ISSUE 216 AUGUST 2018
EDITORIAL Editor Chris Burke burkey13a [email protected] Dead good Senior Art Editor Warren Brown wozbrown Deputy Editor Daniella Lucas CelShadedDreams
Production Editor Russell Lewin FloatedRelic264
Paul Taylor Taylor Paul Paulus McT Paulus Staff Writer Adam Bryant FirebreedpunkUnder Down Man Our
CONTRIBUTORS Writing Kimberley Ballard, Vikki Blake, Zoe Delahunty-Light, Ian Dransfield, Fraser Gilbert, Callum Hart, Steve Hogarty, Leon Hurley, Phil Iwaniuk, Martin Kitts, Dave Meikleham, Dom Peppiatt, Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, Paul Walker-Emig, Josh West, Ben Wilson dead stuff Art Georgine Hodsdon All copyrights and trademarks are recognized and respected
BUSINESS Vice President, Sales Stacy Gaines, [email protected] Zombies have been on our minds a lot lately. Not Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Isaac Ugay, [email protected] East Coast Account Director literally, like chewing on our brains… but here Brandie Rushing, [email protected] East Coast Account Director Michael Plump, [email protected] OXM Midwest Account Director at we’re always mindful of the inevitable Jessica Reinert, [email protected] West Coast Account Director Austin Park, [email protected] zombie apocalypse. But so long as we’ve all got West Coast Account Director Brandon Wong, [email protected] West Coast Account Manager Xbox Ones, good Wi-Fi, and a load of gaming Tad Perez, [email protected] Director of Marketing Robbie Montinola Director, Client Services Tracy Lam snacks, we’d be all set to wait it out, especially Director, Retail Sales Bill Shewey Chris Burke CIRCULATION as this month we’re almost overrun by great new Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Editor Head of Production Mark Constance The mag had been Production Project Manager Clare Scott undead-centric games. First off we got ourselves Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby without an editor for Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson a scoop on an as-yet unrevealed character in Production Manager Nola Cokely a couple of weeks, so SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES when Chris joined as Visit us on the web at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/official- Overkill’s The Walking Dead—and you can read xbox-magazine-subscription, email us at contact@myfavouritemagazines. com, call us toll free at 1-844-779-2822, or write to us at Official Xbox new OXM ed, we Magazine Customer Care, P.O. Box 2024, Langhorne, PA 19047.
immediately put him about that in our big preview of the game on p24! BACK ISSUES in charge of the office To order back issues, please call us at 1-844-779-2822, or visit us on the We also chatted with that game’s devs, and the web at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/xbox-the-official- scalpel, because really magazine-back-issues/ REPRINTS Please contact us at Future US, Inc., we’re not supposed chaps behind Undead Labs’ State Of Decay 2, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 to have sharp objects. Phone (650) 872-1642 about just why we gamers have such undying love Fax (650) 872-2207 Website www.futureus.com ISSN 1534-7850 © 2018 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part for the zombie genre. Enjoy, and keep a look out without permission is prohibited. Microsoft, Xbox, and the Xbox logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or in other OXM countries and are used under license from Microsoft. All other trademarks for next month’s issue, as heads out to E3 to and copyrights are the property of their respective holders.
Global Chief Revenue Officer Charlie Speight find out what Xbox releases we can look forward Vice President, Marketing & Operations Rhoda Bueno Vice President, Product Development Bart Jaworski Finance Director Frederick Alfredo to in the coming year! Senior HR Generalist Mary Mauck Future US, Inc. is part of Future plc. Future produces carefully targeted special-interest magazines, websites, and events for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, and smart buying advice, and that are a pleasure to read or visit. Today we publish more than 150 magazines, 65 websites, and a growing number of events in the U.S., UK, France, and Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries across the world.
OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE (ISSN 1534-7850) is published 13 times a year (monthly THE OXM TEAM plus Holiday issue following December issue), by Future US, Inc., One Lombard Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111. Phone: (650) 872-1642. Fax (650) 872-2207. Website: www.futureus.com. Periodicals postage paid in San Bruno, CA and at additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Time Warner Retail.Canadian orders must be prepaid. Canadian price includes postage and GST #R128220688. PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do not include newsstand specials. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Official Xbox Magazine, PO Box 2024, Langhorne, PA 19047, USA. Standard Mail enclosed in the following edition: None. Ride-Along enclosed in the following editions: None. Canadian returns: IMEX Global Solutions, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada. Future US, Inc. also publishes @Gamer, Crochet Today!, Mac|Life, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. Entire contents copyright © 2018, Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in Official Xbox Magazine. Reproduction on the Internet of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the prior written consent of Official Xbox Magazine. Products named in the pages of Official Xbox Magazine are trademarks of their respective companies. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Daniella Lucas Adam Bryant Warren Brown Russell Lewin Deputy editor Staff writer Senior art editor Production editor Dani headed to LA to We worked Adam Warren got ever so This month, Russell check out Kingdom really, really hard this excited when we told reminded the team Hearts and go to month, particularly on him he could put loads that he’s been working Disneyland. Oh that’s fine, our zombie videogame of blood splatters all over on OXM for exactly a Future plc is a public company Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne Dani, we’ll just stay here feature. Ironically, he the big cover feature. year now. It was a bit quoted on the London Stock Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand and work while you ride is now pretty much a Which makes us wonder like he wanted a medal (symbol: FUTR) www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 Pirates Of The Caribbean. zombie husk. what his house is like. or something.
004 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE :DWFK 6WUDQJHU 7KLQJV RQ 1HWIOL[
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;ER[ 2QH ; VXSSRUWV . JDPLQJ ;ER[ 2QH 6 VXSSRUWV . JDPH XSVFDOLQJ %URDGEDQG LQWHUQHW UHTXLUHG ,63 IHHV DSSO\ 2QOLQH PXOWLSOD\HU UHTXLUHV ;ER[ /LYH *ROG VXEVFULSWLRQ VROG VHSDUDWHO\ 2Q ;ER[ 2QH DFWLYH *ROG PHPEHUVKLS UHTXLUHG WR SOD\ IUHH JDPHV \RX·YH UHGHHPHG 5HVWULFWLRQV $SSO\ insider 010 THE BIG STORY: RAGE 2 012 XBOX @ E3 014 BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 2 016 THE BIG PICTURE: STARBOUND 018 FORTNITE 020 OPINIONS previews 024 OVERKILL’S THE WALKING DEAD 010 030 RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 032 OOBLETS 034 STRANGE BRIGADE 036 DAYZ 038 SHENMUE I & II 040 BELOW 044 SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER 046 SHADOW’S AWAKENING 048 SOULCALIBUR VI 050 ATOMIC HEART 050 8-BIT ARMIES SUBSCRIBE NOW ON PAGE 081
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006 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 050 HYPERGUN 050 ANTHEM 050 ARAGAMI: SHADOW EDITION 050 ADVENTURE TIME: PIRATES OF THE ENCHIRIDION features 052 ZOMBIE GAMES 060 OXM 052 INVESTIGATES… BACK-COMPAT reviews 070 OWLBOY 072 MASTERS OF ANIMA 074 CITY OF BRASS 076 YOKU’S ISLAND EXPRESS 078 IMPACT WINTER extra 060 070 084 NOW PLAYING: DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED YOUR 086 THE CREW FREE 087 FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE DASHBOARD 088 HOW TO… BACKGROUNDS CUSTOMISE YOUR DASHBOARD 090 RETROSPECTIVE: STRANGLEHOLD 094 10 BEST DEATHS ON XBOX 098 DISC SLOT: http://bit.ly/ ANDY GRIFFITHS 090 oxmbackgrounds Problems dowloading? Email [email protected]
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More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 007 INSIDER AUGUST 2018 insider First off this month, we’ve got news just in of post-apocalyptic shooter/vehicular carnage sequel Rage 2 on p10. It’s looking like a pretty wild ride, and we can’t wait to get hands-on with it. With the year’s biggest games event E3 just around 010 the corner, we report on what we hope Microsoft are preparing to announce at their own Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles—see p12 for more. Then over on p14 we explore a little more of the galaxy in the much anticipated Beyond Good And Evil 2 . A load of new details have popped up, as 014 well as footage of how the heroes of this amazing- looking world will fight their foes. We hope to have even more to show you next issue. There’s more space-based adventure ahead thanks to the re-emergence of Starbound (p16). After going 016 dark for quite some time after its initial Xbox One announcement a few years ago, it’s now finally close to releasing on the console—we’ve played it and everything. Finally, we’ve got something that’s come from space and crash-landed into Fortnite as we go through all of the changes for Season 4 on p18. 018
008 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 009 INSIDER RAGE 2
MAD LOVE Rage within the machine Mad Max meets Doom in Rage 2, and the open-world shooter with added vehicular carnage is due in ’19
Bethesda has has annihilated 80 per cent of the revealed what population, and inconvenienced the we’d already other 20 per cent. Humanity’s numbers guessed—that are dwindling, as lawlessness rules Rage Rage 2 is coming across the wasteland. Sadistic gangs Hard our way next year. boss the road, while a sinister power A new gameplay call the Authority seeks to restore The original Rage, trailer reveals frenetic FPS action law and order through tyranny. Your released in 2011, is involving big-ass guns mixed with not-at-all-like-Mad-Max character, similarly a mix of FPS souped-up, heavily armored vehicle Walker, has been robbed of his home and racer set in a post-apocalyptic chases, and fashion tips straight out and left for dead… big mistake, natch. wasteland. The of Mad Max’s universe. Vengeance? Off you go, then. game’s protagonist is The Rage 2 trailer and a soldier put into announcement followed days of hibernation in an speculation, Twitter-teasing, and “It looks as underground shelter the unlikeliest of leaks. Less than a only to emerge a month before E3, Walmart Canada’s though this century later, Tom Hardy. Bethesda are terming website appeared to list as-yet Fallout-style, and find their mix of shooter and open-world unannounced games as available for himself on the wrong game a ‘shooterverse’, and we’ll go open world side of The Authority. pre-order, including the sequel to iD’s one better and call the whole thing You can pick up the apocalyptic wasteland FPS, originally will be massive Xbox 360 game for the ‘funpocalypse’. released in 2011. Bethesda responded just a few quid and It looks like as though this open to the leak with a knowingly cheeky and varied” it’s back-compat. world will be massive and varied—with Tweet correcting Walmart’s holding- a landscape that includes jungles image box art, suggesting that Rage 2 and swamps as well as the desert- was indeed about to be announced. The trailer itself promises a “wide road setting of the trailer. Luckily Soon after, Bethesda confirmed open world”—which Avalanche you’ll have those rugged Mad Max-y that iD, whose FPS shooter legacy should know a thing or two about— vehicles, monster trucks, and even is assured already thanks to Doom, and shows off big explosions, powerful gyrocopters to get you from A-carnage Quake and Wolfenstein, had been weapons, vehicle races, and huge to B-carnage, which you will be working with Avalanche, best known battles against sadistic, crazy gangs causing with some devastating and for the Just Cause series and the and super-tough mutants on a sun- upgradable weaponry. You’ll also have Mad Max game. baked desert wasteland. But whereas something called ‘Nanotrite’ powers, other apocalyptic games like, say, and ‘Overdrive’—which, say Bethesda, Mad world Fallout and Mad Max have a certain will “allow you to push your guns Obviously we’re getting pretty used grimness to their central themes, beyond their mechanical limits”. We’re to the apocalypse round here, but Rage 2 looks to be taking itself far not sure what that means exactly, this particular world devastation has less seriously—with a brighter, punky but we can’t wait to see more of that been caused by an asteroid, which aesthetic that’s more Tank Girl than crazy fun revealed at E3 next month. Q
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010 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE RAGE 2 INSIDER
ABOVE George Miller would be tickled pink by this imagery (probably…).
LEFT Hard-as- nails monsters roam the dusty wasteland.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 011 INSIDER XBOX AT E3
COMING SOON Microsoft set to storm E3
There’s a lot of room for big surprises at this year’s E3, and we’re getting excited
Microsoft looks like a new entry similarly seems likely. it’s breaking out Obviously a Forza Horizon 4 hasn’t the big guns at this even been released yet so that listing year’s Electronic is, at the very least, a typo, but again, Don’t Be Entertainment the timing seems right and an update Square Expo. It has for Forza Motorsport 7, adding an array booked an entire of British cars to the game, got fans For the first time building, the Microsoft Theatre, for speculating about a new Horizon set since 2015, Square their showing, a decision that should in Britain. Enix will be having speak to their confidence going Among the titles ‘leaked’ were a its own press conference at E3, a into E3. But just what exactly does new Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, move that suggests Microsoft have to show this year? Borderlands, and Rage 2 (that one’s the company has Will it really fill an entire building? several huge It very well might. announcements this There are already announced titles “It seems year. They’ve already likely to make an appearance. Expect announced Shadow to see more of Crackdown 3, perhaps possible that a Of The Tomb Raider, certainly be a massive announcement. even a live demo of the long-in-the- so what else could Anything feels possible right now making open-world title? Then there Square be cooking for Xbox, though it might be a new Fable game up? Find out when are exciting indie titles like Ashen bit much to hope for that Brute they stream a and Below to really diversify the could still be in pre-recorded Force sequel. Xbox lineup. We’re hoping Microsoft showcase on June To cover it all, Microsoft will be continues its trend of bolstering small the works” 11, at 10am Pacific streaming their press conference, but indies and giving them a place on the Time. their revived Inside Xbox show will also big stage. Cuphead was a winner and be providing coverage throughout E3, so the indie scene is a rich well we definite, see p10!). Perhaps some of with its own set of announcements, hope Microsoft return to. those might make an appearance game demos and interviews. Both Walmart Canada listed several titles during Microsoft’s press briefing? will be streamed through Mixer at for pre-order including Halo 6, Gears mixer.com/xbox. The press conference ABOVE With a Of War 5 and Forza Horizons 5 among Halo there whole building will be streamed on June 10, at 1pm others. While it’s best to take that as But there are other Xbox franchises booked for the Pacific Time, while the Inside Xbox little better than speculation, some that perhaps deserve a return. duration of E3, stream will start the following day, Microsoft must of those could be the most exciting Despite the demise of Lionhead have lots to June 11, at 3pm Pacific Time. There’s announcements of all. It’s certainly Studios, it seems possible that a show. certainly the potential for Xbox to steal been long enough now since Halo new Fable game could still be in RIGHT Inside the show this year and we’re very 5 that the announcement of a new the works. The series was very Xbox will be much on the alert to see just what title in the sci-fi shooter series could popular after all. Or perhaps Microsoft streaming Microsoft has in store. Q throughout E3 happen. It’s also been a couple of will have something new for with their own years now since Gears Of War 4 so Minecraft fans? A Minecraft 2 would announcements. E3 will run from June 12-14.
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012 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE PLAY/EJECT INSIDER
PLAY/EJECT THE THINGS PUSHING OUR BUTTON (OR NOT)
Fatality Looks like we might be getting a new Mortal Kombat game soon if Ed Boon’s teases are anything to go by.
Film Hunter The brains behind the Resident Evil movies will be trying his hand at another Capcom series: Monster Hunter. It will also star Milla Jovovich.
