone. everything from Tom Nook is now a real-estate agent, rather than Given our experience, it seems like with the West and Ninja licensed circuits to mountain running the general store. From him, you can buy your fi rst, Theory they focus on the visuals stuff at the beginning and roads. Multiplayer tiny house and gradually increase its size and fanciness as then build the gameplay on top of that.” progression and you earn the requisite cash, as always. A new thrift shop “Whereas at Capcom Japan, we focus on the game customisation run by Lisa the alpaca, there’s a full shopping mall beyond logic and getting the systems down in the beginning will be handled the town outskirts, a new shoe store and there’s even a then we gradually build the visuals on top of that. The via Codemaster’s gardening shop – selling fl ower seeds and the like – run key to the feedback and the kind of advice we’ve been online racing portal, by a sloth. In addition, the museum will have a larger giving is we’ve been trying to fi nd a hybrid system where RaceNet. It’s due collection of fi sh and fossils to discover, and there’ll be a we take a best of both worlds approach. It hasn’t been out on Xbox 360, wealth of new items to work towards purchasing. easy, but I think we’re happy with the results we have.” PS3 and PC towards the middle of 2013.

26 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ BYTES /

Well hello, VIRTUAL sexy lady! Caption of the month INSANITY Ladies and germs, we’d like to introduce you to Every month we’ll choose a Virtual reality: the Roxy, our offi cial rAge mascot for 2012. It’s not pipe-dream of the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and, that we don’t love Scarlett anymore, it’s just screenshot from a random game soon, the ‘10s as well. that rAge turns 10 this year, and we thought it and write a bad caption for it. Your id Software overlord was time for a new babe sporting some cool job is to come up with a better one. and resident genius gear. So we briefed The winner will get a copy of Dead John Carmack has South African illustratorr stuck his name and Warren Louw, who also Island Game of the year edition for his brains behind a did Scarlett for us back PS3 from Apex Interactive. Send your new project called in 2010, and our captions to [email protected] with the Oculus Rift, which for a rAge/NAG gaming is designed from chick was created. We subject line “September caption”. the ground up for video games. The think she’s hot and system, which is in would play her in a development by video game any day. California-based Every month we’ll Oculus, has been hide her somewhere in kicking around the magazine – your Kickstarter for a few mission is to go fi nd her.. weeks now, and has already blown past Send your sighting to its goal of $250,000, with pledges [email protected] with the totalling over $1.5 subject line “September million at the time of Roxy”, and of course writing. your contact details, andd Just like every you could win a prize. other VR set in history, Rift promises to be special, and the demo shown at August winner this year’s QuakeCon and managed to SimCity impress the show’s

DON’T BE A TOOL CitiesXL 2012 gave us a taste feature which we briefly spotted there’s an elastic animation that NAG’s lame attempt at humour of a new era of city-building during the E3 presentation was governs the placement of all of tools, and now nothing less will the ability to add tram tracks these building types, lending suffice. Maxis has no-doubt (accompanied by tram stations the game a toy-like character) guests enough to spent some time with its nearest and, obviously, the trams and include buildings such as competitor, as evidenced by themselves) directly to any universities, police stations the variety of new tools at the supporting road. and hospitals. Many of these disposal of SimCity players. As well as commercial, buildings can also be upgraded Curved roads will make a long industrial and residential with addons (similar to what We’ve watched enough Hentai to know where this is going... overdue appearance, along zones, you’ll also be able you’d find in Tropico) to serve with curved/irregular-shaped to place specific buildings even more specific needs, like zone placement that looks like called “Ploppables”. As the greening up a power plant or it’ll work in much the same name suggests, Ploppables providing additional facilities at scoop together a few way as CitiesXL. Another nifty are plopped down (literally – a university.

Natural resources will have a big impact on what your city can and can’t do. A lack of coal means you’ll need to import the stuff to keep your early power interested parties, stations fed, but it could also encourage you to go green earlier than usual. despite the demo unit being held

with comparatively small-scale management can concentrate on making plenty of money. titles like The Settlers and Stronghold, but on Multiplayer also opens up the ability for players this level, with tens of thousands of agents to band together to “Great Works”. together with duct interacting with one another simultaneously, it’s These expensive undertakings will almost incredibly impressive. definitely require resources from a number Another new feature to the series is the of cities, but everyone who pitches in gets introduction of multiplayer. Put aside thoughts access to the facility. An example given during of hundred-hour SimCity games – this is of the presentation was the construction of an the asynchronous sort, which means that airport between three neighbouring cities. The players can interact with their friends’ cities only industrial city was able to provide the necessary indirectly, but just having that interaction adds physical resources to the site while the tourism tape. a whole new dimension to the game. Player city helped out with a few Simoleans (SimCity cities can share resources and agents, which money, for the uninitiated) and the non- will likely be a huge boon to some players due specialised city was able to provide labour to to the new city specialisation. Cities no longer get the job done. have to attempt to cater for everyone, with One thing is clear with this new SimCity: the option to emphasise education, industry, Maxis has kept a beady eye on the management tourism, or technology. These specialisations genre for a few years. They’ve waited, watched will not only give you access to unique and learnt from their competitors. They’ve held buildings, but the entire look of your city will back until computing power reached a level that Sure, we’re adapt to suit your specialisation. Industrial cities has allowed them to put together the ambitious won’t look like much, but high-paying jobs GlassBox Engine. 2013 will mark a full decade might encourage neighbouring Sims to make since the release of the last core SimCity title; the commute, leaving their problems at home let’s hope that it’ll be worth the wait. (for your friends to deal with) and ensuring you - GeometriX www.nag.co.za August 2012 35 Rudi Doubell , page 35 sceptical – VR is one of those technologies that THIS MONTH’S has been hanging LOOT around so long that fi nding anyone who actually cares An Xbox 6 in 1 Starter any more is going Kit valued at R499.95. to be tough, but Sponsored by Musica John Carmack is and DreamGear. the kind of person who can change our minds. For now, though, we’ll adopt a cautiously amused Last months winner “wait and see” Charlie Sheen would have a tough time deciding between a woman, a sweet approach. ride and a whole lot of snow - Laurence Merry

28 May 2012 www.nag.co.za Release list Dates subject to change without notice September: week 1 Air Confl icts: Pacifi c Carriers 360 / PC / PS3 Batman: Arkham City: 360 / PC / PS3 Game of the Year Edition The Lord of the Rings Online: PC Riders of Rohan Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants 360 / PC / PS3 The Sims 3: Supernatural PC DayZ to grow up September: week 2 he ultra-popular Arma II development model; fast iterations NHL 13 360 / PS3 zombie apocalypse mod with the community alpha available Tekken Tag Tournament 2 360 / PS3 T DayZ is going solo. Project for a heavily discounted price.” lead Dean “Rocket” Hall announced If the rate at which the mod is recently on the offi cial DayZ updated currently, we’ll bet that “fast September: week 3 tumblr that he’d secured the go- iterations” is no joke. Speaking of the ahead from Bohemia Interactive mod – development will continue, Borderlands 2 360 / PC / PS3 (developers of the Arma series, so those folks who purchased Arma F1 2012 360 / PC / PS3 and the studio at which Hall II: Combined Ops purely for the sake Kinect Sports Ultimate Collection 360 works full-time) to commission of playing DayZ (which consequently a few developers and dedicate propelled Arma II to the number two One Piece Vita the necessary time to transfer the spot on Steam’s top sellers list for a One Piece: Pirate Warriors PS3 project to a standalone format. period) won’t feel too shafted. More In his post, Hall says that the details will come soon, and we’ll let project “will follow the Minecraft you know as soon as we have them. September: week 4 World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria PC Gran Turismo 5 Academy Edition PS3 Sony struggling to attract third-party Vita support LittleBigPlanet Vita Vita Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz Vita peaking with PlayStation: The Call of Duty: Black Ops II) to take Offi cial Magazine, Sony Computer advantage of the potent technology Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: PS3 SEntertainment Worldwide Studios nestled within it and the unique Game of the Year Edition president Shuhei Yoshida admitted control mechanisms it boasts, other FIFA 13 360 / 3DS / PC / PS2 that Sony is having a tougher time than major publishers aren’t dedicating PS3 / PSP / Vita / Wii they expected with attracting third- themselves to developing games for Battlefi eld 3: Armored Kill PC party development for their portable the device. powerhouse, the PlayStation Vita. However, on a more positive note, “We're having a more diffi cult time than Yoshida has pointed out that Vita is “Moral decisions that give diff erent in- we had anticipated in terms of getting managing to draw in some excellent game rewards disconnect the player by support from third-party publishers, independent developers – like Queasy giving them motivations within the game; but that's our job,” said Yoshida. Games (Sound Shapes) and Niffl as This news follows shortly after Sony (Knytt Underground). “We will continue it’s a tactical or strategic decision. We unveiled its Q1 2012 fi scal results, in to talk to development communities intentionally did not add any rewards to which their gaming division reported and publishing partners and tell the player choice – we wanted players to a $45 million loss. Even though the them why Vita can provide a great decide for personal reasons.” handheld has already drawn in really experience for the IPs they have and big names (like specially developed I hope the Assassin's Creed game will - Jorg Friedrich, lead designer on Spec versions of Assassin’s Creed III and prove that,” he added. Ops: The Line

www.nag.co.za May 2012 29 The top holy sh*t moments8 in gaming

Every so often, a game comes along that simply fl oors you. Your jaw drops as soon as you start the game; maybe it’s the visuals or the music or something so small that nobody else would notice it, but when a game is so stunning that all you can do is utter the words “holy sh*t”, you know it’s a keeper. Here’s our little list of games that managed to do just that. If you’d like to add any suggestions to our list please send mail to [email protected]. 8 POWERSLIDE – INDEPENDENT WHEEL PHYSICS Proving that it’s the little things in life that can bring the most joy (or maybe that other thing about small things, but whatever), Powerslide’s independent wheel physics said “Hey, bro, look at this car – it’s being simulated, with science. You’re driving it. Also, you might want to watch out for that wa...” 6 QUAKE III – ANIMATED TEXTURES Too many a rocket to the nethers was taken while we excitedly shouted at LANs “Look at the walls! Look at them! They’re, like, moving! Guys! ... 7 Guys?” BLACK & WHITE – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Do you see those little people running around in zealous service to you? No? Is it because your giant tiger threw them all into the ocean and pooped on their homes? Yeah, that’ll teach you. Black & White’s AI wasn’t just incredible from a techie geek point of view, it was incredibly refl ective of who you were as a player. Are you a scumbag god of death and violence? Well then, so is your pet.

30 September 2012 www.nag.co.za FEATURE The top 8 holy sh*t moments in gaming 5 HARDWARE ACCELERATED GRAPHICS We’re keeping this one open because everyone has a diff erent game that triggered their holy sh*t moment, but the principle remains the same: that moment when, after installing your sparkly new 3D accelerator and fi ddling with drivers, you boot up a game and enable hardware mode. Suddenly that dreary game of yours is the closest thing to realism you’ve ever seen. 3 FAR CRY – HDR RENDERING It doesn’t take a computer hardware expert to notice just how fantastic Far Cry looked when it was released, 4 but it does say a hell of a lot when DOOM – MULTIPLAYER our resident guru Neo couldn’t stop Sure, Doom wasn’t the fi rst game emphasising this point when we ever to have multiplayer, but it was that asked him what his biggest holy one game for almost all of us here that sh*t moment was. Far Cry was let us, for the fi rst time, frag our mates offi cially the fi rst game of and insult the way they were dressed by this generation. their moms. It gave birth to the LAN party – late nights, bleary eyes, and a sense of “this is where I belong” unparalleled by any other 2 C&C – REAL-TIME STRATEGY experience before it. Yes, we acknowledge that Dune II pioneered the genre, and technically Warcraft launched a couple of months before, but Command & Conquer was the fi rst game to perfectly capture our childhood memories of playing with little army guys and put them on a computer screen. Hundreds of units battling for domination; tanks riding over men; bombers soaring through the air. It fi lled us with elation. 1 QUAKE – MOUSE LOOK The young ‘uns among you might not remember this, but when the fi rst Quake launched, mouse look (as in, using your mouse to rotate your view in a 3D environment) was disabled by default. To enable it, one had to bring down the console with the tilde key and type in “+mlook”. Everything about fi rst- person shooters changed from that day.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 31 8

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10 The Ultimate Gaming Lounge very month, we tell you the maximum level of gaming Eexcellence you can possible achieve by spending ridiculous amounts of money on PC hardware. That’s the nature of the PC game – put all of your money into one big ol’ box and some stuff to go with it. But how does one go about reaching the pinnacle of gaming perfection with a console (or two or three) and the bits and pieces that go with it? Well, it’s easy, because you have an entire room to fi ll with said bits and pieces. That’s exactly what we’re up to here. This is how to kit out... The Ultimate Gaming Lounge.

32 September 2012 www.nag.co.za FEATURE The Ultimate Gaming Lounge

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FLOORING Sure, you could get some boring old Persian rug that probably costs more than everything else in this room (and it would be a classier choice), but it’d be an ill fi t. Instead, grab some high-res artwork of your favourite game, and have a printing company like Graffi ti put together a durable vinyl mat. However, having said that, a rugged Persian rug can be passed off as “authentic”Prince of Persian (the original) merchandise.

TABLES What does this look like, a dining room? With all your Kinect/Move/Wii action there won’t even be space for a coff ee table, but you’ll need somewhere to put your snacks. Here’s a killer suggestion: replace your side-tables with mini-bar fridges so there’s always an ice-cold drink within arm’s reach.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 33 FEATURE The Ultimate Gaming Lounge

1 SEATING If you’re going to dedicate an entire welcome in The Ultimate Gaming we’ll keep it real and suggest that room in your house to gaming, then Lounge as any other machine. you spend a bundle on the Onkyo/ you better make damn sure that Polk Package 6 from audioonline. 7 you’re not using any regular old DISPLAY co.za, or get the “entry-level” couches. What you need are Sumo You’ve got two options: TV or Package 2 for half the price. And bean bags. We’ve mentioned Sumo’s projector. If you’re going to go for a don’t forget about a good set of Omni in the magazine before, but TV, make sure it’s big, 3D enabled, wireless headphones for those to fit into the profile of Ultimate and capable of doing all the media late nights – the Tritton Primer Gaming Lounge, you’re going to centre tricks your variety of consoles impressed us in the past and is still need the Sumo Gamer as well. You will inevitably struggle with. For that worthy of consideration, but with can order them from sumolounge. reason, we suggest you go large its successor, the Warhead, right com. Disclaimer: they are not with Samsung’s new Smart TV Series around the corner, it might be better actually filled with beans. 8 range, from 46” and up. With to hold off. We have heard stories included 3D glasses, built-in wireless of people (probably Tarryn) putting and impressive performance, you their subwoofer inside their couch 2 CURTAINS can’t really go wrong. for the good times. Blackout curtains or blinds will But what if Samsung’s maximum 10 keep the glare and your neighbours’ size of 55” isn’t enough for you? EXTRAS prying eyes off your screen. You can Then you need to buy yourself a Since this gaming paradise is get these from any home or furniture projector, bolt it to the ceiling and dedicated entirely to the fine art store, or have a chat to a few office fi nd the biggest white screen you can of moving things around in an supply companies. Shop around, (or make your own; thick white linen entertaining way, we figured that find a good deal, and make sure stapled to a wooden frame will do this room wouldn’t be complete you test them before you commit to the trick). The Epson PowerLite 5010 without a few extras to make your coughing up the dosh. can output a 3D display at 1080p on gaming room unique. Find space a screen size up to 140”. If that’s not for an arcade machine or pinball 3 WALLS big enough, then you have issues machine, a pool table, a racing seat You probably already have a ton that technology alone won’t solve. or two, a board games table or even of gaming posters lying around or a model train set – whatever makes 8 clinging to your bedroom walls with GAMING PERIPHERALS you happy. If you’re the social type, bits of gunky old Prestik, so grab Nothing says Ultimate Gaming be sure to have a couple of fold-up the ones that you really enjoy and Lounge quite like a pile of gaming tables and chairs on standby for get them framed. Or, better yet, peripherals – Wii Balance Boards, emergency LAN parties. repurpose some of your favourite PS Move controllers, arcade sticks, old gaming boxes and manuals. For steering wheels, extra gamepads the more dedicated of you, perhaps and all those addons you get with a set of Mario, Pac-Man or Donkey Activision games need a place to Kong stick-on wall decals from relax (or hide, depending on how whatisblik.com is in order. much of a neat freak you are) when you’re not using them. If you’re a little OCD you can mount a spray- 4 TV CABINET painted wooden board on a wall NAG is about the furthest thing from with neat outlines of everything you a home decor magazine you can own so you know where they go possibly get, so we’re going to keep when you’re done. the cabinet simple: just get a free- 9 standing job with lots of space for all AUDIO SYSTEM your consoles, controllers and a few We could go crazy and recommend current games. Make sure you get an audio setup that costs more than something without enclosed spaces your house, but we won’t. Instead, so your hardware doesn’t overheat.

5 STORAGE Put a bookshelf on either side of your TV cabinet/stand so that you’re never too far from your precious game collection. For all of those action figures or vintage consoles, don’t just chuck them in among your game boxes; get a couple of purpose-built display cabinets from shopequip.co.za to give them a place to shine.

6 GAMING CONSOLES All of them, of course! Don’t forget your PC, too; with a wireless keyboard and mouse it’s just as

34 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

Mars, religious scripture stuff 1happened long ago, we evolved from amino acids hit by lightning, were put here by aliens, we aren’t really here at all.

No reason it’s all just chaos, part 2of an elaborate experiment by aliens, part of an entertainment system made by our future selves, part of a universal “bigger” brain, religious scripture stuff , for someone’s amusement.

