SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING GAMING, COMPUTER & TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE VOL 15 ISSUE 11 THE FUTURE We know stuff about the future, and you will too. PC / PLAYSTATION / XBOX / NINTENDO REVIEWS Far Cry 3 LEGO The Lord of the Rings + MORE! CRYSISCRYSIS 33 PROPHETPROPHET ISIS BACK.BACK. STARTSTART SPREADINGSPREADING THETHE NEWS.NEWS. Editor Michael “RedTide“ James [email protected] Assistant editor Geoff “GeometriX“ Burrows Staff writer Dane “Barkskin “ Remendes Contents Contributing editor Lauren “Guardi3n “ Das Neves Regulars 12 Ed’s Note Technical writer Features 14 Inbox Neo “ShockG“ Sibeko 18 Bytes 32 WII U ROUND-UP International correspondent 53 home_coded All the excitement surrounding the launch of Miktar “Miktar” Dracon 66 Everything else Nintendo’s Wii U meant that a few stragglers managed to stray from our launch herd, unnoticed and un- Contributors reviewed. We round ‘em up and tag ‘em. Rodain “Nandrew” Joubert Walt “Shryke” Pretorius Opinion 34 THE FUTURE: Miklós “Mikit0707 “ Szecsei 18 I, Gamer Pippa “UnexpectedGirl” Tshabalala A STARTLING LOOK INTO THE YEAR 2013! Tarryn “Azimuth “ Van Der Byl 20 The Game Stalker With 2012 done and dusted, it’s time to gaze ahead, Adam “Madman” Liebman 22 The Indie Investigator deep into 2013’s crystal ball for a mysterious mix of 24 Miktar’s Meanderings speculation, excitement and unbridled anticipation. Art director 71 Hardwired It’s a year that promises to bring Battlecruiser-loads of Chris “SAVAGE“ Savides 82 Game Over invigorated gaming fl avour. We’re ready for it. Photography Chris “SAVAGE“ Savides 43 CRYSIS 3 Dreamstime.com Preview Prophet’s the suit but the suit is also Alcatraz and Fotolia.com 50 Fuse where New York was the jungle is and… Crysis 3 brings questions, answers and all the sandbox action your Sales executives heart desires, with all the visceral punch and visual Cheryl “Cleona“ Harris / [email protected] +27 72 322 9875 tenacity that Crytek can muster. Step into the Liberty Reviews Dome with us, and we’ll tell you more. Martin Green 083 445 0371 52 Reviews: Introduction [email protected] 52 Mini reviews: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed Football Manager 2013 Marketing and promotions manager 54 Far Cry 3 Jacqui “Jax” Jacobs 58 LEGO The Lord [email protected] +27 82 778 8439 of the Rings 60 F1 Race Stars Offi ce assistant 62 Family Guy: Back Paul Ndebele to the Multiverse The Sims 3: Seasons Contact details P .O. Box 237, Olivedale, 2158, South Africa 63 Code of Princess Tel +27 11 704 2679 64 Hotline Miami Fax +27 11 704 4120 Paper Mario: Sticker Star Subscription department [email protected] Hardware Internet www.nag.co.za 68 Tech News www.zinio.com/nag 70 Dream Machine www.facebook.com/NAGMagazine 72 Cooler Master HAF XB www.twitter.com/nagcoza 73 Turtle Beach Ear Force PX5 Printing SteelSeries 6Gv2 gaming Impress Web Printers keyboard H1 031 263 2755 74 Razer Ouroboros mouse and Razer Ironclad Distribution mouse mat On the Dot Antec KÜHLER H20 920 Stuart Dickerson / 011 401 5932 75 PALIT GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream H2 Copyright 2013 NAG 76 Intel Core i7 3970X All rights reserved. No article or picture in this magazine may 78 GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3 be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the express written consent of the publisher. Opinions Rev 3.0 expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editors. All trademarks and registered 79 Corsair Hydro Series H100i trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners. 80 SteelSeries Spectrum X7B Don’t Pirate NAG! Genius Gila gaming mouse H3 this magazine when you’re fi nished with it. 81 Intel DX79SR 10 February 2013 www.nag.co.za / EDITOR’S NOTE / Self-improvement 101: This might make you a better person. Or it won’t. EMP REBIRTH Let me start this with a bolt of lightning one fine Sunday evening towards the end of December. Picture it: Gauteng 2012. It had been hot and stuffy the whole day; my car’s temperature gauge reported 28° at eight in the morning. So nasty in fact it put serious strain on the air conditioners the whole day. As with all hot summer afternoons on the Highveld, the day wrapped up with a thunder storm, some relief from the heat and a fresh