Join the family Minecraft Bedrock Edition is finally being added to Switch so Xbox One players can play with our friendly console neighbors soon.
Lootball EA has said it’s going ahead with lootboxes in this year’s FIFA and other sports games, despite the lootbox backlash. We just hope they’re the ‘good’ kind.
Leaky drips Will everyone just stop leaking? No one is meant to know about E3 games yet. It’s like knowing what Santa’s bringing. Surprise spoiled!
Mr Chompy Adam’s intensive zombie research for his feature made him come down with a virus. We’ve put him in a pen because he was getting too bitey.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 013 INSIDER BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 2
BARREL WATCH GAMING’S FAVORITE PROP RATED BY OUR RESIDENT COOPER
City Of Brass This is unrealistic: a whip could never destroy the thick hide of a barrel, they’d shrug it off as though it were MONKEY Timeline and nothing more than a mere fly. BUSINESS Red Dead Redemption 2 space It’s disgusting that some people think that our Ubisoft shares a glimpse of gameplay cask-like friends don’t feel for Beyond Good And Evil 2 anything. Sometimes they witness some truly… unsavory behavior.
Ubisoft must have heard us rustling has transfixed the imagination of the Raging Justice around in their dustbins, because they galaxy. Anyone who has ever passed Why do boring decided to host a livestream in which through this door has never returned, crates get pride a few developers talked about their sparking a swathe of theories ranging of place in exciting sci-fi RPG and treated us to a from death to discovering paradise. Raging Justice short clip of it in action. Most excitingly was the chance while the Before this, though, a good to finally see the game’s combat in humble barrel is pushed to the chunk of the stream focused on a action. You’ll be able to seamlessly background? A travesty. No one timeline detailing events that led transition from flying a ship to fighting puts baby in the corner. RIGHT Ganesha City was named to the beginning of BG&E2’s story. on top of your enemy’s craft. There will as such because This started with the Golden Age also be no loading screens anywhere Conker’s Bad the shape of the of Science in 2040 where humanity in the game. Fur Day island on which it stands looks achieved interstellar travel, all the way The ambition of Ubisoft is clear, and A prime similar to through an AI uprising, the creation of we hope it can deliver. Q example of a Earth’s India. human/animal hybrids and the exile of retro classic humanity from Earth, and ended with Find out more at this year’s E3. reborn to live the Golden Age of Piracy in 2360— another day. Even older kegs can where the game’s story takes place. clean up well after a bit of 4K spit and polish. Group activity As a pirate captain, you’ll take control Gears Of War 3 of your own spaceship, and put Some may together your own rag tag crew from confuse this characters you meet on your travels object with a and head out on a piratical adventure. canister, but it’s One adventure will have you actually what investigating the attractive but very barrels look like many years from dangerous ‘Moksha’s Door’. The now. I look forward to those discovery of this mysterious portal smooth, smooth lines.
014 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ;%2; 21( :,1'2:6 (;&/86,9(
&UXGH +XPRU 8VH RI $OFRKRO 9LROHQFH 0LFURVRIW &RUSRUDWLRQ $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG GROUND Planet hopper FORCE After a quiet year, Starbound finally re-establishes contact
It feels like this has been a long time coming— to survive at first, but eventually you’ll thrive after saying it would be coming to Xbox at by selling crops or dealing with NPCs on your some point seemingly ages ago, it finally made journey. a console appearance at an ID@Xbox event There’s more of a story mode here compared recently, and was greeted with a heavy sigh of to Terraria so you’ll have something to follow, relief followed by excitement. though the real joy is in constantly discovering This Terraria-like exploration and crafting new creatures and terrain and learning to adapt game sees you traveling across space looking for to it. With every planet being randomly generated, habitable planets to explore and thrive on. It’s all it’ll be easy to spend hours just exploring this procedurally generated, so you never know what marvellous pixellated universe. Q the planet will be like, or if its inhabitants will be friendly. You’ll need to build a base and learn Starbound will hit Xbox One later this year.
016 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE STARBOUND INSIDER
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 017 INSIDER FORTNITE
INFINITY AND BEYOND All you need is glove
Season 4 brings comets, aliens, and Marvel’s big-chinned purple baddie to Fortnite
Fortnite’s Season 4 Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony arrived with quite Russo being huge fans of the game. literally a bang The Russos admitted to frequently Celebrity this month, as Epic breaking from editing this year’s Fortnite Games’ super- biggest film to jump on for a session night popular shooter of Battle Royale. Joe Russo revealed had its map to Entertainment Weekly: “We started Epic has just radically altered by a giant space rock thinking, how cool would it be to announced a Fortnite crashing into it, and a ton of alien and have some kind of Avengers, Fornite Celebrity Pro-Am superhero related costumes, events, mashup? So we stalked Donald event for this year’s E3. The contest will and items followed in its wake. [Mustard, Epic Games’ worldwide pair celebs and pro On top of this, Fornite’s Battle creative director].” players for a Royale fans got to play as Marvel high-profile game of super-A-hole Thanos in a special Battle Royale. No event called The Infinity War Limited “Infinity War word as yet on who Time Mash Up, which ran for just the Fortnite-loving one week, May 8-15. The Mash-up directors Joe celebrities will be, but revealed a number of new locations Battle Royale mode was similarly our money’s on rapper including a huge crater at the a 100-player PVP, with the main Drake being there, for comet’s crash-site—complete with and Anthony starters. Recently difference being a grab for Thanos’ government-led science porta-labs— Twitch picked up Infinity Gauntlet, which the Mad Titan Russo are huge record livestream plus a brand new drive-in movie area must have carelessly dropped onto viewers when popular called Risky Reels and a scattering the battleground, possibly after fans of Fortnite” streamer Ninja of blue space crystals that allow clicking his fingers and wiping out teamed up for Duos players limited super-jumps. The 50 players in one go. with the chart- game’s Battle Pass tier system, which The first to grab the big glove got to Since its launch in July 2017, and topping superstar. unlocks new stuff as you progress be Thanos—with no guns or building subsequent Battle Royale bolt-on through each season, this time ability, but with a massive health in September ’17, such headline- includes cool-looking superhero-style boost and the power to jump mightily grabbing events and regularly updated costumes, new dance moves, and ABOVE Thanos for and blast everyone into oblivion with new features and costumes are one the memories: other cosmetic touches, plus XP and a super-charged beam from the of the many reasons Fornite feels The purple bad V-Bucks rewards. Fornite’s co-op Save Gauntlet. Killing Thanos gave you as unstoppable a force as Thanos guy starred in The World PVE mode, meanwhile, has May’s week-long the chance to pick up the Gauntlet himself. The game boasted 3.4 million Fortnite event. benefitted from a new in-game event and run with it as everyone’s favorite concurrent Battle Royale players story that has players chasing space- RIGHT Craters, purple genocidal maniac. at last count. A tie-in with Marvel space rocks and rock samples and riding newly-added could be just the beginning for A-list cool new stuff hoverboards—which means blasting A-list collaborations collaborations, and we can’t wait to turned up in Husks, Lobbers, Sploders, Beehive- Fortnite’s It turns out the Marvel-Fornite see what might be next for the game. Battle Royale heads, and other ‘weirdies’ is now collaboration was a result of Avengers: Meanwhile, Fornite’s Season 4 has Season 4. even more fun. Q
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018 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE HOT TOPIC INSIDER
HOT TOPIC
WHAT OTHER CROSSOVERS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN FORTNITE?
“Some form of racing game. Like a mini-game on the old derby track where you can be immune from gunfire but at the same time you can’t break away from the race track.” Jack Preedy
“A Dovahkiin crossover, where if you have the skin, you are the only one who could use a shockwave gun of sorts to knock enemies back.” Cole Rardon
“The Walking Dead. If not in Battle Royale, then in the Save The World part since it would be cool to have your characters facing off against ‘zombies’ dressed as Rick etc.” Adam Smith
“I’d like to see a Stardew Valley crossover. Tired of seeing those poor empty farm fields.” Ewan Smith
“It would have to be Harry Potter. Imagine running around the map as Voldermort, Harry or doing it on Duos so you become the Weasleys.” Danny Joel
“Halo duh! Let us have Spartan skins, we don’t even need special powers.” Bryan Reynolds
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More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 019 INSIDER OPINION
Steve Hogarty is... The Fixer Steve discusses indestructible foliage in games, then leaves
To make an as a vault door, or a tourist standing omelette, goes the right in front of a Tube map so nobody old saying, you’ve got else can see. to break a few eggs. Far Cry 5 muddies the waters even And to fix gaming’s further, choosing to mix in some most persistent breakable trees with its unbreakable tropes, goes the ones, but leaving it up to you to tell the framed embroidery in my parent’s difference between the two types. en-suite bathroom, you’ve got to be This turns an impromptu shortcut a respected writer with a successful through a forest into a high-speed column in a hit videogames magazine botany exam, as you attempt to identify for handsome people. which species of coniferous plant stop Not to blow on my own trumpet, but you in your tracks while careening since I began my noble campaign of towards them at 50mph, like a souped- addressing our hobby’s most ghastly up Alan Titchmarsh. All of this goes for clichés, the industry has improved hedges too. beyond all recognition, fueled by my incessant need to fix everything I see. The solution For example, a few years ago you would I feel we’re already well on our way to repeatedly trip over in a first-person solving this one. Lots of modern games shooter if you didn’t constantly look already let you raze trees to the ground, down at your feet while moving. That is, “The tree, dear just as nature intended, and it’s these until I came along with my Nobel-prize games that best reflect our proud winning essay titled, “How About We Just reader, is our human tradition of irreversibly mucking Get Rid of The Tripping Over Thing, Guys”. unfriend up the environment. Games like Fortnite It’s hard to believe that could even be . And so and Minecraft allow you to turn trees remotely true, but I’ve written it down into something way more useful, like a now so it must be. is the hedge” chair, or a raised platform from which A fixer’s work is never done however, you can more efficiently kill other so this month I turn my attention to sentinels that catastrophically impede people. Trees have had it too good for the leafy bother known as ‘the tree’. the progress of any speeding car, tank, too long, and it’s time we took them Everybody loves trees, so much so that or low-flying passenger jet aeroplane. In down a peg or two (ideally by turning we routinely turn our barky wooden pals Grand Theft Auto, the slightest impact them into pegs). into our favorite cups, chopsticks, and can pluck a lamppost from its mooring Rockstar are the worst offenders bank statements. Scientists say that like a flimsy metal toothpick, yet a when it comes to inexplicably they are nature’s lungs—which makes it sapling tree is as sturdy and steadfast indestructible foliage, but they can pretty weird that crows live in them—and redeem themselves with Red Dead that they perform a vital role in cleansing Redemption II by allowing players to the air of Lynx Africa particulates and ram their horse into an oak tree with those stripy blue and white plastic bags such force that the tree shatters into from corner shops. But while the real- a hundred units of wood, and your world tree is our friend, the videogame horse shatters into forty units of raw tree is the complete opposite of a friend. horse meat. Or perhaps it could just fall The tree, dear reader, is our unfriend. And over and knock a prospector down a so is the hedge. mineshaft. I’d consider the matter fixed in either case, ditto hedges. Q The problem Trees in games are indestructible. They Steve writes for City A.M, which is are the immovable object that halts the printed on a curious material that unstoppable force, the silent wooden apparently used to be trees.
020 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE OPINION INSIDER
Daniella Lucas is... The Traveler Dani finds beauty in the wastelands of Fallout 4
You know how Admittedly I didn’t manage to get very sometimes there far, I became too distracted by all of the are games that, for houses once occupied by my neighbors. whatever reason, just I sifted through their long abandoned don’t appeal to you drawers and tried to ignore the skeletons even though everyone of those caught unaware during the says they’re great. initial blast. Each house is covered in While they might be excellent, they’re art and posters of the world that came just something that’s not usually to your before that have become torn and personal taste. Fallout 4 is one of those yellowed with age. It’s the type of world- games for me—I’ve never been a fan of building detail that I adore—it might bleak settings, so I just never picked it seem small, but it’s the kind of thing that up to try it. I’m more of a flower-filled instantly gives a place history. fields and ancient forests kind of person; anything washed out or set after the Home discomforts end of days tends to leave me feeling Your old home is heartbreaking, from uninspired. Why on earth would anyone finding Codsworth dutifully still tending want to force themselves to navigate to the rusted heap after 200 years having such horrible, desolate places? been at a complete loss as to what else Since I didn’t think I could harp on to do while you were gone, to the broken about foliage for the hundredth time, I mobile hanging above your baby’s crib. decided to just suck it up and give it a go “There’s an ever- Nothing needs to be overtly said to to see why other people love Fallout and convey the sense of extreme loss, it’s all its post-nuclear world so much. I can’t present sense of present in the environment around you. say my adventure got off to a good start, And it only gets worse from there. what with seeing the world end and my tenseness and You’ll often find skeletons in positions husband murdered then finding out it that show the circumstances of their was all part of an experiment. Not exactly need to survive” death, often with an empty bottle and in the mood for adventure now, thanks. a gun near their body, from where they my eyes to adjust, and the confusion ended things for themselves. As you Art of noise of seeing everything you’d previously explore further out you’ll start to find Crawling out of the cryo chamber for the known of the world before in a state of other signs of life even if it’s not friendly. first time is quite a shock to the senses, ruin is disheartening. It’s an amazingly You’d think finding others would give you but it’s the sound design that struck me powerful moment that made me start a sense of hope, but there’s an ever- most. You can hear the whir of distant to understand just why so many others present sense of tenseness and need to machines and the occasional echoey became engrossed by Fallout 4. survive because of just how horrid the clank in a decrepit pipe that probably environment is. It’s never a nice place shouldn’t make that noise. It’s horribly to exist, but that’s exactly the point and disconcerting, and emphasizes your Bethesda are masters at making it. loneliness—a bit like hearing creaking Stepping out into the wasteland didn’t floorboards when you’re home alone at change my mind about why I dislike such night, and jump to the conclusion that places, but I did find myself wanting the source must be either murderers to go back to explore further. Even or ghosts. The halls of the vault are though the world is a horrible crumpled claustrophobic and caked with grime— mess, there’s so much beauty in the it’s the mark of some excellent world- little things you find that it adds up to building that I feel so grossed out by it. creating an amazing sense of place. Q Stepping outside for the first time also felt like an assault on my senses—the You can see more of Dani’s gaming sun was overly bright, taking a while for travels on Instagram: @daniellamlucas.