We turn to worm food and 3dust, we go to , we return as something diff erent, we wake up, we really never die, !

ho are we? This question is systems, laziness, who knows), and right up there with where this is what we found out about you Wdid we come1 from, why and your gaming habits. Remember, are we here2 and what happens to don’t judge because this represents us when we die3? While we don’t the typical gamer in South Africa, or profess having all the answers we at least the gamers that read NAG. can certainly tell you who you are Before we forget the most important – our readers. In March 2012 we thing – thank you for sending us your carefully inserted a survey into each surveys those that did. It’s a pain to and every copy of NAG and asked use ink and actually write stuff and you to fi ll it in and send it back to then send it to us. We know and we us. There were prizes on off er and really appreciate it. Love you guys. :) everyone had a good time. In total Also, we scanned some of the we received 1,350 eligible surveys craziness we found in the comments back (21% less than the survey we ran block on the survey. Check out the in 2009 – better prizes, poorer mail survey gallery on the last page. PLATFORMS YOU GENDER HAVE AT HOME $ Before you read the result it’s Wouldn’t it be great if we (humans) had more than two genders? important to know that most of We know Mother Nature scoff s at complication, but still, sections you have a PC (90% back in 2009) like this would be infi nitely more interesting, right? Regardless, as at home but also have a console it stands we’re stuck with the same old boring two we’ve always and probably a handheld. This had. Something to note, in 2009 we had a 5% female readership result is a little skewed because of and now it’s 4%. Nobody knows where they went and we’re too this but it’s interesting nonetheless. scared to ask. Oddly, we see an increase in female attendance at Back in 2009 the PS3 had just been events like rAge year on year. launched and showed up in the AGE survey then at just 11% with the PS2 This result never changes much as the typical age of an active gamer remains the same at 37%. The Xbox was at 24% back no matter which year we sample from. If you look back 20 years or so there wouldn’t be then. The Wii was on 10%. As for the many gamers over 30 and ten years further back from that very few over 20. Anyway, handhelds it was PSP at 18% and the over 62% of you are eligible to play violent games (18+); this is at odds with how many DS at 5%. Now for 2012: The PC is whiny letters we get about games and high age restrictions and mommy won’t let me steady as always with nice growth 96% 4% play them. Just remember: don’t complain, if you wait you’ll eventually get there. One for the consoles (we didn’t bother area that has shown growth is the 30+ demographic. This one is easy, some gamers still asking about the PS2). The big MALE FEMALE game no matter how old they get and the more people that play games when they’re surprise is Nintendo (almost double) younger the more will keep on playing games as they get older (fact). It helps that games and Sony’s portable. Overall, more these days are rather realistic and artistic and meaningful. Well some of them anyway. of you now own more gaming platforms than three years ago. Nice work people, nice work. HOURS A WEEK SPENT PLAYING GAMES** 38% 11-20 hours a week seems to be the majority of you lot (47%). 12-18 YEARS So if you call it 15 hours a week average you get to around 780 1% hours a year and 31,200 total hours in an average productive UNDER 42% lifetime (15 hours x 52 weeks x 40 years). So, three and a half 12 YEARS years of your average lives are spent playing games. Not too 19-29 YEARS bad, we’re sure you can do a little better than that. Of course PC: 86% those at the freakish end of the scale are spending around seven

www.nag.co.za total years gaming. It helps not to think of all the skills you could 6% 360: 37% master if you used that time diff erently. Oh well. 30-39 40+ PS3: 36% FEATURE Up to 10 hours: 25% PSP: 25% Phew, good YEARS YEARS

September 2012 ** 11-15 hours: 23% news everyone! Wii: 17% 14% 2012 Survey Reader The mathematics 16-20 hours: 24% is good; they DS/3DS: 11% don’t add up to 100% because of 21-29 hours: 14% decimal places

* Yes, we know it adds up to 101%; this is due to $ THIS WAS A MULTIPLE and other such 37 30+: 16% inconsistencies. mathematics and our lack of understanding numbers. ENTRY QUESTION 38

September 2012 TYPE OF GAMING

www.nag.co.za PC YOU OWN 27% 20% HIGH-END This is subjective of course, it’s curious to see that 60% of BASIC you think you have a mid- to basic PC set up for gaming. This leaves plenty of room for improvement so we’ll keep on putting hardware in NAG to provide you with the best possible choice for your money. The extreme crowd have obviously been shopping in our Dream Machine section and we don’t need to tell you 40% anything, clearly. ;) The “none” group is a clear indication of how many readers are not PC gamers showing us that NAG is read by 5% mostly a multiplatform gaming audience with small deviations in 10% NONE the extremes on both ends. MID-RANGE EXTREME

AMOUNT SPENT ON “NAG is probably the best magazine of all time. I always HARDWARE IN THE LAST YEAR buy the newest addition when it comes out. Stay Awesome!” OKAY, KNOCK OFF A BIT HERE - Reader comment AND THERE FOR BRAGGING AND ADJUST FLUX CAPACITORS FOR EGO INFLATION. THIS IS REALLY HERE TO SHOW OUR ADVERTISERS THE Less than R1000: 24% VALUE OF TALKING TO OUR READERS. R1000-R5000: 37% “I like BOTTOM LINE THUMB SUCK FROM R5000-R10,000: 21% chocolate milk.” NAG; AVERAGE HARDWARE SALES - Reader comment ARE IN THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS R10, 000-R15,000: 10% A YEAR. AGAIN, WELL DONE AND R15, 000-R20,000: 4% THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE. More than R20,000: 3% “I travel a lot internationaly and purchase a lot of foreign gaming mags, And i can Is Diablo 3 YOUR PC say without a doubt that your mag is the real? best. Keep up the good work.” - Reader comment FOR A GAME - Jet setting Reader comment

HAVE YOU SPENT MONEY ON UPGRADES BEFORE BUYING SOME HOT NEW GAME? MOST OF YOU SAY YES. WELL, THAT’S JUST MADNESS. SO, WHAT YOU’RE SAYING HERE NUMBER OF GAMES IS THAT IN A YEAR WHERE A NEW CRYSIS COMES OUT PC HARDWARE SALES ROCKET. CRAZY STUFF, NOT YOU BUY A YEAR

THAT WE CAN SAY WE HAVEN’T DONE his is the important one and shows that the NAG option with 36% back in 2009. What this really means is THE VERY SAME THING. readership buys a great many games in a 12 more games are being bought overall, but then we are T month stretch. Surprisingly (considering the global talking to more of you than we were in 2009. If you do the economic slowdown) not much has changed from 2009 middle of the middle averaging out game we’re talking except for the higher end of the scale. More of you are hundreds of thousands of game titles bought each year buying more games in a year than ever before. In 2009 by NAG readers. Thanks for supporting and growing our the 15+ option was 13%! Where it dropped was the 1-5 beloved industry.

www.nag.co.za 31%

19% FEATURE 68% 1-5 A YEAR 15+ A YEAR

September 2012 32% 34% 2012 Survey Reader NO 1% 15% 11-15 A YEAR 6-10 A YEAR NONE 39 YES 40

September 2012

Some of your artwork and comments submitted with the reader survey. We www.nag.co.za laughed, we cried, we were creeped out. We love our readers. PLACE YOU FREQUENCY OF PLACE YOU PLAY PURCHASING DLC MULTIPLAYER GAMES

BUY GAMES THE PROS AND CONS OF DLC ARE USUALLY SPLIT Who said the LAN is dead? Shoot that fool. What is surprising DOWN THE MIDDLE – JUST LIKE THESE SURVEY is the low online number (should be the LAN plus the online THIS IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST amount really). Is this because no cheap and fast Internet exists INTERESTING QUESTIONS IN THE WHOLE RESULTS. DLC HAS COME A LONG WAY AND or something else we haven’t fi gured out yet? The couch co- SURVEY BECAUSE IT HAS A BEARING ON CLEARLY STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO. op is defi nitely underrated but growing fast. It looks like social EVERYONE UP AND DOWN THE CHANNEL. interaction (people sitting in the same room with others) is alive and well. There is still hope for humanity. Phew. LAST YEAR IT LOOKED LIKE THIS: RETAIL STORE: 92%, ONLINE RETAILER: 25% AND DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION: 4%. IT’S INTERESTING TO SEE ALL THE TIME: 8% LAN: 8% THAT NO MATTER HOW BIG DIGITAL GROWS ONLINE: 50% PEOPLE STILL ENJOY SHOPPING THE OLD INFREQUENTLY: 50% FASHIONED WAY. WE’LL LEAVE IT AT THAT. COUCH CO-OP: 42% NEVER: 42% I DON’T: 42% 95% RETAIL STORE CLOSING e only have so much space here and naturally because there FPS: 89%, RPG: 77%, Adventure: 72%, are dirty spies everywhere we’re not going to reveal the RTS: 55%, Racing: 47%, Arcade/Platform: 36%, 41% Wresults about what you want in NAG itself. We’ll just make the MMO: 32%, Simulation: 30%, Puzzle: 29%, Sports: 23%, www.nag.co.za right kind of changes and before you know it NAG will feel just perfect Independent: 17%, Management: 14%, Collectible in your hands each month. So, other interesting numbers look like this: card games: 12%, Board games/pen and paper: ONLINE RETAILER FEATURE 90% of you say magazine reviews help you choose your next game, 10%, Music & Rhythm: 10%. on the bottom end of that scale only 11% ask for advice from store sales people. This is a clear sign for retailers to work on hiring the right Some clear winners and favourites but nothing we didn’t expect. people in the games section. 46% of you have bought a second-hand Again, thanks for helping us make NAG a better magazine and for

September 2012 game so let’s hope publishers stop trying to prevent this high demand helping the whole gaming industry in South Africa. category. In terms of purchasing behaviour 44% of you pre-order your 2012 Survey Reader games and 23% buy it on launch day. There are a lot (50%) that wait 20% until they have the money but because this can mean anytime it really means nothing at all. Here’s a list of type of games you enjoy:

41 DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION • SMSes charged at R1 (no free/bundled SMSes apply). • Winners will be notifi ed by SMS. • Judges decision is fi nal and no correspondence will be entered into. • Competition closes 30 September 2012. Win actual stuff To enter, SMS the word Claptrap to from ! 32541

First prize 1x Loot chest* ( 360, PC or PS3 ) *The Loot chest is sold out in South Africa, so the only way to get your hands on this exclusive edition is right here. 1x Collectible framed and signed by the NAG staff Borderlands 2 Quad Damage NAG cover set 1x Duffl e bag 1x Shirt 1x Cap 1x Button 3x second- place prizes each consisting of: 1x Vault Edition ( 360, PC or PS3. Includes day 1 DLC ) 1x Shirt 1x Cap 1x Button

6x third-place prizes each consisting of: 1x Borderlands 2 ( 360, PC or PS3 )

Prizes proudly sponsored by / PREVIEWS /

DETAILS Release date August 2012 Platforms 360 / PC / PS3 Genre Action adventure Developer United Front Games Square Enix London Studios Website www.sleepingdogs. net Publisher Square Enix Sleeping Dogs

Open-world Asian fusion HANDS ON

riginally titled Black Lotus but Crowded street markets bustle with foot transformed into a reboot traffi c as hawkers shout their off erings at Oat the hands of Activision, Sleeping passers-by, and main roads are packed with Dogs had its name changed a third time neon-lit activity when night falls. Various after it miraculously crawled out of gaming’s back alleys allow quick shortcuts while racing sewers when Square Enix decided they’d to destinations, or act as a meandering love themselves a smattering of GTA-style bottleneck while trying to evade pursuing sandbox action once Activision had left it police when you’re caught being naughty. to rot in a fi lthy gutter somewhere. Which Sights and sounds aren’t the only way this essentially means that Square Enix bought game sells its choice of backdrop: certain developer United Front Games after Activision gameplay features are a constant reminder as enjoyed a dash of daily studio pruning. well, like the health shrines littered across the In it, you are Wei Shen, undercover cop city that’ll increase the size of your health bar working for the Hong Kong Police Force to when you’ve visited enough of them. infi ltrate the city’s deadly triads and dish out Travelling through the city off ers a range of some Hong Kong tertiary distractions. action cinema justice “Karaoke machines in Stuff like food without blowing and drink can your cover. Your nightclubs provide a be bought from character bio says silly escape from all the various vendors you’re hot-tempered and stores, and unpredictable, wanton destruction.” each providing and you’ve got a diff erent some personal scores to settle with a few temporary buff (eating food, triad members who happen to be former for example, provides health childhood friends. What it means for the regeneration for a time, while gameplay is typical open-world crime drinking herbal tea temporarily drama/action in the same vein as Rockstar’s lessens damage dealt to you). seminal series. You’re free to explore a digital Various NPCs around the city recreation of Hong Kong on foot or using request favours of you, quick vehicles, taking on missions, side-missions missions that involve objectives and odd jobs from various characters you’ll like smashing a cheating racer’s meet throughout the game, and creating your car with a tire iron found in own fun in between all that by manipulating its boot, or chasing down the game’s many sandbox elements. pickpockets on foot using Naturally, it’s not a strict clone of past open- an impressively fl uid free- world titles: it’s got a number of unique quirks running system. Drug busts and charming eccentricities that set it apart. see you hacking into an area’s First is the location. The various districts surveillance cameras, heading of Hong Kong are inherently exciting to see back to one of your multiple and hear, and it’s densely populated both in apartments in the city, and detail and city inhabitants, enough so that in busting contraband-peddling most areas you won’t question the illusion criminals remotely by sending that this city is constantly alive with activity. in uniformed cops at the right time, presumably so you don’t blow your cover. Buying cars for your personal collection (which can be accessed from numerous parking garages generously scattered across Hong Kong) lets you enter races divided across

44 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Sleeping Dogs

diff erent classes of car. Off shore gambling Sleeping Dogs features a noteworthy voice cast, with the likes of Will Yun dens are but a quick powerboat ride away, Lee (who’s appeared in such fi lms as the recent Total Recall remake), Tom nestled secretly within cargo ships away from WIlkinson (Batman Begins, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), James prying eyes. Karaoke machines in nightclubs Hong (Kung Fu Panda), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill) and Emma Stone (The Amazing provide a silly escape from all the wanton Spider-Man) providing voices for the game’s many peculiar characters. destruction. Visiting clothing stores lets you customise Wei’s appearance, and certain items of clothing will award useful bonuses when worn. Even your apartments can be kitted out with cosmetic additions (like coff ee tables and pet birds) if you’ve got the cash and the patience to search for the people selling the upgrades. The diversity in the momentary distractions that can be engaged in carries through to the meatier, story-centric missions, introducing a number of off beat characters and tasking you with mission objectives that seem like they’ll be varied enough to keep things interesting. Missions often employ a variety of diff erent gameplay styles, organically evolving as missions progress: you’ll go from tracing a target character’s calls (via one of the game’s puzzle-style micro-games, which are often controlled using your in-game mobile phone)

to engaging in meaty melee combat and abilities and improving Wei’s existing ones. heated, cover system-driven gun battles, Triad XP is rewarded for being devoted to before fi nally ending off with a high-speed the vicious ways of the triads, so things chase on busy highways, all in the space of a like excelling at melee combat or using the single mission. Melee combat is very obviously environment against enemies in ever-more inspired by the Freefl ow combat system seen disturbing ways (like throwing them into in Arkham Asylum and its sequel, driven by tanks fi lled with electric eels) will net you fl owing movement, fl uidly dynamic animations more Triad XP to unlock deadly new abilities. and an easy-to-use system for countering Police XP is rewarded for keeping your dirty enemy attacks. Diff erent enemy types require work as clean as possible: driving smart and diff erent melee strategies: some will be more not causing any property damage will keep susceptible to grapples and throws, while your Police XP gain high, and will unlock the attacks of others can’t be interrupted, abilities like quicker, quieter hijacking of cars. for example. Ranged combat is more Face XP is a more general set of XP, gradually straightforward and instantly familiar, although gained by doing favours for people and there is a very nifty slow-motion mechanic completing missions. Improving your Face XP that kicks in when vaulting over cover, allowing level provides bonuses like increased health you time to carefully choose your shots. Kill regeneration from food you eat. an enemy and your slow-motion timer is There’s defi nitely potential for Sleeping extended, so quickly stringing together kills Dogs to become a hit in the world of gaming can enable you to fi nish entire ranged combat sandboxes. There’s enough depth and sequences in syrupy slow motion. diversity in its open-world adventuring to The driving model is solid and arcade-like, keep players occupied, and the strength of satisfyingly fl ashy and drifty in the handling its melee, shooting and driving components department without feeling too slack. As makes diving into the world of Sleeping Dogs you play, you earn three diff erent types of mighty enticing. experience points for use in unlocking new - Barkskin

www.nag.co.za September 2012 45 / PREVIEWS /

DETAILS Release date 2013 Platforms 360 / PS3 / Wii U Genre Fighting Developer NetherRealm Studios Website www.injustice.com Publisher WB Games

Injustice: Gods Among Us Never before have punches sent people fl ying this far

ood ideas are often simple. Take the DC Comics universe, quintessential Gwestern super heroes and villains, and place them in a context they’ve yet to enjoy: a fi nely crafted, AAA quality fi ghting game with glamour for the masses and technique for the pros. Perhaps the reason this hasn’t happened before is simply that there aren’t a lot of studios capable of making world-beating fi ghting games, either in the East or West. Enter NetherRealm, Ed Boon’s crack squad of Mortal Kombat alumni. While at Midway, Boon had previously overseen the sleeper hit Mortal Kombat vs. DC, a game that – while not without issues of polish and completeness – held the seeds of greatness. Which brings us to Injustice: Gods Among more future battlefi eld Us. Right off the bat “Superman punches his soldier than spandex you know something rival and sends them into adventurer. is diff erent, starting low orbit, flying up only NetherRealm has with the title itself. hinted that they were Rather than a bold, to slam them back down given great creative cartoony moniker to the surface.” freedom in crafting a along the lines of “DC unique take on DC’s Super Heroes Slam property, allowed Fest!” we have an indirect allusion to the power to design the costumes, and write a wholly of DC’s literally godlike pantheon, and it sounds original story. What exactly that is, remains rather dark. Powered by the technology behind under wraps (but promotional art of grim and 2011’s ball-busting, sales-ripping Mortal Kombat dark DC heroes striding through a broken revival title, Injustice presents a bleak, colourless world probably suggests it’s not exactly The world in which DC’s most famous characters, Superfriends). We do however know far more from Superman to the Flash, appear with an about Injustice’s play mechanics. attitude you haven’t quite seen before. They Firstly, as far as play mechanics go, this isn’t are determined and dangerous looking, clad in Mortal Kombat. Gone is the block button, in original versions of iconic uniforms that look favour of a more conventional hold-back-to- block system. Also diff erent is the command Ed Boon, head of set. Injustice takes several cues from particular NetherRealm Studios, Japanese fi ghting games such as Blazblue was the co-creator with a four button system that revolves around of Mortal Kombat Light, Medium, and Heavy attack buttons plus alongside John a “Special” button tied to each character’s Tobias. He provided unique powers or attributes. What Special does the voice of Scorpion in all the games and depends on the hero or villain; it manipulates both movies. Flash’s speed, causes Wonder Woman to switch fi ghting styles, and Nightwing to break apart his staff into twin clubs. This brand new set of mechanics compliments a faster, more bouncy style of fi ghting compared to Mortal Kombat, and it hinges in large part on stage design. Stages in Injustice are multi-tiered and full of

46 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Injustice: Gods Among Us

interactive hazards. While this would normally MK’s greatest selling points, it would only make send up warning fl ags to fi ghting game purists, sense for Injustice to strive for not just equalling NetherRealm claims they are determined to but exceeding its bloody brother. balance these concepts for competitive play. Two scenes so far have managed to instantly While using the Special button in the right sell most people on it: a pair of special-meter- section of a level may cause a character to kick powered super moves. In one, Flash takes a barrel towards the enemy, it’s surprisingly off at the speed of sound, running over the strategic and doesn’t rely on button mashing. ocean and circling the Earth to end up back This isn’t Smash Bros. where he started, delivering a supersonic slam The feeling of all-out war with one’s in his opponent’s face. In another, Superman opponent and the environment likely befi ts a punches his rival and sends them into low super heroic theme better than one of martial orbit, fl ying up only to slam them back down to arts. Still, there is tweaking yet to be done. the surface. Each scene is executed with fl uid While stage transitions open up possibilities transitions and detail normally reserved for pre- for combining them with extra damage, the rendered cut scenes, and don’t seem to get old. cut scenes involved go on for a little too long, Fighting games are a tough genre: the even though they’re fabulously animated and competition is fi erce and usually decades- cool. Boon has stated that several elements refi ned and the audience exacting in their of the game’s early demonstrations were only expectations. NetherRealm has proven, at least designed to show off the technology and once, that a Western team can take on famed some aspects have yet to be reined in. An Japanese developers and earn respect from incongruous scene of Batman (in powered fans. Next up: their sophomore eff ort married Ed Boon also did all armour) kicking a giant foe through several to a challenging license. Can the combined of the voice work for the excellent Total buildings in a row has already been axed. one-two punch of fan-favourite superheroes Carnage (1992). Something hinted to be making the transition brawling in a real-deal tournament-level from Mortal Kombat (2011) is a sprawling, fi ghting system expand the fi ghting game elaborate story mode and plenty of extra market even more? content. Being that those things were some of - Miktar

www.nag.co.za September 2012 47 / PREVIEWS /

DETAILS Release date Q1 2013 Platforms PS3 Genre Interactive drama Developer Quantic Dream Website www.beyondps3.com Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Beyond: Two Souls Psychological action thriller / interactive drama

want to provoke and explore emotions”, says David De Gruttola, better known as “IDavid Cage, head of Quantic Dream. “I want to explore things that you don’t usually fi nd in video games.” Mr. Cage makes a very particular style of game. As with Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999), Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (2005) and Heavy Rain (2010), perhaps the more accurate appraisal would be that he’s in the business of interactive drama. And there’s a market for it. Heavy Rain sold well, over two million units. Heavy Rain’s Indigo Prophecy is considered one of the most nameless city was overlooked games of 2005 (for its story anyway). heavily infl uenced Omikron had a digital David Bowie, so that’s... by Philadelphia something. According to Cage, over 75% of “I was interested in showing how someone players completed Heavy Rain. For changes through the years. How we grow, contrast, recent how we evolve, where our wounds or our studies indicate only 25% of gamers actually strengths come from; in short, how our fi nish what they own. personal history shapes our personality.” We blame Steam sales, – David Cage and crappy games [Steam sales is shoe shopping for men, Ed] Granted, Heavy Rain isn’t very hard to bulk of its “interaction”. But that’s fi ne: one sign complete. The story is compelling, the visuals of a maturing medium is the need for better outstanding, but let’s not kid ourselves: it’s a categorisation. Not everything has to be called a glorifi ed Choose Your Own Adventure with “game”. Interactive drama is acceptable. very few meaningful choices beyond the Beyond: Two Souls is interactive drama. quick-time event minutiae that make up the You play as Jodie Holmes, a girl saddled with a peculiar problem: a spirit called Aiden, with whom she shares her existence and communicates. Aiden isn’t quite human, nor is it entirely feral. It seems to have a mind. events. Interaction is indicated by onscreen The game takes place over a 15 year period, controller prompts and motion-sensitive showing Jodie as a child, teenager and adult. actions, very much like Heavy Rain. But unlike The story won’t play out in chronological order, its predecessor, Beyond never breaks “cinematic and the choices Jodie makes in one part of her frame”, meaning the action is always viewed life, echo forward. from a movie-like angle, never the traditional Players will be able to control Aiden at certain over-the-shoulder camera. You control Jodie’s points: it can travel a fi xed distance, phase movements directly when moving her around, through solid objects and, when indicated by so it’s a little less “on the rails” than Heavy Rain. certain coloured auras, possess humans. There But you don’t play a Quantic Dream game will be scenarios with multiple choices: possess for the gameplay. “Beyond is about growing, Warner Bros. will be a cop that’s about to shoot Jodie, or take out accepting yourself as you are, being diff erent.” releasing a fi lm based on the lights so she can sneak by the cop, and so says Cage. “It’s also about death, mourning, Heavy Rain, written by David Milch. The movie on. It’s not a true sandbox, but rather, a host and separation.” will be titled Rain. of well-designed choices that trigger scripted - Miktar

