B ATTLEFIELD V M ETRO EXODUS B L ACK O P S IIII BATTLE FOR ATLAS ’S HOW UBISOFT REVIEWED DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN STATE OF DECAY 2 EXCLUSIVE LASER LEAGUE TELLAR SPACE OPERA IS BRINGING S DESTINY 2: TOYS-TO-LIFE BACK FROMWARMIND THE DEAD #321 AUGUST 2018 That wasn’t flying. That was falling with style Yes, that’s a toys-to-life game on the cover of Edge. A genre you thought was gone for good following the demise of Disney Infinity and the disappearance of Skylanders. Yet Starlink: Battle For Atlas is an entirely different beast. Where Warner and Activision aimed their wares at the very young, Ubisoft’s game skews a little older. And that’s not just a matter of presentation: this is a tricky game set in a dynamic world that responds to your input, and your lack of it, the bad guys overrunning the entire solar Exclusive subscriber edition system if you don’t keep them in check. The toys themselves aren’t just plastic playthings to be dropped, one by one, onto an NFC scanner; they’re modular, their components snapped off and on, the change reflected instantly in game, both visually and mechanically. It is a step up for toys-to-life, in other words, and we’d expect nothing less from Ubisoft. This is a publisher with a history of betting big on long odds, and coming out with a win. Elsewhere this month we speak to Andy Wilson, who these days oversees the development operation at Mafia III studio Hangar 13. Yet he was once hired by Ubisoft to help establish a new studio in Toronto. Why? Wilson had done the same job for Codemasters’ ill-fated studio in Guildford. Ubisoft wanted someone who had seen it all go wrong, and learned from it. Elsewhere, in An Audience With... we speak to Jade Raymond, who these days is general manager of EA’s Montreal studio, Motive. A decade or so ago Raymond, a programmer by trade, interviewed at Ubisoft. She was asked, almost off the cuff, what she thought the future of Prince Of Persia should look like. She answered, in effect, GTAIII. She was hired, and assigned to a small team working on a new IP. Within ten years, sales of the Assassin’s Creed series had exceeded 100 million units. These are the reasons why Starlink graces our cover this month. Sure, the toys-to-life genre looks dead. But there’s no publisher on the planet with a better chance of resurrecting it. Our story begins on p56. games 104 Hype Play 32 Metro: Exodus 96 Detroit: PC, PS4, Xbox One Become Human PS4 36 Call Of Duty: Black Ops IIII 100 State Of Decay 2 PC, PS4, Xbox One Xbox One, PC 40 Battlefield V 104 Destiny 2: Warmind PC, PS4, Xbox One PC, PS4, Xbox One 44 Octopath Traveler 106 Onrush Switch PC, PS4, Xbox One 48 Kingdom Hearts III 108 Yoku’s Island Express PS4, Xbox One PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One 44 50 Semblance 110 Smoke And Sacrifice PC, Switch PC, Switch 52 Hype Roundup 112 Just Shapes And Beats PC, Switch 114 Quarantine Circular PC 116 Laser League PC, PS4, Xbox One Explore the iPad Follow these links edition of Edge for throughout the magazine additional content for more content online 4 118 #321 70 sectionsAUGUST 2018 Knowledge 8 Download complete 68 Subscriptions 76 Lest We Forget How changes in data law have Sign up, save money, and get a Every frame is a painting in affected the videogame industry free Switch battery pack/stand Ardman and DigixArt’s artfully divided 11-11: Memories Retold 12 Beach house Dispatches Why the maker of Mafia III is 84 The Making Of... expanding to the UK seaside 22 Dialogue How a group of Half-Life modders Edge readers share their opinions; discovered the fear and wonder 14 Cold case one wins a year’s PlayStation Plus of the ocean with Subnautica How Over The Alps crystallises the thrill of being a secret agent 24 Trigger Happy 90 Studio Profile Steven Poole identifies where the We talk to Digital Extremes about 16 Soundbytes real social danger lies in games how a catastrophe led to one of Game commentary in snack-sized today’s most successful shooters mouthfuls, featuring Todd Howard 26 Big Picture Mode Nathan Brown faces down 118 Time Extend 18 My Favourite Game the (edible) demon of PR past A look back at the incomparable Paul Rose, aka Scuba, on rubber Super Mario Maker – a hard act keys and reviving Street Fighter 28 Hold To Reset to follow in every sense 106 Alex Hutchinson on developing a 20 This Month On Edge realistic business model in 2018 122 Get Into Games The things that caught our eye Profiles of the universities and during the production of E321 institutions that can prepare you Features for a career in the game industry 76 56 Rocket Science 137 The Long Game How Starlink: Battle For Atlas Progress reports on the games has the tricky business of toys we just can’t quit, featuring 56 to life down to a fine art the non-stop evolution of Pokémon Go 70 An Audience With… Jade Raymond, studio founder and EA’s head of Star Wars, on how to take over the universe 5 EDITORIAL Nathan Brown editor Jen Simpkins deputy editor Andrew Hind art editor Russell Lewin production editor CONTRIBUTORS Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, Georgine Hodsdon, Alex Hutchinson, Cliff Newman, Emmanuel Pajon, Steven Poole, Phil Savage, Chris Schilling, Chris Thursten, Alex Wiltshire, Mark Wynne SPECIAL THANKS Ali Fearnley, Lee Kirton, Stefan McGarry, Heather Steele ADVERTISING Clare Dove commercial sales director Kevin Stoddart account manager (+44 (0) 1225 687455 [email protected]) CONTACT US +44 (0)1225 442244 [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS Web www.myfavouritemagazines.com Email [email protected] Telephone 0344 848 2852 International +44 (0) 344 848 2852 CIRCULATION Tim Mathers head of newstrade +44 (0) 1202 586200 PRODUCTION Mark Constance head of production US & UK Clare Scott production project manager Hollie Dowse advertising production manager Jason Hudson digital editions controller Nola Cokely production manager MANAGEMENT Aaron Asadi chief operating officer Paul Newman group content director Tony Mott brand director Warren Brown senior art editor Rodney Dive head of art & design Dan Jotcham commercial finance director Printed in the UK by William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Future. 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They remember when squarely in the sights of the EU’s General the new regulations. “It stifles tech you started playing, what weapons you Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which considerations,” says Joe Adams, chief like to use, who’s winning, where you came into force on May 25. “For games, financial officer at mobile studio Space meet your end, where you quit, and they GDPR has had a really big impact,” Ape Games, developer of Samurai report that information back to their Eitan Jankelewitz, partner at legal firm Siege.