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The games we want the most
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All this zombie madness started when Adam came in ill and we all needed survival plans
This month’s preview section is one of our most packed ever! We’ve condensed as many of the very best upcoming games as we could into it, and are kicking things off with Overkill’s The Walking Dead OXM’S over on p24. We’ve spoken to the studio and got 024 MOST some exclusive scoops on new characters, and WANTED managed to get a good look at what to expect from Chris’s pick Soulcalibur VI the game later this year. We’ve also got a load of new I loved the pre-Xbox original, and can’t wait to get back on info for Red Dead Redemption 2 (p30) thanks to the ‘stage of history’ with Mitsurugi, Taki a new trailer drop full of gameplay and story beats. and co, on a console that can really do it justice! We already want more of it, though: Whenever we Dani’s pick see anything of it, the world of cowboys and crooks 030 Red Dead Redemption 2 It’s not normally my looks even more amazing. Further in, we’re back to kind of thing, but the world they’re building looks absolutely hanging out with the undead thanks to DayZ (p36), stunning. Can I be a polite,adventuring finally about to come to Xbox One. This excellent forest cowboy please? survival game has undergone a revamp over the last Adam’s pick Overkill’s The Walking Dead few years on PC, and now it’s finally ready to drop on Scrounging for resources with console for all of your zombie-shooting needs, giving friends to improve your camp, while 036 taking on survivors us the ultimate version of the game to enjoy. Now and walkers at the same time! What’s we’re getting into the dark depths of the magazine: not to love?
Warren’s pick Indie wonder Below (p40) is here, standing in the Shadow Of The Tomb Raider I got a ‘Lara-love’ for dim campfire light to give us a taste of what it’s made the Tomb Raider series (Ed—groan!), of. It’s one of our most anticipated indie titles this and can’t wait to see what’s in store for videogames’ most year, and we’ve finally had a chance to go hands-on famous female serial murderer… er, I mean heroine. with it, even if it did lead to us dying multiple times in the name of exploration. We can’t wait to see more. 040
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More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 023 LEFT Grant likes a good drink and he’s rarely willing to share.
RIGHT Grant clearly has no fear of the walkers. Shortly after this he decided to take a nap while surrounded by a horde of walkers.
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Clearly fans of zombies, a few Left 4 Dead Easter eggs were left by devs in some of Payday 2’s heists
Overkill’s The been instrumental in building up the momentum for Overkill’s big E3 gameplay reveal. However, there is still Walking Dead much we wanted to know, so we had a chat with global brand director Almir We bite off more than we can Listo and executive producer Saul chew and discover who’s really Gascon from Overkill Software to find out as much as they could tell us, and calling the shots maybe a little more. Adam Bryant PUBLISHER STARBREEZE STUDIOS DEVELOPER OVERKILL Leader of the pack SOFTWARE FORMAT XBOX ONE ETA FALL 2018 The developers confirmed that the last story trailer will indeed feature the fourth member of the group, Heather, Things are certainly heating up at but were unable to reveal what her Overkill Software to the point that we role would be. “Let’s just say that it’s can almost smell the rotten corpses intentional that we haven’t said that shuffling towards us. With increased much about her yet,” teases Listo. frequency we’re being spoilt with “There’s definitely been a very clear more and more information, namely idea on our part in how we wanted on the characters you’ll be playing as to present OTWD. This is a game that in this post-apocalyptic four-player means the world to us. We’ve been co-op shooter. Back in December, working on it ever since the release almost four years since announcing of Payday 2 back in 2013, so it’s the game, Overkill introduced us to its been a long time coming. We started first character, stressed-out architect with the Aiden trailer in December, MAIN Aiden was the first turned undead dispatcher Aiden, who where we began the story we wanted character to be is coping in a world now filled with to tell. There is definitely intention revealed, but we the living dead. Four months after behind the order in which we released still know very little about him. that the second trailer stumbled onto the trailers.” But before we can get our screens, this time with Maya, a surgeon who recently went through a harrowing ordeal by being forced to “To our surprise shoot and kill her fiancé to prevent him from turning into the dreaded there is in fact a undead. Now, merely four weeks since the previous trailer, we meet fifth character seasoned survivor Grant in the search for his remaining family. that no one This new trailer is somewhat different to the previous two in that has seen yet” it doesn’t contain any form of flashback; instead we find out a little of who Grant is through the excited about a new trailer where we conversation he has with a seemingly meet the fourth survivor, assuming attentive walker strapped into the her to be the leader of the group, driver’s seat of an abandoned vehicle. the developers reveal something It appears that the developers at unexpected. To our surprise there is in Overkill Software have been slowly fact a fifth character that no one has introducing us to its version of the seen yet and until now has never been apocalypse by showing us a little more mentioned by name. of it each time. “So the leader of the group is Each of these story trailers has actually ‘Anderson Banks’,” reveals given us an insight into who these Gascon. “He’s not in any of the four people were before the apocalypse trailers, but basically the whole group and who they are now, but it’s also revolves around this person.” This
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Almir Listo was almost in an apocalypse himself when the traffic lights in an entire block stopped working
NO PAYDAY enigmatic leader will apparently have through. That’s something we really Despite both Overkill’s his own camp that he shares with your like for the pacing of our game.” The Walking Dead and group and others. But regardless of how scary the Payday being set in When you think of a four-player walkers can be, they’re clearly not the Washington, DC, don’t co-op zombie shooter, your mind real threat. “What is the most scary expect to see any can’t help but refer back to Valve’s thing about an apocalypse?” asks zombie food bank heist any time soon. successful Left 4 Dead game, and Gascon. “Really it’s not about the Out of respect to The given that this one is being made walkers, it’s about the humans and Walking Dead by the developers of Payday 2, you’ll how horrible they can be in situations franchise the be forgiven for thinking that it’ll be such as this.” So expect to see ways developers are a largely similar affair. But Overkill in which survivors will take advantage deliberately is highly aware of this, and for its of the walker threat. distancing zombie title it wants to do something Using the details from the story themselves from their a little different, while bringing a few trailers, it’s safe to say that Aiden will previous games, and surprises along the way. take on the role of the close-range not forcing Payday into the franchise. Overkill’s The Walking Dead won’t melee bruiser, with Maya being the That being said, the be your standard first-person shooter, medic of the group, patching the developers confirmed as made evident in the story trailers team up and keeping them alive. Grant that they love we’ve seen so far. The missions you’ll will likely be the long-range support including references undertake will require you to think character, taking out walkers with within their games, carefully about what you’re going to his scoped rifle. We’ve yet to see and will try to include do. You won’t be able to just go in Heather’s trailer, but given the roles them when it fits. guns blazing and expect to survive. that the other members of the group Those who get cocky and don’t already fill we can only imagine that think straight will quickly become she will either take on the role of a overwhelmed, and if you make too scout, using midrange weapons and much noise while taking on other using items tactically, or be a jack-of- survivors you’ll end up attracting all-trades type. Of course this is purely more attention from the walkers and guesswork, but it would make sense in drastically reducing your chances of maintaining a good group dynamic. making it out alive. So in order to keep a pulse it’s imperative that you think Little bit of soul and work as a team. When it comes to the narrative, Overkill That is the key for Overkill on how is taking a different approach to that they’re making slow zombies scary of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, which again. “It’s when they come in such is a purely narrative experience, and sheer numbers, that’s when it gets really hairy,” explains Gascon. “When you’re searching around trying to get “We want you to for them is to tell the story in a more your food, or whatever you’re doing to subtle way. This is not too dissimilar try and survive, or just simply fighting play the game, to the way in which FromSoftware BELOW The game other humans and suddenly there’s a deals with the story in its Souls series, takes place in Georgetown, crowd of walkers slowly closing down be satisfied, where little is explained outright and Washington, DC. on you and you have to fight your way dialogue or narrative moments are have a lot of fun few and far between. However, if you delve deeper and collect all the secret and play again” items and read their descriptions, the narrative begins to reveal itself. Not only does this make the story more all of the story is told within the game. memorable, but piecing together For Overkill it still wants a specific these scraps of lore yourself leads narrative, but its main focus will be on to a more rewarding experience, and the action and gameplay. “With that the developers can focus on how the being said, it’s not going to be like Left game plays. 4 Dead either, which is a great game, That’s not the only way in which but there is hardly any story,” says they’ll be delivering story to the Gascon. “You just play over and over, players. “We love playing around and that’s it. It’s fun but there is no with our community,” explains narrative at all. We have a narrative, Listo. “We recently had an event in but it is not our focus. We want you to Payday 2, which was themed around play the game, be satisfied, have a lot conspiracies, and was very successful of fun, and play again.” The solution and lore focused, and we’ll do the
026 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ABOVE The team springs into action and things turn from bad to worse. That’s what you get for cheating at a game of basketball. Grant already ran off, saying he’ll catch them up later.
LEFT The game is, as you’d expect, hugely atmospheric. Downright creepy, in fact.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 027 ABOVE We’re pretty sure Maya isn’t washing up after making some pancakes.
RIGHT That chap should really get that wound looked at. Oh wait…
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Payday mascot Teddy Moo makes a cameo in Grant’s trailer. Sadly he doesn’t make it out alive
time. You will really be able to make it “We are always monitoring yours.” The weapons you choose and the modifications you make will be a what people are saying reflection of your personality, so you’re not limited to use specific types of and reacting to it” weapons with your chosen character. The characters will of course be more proficient with certain types OWN THE same thing with OTWD. There is a lot of weapons: For example, Aiden will APOCALYPSE of story stuff in the game when we have certain things he can do with a Overkill’s The Walking launch, but after that we will continue baseball bat that others can’t, but you Dead is all about with it outside the game, in the real will have the freedom to use whatever owning the world. The community building is such weapon you want with whichever apocalypse. “If there an integral part of the experience.” character you choose. is an apocalypse, you This is already happening. Eagle-eyed Overkill has had plenty of can’t just sit in a players may have noticed a blurry experience in creating successful co- corner and be sad about it. You need to phone number on a bus stop in the op shooters, and one of the strongest act on it. So what are background of Aiden’s trailer. When we elements in that success has been you going to do,” asks called this Washington DC, number we the connection and interaction it has Gascon. “You’ve got were met with the answering machine had with its community. “Heeding the to go out there and for Getaway Travel Services. We community is so important,” explains get your s**t attempted to access the messages Gascon. “We might think we’ve made together, own it.” This that were left on the machine, but the most awesome game ever, but attitude is something were required to input a four digit PIN. when people play it they’ll have that Overkill has been Thankfully, the alternate reality game feedback, they’ll have ideas, things showcasing with each of the character for Payday 2 that Listo mentioned they want to see, things they want to trailers. involved a website that contained see more, want to see less. And we blog posts about conspiracies, are always monitoring what they’re but now is shut down with a fake saying and how they’re reacting to it.” government takedown notice. Nestled This is something Saul Gascon and within this notice is a rather suspect Almir Listo are passionate about, and code: ‘otwd:0451’. Using 0451 as the although nothing can be promised, if pin gave us access to three of the the community want something badly messages that people had left. This enough and it fits within the universe is just one of the ways in which more it’s likely that we’ll see that content can be found about the story that turn up within the game. “We’ve said it Overkill is crafting without impacting many times before, but our deadline is the gameplay. not really our deadline, it’s our lifeline,” BELOW Maya has explains Gascon. “That’s when our real had a really Walking threads job starts. This is something that we rough time during the For those hoping to be able to create learned from Payday 2 and it’s become apocalypse. their own survivor there is no such part of our DNA.” What this means, luck. “We have so much love for our and what the developers were keen to characters, so you won’t be creating stress, is that, in much the same way your own. We want you to see the as Payday 2, OTWD will have a long life apocalypse through the characters after launch. that we’ve created for you,” says This is a refreshing approach to Gascon. There will, however, be game development, and a novel way some level of customization for your to offer additional content. Games character, but this will be limited are made for people to play, after to things like clothing that you will all, and by creating a successful discover throughout the game. dialogue between both consumer Weapons, on the other hand, are and developer it puts them in a good a completely different story. “With position to make something just for weapons, we went nuts,” Gascon the players. admits. “We’re going to have a very The more we find out about OTWD, deep modding system that will allow the more it surprises us, and the more you to customize the weapon in we want to play it. If Overkill can pull the style of play that you like. That off its ambition of creating a first- weapon is you, basically. In a first- person co-op shooter that is unlike person shooter that is so important, anything else then this could very it’s the thing you see on screen all the well be our game of 2018. Q
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Marston was 38 in the first Redemption, making him around 26 in this prequel
belongings, and in the ensuing clash, you’re free to merely intimidate the angler, or put a bullet in his head. Morgan isn’t quite the languid lone Red Dead wolf John was, either. Taking place 12 years before its classic predecessor, Redemption 2 puts you in the spurs Redemption 2 of the scoundrel as he faithfully serves as second-in-command to Killer cameos and campfire the original’s antagonist, Dutch van stories abound as Rockstar’s der Linde. A big part of Arthur’s duties revolve around looking after Dutch’s outlaw re-emerges camp, which is where the new base Dave Meikleham management system slides into view.
PUBLISHER ROCKSTAR GAMES DEVELOPER ROCKSTAR GAMES FORMAT ETA Camp it up XBOX ONE OCTOBER 26 2018 Each member of van der Linde’s gang, which includes a returning Bill Williamson and the cantankerous Don’t call it a cowboy comeback. Uncle, has a job to perform around Despite the fact legendary sandbox camp. Clearly, Morgan is a talented star John Marston has returned to plate-spinner, because on occasion Rockstar’s insanely anticipated he’ll be asked to gather food, water, prequel, this Western follow-up and other supplies to keep gang isn’t exactly beholden to one of the morale high. Almost every part of RDR2 greatest open world characters ever. seems to be governed by meticulous Instead, this is the tale of Arthur details, and as such, clothes must be LIFE ON Morgan: One of John’s old gang pals, cleaned and wood chopped as part of MARS(TON) and a new-gen frontiersmen who day-to-day camp life. It looks like it’s Everyone’s favorite happens to be a deer-hunting, camp- going to be a huge, super ambitious charismatic cowboy managing, bank-robbing badass. addition to this outlaw’s saddlebag. returns, with Redemption 2’s third Thanks to a recent Rockstar demo Speaking of which, Rockstar has trailer containing a and new trailer, we now have a fair upgraded horses for this prequel in a cheeky John Marston idea about just how vibrant and major way. Your steed is now a loyal cameo. In the brief involving this virtual slice of old Wild companion, not a throwaway mode scene, a visibly West is. Set in 1899—confirming the of transport. In line with this, Arthur fresher-faced John is fact Red Dead Redemption 2 is indeed can strengthen his bond with a horse being held at a prequel—Rockstar’s latest sprawling by petting and feeding it, and as the gunpoint on his sandbox aims to put the extra beardy relationship between man and beast knees. Seeing as his devil in the details. grows, your mount becomes more facial stitches look fresh, it’s likely we’ll Bolstered by a new reactive reliable during tense situations. If see just how Marston dialogue system, Morgan is able to Morgan and his hooved pal are close, received those act more intuitively than Marston the horse won’t buck wildly the next rugged scars he ever could. Courtesy of an onscreen time you stumble upon a grizzly or a sports throughout the indicator, your callous cowboy can shootout. You can also load deer and original Redemption. either choose to punish, manipulate, other animal kills on your steed’s back, or sympathize in certain scenarios. though be warned: If you leave that The options at your outlaw’s disposal venison out in the baking sun for too are contextual, but plumping for long, it’ll spoil. the more murderous choice leads The demo showed off an area called to accruing higher bounties than New Hanover, but in the final game, if you choose to channel Arthur’s this verdant stretch of land only inner Gandhi. In the demo, Rockstar makes up a small part of the world. have Morgan steal a fisherman’s When Arthur and his gang gallop onto Xbox, you’ll be able to explore snowy mountain ranges to the north “Your callous cowboy can and squelchy swamps in the south. With choice-driven bank robberies, either choose to punish, expanded hunting, and the returning crack shot Dead Eye system, this outlaw manipulate or sympathize” will surely be best in the West. Q
030 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ABOVE We remember when all this was fields…
FAR LEFT You’ll now be able to form a proper, strong relationship with your horse.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 031 ABOVE Get the party started— Ooblets love to dance and play around.