48 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ PREVIEWS /

DETAILS Release date Q4 2012 Platforms Wii U Genre Real-time strategy Developer Nintendo EAD Website www,Nintendo.com Publisher Nintendo

The fi rst Pikmin has three endings depending on how successful you are. The “bad” ending Pikmin 3 is quite grim for a Nintendo game. Better gardening through war

ehind its veneer of cute, the gardens of Pikmin contain micro-scale genocides. BHundreds of tiny, carrot-like creatures eaten alive by birds and beetles, drowned in puddles of water, squashed under belly- fl opping frogs. “Survival-horror real-time strategy” is not an inaccurate way to describe the fi rst “Survival-horror real-time the Wii U, which for avoiding enemy attacks, your Pikmin army Pikmin game. is just around the rolling at the same time, like a choreographed Olimar, stranded on a strategy” is not an inaccurate corner. The fruit- dance troupe. There will be four pilots on the strange planet after a way to describe the fi rst collecting challenge ground to swap between, though none of them crash landing, has only map shown at E3 Olimar and Louie, for reasons Miyamoto wants 30 days of oxygen. Pikmin game. did highlight a few to stay secret. Each day lasts 13 key features: much One new type of Pikmin shown is the Rock minutes, putting a strict time limit on how much improved visuals thanks to the Wii U’s high- Pikmin, capable of breaking glass when thrown. you can accomplish on a map before the setting defi nition resolution, clever use of depth-of- The boss fi ght at the end of the challenge map sun forces you to evacuate the area to escape fi eld to heighten the feeling of peering into a required its carapace to be broken apart by Rock nocturnal creatures. The pressure makes you tiny universe among the grass, a map screen Pikmin before your regular Pikmin could tear careless with the lives of the little creatures that on the tablet controller, and overall refi nement it apart. A pink fl ying Pikmin was hinted at, but fi ght for you, carry the broken pieces of your to the control scheme. You can now lock-on not shown explicitly. There will be no online ship, build bridges and take down barriers. Your to enemies and shake the Nunchuck to send multiplayer, unfortunately. Pikmin are brave, but their tiny bodies are frail your entire army charging. There is a dodge-roll - Miktar and delicious. Pikmin 2 removed the oxygen time limit (days still last only 13 minutes), added a second captain for more agency on the playfi eld, and introduced two new colours of Pikmin to the Red, Yellow and Blue variety from the fi rst game. Each colour of Pikmin has its own traits and abilities: the Reds are fi re-resistant, the Blues can go underwater, and Yellows can be thrown higher, and so on. Focusing more on exploration and puzzle-like mini-dungeons, Pikmin 2 reduced the pressure but added much- needed refi nement to the controls and overall strategy system, something that Overlord (a spiritual clone of Pikmin) benefi tted from. According to designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Pikmin 3 will be a combination of the fi rst two games, though he’s not elaborated on how. In fact, Nintendo has shown remarkably little of Pikmin 3 even though it’s a launch title for

50 September 2012 www.nag.co.za COMPUTERS | GAMING | TECHNOLOGY

When: 5 October – 7 October 2012

Where: The Coca-Cola dome, Northgate

Show times: Friday: 10:00-18:00 Saturday: 09:00-18:00 Sunday: 10:00-16:00

How much: Day ticket: R60 per person Weekend ticket: R100 per person Family pass: R180 [two adults and two children] Kids under 6: Free www.rageexpo.co.za / PREVIEWS /

DETAILS Release date Q1 2013 Platforms 360 / PC / PS3 Genre Platform / adventure Developer Double Fine Productions Website thecavegame.com Publisher SEGA

Tim Schafer is best known for Full Throttle (1995), Grim Fandango (1998) and Psychonauts (2005). The Cave Exploring sentient geologic structures for fun, profi t, and the meaning of life!

even silent adventurers are searching for something important. The Monk seeks Shis master. The Scientist aims to help the world. The Hillbilly wants love. The Twins are looking for their parents. The Knight quests for a mystic blade. And the Time Traveller is trying to undo a mistake over a million years in the making. All of them must brave the sentient talking Cave to fi nd what they seek. Ron Gilbert is no stranger to adventure games, having been responsible for some of the most lauded jaunts in gaming history. The Cave contains all his trademark knick-knacks: quirky characters, a charming setting and game has to off er. lateral puzzles that “You’ll have to play through Each of the unique are enjoyable to solve. multiple times with diff erent character-locked The Cave’s multiple groupings of characters to see areas holds a key as characters, from to why they entered which you form a all the game has to off er.” the Cave in the fi rst troupe of three at the place, snatches of start of the game, is a narrative and plot tip of the hat to his fi rst critical success: Maniac strung together across multiple sessions. Mansion. Each character has a unique ability It’s a little like Trine, or Lost Vikings, in for solving puzzles, and for navigating the cave how it plays. You switch between the three tunnels. The Hillbilly can breathe underwater; characters at will, using their abilities to the Knight has a shield, and so on. overcome goofy puzzle situations that are A character’s ability also grants them all about timing, placement and positioning. access to specifi c areas of the game. The The Knight might distract a dragon, his Scientist has a skill needed to enter a invulnerable shield able to withstand the discovered laboratory; the Knight is the only dragon’s fi re breath, while another character structures and locations, even a subterranean one who can unlock the gate to the castle. sneaks in from behind to steal an item you amusement park, and a ready-to-launch You’ll have to play through multiple times with need. Characters can only carry one item at a nuclear-tipped ICBM. Everything is tied diff erent groupings of characters to see all the time, so no inventory management. Traversal together by a wonderful storybook aesthetic, through the caverns is like a 2D platform the tiniest of details meticulously crafted Ron Gilbert is best game, but gentle. Missing a jump only sets by the established artisans at Double Fine known for Maniac Mansion (1987) and you back a few seconds. It supports local co- Productions. The Cave may not directly The Secret of Monkey op play for three players, which is always nice. resemble the adventure games of yore, but Island (1990). Even though the main protagonists are it’s overfl owing with the creativity and energy silent, other characters you meet will be once associated with the genre. fully voiced. The cave itself contains many - Miktar

52 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

ENEMY UNKNOWN

You want to do what with that probe?

ucked away in the tiny and saving the Earth from alien invasion. impossibly picturesque town You play as the leader of XCOM – a T of Sparks, Maryland – 20 miles privately-funded organisation of elite north of the biker gang capital of soldiers, scientists and engineers who Baltimore – lies Firaxis. Better known as are commissioned to fi ght the invaders the home of Sid Meier and the studio and provide a feeling of security during that makes games about trying to avoid a time of panic and chaos. It’s been war with Napoleon, Firaxis is working important for Firaxis to keep that main HANDS ON on something new. Or something goal pretty straight-forward – save the very old, as it were, but remade, and Earth – but there are layers upon layers Release date gently coerced into modern times of depth, many of them optional, that October 2012 instead of being dragged in kicking and make this game feel like one of the Platforms screaming like so many remakes. Firaxis most compelling tactical experiences 360 / PC / PS3 is developing XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I’ve played in years. Genre a turn-based, science-fi ction themed, Some of the game’s depth comes Turn-based tactical strategy tactical strategy game based on the in quite a literal form: XCOM’s HQ is Developer fi rst title in a series that half of today’s buried deep below the planet’s surface Firaxis Games gamers probably haven’t heard of, but (in a country of your choosing). From Website that the studio is absolutely bloody there you’ll manage your resources, www.xcom.com sure everyone will fall in love with with allocate research or manufacturing Publisher they’re done with it. projects, train existing or hire new 2K Games In its simplest form, XCOM is about soldiers, and order the excavation of

54 September 2012 www.nag.co.za FEATURE XCOM: Enemy Unknown

INTERVIEW with lead designer Jake Solomon & producer Garth DeAngelis

NAG: What was your thought process at the beginning of development, or, perhaps more bluntly, why make XCOM?

Jake Solomon: We were younger. I don’t know what I was thinking *laughs*. For me, this was years in the making. Ever since I’ve been at Firaxis, I’ve wanted to make XCOM. We never had the tech to match our dreams in terms of what we thought a real XCOM should be, with environmental destruction and all the things we wanted to do technology-wise. When the industry shifted from 2D to 3D, XCOM became a very challenging game to make. And so, when the tech fi nally caught up with us, everything just sort-of aligned and we knew that we wanted to make an XCOM.

NAG: This XCOM is clearly based on the gameplay of the fi rst game in the series; did you consider implementing gameplay from the other X-COM titles?

Jake: For me, nothing matches the original game, and most of that comes from the setting. And I think that’s why the original can’t be replicated, even within the sequels. The setting of Earth – of places that the player recognises – creates such “Knowing where to spend your a strong emotional resonance with the players that I think you can’t meagre resources will be important: match with anything else. That’s why, for me, the original was just the developers want to ensure that the far above the others in the series. I like the mechanics of Terror from consequences of your choices are still the Deep, and Apocalypse, I actually found very interesting. Even the very much a factor in today’s XCOM.” real-time stuff was very interesting. But for me the original is the touchstone.

NAG: Much of what we’ve seen so far is very familiar, albeit tweaked. How do you balance the idea of staying true to the original game while still including concepts that you want to have in the game?

Jake: There are certainly a lot of things in there that are new, like new aliens and whatnot, but you’re right – it’s variations on a theme.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 55 room space or the construction of new beg to be completed, XCOM likes to rooms (not quite like Dungeon Keeper play hard-to-get. – it’s far simpler, but room positioning But this is a game about tactical is important). Your performance in this combat above all else; no amount of sector of the game will have a direct preparation in the safe confi nes of impact on the tactical part, so knowing your headquarters will beat back the where to spend your meagre resources alien threat alone. When the warning will be important: the developers want bells sound, you’ll have to go to battle, to ensure that the consequences of and where you choose to deploy your your choices are still very much a troops will have lasting implications factor in today’s XCOM. And decisions on both your funding and regional will have ripple eff ects. Sure, you could panic ratings. XCOM includes a few fl og that captured alien technology mission types in addition to the classic on the black market for a quick cash Terror and UFO crash investigations injection now (allowing you to produce from the original. One such mission more low-tech weaponry right away, had us assault an entrenched alien which might be necessary for your position with a time bomb loaded up next mission), but that tech could’ve inside; we had to diff use several devices been better used in the research labs to throughout the map (while engaging the develop new weapons or equipment. aliens) to buy a little extra time, and then The trick is that you can play however eventually disarm the bomb directly. you want, but don’t expect the game Missions play out in a turn-based to take a smoke break while you toy fashion, with each unit granted two with the lives of billions: XCOM’s alien actions per turn. Typically, the fi rst invasion AI cruises along at its own action is spent moving (ideally to blissfully-ignorant pace, and if you cover, unless you enjoy painting the don’t have the equipment to deal with environment with your insides), and the situation because you made a bad the second is used to attack, although decision, well, you’ll know better next there are dozens of other actions time. Where some games practically that you can take which are unlocked

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM...... then you’re playing too plasma weapons and so begin with conventional fair. A vital element in both on. Powerful grenades, Kevlar protection, but the classic and this XCOM med-kits, upgraded laser before too long you’ll is the ability to gather up sights and deployable have access to hardened alien technology, hand it drones are soon added to Carapace armour, to your research team and your arsenal. Skeleton suits (with a neat turn the invaders’ weapons Your soldiers’ armour, Batman-style grapple), against them. Projectiles which often conveys powerful armour, weapons soon give way additional combat and eventually fl ying to laser-powered devices, abilities, also benefi ts Archangel suits and even which in turn give way to from this cycle. Your units Psionic armour.

56 SeptemberSepptetememmbbererr 2012202 12 www.nag.co.zawwwww..nnaggg..cco.za FEATURE XCOM: Enemy Unknown

And that’s because we felt a pretty strong obligation to fans of the original game – and to that original game – that you have to be so careful to not think that you know better than a classic. If you’re going to replace something – and there are things we have replaced – you have to be very respectful of the fact that 20 years later, people still want this game, and there’s a reason why it’s stood the test of time when other games from that era have completely fallen away and nobody even remembers them.

Garth DeAngelis: But you wisely haven’t designed from an Ivory Tower. You can almost say that you tried everything from the original, and when a big decision was made like taking out time units or scaling back the number of units, we tried it and tested it internally extensively with other designers or other people within the company that are big “Positioning is key, and very often an XCOM fans. Jake: But always going back to the engagement that you were convinced question “is this XCOM?” And there were times when I had ideas and would be a cakewalk turns into a could just feel that this is not the game I grew up loving, so, even if that was a good idea – that’s not the bloodbath because you didn’t notice the game we’re making right now. We’re Muton Beserker fl anking your sniper.” really trying to remake the original. NAG: Obviously you hope that the console players are going to react through soldier progression or their to survive through their fi rst couple positively to this, but it’s pretty new equipment. Some abilities, like fi ring of operations, they’ll eventually be territory for many of them. How do a sniper rifl e, consume both actions, assigned a random class, which lets you plan to usher them gently into but there are numerous skills that can them use more diverse weaponry and this kind of gameplay? change these factors. Positioning is provides them with new skills as they key, and very often an engagement gain XP and rank. They’ll also be given a Garth: That drove a lot of the that you were convinced would be nickname which is customisable along decisions for the tutorial – a cakewalk turns into a bloodbath with their full name and appearance, the “Controlled Experience”. because you didn’t notice the Muton and it’s at this point that they start to Accessibility is a very dirty word, but Beserker fl anking your sniper. Much like become “yours”. Rookies are a dime a we wanted to create an experience your soldier classes, each alien type dozen, but your squad’s primary heavy that was integrated into the narrative (there are ten in total) is vastly diff erent is the lynchpin of your entire strategy: of the game and helps you get in their abilities, weapons and even AI, he lays down suppressing fi re while accustomed to the universe, and and they’ll often surprise you with their your sniper moves into position and have it be fun, but at the same time bravado or apparent cowardice. It’s up your assault prepares to rain down learn the many systems from XCOM to you to fi gure out how to react and grenade death. Support is waiting in one at a time. take advantage of their combat styles. the wings with med-kit in hand. Every Soldiers are more than just grunts soldier lost is devastating, but once HQ Jake: You’re right, accessibility is a on the fi eld, though. The developers starts to churn out high-end weaponry dirty word, but as much as we’ve are adamant that the individual player (and even some armour to raise rookie revealed now, surely we can use that story – the internal narrative, as they survivability ratings into double-digits), word and people won’t think less of call it – is the one thing that, above all you’ll be able to get back up and the game? else, will make this XCOM really feel running soon enough. Expect lots of like the old games. Your soldiers begin deaths on your hands, especially for Garth: Yeah, we still have everything as lowly rookies – relatively unskilled your fi rst play-through. And if you in there! beyond the training provided by their think you can handle the heat, the home country’s most elite military game’s highest level of diffi culty – the Jake: It’s there – it’s as deep as the divisions (yes, South Africa is included), mocking “Impossible” – has only been original. In fact, it has a lot more and equipped with an assault rifl e completed once between the entire than the original. So hopefully we plus basic armour. If they manage development and testing team. can say that word isn’t so dirty.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 57 ALIEN ENCOUNTERR There are ten alien types that we know are in the game, here’s a quick look at each of them.

SECTOID SECTOID DRONE CYBERDISC MUTONS MUTON COMMANDER: The “Greys” – big They might look The biggest of the lot. Big guys with big BERZERKER Leader of the little eyes and heads, harmless, but these These fl ying machines guns. Not too Like the regular Muton grey dudes and small bodies. robotic tattletales are highly resilient in good in the brains but much bigger, and capable of mind- They’re sneaky little make sneaking up on their enclosed disc department. They’re as crazy as Ted Bundy controlling any living bastards who don’t your enemies just that form, and massively pretty tough to (about as good a creature. Oh that’s do much damage, much more diffi cult. troublesome when take down but fl atmate, too). Shooting your 6,000 point but can enhance the they’ve unpacked all easy enough to them just pisses them soldier? No, no I think capabilities of nearby the hardware. Where outmanoeuvre. off . Not shooting them that’ll be mine now, allies and pin you the hell did they fi t all encourages them to thanks. behind cover. of that, anyway? trample you to death. Good luck!

“And if you think you can handle the heat, the game’s highest level of diffi culty – the mocking ‘Impossible’ – has only been completed once between the entire development and testing team.”