start for the next day. But no, not this time; this storm brought a grand total of 18 drops of rain and a vicious crack of lightning that blew the Internet plus a TV, the Xbox and the HDMI port of the DSTV decoder. It wasn’t even a direct hit. So there I was stranded without an Internet connection and no way of fixing it – this lasted a week because in December people who fix things are never around. I felt disconnected from the world and had no idea what I was going to do with my last few days of the holiday. Without games to play what was I going to do? After a few hours exhausting my idea cache of outlandish schemes to get Internet from somewhere I choose instead to try something different. Something I only did at night – read a book. In the day! Other things I did included a bit of recreational writing, installing pipes to protect a cable outside, sorted out my because of some silly social convention or because you were cupboard and so on. The end of 2012 into 2013 had a lesson too scared to try something diff erent? Would you have been for me and that lesson was balance. I had been spending happy to let go and watch it all burn, satisfi ed that you were too much time playing games and not doing everything all good? With no regrets? How do you feel about the people else. That bolt of lightning lit up a whole new world for in your life now, your job, goals you’ve given yourself or me – a world I had forgotten existed and a world I actually goals you have achieved? Just think about it. The end of the enjoyed being a part of. I’ve restored the balance as it world came and went and here you are still doing the same were and now the last part of my “lesson” is to pass it on. things you hate or putting up with people you don’t like. Or Go ahead and pick a day on any weekend where you don’t are you really happy with everything as it is? I only had this touch your phone, tablet, PC or TV. Give it all up and get passing thought on that day and it helped me to identify stuck into all those things you keep putting off because with so many of the sheep out there – the normal masses of you can’t leave your technology alone for longer than a few Joe public. I usually have trouble identifying with this kind minutes. Go on, I dare you. of thing because of the great job I’ve got and a life where everything just goes my way... WHAT I DID AT THE END OF THE WORLD Just kidding folks, this whole thing is just to get you off As many of you know the world was supposed to end on the your lazy butt and out there, motivated to do something you 21st of December last year. Well it didn’t – this is evident love and make this year count. even to the people sitting at the back of the class. But back to In case you’re wondering I spent my last day on Earth me – the thing I thought about on that day and then after it riding water slides in an amusement park. I remember (besides being disappointed no zombie apocalypse happened) looking out at the ocean from the highest slide platform and was regret. The thing here is this… thinking I’m okay if it all ended now. If the world did end in December, who would you have It’s February for you but it’s a New Year for us… spent it with? Someone you actually like? Did you have - RedTide anything you really wanted to do that you hadn’t done Editor 12 February 2013 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 FEBRUARY 2013 From: Matthew nor do I fi nd the stories in today’s games Subject: Has Multiplayer interesting or thought provoking. The Ruined Games? only single player game I really enjoy and I started playing games when I was 6 fi nished recently was Fallout 3, my all- years old, the fi rst game I ever player time favourite game. LETTER OF THE MONTH was Duke Nukem 3D, The LAST Duke The competitive side of Multiplayer Nukem game ever made! From then on has in a few ways ruined gaming for me, if The ‘Letter of the Month’ prize is sponsored by the good folks at I was hooked on games, playing stuff the game doesn’t pose a serious challenge Megarom. The winner receives two like ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Global Operations’ on or its story isn’t of GREAT interest to games for coming up with the most my father’s OLD Pentium 4 computer me I’m unable to play it longer than 30 inspired bit of wisdom of cleverness.