RIGHT Take time to look after your farm and gently grow some monster pals.
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Illustrator Bree Lundberg has designed a special cupcake flag for the Frunbuns clubhouse
These include faster growing and crafting speeds, and the locations of more Followbaby spots (adorably, this is what Ooblets are called in-game). Another interesting addition is the Grumboire, a ‘scientifimagical’ journal that tracks your progress and keeps Ooblets tabs on your developing friendships. It also features handy panels where you Welcoming new friends, can log all of the Ooblets and Planties Followbabies and pretty you’ve found. If you’re wondering what the word Grumboire means, it’s a cross towns to the world of Oob between ‘grimoire’ and a nickname for Kimberley Ballard Ben and Rebecca’s cat, ‘Grumbo’. PUBLISHER DOUBLE FINE PRESENTS DEVELOPER GLUMBERLAND Little monsters FORMAT XBOX ONE ETA 2018 One of the delightful things about Ooblets is that instead of capturing creatures in the wild, you collect If you’ve been keeping up with OXM, their seeds and grow them on your you’ll know that one of the games farm. You can now harvest other we’re most excited to play this items, picking up Planties, such year is Ooblets, the quirky monster as Sparkflower and Reetroot, at harvester from Rebecca Cordingley designated ‘grow spots’. To make the and Ben Wasser. Described as Harvest most of these items, you can visit the Moon crossed with Pokémon, you’ll be new seed shop where the team have tasked with growing and cultivating implemented a direct sales system. GROW YOUR your own farm, exploring the world This means you can now sell all of OWN HUGS of Oob and collecting seeds to grow your crops and craftables in exchange We’ve been strange little creatures called Ooblets. for precious currency Gummies. introduced to about Since development began in 2016 The team have also been hard 32 Ooblets since development began, Glumberland have created more than at work developing the world of Oob. some of the most 40 characters that you can interact They recently premiered a new region recent being Firmo, with throughout the game. Over the called Port Forward, a floating seaside Gubwee and Sidekey. past couple of months they’ve also town with beautiful storefronts and Ben and Rebecca introduced six new characters. These pretty boats. We’re personally huge recently unveiled include Rugnolia, who’s described as fans of the new Oobcoops, little Bittle, their first one part scientist, one part hipster, houses where your Ooblets can live. insect-based Ooblet, and who can be found experimenting The idea is, when you’ve grown a with canary-yellow in the Lernery; Tinstle, a popular certain number of companions and pincers and a purple carapace. It’s also the pink-haired girl from Badgetown who they can’t fit in your active party, you first Ooblet based on wears a sash adorned with stars and a can leave them in their Oobcoops. You designs by their artist top hat; a balloon pirate called Gimble can then peek your head in whenever friend Miski. You can who carries around an ear-horn and you like to see how they’re doing. look at all of Ben and will pick you up whenever you ring the Glumberland have added several Rebecca’s Ooblets at balloon bell in Oob; and the finicky, visual flourishes, too, such as flags ooblets.com/ooblets. blue-bearded Churles, who runs the outside of clubhouses. In case you trendy clothing shop Kibbon-bon. don’t know, clubhouses are teams you Huge developments have also can join at the start of the game: The been made to what you can do in- Mimpins, Peaksnubs, Mossprouts, and game. The team have introduced a Frunbuns. Speaking of the Mimpins, player-level unlock tree, which lets they now have a new underground you gain points for completing quests, club house, while their old one has and use them to unlock bonuses. been converted into a dancing barn. A 2018 release is still being teased by the team, who recently shared a “You can sell your crops demo at EGX Rezzed and are planning a big reveal at E3. To keep up to date and craftables in exchange with new Ooblets and features, you can watch the team’s monthly blogs for precious Gummies” on their website, glumberland.com. Q
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Rebellion founder Jason Kingsley runs a company which trains horses for movies and TV
environmental traps to mid-level puzzles, and our favorite facet: The setting itself. Drawing inspiration from the pulp fiction and comic books of Strange ‘30s Britain, it’s a world of supernatural goings-on and hardy adventurers with un-ironic handlebar moustaches and Brigade names like Archimedes de Quincey. The eponymous Strange Brigade has Zombie Army Trilogy creator been assembled for their prowess in Rebellion taps into an old combat and adversity by a top secret organization, and deployed in the empire state of mind farthest reaches of the colonial-era Phil Iwaniuk map to investigate the unusual. And, inevitably, shoot it to death. PUBLISHER REBELLION DEVELOPER REBELLION It’s a lithe, breakneck-paced affair, FORMAT ETA XBOX ONE AUGUST 8 2018 too. Standing still for long is rarely a good idea when hordes of reanimated petrified corpses are spewing forth When you think about it, it’s strange from the mouth of an ancient Egyptian that we don’t have more Left 4 Deads tomb, but when they’re joined by High amongst Xbox’s venerable ranks. Priest Mummies who send out streams Yes, we’ve got COD zombies and the of bandages to ensnare you—well, odd treat like Payday 2, but in an that’s when you really need to work industry where creators aren’t shy the analog sticks. Other enemy types about building on each other’s ideas, include Cutthroat Assassins who dart the four-player co-op shooter still about in body armor ready to pounce WRATH OF feels like relatively virgin territory. while you’re distracted by the undead. THE WITCH Valve laid out a genre blueprint with QUEEN its four-player zombie co-op shooter, Giza kiss What’s behind all this and one that could easily be adapted When it comes to crowd control, supernatural hijinks in to suit different settings and enemy each of the playable characters Strange Brigade? Glad you asked. Turns out types. And yet here we are, in what has their own unique special ability, 4,000 years ago an feels like ages after the first Left 4 unleashed by dealing damage and extremely powerful Dead’s release, licking our lips at filling up a radial bar on the hud. (not to mention Strange Brigade because it offers a Triggering that special ability causes objectionable) witch rare chance to indulge in that brand of a massive damage-wave that can queen named Seteki buddy-up gunplay again. Weird. either fell powerful boss enemies was killed, entombed, British studio Rebellion has actually with the right timing, or get you out and wiped from the become something of a specialist in of an unfavorable matchup when your pages of history for co-op shooter action, albeit in a third- back’s against the wall. Everyone has humanity’s own good. Only now she’s arisen person flavor. 2015’s Zombie Army their own throwable weapon type, too: again, raising the Trilogy brought together gaming’s Gracie takes a standard frag grenade dead along with her love of breaking apart Nazi skulls into the fight, while Archimedes brings for good measure. with sniper bullets, WW2 occultism, a sticky grenade that can be affixed Need. More. Guns. and being backed into an ever- to surfaces and enemies. But don’t diminishing corner with three friends. attach this to an enemy who’s likely And on 28 August when Strange to run in your direction, or your screen Brigade’s released, it’s doing it again, will soon resemble a dropped jar of but—y’know—better. And with ancient strawberry jam. Egyptian ghouls instead of Nazis. With an August release date now That’s a reductive description, set, there’s just a few months left for obviously. There are many more bells Rebellion to make tweaks. Weapon and whistles to Strange Brigade, from damage, enemy behavior, the exact shade of grey on the petrified rib cage of a partially unwrapped mummy— “Each of the playable that sort of thing. The personality of its vintage pulp fiction premise has characters has their own us dusting off our pith helmets in anticipation, likewise the prospect of unique special ability” exploring that premise with our pals. Q
034 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ABOVE What they may lack in sartorial elegance, they make up for in zombie-slaying.
LEFT That’s not to say there’s no sartorial elegance on show—there is.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 035 ABOVE Running. You’ll do a lot of running. And staggering.
RIGHT Not Abbey Road, that’s for sure.
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DayZ’s PC version is one of the longest running early access releases, five years into development
derelict houses and trainyards, it’s like wandering through the Danny Boyle zombie movie threequel that never was. A very plausible setting for undead horror. Dayz of future past Much of the focus of Bohemia’s new engine is on making DayZ feel better, DayZ not just look better. Notoriously janky from its inception, as it arrives on Xbox A new game engine? Truly, Game Preview this is now a game in these are the dayz of our livez which it’s no longer more dangerous Phil Iwaniuk to climb a ladder than fight a zombie. Longstanding problems PC players PUBLISHER BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER BOHEMIA had with traversal, aiming, and melee FORMAT ETA INTERACTIVE XBOX ONE 2018 combat feel noticeably smoothed out now, and it’s no longer likely you’ll fall through the floor and break DayZ’s is one of modern gaming’s your legs when you try to mount a most dramatic and unpredictable ladder. There’s still some work to be game development stories. It was the done when it comes to running and mod that took over the world, then crouching animations, and better seemed to go out with a whimper as feedback from making a hit during developer Bohemia Interactive took melee combat, but this is DayZ we’re over from original creator Dean Hall. talking about: It’s encouraging to see For a sustained period in 2016, there updates at all after its protracted ROCKET weren’t even any zombies in it any alpha phase, and updates don’t come MAN more, which means technically it much bigger than an entirely new Wondering what Dean should have changed its name to ‘Day’. game engine with visuals, animations, ‘Rocket’ Hall, the Momentum is back with the and UI to match. most famous game developer of 2013, is ambitious open world survival title Perhaps indicative of that seismic up to now? Hall left though, with a new game engine update—though we’re guessing—is Bohemia Interactive in implemented and an Xbox Game the departure of creative director 2014, one year after Preview release imminent. The undead Brian Hicks, who says he’s been taking the DayZ standalone are even back! Hooray! Also: Run! more of a backseat in recent months launched on PC in About that new engine. It looks and is no longer needed on the early access, and just fabulous, particularly for a game project. There’s still a lot of technical started his own whose standalone entered PC early work to be done under DayZ’s hood studio, Rocketwerkz. access in 2013. The broad visual in the name of polish, but this was The studio’s debut title Ion was direction is still defined by muted once a game that seemed lost in the announced at E3 colors, autumnal natural scenery, and development wilderness, so we’re 2015, but later a gritty Soviet realism to the island of racking the 2018 state of play up as cancelled, but Out Chernarus (similar to PUBG’s Erangel, in a net win. Of Ammo and that way). But there’s now a newfound It’s also a great time to reacquaint Stationeers both density to grass and trees, a realistic with the zombie survival formula that released on PC in sway to their individual blades in the always showed so much promise in 2016 and 2017 breeze, and so much post-processing the earliest mod release. The undead respectively. that even Crysis would be proud. While here are relentless pursuers once you’re roaming the shoreline just they pick up your scent, and find after spawning, it takes on the look the nearest open door with alarming of Dear Esther: Landmark Edition with speed when you slam a front door in extra sparkle; further into the island their face, panicking and in dire need as trees and scrubland give way to of some breathing room to craft a bandage or two. You feel hunted, and with the survival systems punishing “The undead here are even in isolation, it makes for an intense session. Alone, in co-op, or on relentless pursuers once a server full of blurry human alliances, DayZ remains a unique vision of survival they pick up your scent” in the age of the walking undead. Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 037 PREVIEW
Shenmue I was probably the most expensive videogame ever produced, with a budget of $47-70 million in 1999
Shenmue I & II Our first chance to play the stuff of Dreamcast dreams on home turf—will it hold up? Phil Iwaniuk
PUBLISHER SEGA DEVELOPER SEGA AM2/YS NET FORMAT XBOX ONE ETA 2018
First, let’s clear the air and make the Sega’s calling this release the often does. It’s easy to forget how far not-at-all bitter jokes about Shenmue definitive version of both games, we’ve come in 20 years when it comes III never coming out, or it’ll be all which are updated for modern to basic ease of use. Seriously, how we can think about for the whole resolutions, feature a new UI, and did people ever get by with Resident preview: It’s a strong contender for let you choose between Japanese Evil’s infamous tank controls? Thank 2027’s game of the year awards, and and English audio. There’s a choice goodness that remaster offered a rumor has it that it’ll be beaten to the of control schemes, too, so this newer control set too. shelves by its own remaster. Feel free shouldn’t feel as cumbersome as The exact release date has yet to to roll around holding your sides for a giving 20-year-old games a whirl be specified, which leads us to think bit, we’ll wait. that Sega’s lining it up to tie in with Right, onto the rather more Shenmue III’s arrival, also currently immediate business of the first two “It shouldn’t feel slated for an unspecified ‘late 2018’. games being made available on Xbox While Sega itself isn’t connected One later this year. In the first game’s as cumbersome to the third game, appetites will be case, it’ll be the first time it’s ever greater for these first two when the BELOW After been playable on Xbox hardware, and as giving old next one’s imminent, so wait and see a hard day is thus a first chance to discover why if the two releases don’t buddy up operating a the game carries such a formidable games a whirl fairly closely. forklift, Ryu unwinds by… er, reputation 19 years after release while racing forklifts. holding an Xbox pad. often does” Shen-who? Why should you care about a pair of dusty old Dreamcast games? One of which, admittedly, was ported to Xbox in 2002? Well, Shenmue did the open world gaming thing before it was cool. And not only that, it did it in such an esoteric fashion, paying particular attention to the minutiae of everyday life in a way we just hadn’t seen depicted in games before. There are high-octane moments in which Ryu’s martial arts skills are called upon, but there are also long and curiously entertaining passages when you’re just operating a forklift truck. Because that’s your job. Buses run on timetables, characters have routines governed by the time of day, and you can lose an hour to a challenging arm-wrestling mini-game if you’re not careful. That—ahem— other black box (cue pantomime boos) is welcome to the threequel: We’re getting the games that built the series’ reputation. Q
038 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW
Capy Games had a title on the App Store the day it went live!
or anything to tell you what’s going on—and set it alight. Does it do something? Who knows. You get warm, you get rested, you move on. Into the next room. Below A strange red, glowing light hums to itself near a stone altar. What’s that? What lies beneath? You walk up to it, investigate, and— Dom Peppiatt BANG. You’re dead. It was a trap, and you triggered it, you idiot. Your body PUBLISHER CAPYBARA GAMES DEVELOPER CAPYBARA GAMES lies shredded on the floor. The stuff XBOX ONE 2018 FORMAT ETA you stole0 from the bonfire wasted. The screen goes dark (well, darker). You’re back at your boat—time to do it Below isn’t like anything else you’ve all again. ever played. From the second you boot That is the core gameplay loop up the game and you’re subjected you’ll expect of Below. You’re going to the wind howling in your ears, the to die. You’re going to die a lot. And rain and lightning pushing you to find every time, you’re going to learn shelter, with no on-screen hints or something—about the game, about suggestions about what you’re even what you’re supposed to be doing, supposed to do… you know you’re about this massive, weird cave… onto something special. maybe even about yourself. After even Leaving your boat on the shore 15 minutes with the game, we cursed of a deserted island, you find an our inquisitiveness, our curiosity. It entrance to the cave—a long, thin slit killed us, like, four times. in the wall, pregnant with the promise “We’re making a game about of adventure—and you begin your exploration, and it’s really hard to give descent. Everything is silent, except a player that feeling of exploration the wind howling into the echoey when you’re telling them stuff,” chamber above you. It gets darker— you notice the blackness creep closer and closer to you as you travel deeper “Even as much of the mechanics do. We know we BELOW The into the cave. found some glowing fragments that various chambers Stone staircases lead you to a as knowing seemed to build up to something of Below are cavernous room—an old campfire sits bigger, we know that a lantern helped teeming with secrets and on the ground. You investigate—no what buttons do us see further in the cave, we know mysteries… button prompts, item explanations that you need to drink water, eat, and what, we don’t perform other essential actions in order to survive. tell you that” But beyond that? Below is a total mystery. And Vella wants to keep it that way. “When we say ‘explore’, we explains Capybara’s Nathan Vella, mean explore everything,” he reveals. co-founder and president of the “You have to explore combat, you studio. “You’re removing the agency have to explore crafting. Even as of a player in exploring if you’re telling much as knowing what buttons do them ‘go over here, press that button what, we don’t tell you that. You can over here’. We don’t want to say go into a menu and see what the ‘here’s ABCD, right in front of you’.” controller layout is, but you don’t know how they interact. You have to explore, A cave story really, everything.” It’s an admirable development choice, Capy wants to make the challenge and one that pays off in Below. We a core part of what Below ‘is’. Other played the game for a decent stretch, games that rely on procedural and still have no idea what most generation to fuel the feeling of
040 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ABOVE Below’s big, scary entrance has a good chance of being this year’s most iconic gaming imagery.