58 September 2012 www.nag.co.za FEATURE XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Garth: I hope that XCOM can go against that whole stigma. Accessibility is no longer dirty. We’re keeping all of the depth CHRYSSALID FLOATER HEAVY THIN MEN there. We’re keeping the challenge These spindly Nasty, ugly cyborg FLOATER The unsettling result there, but we want people to be creatures move fast, aliens with jetpacks Bigger, meaner, of alien genetic able to drive this jet, you know? We do lots of damage at where you’d expect heavier-armed manipulation, Thin want anyone – whether they’re close range, and can to fi nd a lower body. versions of the Floater. Men are tall and highly using a mouse and keyboard or transform any slain They’re brittle but they They have a diabolical mobile. When they die, gamepad – to be able to pick this enemy into a walking move quickly. laugh and a penchant a cloud of poison gas up and enjoy it. And that’s why you zombie if it’s left for shooting rockets fi lls the area. have the Controlled Experience, unchecked. straight down on and the action cameras – things your head from their that are very familiar in fi rst- position high above. person shooters or action games. If somebody just sees that sniper fi ring on a Sectoid with a dramatic, cinematic camera, they’ll be like “that’s a tactical, turn-based game? What? No! I want to go play that!” And then they get to the good stuff and discover the depth of the game, and that’s really what we’re MULTIPLAYER banking on. We’re such believers Our trip to Firaxis was enlightening – a Cyberdisc costs a whopping 4,500 of the gameplay in this that we just meeting Sid Meier, spending hours in the points. The aliens can’t be customised, have to get people to try it out. studio’s vast gaming lounge with a game but as you add weapons, skill packages controller in hand, spotting the Northern and equipment to your soldiers (should NAG: You’ve mentioned before that Cardinal the team has nicknamed “that you choose to include humans in your the internal, personal narrative is devil bird” that pecks at the boardroom squad), each new item brings with very important to players. How do window every day – but the most it its own point cost. If you’ve ever you balance that with the idea of a astonishing part of our visit was when we played the tabletop strategy game prescribed story? were sat down in front of an Xbox dev Warhammer, it’s just like that, but on unit and introduced to XCOM’s all-new a smaller scale. And you won’t know Jake: Our external narrative with multiplayer component. your opponent’s squad selection until the big set pieces is important, There’s just one game mode in you actually see on the battlefi eld. and we’re very proud of it, but XCOM’s multiplayer: 1v1 deathmatch. This creates a very interesting, and the internal narrative of the player This might sound like an ill fi t for a honestly unexpected, meta-game in with their soldiers is even more game with such a deep single-player which you try to size up your opponent important. Those soldiers could experience, but after a good few hours before each match, considering what die at any time – we don’t want to of play, I began to think otherwise. they used in the last game and maybe take that off the table. We knew Players face off against each other attempt to adapt to that at the risk of that we couldn’t tell a story to with a squad of up to six units that they creating new weaknesses in your army. which that soldier was a set-piece. customise before the game begins. And then there’s what your opponent Although we do some things You can choose from any of the units can actually see in battle. A soldier where the soldiers factor into in the game – aliens included – and wearing Ghost armour is a soldier your the story at some point, so we’ve can fully customise the human soldiers enemy doesn’t know exists – keeping had to do some pretty interesting just as you would in the single-player her out of sight until the right moment, things story-wise. campaign. The diff erence here is that maybe even faking pending defeat to you’re restricted by a pre-determined lure your opponent into a false sense Garth: As I play through this game, point limit for your entire squad, and of security – is a great way to get your I told Jake that it just enabled each new unit you include adds to rival to tip his hand. imagination more so than any game the total points of your squad. Add a The multiplayer battles themselves I’ve played in the past few years. I measly Sectoid and it’s just 400, but tend to range from just a few turns found myself coming up with these to up to an hour’s play, and turns are back stories for my guys – I thought limited to two minutes each. While I was crazy! this side of XCOM certainly feels quite diff erent from the single-player part, Jake: I do it too, and I’m the lead its almost arcade-like approach is designer! I had this guy who was a refreshing and surprisingly well- Australian; he has this very thin implemented addition to the game. moustache and he was tanned and And, even though it initially appears very clean-cut, and I was like... this to be “tacked-on”, it doesn’t feel like guy is a former male stripper. *Mass it: if you learnt to get smart with your laughter* His squad mates didn’t unit control and positioning in the know. I seriously started thinking singe-player, you can use those skills in this dude – and his nickname was multiplayer. Bishop – who was so clean-cut and - GeometriX big looking – that’s his story.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 59 / REVIEWS / REVIEWSINTRO When you open the oven too soon you sometimes get a fl op. The oven was opened too soon with the NAG review team.. Meet your reviewers. Question: If you weren’t into gaming as a profession, what else would it be or, when you were growing up what did you also want to be.

RedTide Miktar Azimuth Mikit0707 GeometriX Barkskin A Palaeontologist, If NAG hadn’t rescued Han Solo. But, like, I’d still be an English When I was a kid I Batman. I feel I’ve no when I was like eight me from the pits a female version teacher satiating my wanted to be a lawyer, need to justify this. or nine or maybe even of hell known as obviously. I bet I could gaming needs by but law is hard, so I just seven I knew all the “3D Modelling and make the Kessel run in setting game review played games instead. dinosaurs and how Animation for Virtual less than 12 parsecs, writing assignments I think I was always to pronounce their Reality Solutions”, I’d and still fi nd time to do for my students. I going to be in this names. My parents probably still be doing my hair. wanted to be a marine industry one way or were so proud – then I that. Don’t make me biologist thanks to the other. got a Commodore 64. go back. I promise I EcoQuest. I still love dinosaurs as won’t miss deadlines friends. anymore.

MINIREVIEWS Kinda like regular reviews, only bite-sized and with less of those pesky words.

DEATH RALLY DEADLIGHT Weeeeeeeeee! Death Rally is a remake of the Exclusively for XBLA, Deadlight is a ZAPS classic top-down arcade racer, and it’s so fi lled (Zombie Action Puzzle Survival) romp that with nostalgic joy you’ll feel like you’re being takes more than a few visual cues from indie massaged in your special place by the ‘90s. sensation Limbo. Seeing that zombies are the Even so, this remake manages to get away popular go-to baddie for aspiring developers, with doing quite a lot that’s new and diff erent you have to ask, what is better or diff erent with while retaining that quick fi x of blood-curdling this off ering to make it raise nastier dead than screams and screeching tyres provided by the rest? the original. There’s even a “story” (something Deadlight looks amazing, it has plenty about a criminal working for the cops), but depth and colour and is animated by a real who cares, right? master of the art. The zombies have their own Races generally last no longer than a few personalities based on how they look and go minutes, during which you compete against about their gruesome day-to-day business until up to fi ve opponents. You can choose to disturbed. The game is packed with dramatic race clean if that’s what you’re into, but the music, a proper “short story” of a plot that idea is to balance utter carnage with snappy actually works very well at the twisty end and Micro Machines-inspired racing. Your cars can more secrets than is reasonable for a game this be upgraded to be more resilient, faster or size. For the more observant player there are handle better, and there’s a decent selection three playable Game & Watch mini-games to of weaponry you can mount on your roof in be found each with their own achievements. addition to the classic machine gun. The leading man, Randall Wayne runs, Death Rally is as lowbrow as you get, but leaps and climbs through competently put it’s immensely satisfying and together levels that require a sometimes even tactical. Get it, mixture of timing, accurate play it, love it for a week or two leaping and sometimes a well- and then move on; it’s well worth 75 placed bullet. This is still a classy 84 the R70 asking price. game and well worth a look.

60 September 2012 www.nag.co.za “We keep getting REVIEW put up against these SCORES diamond f**ks, how GUIDELINE even we hope to win!?” Here at NAG, our reviewers are gamers - RedTide fi rst, and, while we strive to be as objective as possible with our reviews, each reviewer has their own preferences, opinion and style that will come through in their reviews. It’s not an exact science – anyone telling you otherwise is fi bbing. We love playing games and, sometimes, certain Ramjet SAVAGE ShockG genres and series will stand out for an A photographer. Or Comic artist or A banana plantation individual reviewer; it’s not uncommon for a sculptor. Maybe a movie director. supervisor. Kung-Fu master. those preferences to refl ect in their review score. Having said that, we’ve put together this little guide to help you understand how we rate our games – more or less.

This game is broken, both technically and in 1-39 terms of gameplay. Even if you get it to run, playing it is a painful experience that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.

It barely functions, but there’s little real 40-49 game here. Maybe if you got it for free you’d spend a few hours with it, but it’s not something you’d WEBSCORES recommend to friends.

How do we measure up? We scour the Net Acceptable, but nothing special. It’s generic 50-59 in every conceivable way, but it’s solid to fi nd out what the rest of the world thinks. enough and might be worth spending some time hunting for achievements.

THE AMAZING HARVEST LONDON 2012: Now we’re getting somewhere. This game SPIDER-MAN MOON: THE THE OFFICIAL 60-69 is good; it has something interesting NAG: 75 TALE OF VIDEO GAME about it, and fans of the genre or series should enjoy it, but : 69 TWO TOWNS NAG: 70 something signifi cant holds it back from greatness and might Gamerankings: 71 NAG: 60 Metacritic: 64 prevent newcomers from latching on. Metacritic: 65 Gamerankings: 65 GAME OF Gamerankings: 67 This game is solid. Anyone who enjoys this THRONES PINBALL 70-79 type of genre will have a great time and NAG: 70 JAGGED ARCADE could fi nish it without too much aggravation. It shows care and Metacritic: 52 ALLIANCE: NAG: 87 polish, but falls short in a number of areas. Gamerankings: 53 BACK IN Metacritic: 82 Gamerankings: 85 ACTION Excellence has been achieved; a game that PROJECT ZERO NAG: 80 2: WII EDITION THE SECRET 80-89 you’d happily play through multiple times Metacritic: 62 and recommend to friends. It adds interesting, if imperfect, NAG: 80 Gamerankings: 60 WORLD Metacritic: 77 NAG: 70 advancements to the genre or series, or ticks all the expected Gamerankings: 76 LEGO BATMAN Metacritic: 72 boxes with fl air and polish. It’s technically superior to many 2: DC SUPER Gamerankings: 71 other games but perhaps misses an opportunity or two, or SPIRIT CAMERA: HEROES doesn’t innovate enough. THE CURSED NAG: 80 SPELUNKY MEMOIR Metacritic: 80 NAG: 85 As close to perfection as possible. NAG: 55 Gamerankings: 80 Metacritic: 87 90-100 This game is highly innovative; it has Metacritic: 54 Gamerankings: 87 incredible visuals; it plays like a dream and you can’t get Gamerankings: 58 enough of it. You have to look for faults just to avoid giving it a perfect score. You’ll go back and play this in ten years and shed a tear of joy when you do.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 61 / REVIEWS /

The Secret World Free-to-play in 3...

n a time where MMORPGs are as common as Which side you choose to ally yourself with is largely down DETAILS mismatched socks, it’s a daunting task to introduce a new to personal preference, as all factions will be able to access Platforms title to the market, especially one without an existing common areas without fear of attack, and, aside from a few I PC IP to lean against. But that’s what Funcom has done, and short introductory quests, you’ll end up doing the same Genre they’ve been more than brave with a number of elements in stuff for quite a while. There are unique faction quests Massively The Secret World, but oddly unimaginative about others. (and certain NPC dialogue is altered based on who you multiplayer In The Secret World, players commit themselves to one of represent) that come in later, and even a few player choices online role- three factions locked in a secret war for world domination to make that could have a large impact on your personal playing game during a time of invasion by dark forces, and engage in storyline, as well as a barebones PVP system that lets you Age restriction missions ranging from seemingly inconsequential fetch jump into battle anytime you wish. 16 quests to all-out warfare against their rival cabals. Each Story is a big part of The Secret World, and both the Multiplayer faction has a home base in one of three major cities around overarching narrative and menial stuff in-between are Local the world: The Dragon, who practise the art of chaos, reside intriguing and well told, but the game suff ers from an None in Seoul; The Illuminati, who rule with power and wealth, unfortunate attachment to one of the bastions of MMORPGs Online have taken hold of New York; and The Templars, who – repetitive, dull “kill 17 zombies” sort of quests (that’s an Lots believe in order and structure above all else, sit in London. actual example, by the way). These quests do lead down Developer some interesting roads, thankfully, but this is a diffi cult Funcom game to get into. There’s so much to be interested in but Website “Story is a big part of The at almost every turn there’s a pile of boring stuff to get www. through before you’re allowed to dig at the juicy centre. thesecretworld. Secret World, and both the To help shake up the repetition, TSW includes some of the com most interesting quests you’ll encounter in any sort of RPG: overarching narrative and Publisher investigations. These require you to use your actual brain Electronic Arts menial stuff in-between are (yes!) and Internet research to work out clues, solve riddles Distributor and fi nd your next quest waypoint. Hooray! Pity they’re so EA South Africa intriguing and well told...” far between. The character customisation and progression system in TSW is wide open, and encourages you to keep your character build fl exible if you desire, but also provides you with preset “Decks” that you can follow if you so wish. Ultimately, there are the standard archetypes of healer, DPS (ranged or melee) and tank, and you’ll do well to stick

PAY UP As is rapidly becoming a popular most of the items you can buy only model, TSW includes both a monthly change the look of your character. subscription and additional real- While you can spend in-game money transactions. Since equipment currency at a number of stores to buy customisation focuses on aesthetic new outfi ts, the best stuff is kept for appearance rather than stat boosting, the real-money store.

62 September 2012 www.nag.co.za The Secret World

COME GET SOME Combat in The Secret World is a little diff erent to the norm. There is no auto-attacking, and players are forced to keep bashing those buttons if they want their characters to die less often than all the time. To accompany this approach, all classes to those and fi gure out the ideal builds if you plan on make use of combo points that are surviving. Hybrid classes that straddle too many lines will used to unleash certain attacks. This struggle; The Secret World is a challenging game if you means that combat is often frenetic, go in alone and unprepared. Figuring out those builds will and as you move through to higher- level areas you had better make sure take a bit of eff ort, however; despite Funcom’s attempt to that you’re geared right or you’ll familiarise the player with the game’s many nuances of fi nd yourself spending more time character development, it’s a somewhat shambolic system at the nearest respawn point than that demands you spend some time wading through. you’d like. For all its promise and allure, there’s just something off about The Secret World. It’s fi lled with interesting stuff , but I can’t help but feel that it would’ve been much better off as a regular RPG. Its focus on story-driven exploration and linear progression feels like an ill fi t with all the MMO content that’s been lumped on top. It’s an odd mix coming from the team that spent so many years building up Anarchy Online and Age of Conan to what they are today – one would expect them to hit the ground running with TSW, but sadly that hasn’t been the case. The game has tons of bugs from visuals to controls to quests, with more rolling out with each new feature that’s added. A month after release, the game fi nally had auction house support added but it’s impossible to use the damn thing unless a third-party mod is added to the game. It’s also rather demanding on your PC’s hardware for, frankly, an average looking game. - GeometriX

The Secret World sets out with some lofty goals but doesn’t quite meet them. There’s too much 70 poorly-implemented fl uff impeding its way and hampering player enjoyment, but what’s at the heart is a rich and exciting world. It needs some time to mature, though, and perhaps its inevitable move to free-to- play will arrive when it does just that.

PLUS Intriguing world / Well-written dialogue / Plenty of character customisation / Investigations

MINUS Buggy / Unimpressive visuals / MMO “stuff ” feels like an ill fi t Repetitive quests

www.nag.co.za September 2012 63 / REVIEWS /

Jagged Alliance 2: Back in Action Like a fi ne wine ere at castle NAG, we sometimes get around to DETAILS reviewing games a little later than you’d expect. Platforms There are a lot of reasons for this that are all totally H PC valid (promise), but when this does happen, we’re left with Genre the situation of reviewing a game on which many people Tactical strategy have already made up their minds. Then again, we also get game a chance to review the game once it’s had a few much- Age restriction needed patches applied. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is a 16 remake of the highly-praised 1999 tactical strategy-cum-RPG Multiplayer Jagged Alliance 2, and, as such, carries a hell of a burden on Local its shoulders to live up to everyone’s expectations. The game None also carries a metascore of just 62 (and an even lower user Online score) – clearly it let down a lot of people, but not everyone. None If you’re a stoic console gamer or some sort of anti-‘90s- Developer gaming activist, you might not be familiar with the title on Coreplay which this remake is based. Simply put, Jagged Alliance in question is your little soldier boy/girl for life. Website 2 is a game in which you lead a group of mercenaries on The biggest gameplay diff erence between the two games www. their turn-based quest to free the island nation of Arulco is that the combat sequences in Back in Action take place jaggedalliance. from its tyrannical ruler Deidranna Reitman and her army of in real-time. To accommodate the lack of precision lent by com highly-trained killers, and make a packet in the process. Back turn-based combat, players can (and should, at any level of Publisher in Action takes place in that same setting, and, while there’s diffi culty above easy) use Command Mode coupled with the Kalypso Media always been an underlying narrative to give JA2 a sense of customisable auto-pause function. Command Mode allows bitComposer place, that was mostly unimportant. What became important you to plot individual troop actions on a timeline, ordering Entertainment was the unique narrative that developed as one played. Your them to move, change position, fi re, reload, switch weapons, Distributor mercenaries had their own personalities and quirks, and got change direction, and so on. When you’re done, hit unpause Apex Interactive on better or worse with other mercs which allowed for secret and watch your perfectly-planned manoeuvre unfold in dream teams to be assembled if you could aff ord it. Back in real-time. Admittedly, it does take a little getting used to, but Action retains the concept of mercenary hiring (it includes once you’ve done so, you may even fi nd that the Command most of the original A.I.M. roster, plus a few extra), but instead Mode is an improvement on the clunky turn-based system of requiring that you dish out paycheques on a regular basis, of the past. I know I did. Once the adjustment to the control a single (rather high) once-off payment is made and the merc system has been made, there’s a deep, rich tactical game waiting to be explored. Enemy AI is a mix of brain-dead and superhuman, with the full range in-between. You’ll need to have adaptable tactics when you plan to take a position of strategic importance, and will seamlessly shift your mercs 1 between ambushes, decoys, stealthy approaches (waiting for nightfall is a smart move if you’ve got the tools to make it work to your advantage), guns blazing bravado, suicide runs, cover fi re, fl ank attacks, and just about any sort of scheme you could imagine. This is Back in Action’s shiniest point. Something that’s a little less shiny is the game’s camera. While you now have the opportunity to rotate and zoom around each battle in “glorious” 3D, the result isn’t entirely satisfactory. The camera angle and perspective sucks: it’s often diffi cult to fi nd the sweet spot when assigning multi- level movement orders, and you’ll frequently struggle to

2

64 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Jagged Alliance 2: Back in Action

1 Changing any piece of mercenary equipment refl ects directly on their character models. This makes for a high degree of character customisation, and it applies to the enemies as well: that shirtless, axe-wielding cannibal running straight at you is clearly not looking for directions.

2 The stealth elements in the game have been greatly improved upon. Now, each merc has a stealth rating, which, together with their clothing, equipment and immediate environment, will aff ect their individual noise and visibility rating. Night ops have become more tactical than ever, and will be the best way to take down that prison with 50+ deeply entrenched enemies.

“If you’re a stoic console gamer or some sort of anti-‘90s-gaming activist, you might not be familiar with the title on which this remake is based. ”

determine just how much cover certain pieces of terrain With all of the changes and improvements taken into provide, or what line-of-sight you can expect an enemy account, Back in Action struggles to deliver the same to have. Taking a bullet to the crotch is an acceptable sense of human drama that JA2 did, but does quite handily punishment for giving one of your mercs a stupid order, deliver an improved tactical experience (there, I said it). but doing so when you could’ve sworn that Keith “Blood” It’s a modernised, trimmed-off -the-fat version of the Hanson was out of enemy vision is quite another matter. original, but without the fuss and panic of the overland Maybe if it’d happened to Ira you wouldn’t be so bothered. map management. Take that how you will; if such things One of the strongest ties that JA2 had to the heartstrings matter dearly to you, Back in Action might make you weep of its players wasn’t just in combat, but in the overland inconsolably into your pillow at night. If you’re here for the map view. There, players would orchestrate their squad combat, however, then you’re in for a treat. movements around Arulco, carefully babysitting those - GeometriX squads by providing medical attention, and training one other and local militia. While these processes were collectively known as a ball ache (especially since those Back in Action manages to surpass JA2’s tactical mercs were charging by the day), they did lend the game elements, but feels like it’s had just a little too much an air of urgency carefully balanced with care. Moving too 80 trimmed off the side. Thankfully, we’ve already soon into combat at the expense of a good day’s medical seen a number of score-shattering omissions recuperation meant you were getting the most out of your addressed with patches, so there’s hope for the future. troops, but they could potentially die in battle if they took too much heat. Here, the entire overland process has been PLUS vastly simplifi ed, with the exception of militia management Highly customisable mercs / Challenging, tactical combat and town defence which have been made disproportionally Great real-time adaptation complicated and time-consuming. It almost feels as though the developers realised at the last minute that players actually MINUS enjoyed some of the run-around of the previous game, and Poor camera / Overland map sequences are both lacking and cobbled together a poor attempt to rectify the situation. frustrating / Occasional pathfi nding bugs

www.nag.co.za September 2012 65 / REVIEWS /

The Amazing Spider-Man A new swing

kay, so they rebooted the Spider-Man movies. But Amazing. Simply amazing. the concept that a game comes out to support the Orelease of a movie of this nature hasn’t changed, even though the guy playing Spider-Man has. However, there has been a change to the practice… see, whereas most movie-based games are generally pretty rotten, this new Spider-Man title manages to gain the lofty movie- game ideal of “not bad”. In fact, it even goes beyond that in some areas, reaching “pretty good” from time to time. The game’s plot takes place after the events of the movie, so we’ll avoid talking about it in case we give anything away. Suffi ce to say that the plot isn’t great. It’s passable, but not great. That’s alright, though, because the game itself is rather fun. Developed by Spider-Man veterans Beenox, this new title gives the player a lot to do. There are the main story plots, of course, which more often than not see players crawling through confi ned spaces varying from research labs to sewers. There are a few inventive boss battles as well. But the real joy here is the free-roaming in-game version of New York that the player gets to use as a playground. While not exactly huge, the city does off er a lot for

the player to do, from collecting comic book pages (that DETAILS unlock classic Spider-Man comics which can be read in Platforms the extras menu) through to little pick-up missions that 360 / 3DS / DS generally involve beating up muggers and other kinds PC / PS3 / Wii of street criminals. The player can get absolutely lost in Genre chasing after comic book pages for hours. Action adventure This is all tied together by a new set of controls that Age restriction suit the game very nicely… particularly when it comes to 16 movement. The game employs a system very similar to Multiplayer the free-running we saw in series like Assassin’s Creed and Local Prototype, at least in the free-roaming areas. Other smart None ideas include a fi rst-person movement “aiming” system, Online and quick button presses to zoom to context-sensitive None objects and areas. It’s fast, fun and often chaotic stuff . The Developer player will certainly feel the part. Beenox In fact, this game borrows quite a lot from popular Website series we have seen before. To encapsulate the entire www.theamazing game dynamic – including combat and movement – you spidermangame. could very realistically compare it to Batman: Arkham com City, although it does lack some of the polish and fi nesse Publisher of that title. Still, the fl owing combat, fun movement and Activision upgradable skills that actually make a diff erence do all Distributor add to a rather enjoyable experience. It is unlikely that this Megarom game will win any “Game of the Year” awards, unless they bring in a specifi c category for movie games, but it can be a lot of fun if you allow it to be. - Ramjet

If you’re looking for an above-average movie- 75 based game, here it is…

PLUS A decent movie game / Lots of fun

MINUS Weak plot / Not much depth

66 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ REVIEWS /

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes New LEGO

f you haven’t played a LEGO game yet, you should. Sure, they might not be the most hardcore of all the titles out there, Ibut they’re fun… and that’s what gaming is supposed to be about, right? But LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes might not be the best place to start off , because it does things a bit diff erently. Fans of the LEGO franchise may well turn their noses up at some of the changes, but what Traveller’s Tales have done with this particular title is up the ante for the series. The fi rst new aspect of the title that veterans will notice is that the grunts, sighs, shrugs and humorous gestures that told the story before have been replaced with actual dialogue. That’s right; this is the fi rst LEGO game in which the characters speak. The reason for this is that LEGO Batman 2 has a more robust plot than previous games in the franchise. Where players could often make out what was going on in the games before because they tended to be spoofs of popular movie franchises, this one stands on its own, Sure, it coincides with a major movie release and there is doubtlessly a level of multiple media leverage going on, but the story that this game tells is its own. And so it requires dialogue. You’ll get used to it. Another change – and one that is extremely positive – is that the levels have a diff erent structure in the way they tied together. In previous LEGO games the player could use a sort

of world hub to get to diff erent levels, which was fi ne and well. DETAILS But the hub was generally a bit boring, with limited exploration Platforms to be done. This time around, the developers have given the 360 / 3DS / DS player an entire city to explore. Instead of a world hub, we PC / PS3 / PS now have a free-roaming, sandbox version of Gotham city Vita / Wii (complete with brightly coloured building blocks, studs and Genre collectables) to play around in. Action adventure This aspect of the game, in addition to the tons of locked Age restriction characters which allow for levels to be replayed (thanks to new 7 powers required to access certain areas of said levels), makes Multiplayer the game enjoyable for each new play through. Local The levels themselves off er exactly what one would expect 2 players from a LEGO game… bad guys to fi ght, exploring to do and Online studs to collect. Although this part of the game is unchanged, None the levels feel like they have been approached with much more Developer care. Some of the silly diffi culties that older games presented in Traveller’s Tales levels have disappeared, making this a much more sensible and Website enjoyable LEGO outing. videogames. So if you are a fan, or you are looking for some irreverent lego.com/en-us/ fun, LEGO Batman 2 is a good option. lego-batman-2- - Ramjet dc-super-heroes Publisher Warner Bros A great new approach to the LEGO franchise, Interactive LEGO Batman 2 will keep players busy exploring Distributor 80 for ages. Ster Kinekor Entertainment

PLUS Nice new ideas / Tons to do

MINUS Speech a bit unusual [Hrmm mrhppmh arhuh, AD]

68 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ REVIEWS /

Inversion Gears of Gravity

nversion’s not going to win any awards for ooutstandingutstanding innovation. The moment you’re fi rst handeddlf control of I main character Davis Russel, you’ll know this game isn’t shy about borrowing the bits that comprise its core from Epic’s lauded third-person shooting series involving burly, over- muscled men shooting humanoid invaders with guns outfi tted with improbably sized blades. In it, fi ctional Vanguard City is besieged by said invaders (called the Lutadores) and strange gravitational glitches leave areas of the city devastated, chunks of cityscape trapped in zero-gravity. Your objective is to fi nd Russel’s daughter, who’s presumably being held captive by the Lutadore invaders. Russel, a former police offi cer turned ominously profi cient soldier (and member of the Burly, Over- Muscled Man Club), is joined by Leo Delgado, who’ll be your burly, over-muscled man-partner for the duration of the game. While the story ends up being nothing more than an unsurprisingly lame attempt at getting us to sympathise with two characters dripping with stereotypical pseudo- macho attitude, Inversion’s gameplay actually manages to be satisfying for most of its campaign. The various weapons you’re given access to are eff ective and the cover-shooter gameplay is polished enough to be enjoyable, while the game’s lone innovation – the “Gravlink”, which fi res a gravity-altering beam with a few diff erent uses – eventually becomes powerful and useful enough to give the action a modicum of tactical variety. Your Gravlink will be capable of lowering gravity within a small area, allowing you to grab fl oating enemies and bits of scenery and throw them at other enemies or bits of scenery, through areas via some very light environmental puzzling), and DETAILS style. As you improve your Gravlink, you’ll be able it’ll even create a temporary shield around you. Platforms to throw larger objects, and can later amplify the gravity in You’ll sporadically visit areas littered with pockets of diff ering 360 / PC / PS3 an area to make objects heavier (used mostly for progression gravitational forces, so up will become down, the walls will Genre become the fl oor and enemies will approach from unknown Third-person angles at set points in your linear path through the narrative shooter and its level design. Similarly, at other times you’ll fl oat behind Age restriction cover in zero-gravity zones, propelling yourself between pieces 1 Environments are pleasingly destructible, gradually getting 18 torn to pieces. Floating globules of fl ammable liquid can even be of fl oating debris, all the while fending off waves of enemies. Multiplayer ignited to occasionally burn scenery and enemies caught within it. These scattered gameplay change-ups manage to keep things Local interesting, but they do little to alter the game’s fundamentals None 2 The entire campaign can be played cooperatively with a friend, enough to make it stand apart from the rest of the third-person Online who’ll control Leo. It’s fun enough but, like the rest of the game, is shooter pack. Technically, the game holds its own – but 12 players nothing groundbreaking. un-textured environmental objects and other obvious visual Developer shortcuts make it occasionally ugly. Saber Interactive There are some truly impressive moments in Inversion, Website moments where it fl irts with greatness but is swiftly crushed www.inversion. under the weight of its own ambition. There’s obvious potential com here that’s not been reached, for whatever reason, and it’s 1 Publisher disappointing that a game that often evokes momentary Namco Bandai thrills ends up being nothing more than a fun, but ultimately Games forgettable action romp. Distributor - Barkskin Megarom

Inversion is mostly standard cover-shooting fare, borrowing heavily from Gears of War but adding 69 its own unique fl avouring to the formula with its gravity-manipulating mechanics. Much of it feels like wasted potential – but it’s nevertheless decently entertaining for most of its campaign. 2 PLUS Solid action / Gravity manipulation works

MINUS Limp narrative / Visual anomalies / Nothing really new

70 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ REVIEWS /

London 2012: The Offi cial Video Game Going for gold

ost sports games are awesome in their detail, but Despite being a better attempt, though, London 2012 still whenever the Olympics roll around, titles supporting has a few problems. This stems largely from the fact that while Mthe event that feel more like crappy movie games hit other sports titles can concentrate on one discipline, this title – the shelves. At least, they used to. This year’s Olympics have like every Olympics game before it – has to look at many. If the been graced by a game that is a bit better than expected. developers had paid full attention to just track and fi eld events, The biggest reason why this game manages to set itself for example, we would have been looking at a very diff erent apart from previous attempts at simulating the Olympics stems game here. But that would be a disservice to the Olympics as from the fact that you won’t really be button mashing all that a whole. much for this title. The developers have managed to build in As it stands, the game is enjoyable, if fl awed. The player can systems that keep the controls cleaner than that, relying rather select to either participate in single events, or can undertake on skill and timing, as opposed to thumb punishment. The something of an Olympic “campaign”, selecting a handful developers put some clever ideas in to play in terms of control, of events to represent your chosen country in. There is no resulting in a title that is much better than its predecessors. improvement of your in-game character, though, and you will

be limited to certain events (which you can add to a play list.) DETAILS This isn’t a career driven game… in fact, it really is as close as a Platforms sports game will come to being a party-game. 360 / 3DS /PC There are a wide variety of events, of course, ranging from PS3 / Wii track and fi eld to swimming and even shooting, but none of Genre them stands out as spectacular. Some are better than others, Sports simulation sure, but this is not about highlighting various sporting Age restriction disciplines; it’s more about celebrating this massive sporting 3 calendar event, and it does so admirably. It remains accessible Multiplayer to almost anyone who can hold a controller, and while some Local of the events get pretty tricky, almost anyone will be able to 4 players celebrate the Olympic spirit with this title. Online It probably won’t keep you playing until the next None Olympics, despite the large number of events. The Developer likelihood of any player needing to work through everything Sega and achieve gold in each event is pretty small when all is Website said and done. But the memorable part of this game comes www. from the multiplayer camaraderie, rather than from any olympic form of depth or technical brilliance. videogames. - Ramjet com/london2012 Publisher SEGA It does a good job in celebrating the Olympics, Distributor and is a better than expected title. Ster Kinekor 70 Entertainment

PLUS Lots of events / Clever controls

MINUS Not much depth / Forgettable

72 September 2012 www.nag.co.za SUBSCRIBE NOW!

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*Please note: No refunds will be issued for this subscription off er. / REVIEWS /

Project Zero 2: Spirit Camera: Wii Edition The Cursed Memoir Resurrection Bright Light!

he original Project Zero 2 was releaseded DETAILSDETAILS pirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is a spin- DETAILS for PS2 around ten years ago. So why,y, Platforms off of Project Zero 2: Wii Edition, which Platforms T then, release it for Wii now… particularly Wii Swas recently remade for the Wii system. 3DS when you consider that the Wii U will be Genre Essentially, the game turns the player’s 3DS into Genre released rather soon. Perhaps there is a hint at a the Camera Obscura that is the main weapon Survival horror version coming to the new platform soon after Age restriction in Project Zero 2. It is, on paper at least, a great Age restriction release. We hope so, because Project Zero 2: 16 idea, but the truth of the matter is that Nintendo 16 Wii Edition is good fun. The great thing about Multiplayer missed an opportunity with this title. Multiplayer this title is that it goes back to traditional horror Local First of all, it is a game that uses augmented Local ideas; no guns, no ammo, no hunting zombies. 2 players reality. This is a great system, and adds a nice None Instead, twin girls need to investigate a village Online “reality” to games, but the problem is that, in Online fi lled with hideous, dangerous ghosts. The only None terms of horror games, augmented reality None weapon at their disposal is the Camera Obscura, Developer scuppers things just a little. See, horror games Developer a device that captures ghosts by taking their Tecmo Koei need to be played in the dark. Augmented Tecmo Koei photographs. Website reality works best in well-lit areas. Considering Website And it works so well on the Wii, thanks to www.nintendo. that a lot of the game takes place in dark spiritcamera. the console’s motion controls. The on-the-rails com settings, a lot of the eff ect is lost when the nintendo.com action is perfectly suited to the control system, Publisher player needs to squint at the dark visuals in a Publisher with the game dynamic having players fl ailing Nintendo well-lit room. Nintendo to get those life-saving photographs. The mini- Distributor Accompanying the game is an AR book Distributor games are great, too, particularly the one that Core Group that helps unlock the story line. Another great Core Group measures the movement of the Wii remote and idea and one that works rather well, but it is Nunchuk to gauge how frightened you are. underexploited on the whole, leaving the game When all is said and done, the conversion of too short and feeling a little fl at. this classic title onto a newer format is almost Even with a few mini-games and fl awless. Seeing a game aimed at mature interesting ideas, Spirit Camera just doesn’t gamers appear on the Wii, released by Nintendo make the grade as a horror game – a shame, no less, is also a good thing. And the scares that really, considering that the title it is based on Project Zero 2 off ers are awesome. is a fantastic one. - Ramjet - Ramjet

A revitalised classic, remade for the Wii, Project Zero 2 Spirit Camera is something of a missed opportunity – 80 features many traditional horror ideas. 55 it feels more like tech demo than a full game.

PLUS PLUS Very scary / Great control implementation Great use of AR / Some scary bits

MINUS MINUS Not exactly original Needs to be played in bright light / Too short

74 September 2012 www.nag.co.za / REVIEWS /

Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns Kids of today

or those who have some history with the Harvest Moon DETAILS series, a new title is an exciting thing, but for everyone Platforms F else, the idea of a “JRPG farming simulator” is just a little 3DS / DS too weird. We’ll be the fi rst to admit that it is weird, but there’s Genre loads of charm in this humble and long-running series, and Farming sim / The Tale of Two Towns sets out to pull in a few newcomers Japanese role- with its uncharacteristically linear progression and often all- playing game too-cheery (even for a JRPG) attitude. Age restriction Harvest Moon is all about farming – producing animal 3 and vegetable products and selling them, thereby enabling Multiplayer the purchase of better equipment and so on. It’s simple Local stuff – the lifeblood of any good sim – and while it’s been None well executed in the past, ToTT’s unwavering movement Online through the game’s story (as superfl uous as such a thing None is) means that much of the free thought required to do Developer well at these sorts of games becomes unnecessary, and Marvelous for much of the game’s early stages you’ll simply go Entertainment through the motions to move along the plot. It makes Website this title feel more like an intro to Harvest Moon than www. an addition to the series, but the non-elitist in me can risingstargames. recognise that there is a market for this title, maybe in com a younger audience or one unfamiliar with the series. If Publisher you fi t into that boat, then you’ll probably fi nd plenty of Rising Star enjoyment with this quirky, bright, light-hearted title, but if Games you’re expecting the full dose of Harvest Moon goodness, Distributor then you might fi nd this game a little stifl ing. Silverscreen - GeometriX Trading

There are four ninjas in this picture. Can you fi nd them all?

Bouncy and often excessively cute, Tale of Two Towns will suit a younger or uninitiated player but will likely frustrate those who are 60 already familiar with the series.

PLUS Good visuals / Lots of activities

MINUS Not enough freedom / Very repetitive early game / Cheeriness can get a bit much / REVIEWS /

Pinball Arcade Spelunky MUST PLAY Accurate balls on the table Death becomes you here’s a nostalgic attraction to the DETAILS ndiana Jones, without the deus ex machina of DETAILS concept of digital preservation – and luck that made his on-screen antics enjoyable Platforms Platforms the craft involved with an elaborate to watch, would be dead. Dead, dead, and T 360 / Mobile I 360 / PC pinball table is an art. Leading the charge for dead again. That giant rolling boulder would PS3 / Vita Genre commercial video pinball simulator, Pinball crush him. Those dart traps in the temple would Genre Action adventure Arcade seeks to emulate authentic tables as perforate his face. Snakes would be nesting in his Arcade platform closely as possible. skull, having little snake babies [LOL, Ed]. Age restriction Age restriction A digital platform, the base package includes Watching our fedora-wearing hero die over 10 3 (depending on version) either one or four real and over would be creepy as a fi lm. But as a Multiplayer Multiplayer life tables of historical note. New tables are game, Spelunky is the perfect Indiana Jones Local Local added in packs of two as they’re recreated. simulator. Perilous traps, dangerous creatures, 2 players 4 players FarSight has done a good job of mixing older giant rolling boulders, spiders, snakes, treasure, Online Online tables with new; simple but ground-breaking gems, and mystical forces await you. You’ll die, None None boards such as Black Hole are represented falling victim to many an instant-kill spike trap, Developer Developer along with relatively modern bombastic crowd very reminiscent of the chopping blade traps in FarSight Studios Mossmouth pleasers such as Medieval Madness. the original Prince of Persia (1989). Website Website A strong aspect of the package is well- Learn from your countless deaths, start www. spelunkyworld. explained rule sheets with visual aids. If you actually playing, and delicious rewards will pinballarcade. com thought pinball was sheer randomness, and be yours. You’ll get slightly further. You might com Publisher never knew most tables have an intricate unlock a shortcut. You’ll fi nd fabulously Publisher Mossmouth sequence of modes to activate for huge powerful weapons, and master the art of pug Crave Distributor jackpots, FarSight’s respect for the game is rescue (which gives you extra health). You might Entertainment XBLA contagious. even get lucky and kill a shopkeeper, allowing Distributor The only downside is a fundamentals-fi rst you to plunder his wares instead of buying PSN / XBLA ethic, leaving the presentation with the look of that shotgun, set of bombs, and life-saving a cheap iOS game even in the console versions. parachute. FarSight intends to update the front end, but it’s Those that master the game can attempt a drag compared to the virtual arcade hangouts speed runs, starting on the fi rst level, taking no in the developer’s earlier generation Pinball shortcuts. Spelunky is an Olympic sport, only Hall of Fame collections. Still, the play is what the noble rising to the challenge. Or you could matters here. When at the table it’s the next best just play deathmatch and throw your friends thing to owning a real machine. into the lava. - Miktar - Miktar

While Zen Pinball is keeping the art of designing new- The marriage of two genres: hardcore platform generation pinball tables moving forward by updating action, replete with advanced mechanics; and the 87 conventions and adding new ideas, Pinball Arcade aims 85 majestic randomised level layouts of the “roguelike”, for and succeeds at accurate one-to-one recreations of which rewards the brave and punishes the weak. This the best the genre ever had. Note: if you buy the PS3 version, you get is a game that puts hair on your chest, but requires direct injection the Vita one for free with it, and vice-versa. into your patience gland.