FAR LEFT The game’s tilt- shifted camera, detached view and focus on darkness gives it a constantly tense edge.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 041 ABOVE All of the screenshots may look too dark, but you get used to tenatively feeling your way around.
RIGHT There’s clearly more going on than spelunking.
042 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE PREVIEW
Below has been in development, in one way or another, for over ten years
contributes to how it looks now: We “It’s up to you to really knew we wanted that [overhead] camera angle, we knew we wanted decode how each type of the tilt-shift effect, we knew we wanted the character to be in a focal threat must be countered” plane, and have everything else go off into blurriness around them,” explains Vella. ECHOES OF adventure (Enter The Gungeon, The The way the game uses darkness to THE PAST Binding Of Isaac, Rogue Legacy) are press down on you, to really reinforce The game has an all pretty hardcore examples of using the idea of oppression and tension, interesting it, but they all still hold your hand is one of our favorite elements of the connection to another through the infant stages of the title. There are moments of combat Capy hit game, Sword game. Below and Capy do not do this. against slow, small red enemies that & Sworcery. “We have And that’s part of the charm. come at you out of nowhere, and Jim Guthrie working on the [soundtrack] “We want the game to be whilst they don’t feel too threatening again,” explains Vella. challenging,” Vella explains. “Part of in small numbers… when you stumble “With Sword & the challenge is trusting the player to upon them in the dark, already Sworcery, we basically learn on their own, not telling them fatigued, you see what Capy is doing made a game around what to do. Telling them nothing and with its lighting engine. Combat seems his music… with expecting them to learn on their own to take a wide range of forms, from the Below, he’s made is a much better challenge than telling aforementioned amorphous blobs to music to our game.” them what to do and having harder more intimidating skeletons, undead Vella explains that the enemies. The feeling of success from enemies that are smarter than you two projects work together like a double that challenge is also greater.” give them credit for. Some fly, some album, with both creep, some stalk… and it’s up to you developer and Darker souls to really decode how each type of musician learning He’s right. Once we managed to threat must be countered. Below isn’t from each other as penetrate some of the darkness going to help at all. It actively wants each project has and make our way a bit further into you to die. progressed. “[Jim] the cavern, and figured out that you “How we implemented those just gets the game, could craft items, a wave of relief features we came up with early on and and has grown with it washed over us. The only clue that how they came to be has changed as we’ve been making it. It’s been a you’re doing something right is a drastically, and a big part of that is great process.” trio of chimes that ping off as you down to our artists, our tech team and select the correct resources. That graphics team… a lot of the game’s audio tick fills you with such a sense look is the tech. That’s one of the BELOW You can of accomplishment, because you’ve advantages of taking a while—we had pick up items in got there all on your own. so much time to build up the tech.” the game and use The fact you’ve got a nice new And the result is nothing short of them to find food or craft item to use feels almost secondary to captivating. From the moment you weapons. the realization that you’ve squirrelled disembark onto the island and see a mechanic out of the game. You’ve the grey grass swaying in the wind, figured out something that it really to when you start fighting through didn’t want to give up. Instead of layers of darkness and intrigue to unlocking a new character in The find out just what the hell this game Binding Of Isaac, or adding a gun to is all about—what on earth lies at your loot pool in Gungeon, you’ve the center of this cave that you’ve unlocked the understanding of a core become so Moby Dick obsessed with Below mechanic. Well done, better getting to—Below astonishes you. luck on your next run. Yeah, it’s an overhead, minimal This hardcore choice is reinforced adventure game. But running in with some aesthetic choices Capy has 4K, with all the dynamic layers of a made. Having been in development for Jim Guthrie soundtrack ebbing and a good five-plus years at this point, flowing, with a suite of uneasy sound Capy has had plenty of time to double effects for flavor, a jigsaw puzzle of down on design choices that were mechanics waiting to be assembled made when the idea for the title was and decoded and a beautiful, hand- first conceived, back in a prototype drawn world, Below is one of the most some ten years ago. exciting titles the Xbox One could ever “There was also stuff we set see. We can’t wait to explore it further. out to do from the beginning that We need to. Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 043 ABOVE Rise was meant to feature proper tomb raiding; hopefully Shadow definitely will.
RIGHT Besides rainforests, there’ll be this type of scenery.
044 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE PREVIEW
Why was Lara Croft sad? Her career was in ruins!
to discover the location of the next area you’re to plunder, and it’s actually a real nice reintroduction to Lara as a character. Shadow will apparently have a big hub city that you’ll be based out of, where you take missions, sub- Shadow Of The quests, items, and more. That seems like a great way of making Lara more personable: Tomb Raider Hopefully it’ll communicate more Lara Croft and the raider of about her character and her growth than the dreary internal monologues the lost dark she’s been lumbered with up until Dom Peppiatt now. When she gets out into the jungle, the ol’ killer is back, though. PUBLISHER SQUARE ENIX DEVELOPER EIDOS MONTREAL FORMAT XBOX ONE ETA SEPTEMBER 14 2018 Vine time We imagine the mood board at Eidos—no, not Crystal Dynamics Within the first 30 minutes of Shadow this time—has a lot of Predator and Of The Tomb Raider, you hear a line, Rambo screens on it. Lara’s acute word-for-word, from Raiders Of The senses return, giving you ‘detective Lost Ark. That sets the scene, really— mode’ to pick out your opponents and that shows you what Tomb Raider is their movements from range, and the based on, what it wants to be, and majority of what we played saw Lara why you’re playing it. hiding in vines, breaking necks, and You’re a gung-ho adventurer. A jolting from cover to cover in order to WELCOME tough-as-nails young buck, eyes set execute grizzly murder. TO THE on ancient treasure. Yes, Lara may If you know the rebooted series, JUNGLE have changed since her polygonal you’ll know this isn’t anything new— This game is prototype, but the setup is the same: stealthy combat is bread and butter gorgeous. Gorgeous. You boot up a Tomb Raider game keen to the series by this point—but it still The opening of Rise Of The Tomb Raider to kick ass, and raid tombs. Shadow feels gratuitous, at odds with what showed off its Of The Tomb Raider certainly has both Eidos is trying to do with her character. astonishing lighting of those elements in spades… but When the game throws puzzles at you, engine with a section perhaps to its detriment. though, those puzzles are hard, and involving a fancy Lara and Jonah are back, and so are that’s something legacy Lara fans are explorer’s glow stick, Trinity—the mysterious organization going to enjoy the most. and it worked that has plagued the tomb-raiding Our favorite bit of the demo, for wonders in making duo over the last five years. Since example, had Lara working out how you stop, stare, and 2013, in both Tomb Raider and Rise to form a rudimentary pulley system appreciate everything. Shadow does that Of The Tomb Raider, Trinity have been using tethered arrows, and arrange with, well, everything. outpacing Lara at every turn—proving them intelligently, forming pathways Honestly, we spend to be more than a thorn in her side. and staircases to deeper, unexplored the first ten minutes The group is effectively after a pair parts of a moonlit Aztec-themed tomb. of our demo gawping of relics that, if used correctly, can The feel of the place—wonder mixed at NPCs, the texture bring about the end of the world. No with claustrophobia, danger laced with on Lara’s poncho, her pressure, then. intrigue—is what Tomb Raider does dented, worn new The opening of the game sets you best, and we’re enthusiastic about the machete… this game off in a small South American village, prospect of spelunking into more of won’t stop flirting with your eyes. filled with NPCs all celebrating an these uncharted areas. event analogous to Mexico’s Day of the Eidos promises this time that Tomb Dead: Skulls, face paint, and candles Raider is actually going to have plenty everywhere. You have to talk to people more honest-to-god, proper tombs to raid, too. If what we’ve played so far is any indication, Shadow is making “When the game throws Lara more brutal, the puzzles more sadistic, and the story more intense. puzzles at you, those No wonder they opted for the Shadow hard qualifier in the title… it seems things puzzles are ” are getting darker. Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 045 PREVIEW
An early playtest bug rendered some barrels invisible—our resident cooper would be devastated
two with a simple button press. This is important, as sometimes a blocked path in the mortal realm will have a way through in the shadow one—you constantly need to switch between Shadow’s the two to progress. Puppet master There are currently four main heroes Awakening you can posses from the start, and Switch between realms in this each has a different story path depending on their history as well as Diablo-like action-RPG their own skill sets. Eventually you Daniella Lucas will come across other party members who will join your cause and add their PUBLISHER KALYPSO MEDIA DEVELOPER GAMES FARM own skills to the mix. You might find FORMAT ETA XBOX ONE LATE SUMMER yourself in a dungeon with secret paths that only skills/party members can unlock, giving you a reason to If you’ve been suffering from a come back later to uncover what’s severe lack of loot and have caught behind them. yourself thinking about floods There’s also a lot of choice when of monsters to destroy, then we it comes to quests—do you choose have something for you. Set in two to obey a quest word for word, or dimensions, the shadow realm and maybe by switching to the shadow the mortal plane, you play as The realm you’ll find everything isn’t as Devourer—a demon summoned to it seems and follow a different path. KINGDOM consume the souls of long-dead In the demo we saw this demonstrated COME heroes so he can use them in puppets. with a quest where a man asks you Shadow’s Awakening While The Devourer exists in the to bury his wife, as he’s not strong is actually part of an shadow realm full of horrors your enough to do so, but if you switch established fantasy universe. Previous thralls exist in the mortal one—you’ll to the shadow realm you can talk game Shadows: need to switch between the two to to her soul, and discover what really Heretic Kingdoms overcome obstacles and see hidden went on. started this particular souls on your journey. Will you Combat also requires you to keep saga on PC, but this is vanquish the evil threatening the your wits about you—your heroes are the first time it’s world or plunge it into darkness? far stronger than The Devourer, but coming to consoles. Shadow’s Awakening is part of sometimes they’ll be protected by It’ll both be retelling the Heretics fantasy universe, but shields that can only be taken down and continuing the this is its first time on Xbox, and you in the shadow realm first before you story so no need to worry if you think you won’t need to have played previous attack them properly. Shifting to that missed out on the games to be able to enjoy this. It’s side is a huge risk as the enemies first part. very Diablo-like in that you go around in that realm also like to flood and exploring deep dungeons and taking overwhelm you—it’ll take some deft on quests as a character that gets switching to make the most of your more powerful over time while fighting skills. You won’t be fighting all finding new loot. There is one major of the time though, there are also hub twist though, as you’re actually a cities full of quests to explore, loot to demon controlling and recruiting find, and mysteries to uncover. mortals like puppets. It all comes together to form an As a demon you exist in one dark intriguing twist on the genre with the realm that differs slightly to the opportunity for plenty of replayability mortal one where your hero exists, thanks to differing choices you and you’re able to switch between the can make. However the version we saw did have a few major bugs, but there’s still another four months to “There are hub cities full go to get everything straightened out before release. If they manage of quests, loot to find, and to squash those issues then this unassuming action-RPG will have a mysteries to uncover” lot of potential. Q
046 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ABOVE Your heroes are long dead, but thanks to The Devourer that’s not going to stop them.
LEFT It doesn’t look like there’s a path here, but you might find one in the shadow realm.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 047 ABOVE Armor will break and fall off after successive powerful attacks. Examples so far include visible loincloth (!) on Mitsurugi and Sophitia’s hair falling down.
RIGHT Overhauled tutorial and training modes are due to be added, to help newcomers pull off the sick stuff.