PLUS PLUS Faithful recreations of tables / Detailed tutorial modes for each table Play again and again / Rewarding to master / Charming visuals Each table includes scans of original promotional material. MINUS MINUS Loves to hate you / Local multiplayer only / Some music tracks get The portable versions lack visual fl air / The Android version uses grating Facebook for leaderboards / Drab interface

76 September 2012 www.nag.co.za / REVIEWS /

Dyad Rhythm Thief & The The melding of minds DETAILS Emperor’s Treasure Please choose your review comprehension diffi culty. Platforms Rhythm Heaven X Professor Layton > EASY PSN Genre Thank you. This review autosaves. Please don’t hythm Thief steals a lot of ideas from DETAILS turn off the magazine when you see “SAVING...” Racing/puzzle other games. The result is a strange on the screen. shooter/rhythm R compilation that ends up working well Platforms Dyad is a tunnel with some puzzle Age restriction together. As you explore Paris, talking to the 3DS elements. As you fl y into a colourful rotating neon 3 locals, you uncover a strange plot involving Genre tunnel, you “hook” onto enemies and pull yourself Multiplayer magic and music. Sometimes you need to Rhythm / Puzzle forward, gaining speed. Each level adds a new Local collect a sound to solve situations. An example Adventure idea to the mix, such as hooking coloured pairs None is the case of the dog-shy cop. At one point, Age restriction of enemies together, or speed boosts that bust Online a policeman blocks your way. By talking to 10 through harmful enemies, or invincibility power- None him, you discover he’s afraid of dogs. There Multiplayer ups. The faster you go, the harder it becomes Developer was a dog a few screens back (each location Local to see what you’re doing, so you need to listen Right Square is represented by a single-screen). If you go 2 players carefully to the sounds associated with your Bracket Left and tap on the dog, you collect a barking Online actions, power-ups and incoming enemies. Each Square Bracket sound. Play the sound while at the guard, and None level has a global high-score list, and a Trophy Website he runs away. It’s simple, but not unpleasant. Developer challenge variant. The game is fun; the techno- www.dyadgame. Occasionally, mild music-based puzzles act as SEGA / Xeen styled music is pretty rad. com door locks. Website > HARD Publisher Rhythm-based mini-games that function as www.sega. You asked for it. Right Square absurd action sequences are the meat of the co.uk/games/ Dyad is a rare ineff able neurosomatic experience, Bracket Left game. One involves tapping the screen in time rhythm-thief- full of non-conceptual rapture. Most games Square Bracket to the beat to make Raphael, super-secret thief, and-the- deal with primal urges like dominant, aggressive Distributor leap safely from rooftop to rooftop, fi ghting emperor-s- behaviour or submissive, cooperative behaviour. PSN bad guys as he goes. Another involves sliding treasure Some encourage sociological exploration; the stylus to match an incoming curve, which Publisher others explore neurosemantic-dexterity, like represents playing a violin. SEGA invention, calculation and prediction. While It’s all kept very light-hearted, tied together Distributor Dyad does contain the customary virtual with an engaging plot if you’re willing to give Core Group “operant conditioning chamber” for behavioural it the chance. There are hidden rhythm games modifi cation via reward/punishment systems, it’s to fi nd, and medals to collect by scoring high in to encourage exploration of an all-encompassing each, used to unlock movies. aesthetic sensory space. It’s a digital entheogen, - Miktar a way to catalyse a spiritual non-physical experience. And it’s not illegal, or a controlled substance. Not yet… - Miktar

You know that one song that you really love, because This one is really hit-or-miss depending on it speaks to you on a personal level and you fi nd it how much you enjoy the story and music. 81 emotionally powerful and deep, but your friends think 70 The characters are likeable enough, though it’s “kind of lame”? Dyad is like that. You either get it, and sometimes the music isn’t as fun as it could be. are enriched by it, or you don’t get it and think it’s lame. Your call. There’s some inconsequential StreetPass stuff, and a two- player versus mode. PLUS Doles out concepts at an easy rate / Trophy Challenges for the PLUS hardcore / Mentally invigorating Engaging setup / Keeps a good pace with the plot / Easy to play

MINUS MINUS Unless you do the Trophy Challenges, it’s all over very quickly / It’s all over too quickly / The rhythm games can feel overly Requires a certain level of openness to new ideas arbitrary

www.nag.co.za September 2012 77 / REVIEWS /

Game of Thrones Civilization V: Story rules here Gods & Kings his particular game is not to be confused DETAILS Spy sappin’ mah tech tree! with the strategy title of the same name Platforms that came out a few months back. Rather, s far as expansions go, Civilization V: T 360 / PC / PS3 DETAILS this Game of Thrones is a third-person role- Gods & Kings ticks all the right boxes: Genre Platforms playing game that tends more towards George you’ll fi nd new civilizations (each Role-playing A PC R. R. Martin’s books than the popular TV series. with their own unique traits, of course), new game Genre Although Game of Thrones has its fair share of buildings and wonders to construct, new stuff Age restriction Turn-based issues and problems, fans of the books will likely to research, new units to build, and more. 16 strategy enjoy it because of its strong focus on plot. And You’ll also fi nd the obligatory improvements Multiplayer Age restriction that plot feels exactly as if it was plucked out of to existing gameplay systems from the base Local 12 Martin’s phenomenal series of novels. game – stuff like improved AI, reworked naval None Multiplayer The player gets to take on two very diff erent combat and better options for diplomacy. Online Local characters in this game. While they cannot The most important addition brought by this None None create their own characters, those presented are expansion is the return of religion and espionage Developer Online rather compelling, and this move also serves to mechanics. Religion in Civ V is built around Cyanide Studios 12 players drive the plot. accruing new resource Faith, eventually allowing Website Developer The game feels a little sluggish from time you to found your own religion and assign www. Firaxis Games to time, and the combat system is somewhat traits and founder bonuses to it, then watch as gameofthrones- Website anachronistic (with the player issuing it spreads across the map and your prophets thegame.com www. commands “indirectly” before they are executed) deliver your religion to potential believers. Publisher civilization5. and often exploitable. But the presentation is Selectable bonuses include stuff like using Faith Focus Home com/ decent and the voice acting really rather good. to buy military units – once you’ve chosen your Interactive godsandkings Not everyone will take to this title, to be honest. bonus from the shared pool, no other religion- Distributor Publisher It is a more pedantic, slower-paced game than founding civilization can choose it and only fi ve Apex Interactive 2K Games many may like. But there is that all-important civs per game can found religions. Distributor storyline that will thrill fans of the world of While religion is an excellently customisable Megarom Westeros, without a doubt. It is one of those and meaningful addition to the base game, games that will be what you make of it. espionage feels less so. Eventually in the game, - Ramjet you’ll receive your fi rst spy. However, unlike previous games in the series, spies are not units you can move around a map: instead, they exist solely within a menu, from which you dispatch them to do your bidding. Send them to rival cities and they’ll steal technology, base them in one of your cities and they’ll protect it from enemy espionage. It works, but it doesn’t have a huge impact on the game. -Barkskin

Fans of George R. R. Martin’s books will be able to geek The return of religion and espionage further enhances out to the complex plot. Civilization V’s excellent series refi nements, rounding 70 85 out an expansion that’s packed with loads of new stuff to tinker with. Pity the AI’s still a bastard.

PLUS PLUS Great story / Good voice acting New mechanics! / New civilizations! / New stuff !

MINUS MINUS Old fashioned / Slow Espionage isn’t worth much / AI still enjoys drunken fi st-swinging

78 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Sponsored by / READER REVIEW /

Mario Tennis Open t’s been a while since the red-capped wonder bust out a new tennis game and since the last handheld version was released Inearly seven years ago on the GBA, the announcement that Mario and friends would once again be grabbing their rackets was met with much anticipation and high expectations. Expectations that could well have not been crushed, depending on what you were looking for. If you wanted a straightforward, knock-down, arcade tennis experience then this is the handheld champion. No cheap gimmicks, just pure tennis fun. The only added element being the power panels on the courts to add some strategic DETAILS elements. Also bowing for the fi rst time is online multiplayer Platforms which, should you be lucky enough to fi nd someone close 3DS enough to play with, is a great experience, no better way to Genre test your true skills than against another human. There are Sports also some challenging mini-games to work through but in the Age restriction end it’s the actual tennis matches that shine through, and with 3 a healthy character roster and 16 cups to work through, the Multiplayer completionist will be busy for a while. Local However, if you were expecting the same epic RPG/tennis 4 players crossover from the previous mobile outing then you will be Online disappointed. True, there is a world of customisation with 4 players a few hundred items to chop and change on your Mii and Developer build a unique player, but without a whimsical plotline and Camelot varied challenges there is little chance this game will keep you Website mariotennis open.nintendo. com Publisher Nintendo Distributor Core Gaming Systems

occupied for as long as “Power Tour” did. No doubt Nintendo is READER banking on users playing the game online to give it extra replay PROFILE SEND US YOUR REVIEW value but with so few local players it’s unlikely this will keep you hooked for too long. In a bad case If you’d like to take part 11th of September. Make no mistake, this is still the best mobile tennis of sibling in our Nintendo Reader The best review will experience out there. The graphics and audio are crisp, infl uence, Reviews competition, write appear in the next issue of the movements and action feel very fl uid and the controls Joshua was a review of 300-350 words NAG and the entrant will responsive. There’s plenty of variety in the gameplay to introduced on any 3DS game you receive from Nintendo challenge a wide range of players and lots of things for the to Nintendo want, excluding the games South Africa three Nintendo OCD types to collect, but if you played this game’s direct by his brother we’ve already seen (Mario 3DS games of your choice predecessor it will feel like there’s not enough here for this and force-fed Tennis Open, Kid Icarus: (limited to fi rst-party titles), Uprising, Super Mario 3D a Circle Pad Pro and Mario game to take a top 3 spot on the activity log. a steady diet Land, The Legend of Zelda: Kart 7 wheel accessories. - Joshua Gardiner of Mario and Ocarina of Time 3D and Two runners-up will also Smash Bros. Mario Kart 7). Include a be chosen, and each will until he started summary of your review receive a 3DS game of their growing a (up to 40 words), a few choice (limited to fi rst-party READER SCORE moustache short pros and cons, and titles). Please note that and going a score out of 100. Write this competition is open If you like tennis, buy the game, it is that “woohoo”. a few lines about yourself to South African residents too. Check it twice and only. This competition good. Looking for more to do? That game is in then send it through to does not constitute a job 74 another castle. nintendoreaderreviews@ off er or entitle the winner nag.co.za as a Word to any benefi ts or rights PLUS document (.doc or .docx) of employment with NAG. Outstanding pure tennis action or RTF. You need to do this Prizes cannot be exchanged by 12:00 on Tuesday the for cash. MINUS It is only tennis action

www.nag.co.za September 2012 79 / HARDWARE /

SOX NETBOOK MAD FURR TECHNEWS A cute fl uff y sleeve for your 10.2” netbook. R249.99 | www.website.co.za KNOWYOURTECHNOLOGY

UEFI The Unifi ed Extensible Firmware Interface is a specifi cation that defi nes a software interface between the operating system and the platform fi rmware. It is the successor to the BIOS fi rmware interface as used in all IBM PC-compatible computers until recently. UEFI ROMs have support for legacy BIOS services, but typically add more functionality, like mouse support, Internet access and such functionality. xHCI Extensible Host Controller Interface is the computer specifi cation that defi nes register level descriptions of a Host controller for USB, capable of interfacing to USB 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 compatible devices. The spec is also referred to as the USB 3.0 Host controller specifi cation. It is functionally diff erent from the older interface standards such as OHCI, UHCI and EHCI in several advantageous ways and as such it’s the host controller interface of choice on most new devices.

SAMSUNG 46” DDR4 ES8000 SERIES 8 SMART The next generation replacement for DDR3 is an interface INTERACTION 3D LED TV This TV is so featured-packed that it’s specifi cation unlike previous standards. Its benefi ts over DDR3 an instant must-buy. We’re talking 3D glasses, built-in wireless, 3 HDMI ports, 3 is wider clock frequencies and data transfer rates, (2,133MHz USB ports, face recognition and motion to 4,266MHz and beyond) and has a lower operating voltage control, 3D sound, and way much more than we can list here. between 1.05 to 1.2V. DDR4 discards the multiple DIMM per R24,999 | www.samsung.co.za channel topology in favour of a point-to-point link mechanism where each channel is directly connected to a single DIMM. DID DDR4 platforms are said to start appearing in 2013 commercially. YO U K No two people N High-K have the same sized hands, O W High-K refers to a material with a high dielectric constant and everyone grips his or her mouse diff erently. When researching ? compared to silicon dioxide s used in semiconductor form factor preferences for ambidextrous mice, Razer’s team of ergonomic scientists manufacturing processes. The implementation of High-K and engineers discovered three key factors gate dielectrics is one of several strategies developed to allow in design: the length of the mouse, the back arch and the grip profi le. With this in mind, further miniaturization of microelectronic components and is the Razer Ouroboros has been designed in part responsible for the ever decreasing node lengths in our for precision gaming, with an adjustable palm rest capable of moving up to 0.9 semiconductors today. The material can be used at various in. (20mm), suitable for people of nodes and is not limited to a specifi c process but can instead be varying hand sizes. applied to various photolithographic processes.

80 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Tech news

Mosh Pit

ASTRUM AHS402 BLUETOOTH HEADSET A stylish-looking and lightweight Bluetooth headset that can be used with your PC, MP3 or MP4 player, Mobile phone, smartphone or tablet PC. R499 | www.astrum.co.za

ADATA 500GB DASHDRIVE A funky looking ultra-light 2.5” external hard drive that supports USB 3.0. TBA | www.adata-group.com

“The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are # interested in more than playing games. They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in 1GB response to those customer requests.” BY THE NUMBERS Mark Richardson, Valve Sony has confirmed that their PlayStation Plus offering Valve recently announced that they will be adding a range of Software will be coming to PS Vita titles to Steam, starting 5 September. From creativity to productivity, this year. In addition, they’re these titles will make use of Steamworks features. upgrading Online Game Save Storage to 1GB.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 81 / HARDWARE /

DREAMMACHINE This month we’ve reverted back to the HD 7970 as our graphics card of choice. Not because all HD 7970s are miraculously better than the GTX 680, but because this particular MSI HD 7970 is exceptional. It’s not cheap not by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s worth the price.

PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro GRAPHICS OS DRIVE M2 1500Watt PSU MSI R7970 Lightning NEW Plextor M3 Pro 256GB SSD R3,300 / www.sonicinformed.co.za R6,799 / www.msi.com R4,999 / www.goplextor.com

STORAGE DRIVE CHASSIS DISPLAY Seagate Barracuda 3TB Cooler Master COSMOS II ASUS VG278H 3D Monitor R1,799 / www.seagate.com R3,399 / www.coolermaster.com R8,999 / za.asus.com

KEYBOARD NEW GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium MOUSE MOUSE MAT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Roccat Kone [+] Roccat Alumic R1,299 / www.gigabyte.com R899 / www.sonicinformed.com R319 / www.roccat.org

SOUND SPEAKERS HEADPHONES Asus Xonar Essence STX Logitech Z-5500 Digital CMStorm SIRUS R1,399 / za.asus.com R3,699 / www.logitech.com R1,199/ www.sonicinformed.com

82 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Hardwired Funny business

As I suggested I would in some of the hardware reviews this issue, I have a bone to pick; no actually, I have something to express regarding NVIDIA’s policies when it comes Intel to overclocking. The outfi t states that their policy has Intel Core i7 3960X not changed from previous GPUs but that is more PR R10,499 / www.intel.com than anything else really. The changes made to the clock ASUS Rampage IV Extreme domains, power targets, performance levels and such in R4,999 / za.asus.com the six series GPUs have, by defi nition, changed NVIDIA’s policies regarding overclocking. 16GB quad channel DDR3 2,400 MHz memory R2,199 / www.gskill.com If you’ve not experienced it directly, well it works something like this: clock speeds on the NVIDIA six series cards cannot be directly manipulated. That is, you can’t key in direct clock values as you could before, instead you are presented as the end-user with an off set. That off set will add said frequency to the base and boost clock in an almost linear manner provided there is no power gating taking place at said clocks. I say that because, depending on the board power limit and the NVIDIA GPU limit which is controlled within “Months later not a single card has shown up from any of these vendors Intel Dream Machine price: and I suspect it’s because NVIDIA R58,806 ended that party very quickly.” the GPU itself, you can’t set the off set and be done with it. Should you reach the power draw threshold; the card will revert to a lower clock state, governed by various controls. NVIDIA claims it does this to protect the hardware, but it’s not that simple. What many of us didn’t know for a long time, is that for every failed graphics card that is returned to the respective vendor for RMA, NVIDIA eventually picks up the tab for that particular GPU. I can’t be sure but I have been told they cover a sizeable percentage of the entire cost, but whichever way it plays out, NVIDIA ends up paying for that damaged GPU, which obviously eats into the profi t margins. I can’t be sure how often or how large this problem was or what its eff ects were, but obviously NVIDIA felt that there was a need AMD to protect themselves from this, and the result is the strange and somewhat backwards overclocking and clock gating AMD Phenom II X6 1100T / AMD FX 8150 R2,299 / www.amd.com you see. I suspect that NVIDIA needed a way to make this palatable to the end-user, hence the turbo, dynamic clocking GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 and such. Sell a curse as a boon and none would be the wiser. R2,999 / www.gigabyte.com Sadly for the outfi t, the overclocking crowd, especially the 16GB G.SKILL TridentX F3-2400C10D extreme overclocking crowd, is not so easily fooled by such R1,299 / www.gskill.com platitudes. NVIDIA is doing us no favours, and it’s evident in how they have eff ectively barred vendors from clocking their cards above the 1,100MHz mark or so. From the ASUS to the Zotac cards, they are all capped. The wonderful Zotac and Colorful cards presented months ago, which were going to do away with the annoying clock domains, turbo functionality and feature fi xed clocks in the region of 1.2GHz are nowhere to be found. The press releases are all that’s left. Months later not a single card has shown up from any of these vendors and I suspect it’s because NVIDIA ended that party very quickly. There’s a lot more to this story, but I’ve run out of space AMD Dream Machine price: as usual, so I’ll continue this next month where I’ll give real examples of cards ruined by such horseplay and why it’s actually good for AMD. R41,707 - Neo Sibeko

www.nag.co.za September 2012 83 / HARDWARE / The lazy gamer’s guide

Website www.gioteck.com RRP PS3 Online Essentials Pack R399.95 | Xbox Elite Essentials Pack R499.95

You know what’s nice? When people off er a helping hand to get you started with new endeavours you’ve no clue how to get started. That’s kind of what Gioteck is up to here, off ering all-in-one kits for getting the tertiary additions to your current-gen gaming career off the ground quickly and easily. To that end, we’ve got two products to introduce you to: the Elite Essentials Pack for Xbox 360, and the Online Essentials Pack for PS3. Let’s all get better acquainted.

Elite Essentials Pack for Xbox 360

his here is an Xbox ear headset boasts an in- RECHARGEABLE the other end plugs into the gamer’s ticket to instant ear earpiece with rubber BATTERY PACK top of your controller to refill T multiplayer Gears of War cushioning. The rubber The controller you got with your your rechargeable battery’s tactics discussion and Forza cushion comes in diff erent Xbox doesn’t include one of these. juice. Can be connected smacktalk. You’ll also fi nd shapes and sizes to fi t any ear Replace the controller’s battery even while you’re playing. everything you need in here to comfortably. Its military motif pack with this, and you’ll never Convenience is amazing. get your Xbox outputting on is sure to instantly turn you have to worry about rushing out your expensive TV at glorious into an actual, real-life soldier to buy batteries in the middle of all 1.5 METRE HDMI CABLE 1080p. Here’s what you get in (naturally), and the ear hook and your noob pwning extravaganzas. It’s a high-end HDMI cable. You the box: noise-cancelling microphone connect it to your Xbox’s HDMI are fl exible to allow you to 2 METRE PLAY & port, and then into your TV’s, and EX-03 NEXT-GEN customise the fi t. In-line volume CHARGE CABLE it makes the pictures that it shoots INLINE HEADSET controls let you adjust the One end of this plugs into a at your eyes prettier. Also handles This lightweight, over-the- volume, or mute the headset. USB port on your Xbox, while audio, all in one useful cable.

84 September 2012 www.nag.co.za The lazy gamer’s guide

TECHNICAL Included with Xbox Essentials: • EX-03 Next-Gen Inline Headset • Rechargeable battery pack • 1.5 metre HDMI cable • 2 metre Play & Charge cable

Included with PS3 Essentials: • EX-01 Bluetooth Headset • XC3-HQ High Speed HDMI cable • RealTriggers non-slip trigger enhancement

PROS • A variety of useful gadgets

CONS • Nothing really

ALTERNATIVES • dreamGEAR Xbox 360 6-in-1 Starter Kit • dreamGEAR 5-in-1 Essentials Kit for PS3

Online Essentials Pack for PS3

or PlayStation gamers eager EX-01 BLUETOOTH XC3-HQ HIGH SPEED REALTRIGGERS NON-SLIP to dive into Uncharted’s HEADSET HDMI CABLE TRIGGER ENHANCEMENT Fmultiplayer but experience The EX-01 boasts a rechargeable This high-end, 1.8 meter HDMI Just in case, for whatever reason, occasional trigger-fi nger fail, battery, powered via micro USB for cable enjoys boasting about its your fi ngers are perpetually or who fancy some voice chat more than four hours of wireless gold contacts, shielded cable covered in bacon grease and when they’re getting their use. An LED status indicator tells and washboard abs, but really tend to slip off R2 and L2, these LittleBigPlanet on, here’s a you at a glance the battery’s power it’s just a cable, much like that rugged pads are clipped onto possible solution. Again, you’ll status, and the ear hook is fl exible of the Xbox kit. your controller’s triggers to also fi nd everything you need and can be reversed to allow use create more grip. in here to get your PS3 running on either your right or left ear. The at maximum resolution on your external speaker promises comfort 1080p-supporting screen. Here’s during extended use, while the what you’ll fi nd: volume and mute controls rest on the outside of the earpiece.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 85 / HARDWARE / Review

GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium

Mechanical Gaming Keyboard DREAM MACHINE Supplier Rectron Website www.gigabyte.com RRP R1,299

IGABYTE’s last gaming should, for all intents and purposes, their off erings in this increasingly keyboard, the K8100, was a incentivise the veterans to up their PLUS crowded market. Gvaliant attempt at a gaming game if only because GIGABYTE has • Ghost software Build quality is one of the best- keyboard – not bad for a fi rst attempt managed to not only match them • USB 3.0 super- selling points of this keyboard. It’s not (we’ll ignore the older lamentable feature for feature, but beat them in speed hub just the weight, but the quality of the off erings for now). Not the worst quality, features and the simplicity • Build quality plastics and the palm rest. It’s robust start to their Aivia line, but again not of it all. without seeming industrial like the anything worth writing home about. Don’t expect tens of macro keys MINUS Corsair K90. The CHERRY MX-Red Happily the Osmium, a successor, here, there are only fi ve, but with • Like all switches may not to be everyone’s is worthy of detailed investigation, the fi ve macro keys are fi ve diff erent mechanical liking as they lack the tactile feedback and it’s not because it’s yet another profi les, so in essence you can save keyboards it’s of the Black switches, but then again mechanical keyboard, as these are up to 125 unique key combinations. loud not everyone likes that resistance. a dime a dozen, but the Osmium is The best part about it is that to switch • No option to We do feel though that the MX-Blue genuinely good. True enough, just between any of them you need not illuminate and Clear switches would have been about any self-respecting vendor open up the Ghost software, you WASD keys only a better middle ground. Key travel is making their foray into gaming can do it all on the keyboard, as each perfect though at 2mm. peripherals has a mechanical profi le is colour-coded. You’ll have to BOTTOM LINE GIGABYTE has included with keyboard, so it’s not unexpected remember which colour corresponds A fantastic Osmium a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Hub, that GIGABYTE should do the same, with each setting though as there’s keyboard that’s USB 2.0 hub and headphone (including however this one stands out. no LCD to indicate this, but we fi gure just shy of being microphone) mini jacks as well. So Unlike some other vendors most people will make do with the fi ve unmatched. you need only the single thick braided who have been making gaming keys with no need to assign more. cable from the keyboard running to the peripherals for a long time, the N-key rollover is a big thing for back of your PC, where the individual Osmium is unexpectedly thin on gaming keyboard manufacturers and cables will plug into their respective fl uff and is rather purposefully this is no diff erent for GIGABYTE. ports. This scheme is simple but one designed. It’s truly a keyboard that Theirs is called Anti-Ghosting for that is immensely appreciated as it’s holds functionality above all else as some reason, but it’s essentially very convenient and eliminates clutter. its aesthetics are a far cry from the the same thing, allowing up to 64 The GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium K8100. Not that it’s unsightly but simultaneous key presses. The is unexpectedly good, better than we’d not label it beautiful either. Still, number is impressive for sure, but we could have ever hoped for from that shouldn’t deter you as the looks is nullifi ed by the absence of any GIGABYTE’s peripheral division. can grow on you. The elegant black human with that many digits. Still it’s Defi nitely give this one serious against the deep blue backlit keys understandable given just how hard it consideration. 9 make for a serious keyboard that is for any manufacturer to diff erentiate - Neo Sibeko

86 September 2012 www.nag.co.za

/ HARDWARE / Review

SPECS Core 1.034GHz GK104-A300 (28nm) Processors 1,344 Render outputs 24 Memory 2,048MB GDDR5 6GHz (144.2GB/sec) API DirectX 11.1 OpenGL 4.x OpenCL 1.X PhysX

GIGABYTE GV-N66TOC-2GD HARDWARE Supplier Rectron Website www.gigabyte.com RRP TBA BENCHMARKS VIDIA has been behaving rather it and, with the right software, you can erratically this year. We’ve pretty much negate it and make sure BASELINE: ASUS GEFORCE GTX680 PLUS covered the obvious re-naming that you operate your GPU at maximum N • Minimal power Hard Reset DX9 and re-assignment of the GK104 GPU performance almost constantly. 1,080p 4xAA draw before from a GPU intended for use The GTX 660 Ti has the same • Virtually inaudible in a mid-range SKU to one that was number of compute cores as the GTX • Dangerously 82.9 bumped up to a high end SKU. This 670; 1,344 to be exact. It seemed Just Cause 2 close to GTX 670 DX10 1,080p 99.6 hasn’t changed, but because of this improbable when the rumours

adjustment, the mid-range parts were started circulating, but it’s turned out MINUS delayed, or at least showed up a lot to be true. How then does NVIDIA 142.22 • Price is an 3DMark11 later than usual. diff erentiate the 660 Ti from the 155.72 unknown right Extreme Not a surprise then to see that the 670? Well this is done primarily by now GTX 560 Ti successor, the GTX 660 way of the render or raster outputs if 2,905 Ti, is based on the same GK104 GPU you will, where only 24 are enabled BOTTOM LINE 3DMark 3,343 as the GTX 680. For the fi rst time instead of the full complement of 32. Vantage A worthy ever, the $499 halo product shares a If you weren’t sure how the various successor to the GPU with a mid-range part. You could GPU parts were grouped, you can 319,58 celebrated GTX argue that the limited edition GTX 560 be sure that the ROPs are not in any 560 Ti, the GTX Heaven Xtreme 39,722 Ti 448 used a similar strategy adding meaningful way tied to the compute 660 Ti cunningly the GF110 GPU to the 560 family; cores. This extends to the memory redefi nes however that was simply getting rid sub-system as well. 1618.606 mid-range of inventory and nothing else. This NVIDIA has gone with an obscure 192- 1871.607 performance. here is a new GPU, cut down from bit bus, however this we can conclude its full feature set or functional units is tied to the ROP confi guration, it appropriately to fi t it snuggly into the follows that one unit is fused off with its target price point which, at the time of corresponding 64-bit channel it leads writing, had yet to be announced. us necessarily to the odd 192-bit bus. end up with the 2GB we see here on the As a result of this GPU sharing All would seem well, if it weren’t for the GIGABYTE card. identical DNA with the GTX 670 and memory confi guration though. With a As for the GIGABYTE card itself, well 680, it’s better to compare similarities symmetrical distribution across the chips, it’s the usual WINDFORCE II cooler rather than diff erence. The list is it should be impossible to have a 2GB and a slight factory overclock. All this shorter that way and it will illustrate frame buff er, yet it is here right before comes together to make a card that is to you why this GPU may, in many our very eyes. What NVIDIA has done, dangerously close to the performance of ways, be a better purchase than the or at last allowed, is the pairing of two the GTX 670. With some overclocking, more expensive parts its derived from, DRAM chips per 64-bit channel (of which which this card does very well, it especially with the peculiar stance on there are two) at regular densities (in this matches the GTX 670 and that is mighty overclocking NVIDIA has taken. It’s well case 256MiB chips) to make up the fi rst impressive. If the GTX 660 Ti lands at the worth mentioning that while the same 1GB of frame buff er memory; the last right price, particularly this one, annoying turbo technology exists on 64-bit channel has two chips of double then you should buy it. 9 the GTX 660 Ti, we’ve grown used to the density (512MiB) and as such you – Neo Sibeko

88 September 2012 www.nag.co.za / HARDWARE / Review

SPECS CPU AMD A8-4500M quad core @ 1.9GHz GPU AMD Radeon HD 7640G + 7670M RAM 6GB DDR3 Display 15.6” LCD @ 1366x768 Storage 640GB HDD 5,400RPM Optical drive DVD/R

HP Pavilion G6 (AMD Trinity) Supplier AMD South Africa Website www.amd.com RRP $725

he last time we got our paws currently available locally yet, but left with a feeling that it could be on an AMD CPU was with the dollar price we’ve been supplied PLUS better. The system allows for what Tthe release of the less-than- should give you a rough idea of the • Good AMD calls Radeon Dual Graphics, impressive Bulldozer octa-cores, cost when it does eventually land on performance but during our tests there was but now it’s time to dip our toes into our shores. • Price never any indication that the APU’s AMD’s next generation of processors Our fi rst impressions in-game • A step in the right built-in Radeon HD 7640G was – Piledriver. Just the toes, for now at were a mixed bag. It took quite a bit direction for AMD working in tandem with the discrete least – Piledriver’s desktop versions of tweaking in Hard Reset’s settings 7670M. We ran a few tests with the have been delayed until October but to get an average frame rate above MINUS 7670M enabled and then disabled, to keep us busy in the meantime, AMD 30, but eventually we settled on • Radeon Dual and every time the performance has provided us with a Piledriver-based the medium setting with just 4x Graphics is increase was only in the region of notebook that bundles everything AA. V2 gave us a similar under-utilised 30%. Given that the discrete card into what’s known as the Trinity APU – challenge, requiring that we set the has nearly double the number of comprising a CPU and GPU in a single game’s visuals to its lowest setting and BOTTOM LINE unified pipelines than the APU’s die. Obviously this doesn’t represent then notch up just the textures and Surprisingly solid GPU, we’d expect much greater the pinnacle of performance from shadows to medium before we saw an performance at performance if the two were indeed the manufacturer, but it does give us average frame rate of 30. Street Fighter this price, but working together. Perhaps updated a glimpse into the future, and, more IV was a diff erent story and impressed Trinity should be drivers and enough time is all it immediately, it gives us a chance to us right away; it put out a frame rate capable of even needs, though. play around with Trinity to see if it’s of 70 at its highest settings. Similarly, more. Trinity easily trumps the likes of possible to have a gaming notebook at Resident Evil 5 sailed along without Intel’s integrated GPUs (which is what a price that won’t break your bank (and a hitch at 48 FPS at full detail. Our you’d expect to fi nd at this price point), a weight that won’t break your back). synthetic benchmarks, 3DMark 11 and but it doesn’t quite revolutionise the Let’s get one thing straight fi rst: this PCMark 7, gave us scores of X583 and concept of an aff ordable gaming is not a gaming notebook. This is a 1,851 respectively; we’re sure that the notebook. It’s certainly a big step in the multi-purpose machine that can also low 3DMark score is down to drivers, right direction, though, and it’ll serve handle a few games, but for the price, though, so don’t let it bother you. you suffi ciently as a backup or you’ll be impressed. On that point, Trinity certainly delivers for a low/ LAN gaming machine. 8 there are no Trinity-based notebooks mid-range notebook, but we were - Geoff Burrows

www.nag.co.za September 2012 89 / HARDWARE / Review

BENCHMARKS BASELINE: ASUS GEFORCE GTX 680 Hard Reset DX9 1,080p 4xAA

87.9 Just Cause 2 DX10 1,080p 99.6

137.48 3DMark11 155.72 MSI R7970 Lightning DREAM MACHINE Extreme Supplier Corex Website www.msi.com RRP R6,799 3,104 3DMark 3,343 Vantage ast issue we reviewed the MSI and overclocking headroom. AMD R7870 Hawk graphics card. managed to charge more for the SPECS 36,051 Even though it’s newer than the same thing. Core Unigine L Heaven Xtreme 39,722 R7970 Lightning, given its pricing Fortunately for us, who aren’t 1.07GHz Tahiti XT and its performance segment, it was convinced by the GHz edition, we’d (28nm) more time-sensitive than the R7970 rather spend our money on the Processors 2027.796 Lightning. R7970 Lightning, which is a fantastic 2,048 1871.607 High-end cards tend to stick around graphics card. Besides the GPU- Render outputs a lot longer. Even though this card Reactor which you should be familiar 32 was available at the end of April, to with from the R7870 Hawk review, the Memory date there still isn’t a better HD 7970. R7970 is the only graphics card that 3,072MB GDDR5 available unless you’re on MSI’s Add to which there hasn’t been a once again requires no modifi cations 4.8GHz database as a serious and competitive better overclocking graphics card, to yield the best results. (268.8GB/sec) overclocker. Even if you’re not, the it’s as relevant today as it was many From the factory it comes API regular MSI Afterburner will take you months ago. There does exist the confi gured and ready for those DirectX 11.1 a long way and farther than any other 680 Lightning, an equally impressive blistering clock speeds above the OpenGL 4.x Radeon HD 7970 will with the same graphics card, but because of NVIDIA’s 1.6GHz mark. In fact MSI’s resident OpenCL 1.X level of eff ort. So there’s some fun to policies (more about that in Hardwired overclocking guru Elmor managed be had with this card, more so than column) the only worthwhile graphics an incredible 1.8GHz on the core. with any other high-end graphics cards to overclock are AMD-powered. Yes, this was done with some exotic PLUS card right now. Great for AMD as NVIDIA’s restrictions cooling and binning of the cards, but • GPU-Reactor Oddly enough, the two graphics have made the competition’s job a there were no modifi cations to the • Component and cards worth owning right now in the little easier. PCB required and retail cards such as build quality competitive overclocking circles are With the recent announcement of this one should be capable of speeds • Performance both from MSI – last generation’s the GHz edition GPUs and slightly approaching those. GTX 580 Lightning before NVIDIA’s older Catalyst 12.7 driver updates, No other Radeon 7970 can MINUS shenanigans began, and this card, the AMD managed to just edge out claim this, as the reference cards • Jaw dropping R7970 Lightning. Between these two, the GTX 680 as the fastest GPU on require extensive and numerous price overclocking stardom awaits. the market. The title isn’t real so modifi cations to circumvent several For the gamers out there, if you’re much as it is academic, but that did protection mechanisms. MSI does BOTTOM LINE looking for the ultimate HD 7970, allow AMD to discount the “regular” away with all the fuss by presenting MSI does it again, look to this card. Its eye-wateringly HD 7970, while adding a $50 USD you with a simple switch between producing the expensive, but then again the best premium to the GHz cards. More of normal operation and LN2 mode best Radeon will always cost you a pretty penny, a business move than anything else which is actually an unlocked mode. HD 7970 on the and this one may just be and certainly not a move inspired With that you’ll need special software market. worth the price. 10 by some profound change in yields which unfortunately isn’t publicly – Neo Sibeko

90 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Review / HARDWARE /

CM Storm

Quick Fire Pro HARDWARE Supplier Sonic Informed Website www.sonicinformed.co.za RRP R979

ith keyboard manufacturers pumping out mechanical keyboards SPECS Wfaster than we can review ‘em, CM Key switches Storm’s Quick Fire Pro arrives with a no-frills Cherry MX Red approach to go with its cheaper-than- mechanical average cost of admission. We previously Polling rate reviewed the Quick Fire Rapid, the Pro’s 1,000Hz/1ms, smaller, slightly cheaper sibling, and found adjustable it to be an excellent off ering, although Backlighting we lamented the lack of a num pad and yes, partial dedicated gaming keys. The Pro’s design is Windows key lock almost identical, but with a num pad added to Yes eliminate the former issue. Cable length Personally, I don’t mind the lack of macro/ 1.8 metres gaming keys, since I hardly ever use them anyway and with the price of mechanical keyboards already so high, more keys just add to the price – but whether or not you’ll miss these will come down to personal preference. No need for programmable functionality also means that fi rst-time use of the keyboard is a no-fuss aff air, since you won’t need to install any software. The size and style of the keyboard might be off ensive to some, as it’s quite bulky and the board itself is very thick, which results in keys that PLUS rest quite high above whatever surface the • Price keyboard is on, forcing your wrist to rest at • Great for gaming a potentially uncomfortable angle. Once and typing you become accustomed to it, however, the • Variable keyboard is brilliantly comfortable and the backlighting mechanical keys are a joy to use whether you’re typing or gaming. MINUS It’s every bit as noisy as we expect • Quite bulky mechanical keyboards to be, which could • Loud, obviously be a problem in certain situations, but some of you might like your gaming loud. Media BOTTOM LINE keys are handled laptop style via a function The Quick key modifi er. I like the variable backlighting, Fire Pro is adjustable between three diff erent modes an excellent, depending on your preference. Overall, the Quick Fire Pro is a mechanical keyboard that reasonably priced may not boast all the high-end features we’ve mechanical come to expect, but is nevertheless a keyboard if you’re on the hunt for worthwhile choice. 8 - Dane Remendes one.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 91 / HARDWARE / Review

BENCHMARKS BASELINE: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

3DMark Vantage CPU

32,876 Cinebench 11.5 46,760 ASUS Maximus V Extreme 9.41 AIDA 64 copy 13.43 Supplier ASUS Website za.asus.com RRP R4,899 30,300MB/s t’s becoming increasingly redundant seen it in action and it indeed works 20,396MB/s SPECS 3DMark03 singing the praises of the ASUS ROG exactly as advertised. Chipset: series of motherboards. With every Essentially it allows you to stop I Intel Z77 113,981 successive motherboard, Peter Tan a benchmark; more accurately it Memory: 127,025 and team push the envelope further allows you to freeze the system in 4x240-pin DDR3 and traverse places that no other a stasis of sorts, where there is no CPU support: vendor would dare. They are, for the load on any component. You simply Intel Core i7 SNB most part, manufacturing perfect resume the system from this stasis IB (LGA1155) motherboards for overclocking. and the benchmark continues as if other Z77 boards with multi-GPU Slots: The distinction between a gaming nothing happened. It’s transparent to confi guration support, this board has 4x PCIe 3.0 x16, motherboard and overclocking board the system and all the system timer the fi rst PCIe slot directly wired to the 3x PCIe x1, PCI is very important here. You can game registers as it normally would. CPU, with the subsequent lanes then on just about any motherboard and The power of this feature cannot be multiplexed accordingly by the usual this one in particular, as impressive as understated and by the same token PLX switching chip. That means, if you it is, is still bested by competitors in it can be used to detrimental eff ect PLUS only use a single graphics card, there the market. In comparison to the G1 in overclocking competitions and • Mind-boggling is no performance penalty associated series motherboard from GIGABYTE, even competitive gaming. We’ll leave features with the older boards that fed all PCIe the Maximus V Extreme is lacking. it to you to imagine what you could • Engineered for lanes to the PEX switching chip fi rst Regarding overclocking features do by eff ectively freezing a game or overclockers so they could be distributed equally though, once again ASUS has benchmark at your discretion with no like nothing ever amongst the allocated slots. produced a motherboard that is not consequence. The worst part about before There’s a lot more to this board only peerless, but light years ahead it is that it’s completely undetectable. than we could possible cover here, of any other board available right This can be circumvented in the MINUS but as stated in the beginning it’s truly now. ASUS has the gonads to set itself overclocking database HWBOT in • Will cost you a redundant to sing ever increasing apart in a way no other vendor would various ways but where gaming is small fortune praise of the ROG boards. For the dare with the inclusion of the OC-Key concerned, there’s no way we are • Controversial ultimate overclocking board available dongle, VGA-Hotwire and the Pause aware that you could check for this. pause function today, there’s no beating the Maximus feature. You’ll be familiar with the OC- Controversial feature indeed, but V Extreme. The Pause feature should Key from the Rampage V Extreme, our nonetheless one that is there on the BOTTOM LINE concern you greatly if you’re a current dream machine motherboard. Maximus V Extreme. The Maximus V competitive overclocker, but if you Not only does the Maximus V Extreme On to the other features; well it’s a Extreme represents don’t care about such, this should match the X79 alternative in the OC- Z77 motherboard that supports four- the pinnacle of be a simple and straightforward key functions but adds a little more in way multi-GPU confi gurations, mainly purchase that needs no overclocking the form of the Pause function. While CrossFireX and SLI. Some diff erences boards from ASUS. motivation. 9 this does sound impossible, we’ve though should be noted that, unlike - Neo Sibeko