048 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE PREVIEW
Soulcalibur VI’s tellingly chosen design pillar keyword is ‘reboot’
wasn’t playable in V), and it’s certainly satisfying to see her pull off moves whose button prompts have long been etched into our memory, such as the iconic front somersault thigh- to-face neck twist throw. She’s got a few new moves to her repertoire of course, including an explosive special attack which combines a simple Soulcalibur VI chest stab and slick sheath action to Charge… And release this devastating effect. Siegfried’s return is not so game already! surprising, given that we already Robert Douglas knew that his equally big sworded, naughty alter ego Nightmare was in PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO DEVELOPER PROJECT SOUL the roster too. It’ll be interesting to FORMAT XBOX ONE ETA 2018 see how this reboot handles the two characters when they are together, as this has always been a muddy You know a great fighting game is area in the games’ lore. He’s still on the horizon when each time you filling the role as slow moving bruiser, check in with it prior to launch there’s with added deadliness now that a glut of exciting freshly announced Ring Outs are back as a viable way characters in its roster to natter to attain victory. His ground-carving about. Such is the case with this forward charge move is a particularly blade-based one-on-one slasher. frustrating way to go when you’re Since the heady reveals of The on the receiving end (though very ROST’ IN Witcher’s Geralt as a guest fighter, satisfying to pull off when you’re in TRANSLATION and series stalwarts such as Mitsurugi the driving seat). Wondering who has and Ivy, we’ve been introduced to a We call these returning characters been revealed and who brand new face in the Nordic ninja veterans, but take a closer look at hasn’t thus far? Here’s the full list of 11 Grøh, as well as returning series their diligently current gen-ified characters confirmed, veterans such as Taki and Siegfried. visages. They look a little younger with more to follow in That brand new fighter first—Grøh than they did in the series’ last the coming months: fights with a dual-ended blade, sort proper outing back in 2012 (we’re Geralt of Rivia, Grøh, of like if Darth Maul had been raised in not counting the abysmal non-Xbox- Ivy, Kilik, Mitsurugi, a Turkish prison. His stabby stick can flavored Lost Sword (*spits*). This is Nightmare, Siegfried, detach to form two individual short due to Soulcalibur VI’s setting as a Sophitia, Taki, swords when needed during more sort of re-envisioning of the original Xianghua, Zasalamel. visually (and physically) impactful game, a half prequel, half reboot sort Not a fan of any of those? Well the game’s combos, and he also has the ability of sequel. A great entry point for those producers have to teleport across the stage. It’s not so clued-in on the series’ long confirmed that a fairly rare thing for a Soulcalibur running stab-infused interpersonal character creation character to have this in their locker, dramas, and the ever-present quest mode will be making but Grøh is also something of a for primary McGuffin, ‘Soul Edge’. For a return. long-range specialist, able to send those of us in the know, though, this out shockwaves of energy to attack represents a sort of reset button on at distance. Not a lot is known about existing lore. It also means that when his backstory as yet, other than his fans discuss said background stories nickname: ‘The Agent In Black’. we’re going to have to keep talking about ‘new timeline’ Taki’ or ‘old Knife life timeline Taki’ and the like. Taki feels every bit as fast and pokey There are two very important as she was back in Soulcalibur IV (she questions fans will want answering sooner rather than later though. One: Is Team Battle mode returning? And “A great entry point for two: what form will the traditionally innovative single player campaign/s those not so clued-in on take? Many fans still ache for the return of Weapon Master mode from the series’ dramas” Soulcalibur II after all... Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 049 PREVIEW roundup
THIS MONTH, UNDEAD NINJAS, A SURREAL SOVIET UNION, AND THE MOST POWERFUL GUN IN THE WORLD ADAM BRYANT
ATOMIC HEART 8-BIT ARMIES HYPERGUN
PUBLISHER MUNDFISH PUBLISHER PETROGLYPH GAMES PUBLISHER NVYVE STUDIOS DEVELOPER MUNDFISH DUE TBA DEVELOPER PETROGLYPH GAMES DUE 2018 DEVELOPER NVYVE STUDIOS DUE 2018
This strange open world first-person For those of you that miss the good old We hope you have your towel ready shooter, which has a hint of BioShock about days of RTS games on consoles, specifically because your eyes are going to get soaked it, had us all captivated with its bizarre Command & Conquer, fear not because in bright neon lights. This year we’ll see the but instantly intriguing announcement your prayers have been answered in this release of Hypergun, a fast paced rogue- trailer. Very little is known about the story, retro-inspired title. Base building, resource lite action game. The game boasts more but what we do know is that it’s set in an gathering, troop deployment, it’s got it all, than 150 weapon attachments for you to alternate universe at the height of the and you’ll be able to play it either on your use as you save the world by mowing down Soviet Union, and machines have started an own in single play or with a friend in the hordes of alien enemies within procedurally uprising. We don’t blame ‘em. multiplayer mode. generated levels.
ANTHEM ARAGAMI: SHADOW EDITION ADVENTURE TIME: PIRATES OF THE ENCHIRIDION
PUBLISHER EA PUBLISHER MERGE GAMES PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO DEVELOPER BIOWARE DUE MARCH 2019 DEVELOPER LINCE WORKS DUE TBA DEVELOPER OUTRIGHT GAMES DUE JULY 2018
After delaying this much-anticipated game, Broken from the shackles of exclusivity, Mathematical! We finally have a release EA has confirmed a release date for March this stylized third-person stealth adventure date for Pirates Of The Enchiridion. This July next year. It also said that the community title is finally making its way to Xbox One. you’ll be able to freely explore the Land of will get a chance to play early in order to Play as undead assassin Aragami, brought Ooo with Finn, Jake, BMO, and Marceline in help the developers shape and refine the to life in order to free the Empress from this open-world adventure. The Ice Kingdom game with their feedback. What wasn’t the oppressive Kaiho army. This edition will has melted, the world has flooded, and it’s confirmed was whether the date referred to include all of the DLC developed for the your job to find out why. Fight your way to early access or the release of the full game. game. You’ll also be able to play the game the truth in classic turn-based combat and Watch this space, Anthem-ers. cooperatively with a friend. save the land.
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050 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 2019 NEXT MONTH MASSIVE NEW GAME PREVIEW XBOX’S BIGGEST TITLES COMING OUT IN THE NEXT YEAR!
WE HEAD TO CALIFORNIA FOR THIS YEAR’S E3 CONFERENCE AND GET OUR HANDS ON THE BIGGEST NEW GAMES BEING UNVEILED
ON SALE JULY 24 2018 TURN TO PAGE 81 TO SUBSCRIBE NOW
*Contents subject to change. Please don’t get angry if they do.
THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 051 052 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE EVOLUTION OF ZOMBIE GAMES
WE LOOK AT THE EVOLUTION OF ZOMBIE VIDEOGAMES AND WHY THEY JUST WON’T DIE ADAM BRYANT
ndead, Walkers, Infected, Zombies. As a culture we’ve been fascinated with the idea If you play videogames, you’ve of people returning from the dead, in part thanks to almost certainly played one that George A Romero’s 1968 zombie classic Night of The U features them. Ever since the release Living Dead, but it wasn’t until the mid 1980s that of the original Xbox, we’ve seen zombies shuffled on over to videogames. This initial zombies, in some shape or form, wave of zombie games struggled to be genuinely scary turn up on Microsoft’s family of consoles at due to the limited graphics and sound capabilities least once every year. at the time, but as technology improved, developers Not only that, but the last ten years has seen found new and interesting ways in which to entertain the release of more than half of all zombie-focused us. And when we say entertain, we mean pepper our games ever developed, and true to their relentless dreams with recurring nightmares of dead-eyed freaks nature they just keep on coming. So what is it about trying to crawl through our bedroom window and eat these rotten stumblers that makes them so enduring? our tasty flesh.
THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 053 Capcom’s survival moments, like walking through a when Capcom released Dead Rising horror game previously empty corridor only to have ABOVE We’re in 2006. Its success proved that this Resident Evil shot a pair of rabid undead dogs crash totally going to light-hearted survival beat-’em up zombie games into through the window. We’ve slept be fine. was what players were looking for. The the mainstream in with the lights on ever since. The BELOW An actual game took advantage of the fact that 1996. The key to its game’s superb game design captured shot of us zombies were no longer feared, and success wasn’t just everyone’s attention and showed an during deadline. went with the completely opposite because it looked better than other obvious maturing of the genre. approach, making a game that was games, but also as a result of clever For a while, the original Resi and ridiculous and fun. game mechanics. Limited ammo and Resident Evil 2 had been the last In 2008 Valve answered the healing herbs meant that whenever word in undead games, and when the question of how to make zombies you came upon zombies you had original Xbox launched, it was low on scary again with Left 4 Dead. This to quickly decide on fight or flight. zombies—except for Halo. Bear with four-player co-op shooter was not The sound design and music was us. Everyone’s favorite sci-fi shooter only fast-paced and intense, but it incredibly well done; the simple echo brought zombies along for the ride introduced new types of zombies. The of a ticking clock was able to elicit in the form of the parasitic enemy, Smoker would lurk around the map so much atmosphere. Then there’s The Flood: An alien creature that looking for any opportunity to ensnare the saving mechanic, which had you would reanimate corpses for the sole you with its enormous sickly tongue using finite ink ribbons to record your purpose of destroying all sentient life. and drag you away from your team progress on a typewriter. Saving, you mates, but it was the Witch that truly did in moderation, or you could be left ZOMBIE NATION terrified us. Disturb this lonesome with no more ribbons and be forced to By the arrival of the Xbox 360, the lady, and she’ll cry a horrible shrill survive long enough to find another. genre was in need of a shake-up, scream and chase you, killing you with Resident Evil was full of scary and that’s exactly what happened one hit.
ZOMBIES ON XBOX—A HISTORY VOODOO FABLE STUBBS THE HALO: HOUSE OF VINCE The Lychfield ZOMBIE IN COMBAT THE DEAD III Don’t forget Graveyand is REBEL WITHOUT EVOLVED Cheesy to grab all absolutely A PULSE The Flood are zombie those Zombie teeming with He’s tearing basically shooter Dust bags. them. you apart. zombies. on rails. 2003 2004 2005 2001 2002
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In the same year as Left 4 Dead, Visceral Games played around with zombie tropes and player expectations with Dead Space. Face to face with one of the enemy necromorphs in the game, the developers knew that players would instinctively go for the headshot, so they removed that weak spot entirely, and watched as the confidence drained from players who realized that everything they once knew did not apply here. “Left 4 Dead obviously left a huge impression on the whole gaming industry when it came out,” admits Overkill’s The Walking Dead’s global brand director Almir Listo. “But what really brought this type of post- apocalyptic theme into the limelight was Telltale’s The Walking Dead.” The latter game can be thanked for the next part of the genre’s evolution. As with its TV counterpart, instead of focusing on zombies, Telltale’s game focused on the human element and the unlikely relationships that formed within it. But behind this important factor in any zombie survival scenario, “One of the main aspects that the monsters are the real stars. make them an appealing enemy is “Regardless of their speed, it’s that they are already ‘dead’,” explains BELOW We guess that’s one way to their relentlessness and strength Foge. “You can divorce your feelings deal with in numbers that makes them a fun from them as a person that had a life, adoring fans. enemy,” says State Of Decay 2’s friends, family, etc, and think of them design director Richard Foge. “You solely as a human-shaped monster. see one, no big deal. I’ll just run right They have no intent or malice, they up and take it out. You see two, same run purely on simple instructions, thing, I can handle this. But when almost like a machine. So you can ‘kill’ two becomes four, becomes eight, them without considering morality. It becomes 16, you’re in trouble.” isn’t murder because a zombie isn’t a person any more, it’s a thing, and you FREAKS AND GEEKS are simply protecting yourself from a But why zombies, when there are dangerous monster.” plenty of other versions of the As well as being acceptable cannon apocalypse that don’t include them? fodder, a byproduct of using zombies The secret is that within each precious is that they can positively affect zombie lies a neatly rolled-up package age-rating certificates. By using a of forgiving game design. zombie as the enemy a developer “By the arrival of the Xbox 360, the genre was in need of a good shake-up”
DEAD RISING OVERLORD LEFT 4 DEAD DEAD SPACE COD: WORLD Fun, hilarious Succubus Watch out for Forget AT WAR nonsense. zombies were the Smockers headshots, Bring it, freak Romero happy to and don’t make sure bags! Get ready would be keep the bother the you go for for another proud. flame alive. witch! the limbs. round.
2006 2007 2008 2008 2008
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 055 instantly has an easier time gaining imagination doesn’t have to work too the certificate they’re aiming for, and hard to think that the end of the world it gives them permission to be more is a real possibility. creative and widen the scope as to It’s through this fear that people how gruesome or graphic they can be start flirting with the idea of what with violence. In those instances, if they would do if the apocalypse were you were to replace the zombies with to happen, and feeds not only the humans, the game may not even be need to play more games that follow awarded a certificate at all. that theme, but also the market for Finally we have AI. Creating any type developing them. And to keep the of character that moves and reacts genre fresh, molds must be broken. put together by Doug Williams, our art in a way the developers intend is To make a zombie game in 2018, that director. The Feral was a fun mix of ABOVE Even incredibly difficult, but programming a sense of genuine threat from the Zeds both. Doug had a really cool piece zombies want zombie is much easier. Coding errors needs to be dialled up to 11. that he was putting together at the medical and AI behaviors can be overlooked Undead Labs may be stepping up to same time that we were trying to attention. or more easily forgiven with zombies the plate here, with State Of Decay 2’s figure out a good freak for countering BOTTOM LEFT The than that of ‘intelligent’ enemies. zombies designed to provide a threat ranged weapons, that ended up gun isn’t really going to do much both in numbers and individually, looking like the kind of creature that now is it. PLANET TERROR with some harder-to-kill threats like would be able to dodge around really BELOW Clementine We’re constantly bombarded with the Feral proving annoyingly good at fast and move frighteningly fast.” is well-versed news reports of international tensions avoiding being shot in the head. Yeah, thanks guys… in the art of that could spark nuclear war, the “Some of the [zombie design] So what makes the perfect zombie dispatching Walkers. threat of global warming, the economy direction was derived from a in a game? For Overkill’s Saul Gascon, in perpetual crisis, and warnings of mechanical need,” explains Richard it’s an easy choice. “It’s the slow one, the latest outbreak of a new virulent Foge. “Specifically to counter the tools because that’s what we’re playing pandemic, so it’s no surprise that that the player might be over-relying with. The classic one. Night Of The we’re so familiar with the concept on and getting really comfortable Living Dead, awesome movie from of an apocalypse. With a world about their spot in the food chain. Romero, right? That’s where, for me, that remains in a state of fear, our Others are driven by amazing concepts everything started. The fascination
ZOMBIES ON XBOX—A HISTORY DEAD ISLAND TELLTALE’S STATE OF DECAY RESIDENT RED DEAD Probably not THE WALKING Build your EVIL 5 REDEMPTION: the most DEAD base, protect Chris Redfield UNDEAD ideal place An emotional the community, goes on NIGHTMARE for a quick journey, make survive. It’s co-op Howdy Miss break. no mistake. not easy. shenanigans. Mcfghuugh. 2011 2012 2013 2009 2010
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COMING SOON
The next wave of zombies heading your way soon
OVERKILL’S THE WALKING DEAD EXPECTED FALL 2018 Two Walking Dead games in the same year? We don’t care, we just want to join Aiden, Maya, Grant, and Heather on their travels.
TELLTALE’S THE WALKING DEAD: THE FINAL SEASON EXPECTED 2018 Make sure you’ve got tissues handy “There will be more games when this is released. We’re ABOVE Nothing guessing the series will end by like a bit of taking our hearts with it. that will try to include target practice. BELOW Overkill is going for the zombies in some way” hyper realism. with Walkers. The slow type. The fast the spectrum is increasing,” says one has a cool thing, which is related Listo. “We’re seeing many different DEAD ISLAND 2 to kind of a virus or something toxic kinds of zombie games. I think the EXPECTED FALL 2018 or nuclear, more modern. But there is genre is so mainstream that there will A game that’s been long in the something in the old zombie, like how be more games that will try to include making. Development exchanged relentless and mindless it is. It has no zombies is some way, whether it be hands from Yager Development to expression, no fear and it’s coming for the classic type or something in a Sum Digital, but we’re still excited. you. It’s death approaching you slowly. more extreme direction.” And from my point of view it is more “I hope the zombie genre goes in effective for fear. You can relate to it new and unique ways that take me better. We’re all getting older, death is by surprise,” says State Of Decay coming, you can’t stop it. This is why I 2’s art director Doug Williams. “One think the slow Walker is so creepy. It’s thing that worries me is that we are a human, or at least was a human. But building ‘rules’ for the genre. It was DAYZ it could be you, and it’s approaching born out of unique ideas and takes EXPECTED FALL 2018 you slowly, and you can’t avoid it.” on the undead. My fear is that the Remember DayZ? We do, and it’s Luckily, the death of the zombie genre can become stagnant if people set to be released this year. So grab game is far from approaching, slowly aren’t constantly pushing at its your backpack, watch out for or otherwise. “If you look at the genre, boundaries.” Q traitors, and get surviving.
THE EVIL DYING LIGHT 7 WAYS TO DIE RESIDENT STATE OF WITHIN Zombies and Zombie EVIL 7 DECAY 2 You’ll regret it parkour— survival. Make sure Now you get to if you don’t makes Rough on the to keep an build, survive, burn all the perfect edges, but eye on the and protect bodies. sense. done right. old lady. your friends.
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 057 PAINT THE PLANTS VS ZOMBIES TOWN DEAD GARDEN WARFARE DEVELOPER POPCAP / RELEASE DATE 2014 CHECK OUT SOME OF THE BEST This fun and family-friendly take on ZOMBIE GAMES AVAILABLE ON zombies was born from the tower defense phenomenon, Plants Vs Zombies, but YOUR XBOX ONE this time the series added a third-person shooter mode. Team up with your friends DEAD RISING either competitively or cooperatively in As we all know, the videogame landscape is various different game modes, and drive just like an apocalypse, and when it’s DEVELOPER CAPCOM / RELEASE DATE 2006 back those zombie hordes. The marketing saturated with so many zombie games it can At the time of release there wasn’t was all very thematic and tongue-in-cheek, be extremely difficult to distinguish the anything quite like it, especially in making spoof adverts with references to good ones from the bad. But thankfully the western market. Dead Rising is other games with titles such as Grass Effect there are actually a bunch of good ones completely over the top and thoroughly and Need For Seed. knocking around, and you have us to show entertaining. You play as photojournalist you them. There are so many, in fact, that Frank West trapped inside a shopping we simply couldn’t list them all on these mall and you’ll need to do, and use, pages. So without further ado, here are our whatever you can to survive. The series ten favorite games or series that you should has spawned three sequels since, all of play right now—right now, d’you hear!—on which are now available on the Xbox One. the Xbox One. Each of these entries offers a Every game in the series plays in much different experience to the last, so you can the same fashion, but with increasingly expect to find something to suit your creative and ridiculous ways to slaughter apocalyptic needs. No need to thank us, just the rambling dead. Each game also make sure you shoot a bunch of those contains various zombie Easter eggs creepers in the head on our behalf. and homages.
DEAD ISLAND DEVELOPER TECHLAND / RELEASE DATE 2011 When the trailer for Dead Island came out we were all expecting it to be a narrative-heavy game that would finally show us real heart in a zombie. When it released, that’s not actually what we got, but what we did get was still very boisterous and entertaining. Stranded on an island resort full of zombies and being STATE OF DECAY RDR: UNDEAD made to scour the place for resources in DEVELOPER RELEASE DATE NIGHTMARE order to survive isn’t exactly our first choice of UNDEAD LABS / 2013 scenarios to find ourselves in when going on a The only thing that surprised us when DEVELOPER ROCKSTAR / RELEASE DATE 2010 fortnight’s holiday, but zombie killers can’t be the amazing State Of Decay was Rockstar surprised everyone back in choosers. Hopefully we’ll see more about its released was why it took so long for 2010 with its take on zombies in the sequel at this year’s E3. anyone to bring out a game like it. It’s Wild West with the Undead Nightmare exactly what you want in a zombie DLC. It was regarded by many as one of survival game. You start out with a very the best DLC offerings around due to its small group of people and a basic base story and amount of content available of operations. You’ll need to improve it for the price it cost. With the silhouette along the way with new facilities and of Red Dead Redemption 2 creeping attempt to keep everyone alive and safe. over the horizon, there is a sliver of Which is harder than it sounds and far hope that this corpse-filled content will too often we would lose vital members to make a return. Thanks to Xbox One’s the zombies. The sequel improves on the backwards compatibility, you can now previous game dramatically, and adds play it on your Xbox One, so why not just multiplayer, so now you can watch your get back in the saddle? friends struggle to survive.
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CALL OF DUTY: DYING LIGHT WORLD AT WAR DEVELOPER TECHLAND / RELEASE DATE 2015 DEVELOPER TREYARCH / RELEASE DATE 2008 Brought to you by the same developers This was the first game to include the now as Dead Island, who returned to take on staple gaming mode of zombie. It was such the genre once again, but this time they a popular mode that nearly every game after wanted to shake things up a bit by adding included it, and it’s now expected with every parkour into the mix. This was well-executed new release in the series. Going back to it and resulted in an intense brain-bashing now after ten years, even though it lacks a LEFT 4 DEAD experience. The well-received expansion lot of the additions and improvements the ‘The Following’ introduced vehicles and series had made since, you’ll find that this DEVELOPER VALVE / RELEASE DATE 2008 gave players the opportunity to mow down title is still a blast to play. There’s just one People couldn’t get enough of Valve’s hundreds of those troublesome undead in thing left to think about: Will you sacrifice uncompromising foray into the zombie any of the large open corn fields. It might manning your defenses for a chance to get genre. This immensely popular first- not have been as fun as getting up close that coveted Ray Gun? person co-op shooter was again the and personal, but it was still a hoot. first of its kind. You had to work as a team of four to try and make it through levels swarming with different types of zombies. We still get chills down our spine whenever we hear the cry of a Witch in the distance, and will never forget the panic we felt the first time a Smoker snared us with its tongue when our nearest team mate was too far away to help. You don’t get too many experiences in gaming quite like this.
TELLTALE’S THE WALKING DEAD DEVELOPER TELLTALE GAMES / RELEASE DATE 2012 A shining example of how to deliver an engaging and heart-wrenching narrative. The first game has you stepping into the shoes of Lee Everett as he takes on the role of surrogate father to the recently orphaned Clementine. In a world filled with not only the undead but other people trying to kill them, Lee stops at nothing to keep Clementine safe. From the second series onwards the game has focused on Clementine, and the final season, expected to be released later this year, will conclude her story. RESIDENT EVIL HD REMASTER DEVELOPER CAPCOM / RELEASE DATE 2015 Probably the most well known of all the shift in the way the series was played, with zombie games, it even spawned (despite full control of the camera and aiming of your what you think of them) a bunch of big- gun. Capcom did it again with Resident Evil screen adaptations. A remake for the first 7: Biohazard where they introduced a first- game was released on Xbox One in 2015, and person perspective and breathed life into the made it available to the system for the first franchise once more, and proved that they’re time. Resident Evil 4 ushered in a dramatic still the masters of survival horror.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 059 OXM INVESTIGATES XBOX ONE X 4K BACK-COMPAT
How the emulation technology in Xbox One X is helping resurrect the last two generations of Xbox classics in 4K DAVE MEIKLEHAM
Father Time hates they’re virtually unplayable. That’s why technology. Whereas backwards compatibility on Xbox One— great books and and Xbox One X, in particular—is such paintings can have a big deal. Since Microsoft cracked the everlasting appeal, emulation tech in 2015, it’s committed the passing years to making its current consoles hubs often ravage tech-driven industries. for celebrating Xbox’s rich history. And Unless you’re dealing with Jurassic now, with the arrival of the X, select Park, almost any ‘90s blockbuster original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles have will now singe your eyes with cringe been revitalized in glorious Ultra HD. thanks to shoddy CGI. Similarly, those Join us, as we look at the amazing 15-year-old games that looked technology behind the back-compat amazing on your tiny 14-inch CRT initiative that’s giving classic games TV now run at such low resolutions fresh 4K life. THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 061 OXM INVESTIGATES
t may surprise you, but the lion’s share of Xbox One’s backwards compatibility (be it S or X) is handled by software, not the machine itself. “In order to make this happen, which we didn’t think was initially possible, we went ahead and built a virtual [Xbox] 360 entirely in software,” Bill Stillwell, who is a Microsoft platform lead, told Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb on the Xbox icon’s YouTube show. “We then take old 360 games and run them in the emulator.” In essence, the process isn’t a million miles removed from those PC programs that allow you to play old 16-bit-games on your laptop. Um, not that we’ve ever done anything like that… *cough*. Of course, the process of getting original Xbox and 360 titles to run on Xbox One or Xbox One X is a little more bespoke than that. “Basically, we have a VGPU—or an Xbox 360 GPU that we’ve recompiled into x86—and we run the entire 360 OS stack,” Stillwell tells Digital Foundry. If that all sounds terribly ABOVE Conker: techy, the bottom line is this: Your Xbox One Live & Reloaded basically thinks it’s an original Xbox or 360 isn’t far off full 4K glory. when you fire up that retro gem. “We take each game, we recompile it so that it runs, FAR RIGHT Halo’s targeting sees a but basically we’re running it still in a 360, sharpening up. and the team goes through the game with BELOW Crackdown multiple passes.” is worth another That’s not to say your beloved shiny white/ crack on. matte black console entirely has its feet
CRACKDOWN ENHANCED
CRACKDOWN ORIGINAL
062 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE HALO 3 ENHANCED HALO 3 ORIGINAL
“THE ORIGINAL STUDIOS BEHIND THESE TITLES DON’T HAVE TO LIFT A FINGER” up when it comes to the hardware side. Heutchy—to ensure some of your favorite Thanks to some canny forward planning that last-gen games now run at 4K. Providing happened when the Xbox One was in the R&D the game has been patched to support stage as early as 2011, engineers tweaked Xbox One X enhancements, this method the console’s innards to ensure that one introduces a 9x resolution boost, while also day, way down the line, back-compat would allowing for expanded color detail. “When eventually be possible. the game renders to its original render target, our virtual 360 GPU recognizes the Hard(ware) times dimensions and scales up the render target,” “This was primarily a software exercise, but Bill Stillwell tells Digital Foundry. “Effectively we enabled that by thinking ahead with we then have a high resolution copy of the hardware,” Kevin Gamill tells IGN. At that time, asset stashed in Xbox One memory.” So long, Given the jump from 720p to 2160p on Gamill was in charge of the complicated 720p sadness. compatible 360 Xbox One X Enhanced titles, sounding Xbox core platform program That all laid the groundwork for where we the fact Microsoft hasn’t once changed a manager, and it was his team that played a are now: a 4K-capable Xbox that runs an single line of code in any of these titles is big part in planting the early seeds for making ever expanding library of old games at vastly pretty remarkable. The world’s most powerful Xbox One backwards compatibility possible. increased pixel counts compared to original console boasts such raw horsepower, all “We had to bake some of the backwards hardware. At time of writing, nearly 40 games those burly ponies can push out the level compatibility support into the [Xbox One] spanning the first two generations of Xbox of detail in Halo 3, while also fixing frame- silicon.” Considering the first back-compat can now be enjoyed in Ultra HD—we round up pacing issues that plagued the game while 360 games didn’t hit Xbox One until 2015, our eight favorites over the page. In all cases, running on 360. Outside of agreeing licensing that’s mightily impressive foresight. these newly polished up titles benefit from terms with Microsoft, so the backward- As for Xbox One X, Microsoft utilizes a clever emulation tricks, which provide each compatibility process can be greenlit, the process called the Heutchy Method—named game with 16x anisotropic filtering and forced original studios behind these titles don’t after software development engineer Eric vsync to eliminate screen tear. have to lift a finger.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 063 OXM INVESTIGATES
RED DEAD REDEMPTION ENHANCED
It’s no wonder developers have been blown away with how much extra life Xbox RIGHT Snow so One X can breathe into decade-old games. sharp you’ll feel a chill. “It’s been genuinely startling to see how it looks,” says Frank O’Connor in an interview BELOW Another excuse to with IGN, the Halo franchise development revisit Red Dead director clearly delighted with the freshly 4K Redemption. Master Chief results. Nutty speeds As for the OG Xbox, this Heutchy Method leads to even more colossal visual upgrades. Such drastic improvements can be readily seen GEARS OF WAR 3 AFTER 4K in the likes of the now 13-year-old Conker: Live & Reloaded. When it was first released, the expletive-loving rodent’s platformer ran at 480p, but with the power of Xbox One X and that brilliant emulator, it now runs at a native 1920p; a seismic leap that essentially represents a 16x boost in resolution. Sure, it’s not quite full-fat 4K, yet only the most eagle-eyed obsessives would spot the slight disparity. As a plus for launch model Xbox One or Xbox One S owners, all original Xbox back- compat titles run at 4x resolution, bringing them up to a still impressive 920p, something confirmed by former director of Xbox console marketing, Albert Penello. The fact that Microsoft isn’t asking you to pay a penny for any of these upgrades shouldn’t go uncelebrated. Provided you The about-turn from Microsoft from when GEARS OF WAR 3 BEFORE 4K already own the original disc version or a Xbox One was initially announced in spring digital copy—many of the X-enhanced Xbox of 2015 to now is as surprising as it is and Xbox 360 titles are available on the heartening. Where playing 360 games on Microsoft Store—these Ultra HD upgrades Xbox One once looked completely off the won’t cost you a thing. Who knows, Microsoft’s table, the Big M has instead doubled down amazing emulator may even lead to less on ensuring all Xbox One owners can relive cynically churned-out remasters. After all, an increasingly expanded library of past why pay $50 for a 1080p redux when the Xbox greats. And for those lucky enough to own One X is capable of running last-gen games an Xbox One X, seeing classics like Red Dead at 4K, with the added bonus that it smooths Redemption and Crackdown in Ultra HD truly is out most games to a rock-solid 30fps? 4K f***ing A. Q
064 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE RED DEAD REDEMPTION ORIGINAL BELOW SSX: BRINGING The best snowboarding X-Y BACK game ever? BOTTOM The FOUR 360 CLASSICS WE’D LOVE spectacle of this cover TO SEE GIVEN THE LUXURY 4K shooter remains PATCHES TREATMENT insane.
Halo Reach Like the rest of these entries, Reach is backwards-compatible, but hasn’t been enhanced for Xbox One X yet. We’d love to replay it in 4K.
Grand Theft Auto IV It may be slightly miserable, but hot damn if Liberty City doesn’t remain a captivating place to kill and chill in. Still GTA’s most intoxicating city.
BioShock Infinite Already available as part of the Xbox Games Pass, it would be lovely to see the gorgeous, skyward streets of Columbia treated to an Xbox One X patch.