92 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Review / HARDWARE /

Sony Xperia S Supplier Sony Mobile Website www.sonymobile.com RRP R5,999

his seemingly ordinary phone from Sony represents the culmination of dozens of promises, years of work and a meeting T of two technologies we’ve been waiting on for years. Yes, yes – we’ve already seen the SE Xperia Play; the concept of a “PlayStation phone” is nothing new, but that was a merely decent mobile phone with a bulky and unwieldy slide-out PlayStation controller strapped to its back. This is a regular smartphone in every sense, it just so happens to be a highly capable gaming device as well. If you sit the Xperia S next to any other current smartphone, it looks a little bulky. The Xperia owes its extended length to that rather unconventional illuminated, transparent strip at the bottom – this will become a more common sight once Sony’s derivative models start rolling out. In our giant ape hands, however, the device felt comfortable, and its curved edges mean it won’t rip a hole in your jeans anytime soon. The Xperia S functions perfectly well as an Android smartphone – it’s nippy through the interface and only ever-so-slightly sluggish while browsing websites. Sony’s Walkman app is a good replacement for the standard Android software, but it does borrow interface elements rather too liberally from Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 equivalent. It more than makes up for this transgression with its bright display and surprisingly capable camera – both video and stills. As a gaming device, the Xperia S shines. The now huge selection of available games from both the PSone and PSP means you can stop playing Angry bloody Birds for a few seconds and spend some time with the classics. Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, Abe’s Odysee, – we could go on. Okay, we will: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, AC: Bloodlines, Burnout Legends. And so many more games are available. The only downside is that (currently) there’s no way to access any of these games you may have already purchased from the PlayStation Store for any other devices – you’ll have to cough up the dosh again. Poo. 9 - Geoff Burrows

SPECS Chipset Snapdragon dual- core @ 1.5GHz GPU Andreno 220 Storage 32GB built-in RAM 1GB Display 4.3” LED

PLUS • Huge selection of games • Fantastic display • Excellent camera

MINUS • Re-purchase required for games

BOTTOM LINE A great mid/high- end smartphone with plenty of gaming capabilities.

www.nag.co.za September 2012 93 / HARDWARE / Review

HARDWARE BENCHMARKS BASELINE: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

3DMark GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5TH Vantage CPU

Supplier Rectron Website www.gigabyte.com RRP R2,999 33,071 Cinebench 11.5 46,760 efore we delve further into the UD5H with a few extras. Top of the fi rst Ultra Durable 5 motherboard list is the inclusion of the Thunderbolt SPECS Chipset 9.42 Bwe have for review, it’s important controller from Intel. We have yet 13.43 that we let you know that the previous to see any devices that use this Intel Z77 AIDA 64 copy Z77X-UD5H review (essentially the connection scheme, but on paper it Memory precursor to this board) was a little looks great, off ering all the benefi ts of 4x240-pin DDR3 28508MB/s misleading. There was nothing USB 3.0 super speed but at double the CPU support 20,396MB/s 3DMark03 wrong with our benchmarks for that bandwidth with an impressive 10GBps Intel Core i7 SNB/ particular motherboard we tested, bit-rate. Not only that, Thunderbolt IB (LGA1155) 116,799 all fi ndings hold true, but what we can be used as a display output Slots didn’t know at the time was that not all standard and a viable alternative to 3x PCIe 3.0 x16, 3x 127,025 UD5H boards were equal. HDMI, maybe even DisplayPort as it’s PCIe x1, PCI That is, depending on the particular run over the PCIe x4 bus. sample, the experience varied slightly That isn’t what will impress you and in some unique cases, a lot. about the UP5TH though. It’s the PLUS annoying change slipped through the We experienced this upon testing a culmination of features that is • Solid cracks. The POST LED is located in an second sample and found it behaved most important with this board. It performance inconvenient place. It’s right between nothing like the original board. overclocks memory better than the • Ultra-Durable 5 the fi rst DIMM slot and the ATX power Further investigation revealed that UD3H but off ers identical effi ciency technologies connector. That means it’s almost the UD5H was a hit and miss aff air and as such it will yield better • Wi-Fi and always obscured by the ATX power for many prolifi c overclockers, and performance. Much like the UD5H it Bluetooth dongle cable and you actually have to look in fact the UD3H (as reviewed in the replaces, it is bundled with a Wi-Fi and • Dual Thunderbolt directly over the board to see what’s previous issue) was more consistent. Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. Add the already going on, annoying indeed especially Note that the inconsistencies in the mentioned Thunderbolt to the feature MINUS because the UD3H had it in an ideal UD5H boards are unlikely to make a list and it’s a wonderfully featured • PS2 port has position. diff erence in everyday use, but in an platform. As with the Maximus V been removed As far as fl aws are concerned that overclocking context, the variation Extreme, its fi rst PCIe slot is wired • POST LED is the only one we could fi nd. It’s not may have posed a problem as a review directly to the CPU so there’s no location a deal breaker but it does serve as is supposed to represent the most switching chip performance penalty, a detractor to an otherwise superb common scenario or experience, not but it remains fully capable of three BOTTOM LINE motherboard. Overall, given a choice the exception, be it for or against a way multi-GPU rendering. The Z77X-UP5TH between the UD5H and the UP5TH, component. The Z77X-UP5TH isn’t fl awless is an amazing defi nitely give the latter precedence as The UP5TH remedies these however. This could be called nit- motherboard, only it’s a better board in all respects, the diff erences with some changes under picking but from the very impressive surpassed by the Z77X-UP5TH is once again a the hood, essentially presenting a UD3H, we have to wonder how such upcoming UP7. great showing from GIGABYTE. 9 more refi ned version of the Z77X- a seemingly inconsequential but - Neo Sibeko

94 September 2012 www.nag.co.za Review / HARDWARE / FEATURE Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 mini-PC Supplier Sonic Informed Website www.sonicinformed.co.za RRP R4,999

SPECS CPU AMD E-350 APU (dual core 1.6 GHz) GPU AMD Radeon HD 6310 RAM 2x 204-pin SODIMM DDR3 he most impressive aspect of ZOTAC’s ZBOX mini- 1,066MHz slots, PC is its small form factor. Sure, it’d be cheaper to expandable up to Tbuy a bunch o’ hardware and custom-build your 8GB own perfectly functional media centre PC, but chances Storage are it’ll be a fair bit larger and more eyesore-ish than Supports 2.5-inch this. Unfortunately, it bears a price tag that might make SATA HDD/SSD you want to just take the route of the eyesore instead. Connectivity Bear in mind that the RRP of R4,999 does not 2x USB 2.0 + 2 x include a hard drive or RAM module, both of which USB 3.0 / HDMI/ you’ll have to purchase and install in this mini-PC DVI out / 6-in-1 yourself, assuming you don’t have spares lying around. memory card It functions as you’d expect any PC to out of the box, reader / Wi-Fi so look forward to spending some time installing an OS 802.11b/g/n (Windows or ), fi ddling with hardware and mucking about with driver installations before you can fi nally get around to enjoying whatever media you plan to enjoy. Still, with it being so small, you could set it up anywhere you have a TV: your bedroom, lounge, bathroom or PLUS garage are all game, and the ZBOX even ships with a • Blu-ray drive bunch of wall-mounting gadgetry that’ll let you get it all • Capable wall-mounted and stuff . performance The Blu-ray drive is a welcome addition, and the ZBOX thoughtfully ships with software that’ll get your MINUS Blu-ray movies up and running. The AMD hardware • Expensive driving the machine’s performance is more than • No RAM, HDD, adequate for general PC use, and for watching HD or OS video. It’ll work fi ne for playing less demanding games as well, but don’t expect too much from it on the BOTTOM LINE gaming front. It’s a media centre Ultimately, the ZBOX is a competent mini-PC that PC that does does exactly what it says it’ll do. The price is quite steep, exactly what it but if you’re willing to spend the cash, you’re getting a says it’ll do, once fully functioning, entertainment-centric PC that you’ve added the can be discreetly hidden wherever you’d like. missing bits. - Dane Remendes 7

www.nag.co.za September 2012 95 / HARDWARE / Reviews

ADATA XPG SX900 128GB SSD Supplier ADATA Website www.adata-group.com RRP R1,599 SPECS Controller efore we get into this review, the use of cheaper NAND without SandForce it’s worth noting that since we compromising user data capacity SF-2281 Breview so many SSDs here, because of the normal 7% spare NAND type it’s time we made you, our readers, area reserved on SSDs total 25nm MLC NAND aware of a few things regarding capacity. The ADATA drive however Cache how data capacities are measured has decreased the over-provisioning None and reported. Since this has a direct for wear level management and Form factor eff ect on the ADATA SX900 SSD, this garbage collection, and what 2.5” is as good a time as any to set the that means is that you now get Interface record straight, at least for this review. additional space on your drive for a SATA 6Gbps What we refer to as Gigabytes total of 119GiB instead of the usual of storage (1024^23) is denoted as 111GiB on other drives. “GiB” mathematically and offi cially, Take the additional space and not GB (10^9). This confusion stems the tried and tested SF-2281 PLUS from Microsoft operating systems controller performance and you • Extra capacity reporting space as GB instead of GiB have a drive that off ers a little more • Price as they should. The reason for this value than your typical SSD. It’s is convenience more than anything no record breaker but it certainly MINUS else; alas it’s beyond the scope of isn’t slow either. For the asking • Average this review so we’ll leave it at that, price you could do a lot worse. So performance for however it’s information worth if you’ve been looking to buy an an SF-2281 drive knowing especially when dealing SSD without spending too much, with SSDs such as this one. but want descent performance, BOTTOM LINE Most SF-2281 controlled consider this drive; it’s got a slightly A truly aff ordable SSDs such as this one have an larger capacity, off ers competitive SSD with a little overprovision scheme called performance but remains more space than RAISE. In essence RAISE and keenly priced. 8 competing drives. over-provisioning would allow – Neo Sibeko

Crucial M4 512GB SSD Supplier Drive Control Corporation Website www.crucial.com RRP TBA

o not be fooled by the high perhaps look elsewhere. SPECS read and sequential write It’s not all doom and Controller speeds of this drive. Those gloom though, as there is one D SandForce SF- are a by-product of the chosen redeeming aspect about this 2281 Marvell 9174 controller. The drive drive and that is its selling price. NAND type shows its true colours when tested You’ll not fi nd a cheaper 512GB 25nm MLC NAND thoroughly with non-sequential SSD anywhere. So do consider Cache reads and un-optimized workloads the performance penalty for None courtesy of IOMETER. going this route, but to off set that Form factor We fi rst suspected this when you’ll get a large capacity SSD 2.5” we recorded the 2nd lowest Total that will still run circles around Interface IOPs result on an SSD at 6,237.85 any magnetic drive. That alone SATA 6Gbps IO/s. The trend continued as we should make this SSD worthy tested other workloads including of consideration, especially for an average IO response time of those who wish to move away 1.2,823ms. Oddly enough the entirely from magnetic drives Max IO response time was not for their long term and volume as bad as we’d have expected storage purposes. PLUS and it actually bested most of the The bundle is a migration kit • Pricing drives we’ve ever tested at only which means you’ll get a SATA

14.1,143ms. Those numbers along cable and software which will MINUS with the respectable sequential allow you to clone your primary • Performance read and write performance stop drive onto this SSD. Useful indeed, this drive from being passable which further increases the value BOTTOM LINE at best. Granted, this is an older of the Crucial M4 drive. We aren’t This is the drive from 2011 when such fans of the performance, but it’s cheapest 512GB performance was not to be looked undeniable that the pricing alone SSD you’ll fi nd on at so unkindly, so it hasn’t aged makes this SSD worth a the market. well and for those concerned look. 7 about performance above all, – Neo Sibeko

96 August 2012 www.nag.co.za Review / HARDWARE /

Acer P238HL

Supplier Acer Website www.acer.co.za RRP TBA SPECS PLUS Resolution • Built-in speakers ’d hate to work in the fi eld of 1920x1080 • Vibrant display computer monitor design. Brightness ISure, there’s the techie stuff 250 nits MINUS that makes it fun, but ultimately, Contrast ratio • Terrible stand comsumers just want something 100,000,000:1 design that displays an image and does (ACM) • Narrow viewing so well. But there’ll always be Response time angles that one engineer who wakes 5ms up in the morning and decides BOTTOM LINE “let’s do something diff erent Should be suitable – let’s give our next monitor a as a second completely impractical stand.” monitor for a The stand in question is what notebook, or for tries so desperately to hold up a backup console this otherwise fi ne monitor, display, but that’s but doesn’t do a very good job about it. at it. Instead, this prop-style stand means that the screen is always at an angle (either 10° or display to reduce viewing- speakers (of the tinny, poorly and bright (perhaps overly so), but 30° – the weight of the monitor angle discolouration and neck positioned-at-the-back variety, its eff ective vertical viewing angle pushes back on the stand if it’s strain, but if you’re using it as a but nonetheless) so you can use isn’t wide enough, which means at anything in-between) and is second display for a laptop, you’ll this as a standalone display for discolouration will occur during not height-adjustable. It’s also probably survive. your 360 or PS3, or output audio even regular use. Otherwise, this rather fl ighty on any sort of If the poor stand design wasn’t from your PC if your video card screen performs quite well with smooth desk surface. In practical enough, Acer decided to exclude supports audio via HDMI. accurate colour reproduction terms, this monitor is unsuitable DVI input from the back panel – The quality of this display across the spectrum, and a

for regular desktop use which replacing it with a second HDMI almost makes up for its design solid refresh rate. 5 requires an eye-level, fl at-facing input. At least this screen has transgressions. Colours are vivid - Geoff Burrows

Sapphire Vapor-X HD7770 GHz Edition Supplier Sapphire Website www.sapphiretech.com RRP R1,899 SPECS PLUS Core • Quiet raphics cards are getting 1.1GHz Cape Verde • Performs well for ever more expensive, (28nm) an HD7770 despite that games can G Processors • Looks good be played on just about any GPU 640 these days, including integrated Render outputs MINUS solutions. As a direct result of the 16 • None need for a common feature set Memory with ancient consoles, just about 1,024MB GDDR5 BOTTOM LINE any and all discreet cards are good 5.2Hz (83.2GB/sec) The best HD7770 enough to play games at 720p with API you’re likely to better visuals than you could hope DirectX 11.1 ever get. to achieve on any console. OpenGL 4.x That may change next year, OpenCL 1.X but for now that’s the situation. As such, adapters like the Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7770 are more relevant than ever. For under R2,000 you can eff ectively play all current games at full this is the GHz edition. Besides is impressive. Other games fared even under load, perfect for quiet 1080p. You may not be able to making the name impossibly long, better like Just Cause 2 at 1080p in gaming and HTPCs. Given the turn on all the bells and whistles, Sapphire have boosted the clock DX10 mode, scoring above 64fps, low power draw, the pleasant but you can at least produce a speed by 100MHz, allowing the HD a frame rate high enough to play performance and the near silent sharper image on your display 7770 to play games such as Hard the game in stereoscopic mode. operation, we’d recommend it for than your console can. Reset at full resolution with 4xAA More than the performance, those on a tight budget looking to With that said, be advised that enabled. It won’t be the smoothest Sapphire has changed their usual upgrade from older graphics cards. this card is not to be confused with experience ever, but we were able cooler to a much quieter, more the previous Sapphire HD 7770 to record 33fps at such a setting eff ective and much better looking – Neo Sibeko 8 Vapor-X card with a single fan, as on a sub-R2,000 graphics card dual fan solution. It’s barely audible,

www.nag.co.za September 2012 97 / GAME OVER /

GG It’s beyond a game

There’s been a bunch of stories in the news recently about games, game violence, gamers, and the implications of how these things may or may not intersect in the context of real life1. Predictably, there’s also been a total lack of anything even remotely resembling intelligent, 1 Stabbing and constructive debate on the topic, because the very instant shooting, mostly, somebody suggests that maybe there might be some sort although it’s of problem here, perhaps, everybody simply shuts out interesting that everybody else with arguments that amount, more or nobody ever talks about games less, to some drab variation of “NO U”. inspiring people I suppose nobody wants to acknowledge the possibility to join the police that they’re some sort of mass murderer in training, but force or the army. let’s stop and think about this calmly and rationally for Then again, that’s just stabbing and a moment – I mean, people becoming desensitised to shooting on the gratuitous graphic violence is not exactly something that right side of the legal moral panic mongers made up for a big-hitter headline system. If Arkham on some FOX News Special Edition. It’s a thing that Asylum inspires you to be Batman, actually happens. though, that’s Real research backed up by real people who work with probably something real science has shown that real repeated exposure to any for others – occurring even in adolescence and into else entirely. Batman real stimulus results in a real decrease in the real subject’s adulthood. In an interactive environment with zero never stabbed or shot anybody, real levels of response, real fact. It’s the same reason that consequences for the player except extra points for more but I’m sure eating pizza every night would mean that, over time, pizza kills, this is potentially risky territory. somebody with a becomes increasingly less, you know, OMG PIZZA2. Is it really such an untenable premise that violent relevant degree has It’s easy to say that “Oh, I grew up playing video games, video games are not only desensitising players to something to say about all that... bat and I didn’t go on a sniper rampage at the local mall”, violence, but also promoting the same self-centred sense stuff . It’s borderline but meanwhile, back in reality, video games today are of purpose that’s such an innate part of who we are as obsessive [we call not video games in 1986. When I was six, I played games children and teenagers? Just look at the overwhelming him Savage at the like Bouncing Babies and Asteroids. Today, six year olds number of people who bragged that they shot every NAG offi ce, Ed]. are playing Call of Duty. There’s simply no comparison innocent bystander in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s 2 Okay, so pizza isn’t between now and then. controversial “No Russian” mission, and I’ll show you the best example. I In terms of developmental psychology, human beings an overwhelming number of people who don’t realise could eat pizza every are in a near constant state of flux, which begins that things like that can and do actually happen, and night. I would eat pizza every night at infancy and continues until death, with periods were instead more concerned with a frag count. That’s except, you know, of extreme egocentricity – corresponding with a something worth thinking about. OMG MORBID demonstrable lack of empathy and meaningful regard - Tarryn van der Byl OBESITY.

Extra Life By Scott Johnson – ©2012 All rights reserved – Myextralife.com

#1 You shall not pass #2 The Dark Knight Rinses

98 September 2012 www.nag.co.za