Mass Effect 2 This deserves to be enhanced on Xbox One X so we can savor that incredible suicide mission in Ultra HD. Noble sacrifice is simply more satisfying in 4K.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm OXM INVESTIGATES
Best X enhanced 07 THE ELDER SCROLLS golden 3: MORROWIND This was always visually drab: Even a resolution boost to 1920p can only do so oldies much to make all those brown environments look appealing. Thankfully, there’s more to OUR FAVORITE XBOX ONE X Xbox One X backwards-compatibility than PATCHED TITLES, SPANNING 08 a mere pixel upgrade. On the first Xbox, CONKER: LIVE & Bethesda’s fantasy RPG was a jittery mess. TWO GENERATIONS Thanks to the beefy 12GB of RAM Microsoft’s RELOADED supercharged console boasts, Morrowind Following the frequently drunken, now runs at a relatively stable 60fps, This was by no means an easy list to put expletive-filled frolics of a sauced-up whereas Bill’s first box could barely hit half together. Thanks to Microsoft’s exhaustive squirrel, Conker: Live & Reloaded’s that framerate. One of the main selling points emulation efforts, there are dozens of madcap action is as eclectic as it is of the X’s back-compat features is making games from past generations you can now filthy. Hurl toilet rolls into the gaping older games less of a hassle to play, a box play in Ultra HD. We’ve narrowed it down to jaw of an almighty singing poo; embark this newly smooth RPG more than ticks. our favorite eight titles, encompassing on a gory beach invasion ode to Saving greats from both the original Xbox and Xbox Private Ryan; help an amorous bee 360. Was it hard leaving out patched 4K seduce a sentient flower—don’t ask. The versions of Portal 2 and Panzer Dragoon 16x resolution boost over the original Orta? Damn straight. But the following group Xbox title unsurprisingly benefits the of varied, now superbly sharp, classics all game’s superb character models hugely. strike a great balance between offering Conker’s bushy tail and furry face look unique experiences, and really making the lovely in 1920p, and the raw power of most out of Xbox One X’s superb back- the Xbox One X ensures velvety smooth compat features. Get ready for 4K cowboys, 60fps performance. A rude riot. and one super sweary squirrel. 06 04 SSX 3 HALO 3 This open-ended extreme sports Until the Master Chief Collection gets a treat boasts amazing ambience, a 4K patch, the most striking way to replay disgustingly hummable soundtrack, Halo 3 is to run the 360 version on Xbox and three momentous peaks to carve One X. Whether you look out that slightly up. SSX 3’s freeride mode makes it a scratched 11-year-old disc or download more relaxing experience than its trick- a digital copy, Chief’s trilogy-capper obsessed predecessors, and careening runs at 2160p on the X. Compare this down a mountain, casually collecting 05 to the 1080p upscaling job seen in the snow crystals, is the definition of MCC, and the emulated 360 version is original Xbox chill. And SSX 3 has a MIRROR’S EDGE significantly sharper—it also supports widescreen mode, meaning it will fill There’s very little out there in the Xbox HDR. Sure, it’s a slight bummer we’re every inch of your 4K display. The Xbox space that’s quite like Mirror’s Edge. The locked to 30fps, but seeing big John One X patch delivers a crystal clear game’s urgent first-person parkour controls in 4K is a Covenant-crippling pleasure. experience that makes us sorry extreme elegantly, and the option to go through the This is no antiquated nostalgia act: For sports titles have died a death on Xbox entire campaign without once firing a gun is our money, Halo 3 serves up a far more One. Sorry Steep: You’re no SSX 3. refreshing in the current blaster-obsessed compelling campaign than Halo 5. climate. The Xbox One X enhancements also serve DICE’s unique platformer better than most upgraded 360 titles. With the appropriate X patch running, the uncluttered aesthetic that defines the look of Faith’s boldly minimalist world really impress on a 4K TV. Thanks to the sparse art style, those original 720p textures don’t grate as much as you’d expect in Ultra HD.
066 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 03 02 GEARS OF WAR 3 CRACKDOWN It’s astonishing how good this 2011 game looks with Xbox One X With the bump to a full 2160p, Crackdown is instantly revitalized enhancements in place. Such were the budgets Epic Games was as an ultra attractive 4K open world. The game’s parkour working with, Gears 3 visually outguns many 2018 games. Unlike its playground holds up admirably,and the Xbox One X patch smooths two predecessors, the majority of cutscenes are delivered in-engine, out the original 360 adventure’s performance dips, too. Now meaning far fewer cutaways to grubby 720p pre-rendered videos. when you send a grenade hurtling into large groups of goons, the Play the first level and that boss fight on a decent 4K TV, and you’ll be framerate no longer dips into the 20fps range, instead holding floored. It may not be quite as critically acclaimed as Gears 2, yet this firm at 30fps. The X’s emulator also allows for the addition of 16x sequel is still well-paced, while also boasting the series’ best script. anisotropic filtering, which results in clearer ground textures.
01 RED DEAD REDEMPTION Perhaps the greatest open world game ever is now playable in pin-sharp 4K, and hoo- boy if that doesn’t make our eyes elated. We’ll probably never get a remaster of John Marston’s scintillating Wild West saga, but thanks to this spring’s Xbox One X patch, 4K TV owners no longer need one. Such is the strength of Rockstar San Diego’s original art assets, playing the game from a 360 disc at 2160p looks wonderful. With the 9x resolution boost, you can feel the baking heat of those prairies around Armadillo like never before, while the stars that pepper the night sky suddenly pierce the darkness more vibrantly than before. Even without the 4K emulation, Red Dead Redemption remains an undisputed masterpiece. The American Frontier mesmerizes and those shootouts still crackle, while no other game captures a sense of time and place quite like this Old West wonder. You need 4K Mr Marston in your life pronto. Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 067 REVIEW
Your gaming month sorted with our definitive reviews
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People have played over four billion hours on games released through ID@Xbox. Here’s to playing billions more
This month, we’re spreading our love for ID@Xbox with a cracking range of excellent indie titles to cleanse the palette before the blockbusters take over
How we again this autumn. First we go for a flight of fancy score: Can’t make sense of with the wonderful Owlboy on p70. With its sprite- 070 our out-of-ten rating system? Then see based art style and beautiful skies to fly through, below for your at-a-glance guide. this platformer is well worth a look for those with an 10 A gaming masterpiece 9 An essential slice adventurous streak and a love of all things feathery. of brilliance 8 Give it a whirl and In genre-hopping Masters Of Anima (p72) we find you won’t regret it 7 Some minor flaws puzzles and a hack and slash romp through the but still good 6 Solid, but not bright and colorful city of Spark. Ever wanted to setting any loins aflame 5 Average. Not be a rogueish thief with arms full of treasure? Well 074 good, but not terrible either now’s your chance thanks to City Of Brass (p74), a 4 Honks just a bit 3 Look away, lest procedurally generated first-person action adventure. ye be tainted 2 Angry-makingly bad With a whip and sword in hand, you charge around 1 Just... no... ß Titles with this Arabian-inspired streets in an attempt to get to the symbol are on Game Preview, so while they aren’t finished, you center of the city with as much gold as possible. It can still find out if they’re worth playing. reminds us a bit of Spelunky with a twist, but can it live up to its cave-exploring inspiration? Read on to 076 find out. A tiny dung beetle has managed to steal our hearts with the lovely pinball-based platformer Yoku’s Island Express (p76). We never thought that EDITOR’S CHOICE combination of genres and creatures could possibly Irrespective of score, the Editor’s Choice come together so well, but we’re happy to be proven award is given to games with the wrong. And finally, a man with no pants attempts to quality, ambition or uniqueness to stand out from the crowd. survive eternal winter in Impact Winter (p78). 078
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More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 069 PUBLISHER D-PAD STUDIO / DEVELOPER D-PAD STUDIO / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST $24.99 Owlboy
FIGHTING AGAINST OWL ODDS VIKKI BLAKE
We’ve all felt a little bit clumsy. A little bit different. And area bright and distinct, offering like our eponymous because he’s mute you’ll spend much its own rewards and challenges. hero, Otus. We’ve of the time listening to others talk It’s a traditional platform game in had those times for Otus, or—even worse—at him, as short every sense of the word—from its when someone’s though this lack of speech makes him cut presentation to the dungeons and talked down to incapable of anything else, too. temples and boss fights—but in its WHAT IS IT? us and belittled our ideas, called And that’s what Owlboy is; it’s a defense, it very much retains its own us names, and sniggered behind story of suffocating expectations A 2D puzzle unique style and substance, too. platformer with all the our backs. We’ve all felt small and and failure, but also one of quiet charm and depth of a humiliated, acutely aware of our courage and the need to keep on SNES-era game. Good company mistakes and failings. And that’s the keeping on, trusting your closest While Otus’ own abilities are pretty WHAT’S IT LIKE? magic of Owlboy, really; though its buddies with your life to get stuff limited (he can spin a bit, roll, and fly), story is anchored firmly in fantasy—a done, even when nobody’s watching, That game with the it’s the friends you’ll meet and make story of a floating world heavily even if the bullies and naysayers won’t plumber brothers, but along the way that round out Owlboy’s with even cuter influenced by an ancient race of wise believe a word of what you’ve done. characters. combat. At first you will see the old owls—it’s a tale that, sadly, most It’s about the power of friendship, arsenal for what it is—weapons that of us can identify with. sacrifice, and self-belief. Oh, and WHO’S IT FOR? help you neutralize interfering foes— The opening tutorial alone—which there are sky pirates, too. Anyone with a lasting but you’ll soon realize that they offer exists pretty much to showcase your Presented as an old-school 2D love of classic, 16-bit much more than that, too, especially platform games. ineptitude to the masses—is enough platformer, Owlboy’s nostalgic in more as you start to explore a bit, stumbling to draw a sympathetic frown as you ways than one, and shouldn’t feel upon hidden walls and entrances watch, not for the last time, as Otus’ unfamiliar to anyone who’s spent time dotted around the world, places you ears pull back in dismay and his running around in old SNES-esque might not even have noticed the first shoulders sag miserably. He starts his adventures. The story is told via an time around. Best of all, teaming lessons so full of expectation, only to atmospheric, pixel-perfect world up with these friends doesn’t mean have that chipped away as Asio—Otus’ that feels at once both classic and you’re lumbered with laborious escort impatient, quick-tempered mentor— contemporary thanks to its stunning missions, either; you can literally pull realizes that Otus is, well, a little use of sound and visuals, each your pals from thin air whenever you
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Otus’ tale has taken ten years to get to Xbox One. No, that’s not a typo
LEFT The world feels both classic and contemporary. “It’s not often FAR LEFT Look out for fruit we encounter that help light the way in dark a game that sections. RIGHT Not pictured: The conveys so much bit where the boss smacks us with so little” and we throw Geddy headfirst into the wall. need them thanks to an ingenious PUZZLE teleportation device—something you’ll PROBLEMS come to rely on more and more as you Though it’s tempting progress through the game. to let Owlboy’s You might find the twin-stick pixelated presentation mechanics a little tricky to adapt to fool you, don’t forget that this ‘love letter to at first, though, especially as the Experimenting with your friends’ skills It’s not often we encounter a pixel art’ has been reticle floats about quite wildly when inspired by some of is key, especially if it feels like you’ve game that conveys so much with so there’s a lot of enemies on screen. The the most fiendish hit a dead-end. While there’s a little little, especially one that uses no dark sections can be cumbersome, platformers of bit of backtracking in Owlboy, it’s never spoken dialogue at all. But Owlboy’s too, if you’re not very careful, and, yesteryear, which fruitless, and you can usually find deceivingly simplistic delivery belies occasionally, the 2D graphics can be a means some of something new to see or do if you’re an enviable story, a charming cast little misleading when it comes to on- the puzzles are observant enough. you can’t help but fall madly in love screen props and depth perception surprisingly perplexing. with, and a surprising, and pleasing, (magma section, we’re looking at you). The key here is to be To-do list narrative twist. Seems it was worth the curious; yes, it pays to But while the game is stripped back No, the run time isn’t particularly ten-year wait, eh? Q be observant, but it and surprisingly simplistic, Owlboy’s also pays to be nosy great—you could probably get this world is not easy to conquer, and too, so make sure you done over the course of a weekend, you’ll need a little ingenuity to topple poke into every nook or even a single day if you’re up early some of its more robust enemies. Like and cranny you see to and have nothing else to do—but us, you might spend too much time ensure you’re not there’s plenty of variety in the levels chucking your BFFs into the nearest missing any secret and missions, each one painted with OXM VERDICT wall (we’re so sorry, Geddy!), and like doors or hidden rooms. aching attention to detail. The story’s us, you might notice how hard it is to Experiment with all of pretty linear, granted, but there are A memorable, your pals’ recover from a boss battle smackdown plenty of secrets stuffed throughout emotional journey contraptions, too—you the world, including hidden coins you won’t want to (particularly the ones that also send never know what they 8 your buddies flying across the room— might do… that can be spent in a store with the miss that looks honestly, it was an accident, Geddy!). world’s most adorable assistant. very attractive.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 071 PUBLISHER FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE / DEVELOPER PASSTECH GAMES / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST $19.99 Masters Of Anima
HAND IN HAND THROUGH THE SPARK LIFE DOM PEPPIATT
Pikmin doesn’t get As it happens, Otto is married to the around you, or direct them to attack enough love. The head of the order of Shapers—Ana. enemies that appear in the world. The under-represented The dynamic between these two is control scheme, initially, feels like Nintendo brand quite nice: She’s an honest-to-god short a chore: There’s lots of holding one hasn’t really got any genius, and he’s a nice-but-dim cut button down and finding another, and kindred spirits on tryhard, and their interactions are triggers need to be alternated through WHAT IS IT? Xbox, and that’s always been a damn pretty sweet. in quick succession if you want to shame—there’s a lot to be said of the Tragedy strikes in the early hours Pikmin via Torchlight, really flow through battles. maybe with some family-friendly take on the strategy of the game, though, and Ana is Diablo level design Infinite war genre, and where other Nintendo rendered apart—her soul dispersed thrown in. properties get own-brand variations into a trio of pieces. Otto—naturally Between summoning different types of WHAT’S IT LIKE? in some way or another, Pikmin never devastated—sets out on a quest to Guardians, switching between them, really did. rebuild his partner. Thing is, this is a Pikmin via Torchlight, alternating your regular and special Masters Of Anima is here to change fantasy game, so obviously there’s with a much lighter attacks, placing vulnerable units tone than Diablo. that. Brought to life by what seems to an evil sorcerer with malicious intent around your map where they’re safe, be an exclusively British voice cast, knocking about to ruin things—he WHO’S IT FOR? and making sure Otto is always out of and fusing the likes of Pikmin with goes by the name of Zahr. He’s Fans of Pikmin or, um, harm’s way, battles quickly become a fantasy-inspired hack-and-slash reawakened a mountain of doom, and Torchlight. Not for by-the-numbers skirmishes into what focus, Masters Of Anima is a title quite is using his own dark magic to shape fans of Diablo. feels like all-out war. If you’re a fan unlike anything we’ve ever played creatures of evil—the Golems. of difficulty spikes, you’ll love this. If before… for better and for worse. Your task then, is to ‘get good’. And you’re not… good luck! The game starts with your central fast. Ana is going to become part of Otto himself can be upgraded in character, Otto, on the cusp of some grim ritual at Zahr’s hands if you the most basic possible RPG way, and completing a trial that would see him don’t. To that end, you’re thrust into each set of minions (drones, archers, become one of the titular Masters of the gameplay and told to get going. tanks, healers, and so on) can be Anima: a Shaper that has power over It all seems pretty simple at first: buffed in certain ways throughout the a mysterious energy that can bring Using a combination of controls, you game too. This gives you some control stone to life in the form of Guardians. can summon Guardians, place them over how easy you can make things
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You can summon up to 100 Guardians by the time you’re fully powered up
LEFT Organizing your troops into different types takes some serious mental energy. “Masters Of FAR LEFT The world of Spark Anima lurches is often colorful and from genre to bright. RIGHT Come into this game for genre as you the unique combat, stick progress” around for the lovely world.
for yourself, but for the most part the HARD game is pretty linear—in exploration TIMES and difficulty. There’s a situation in Think of the levels as Diablo-esque: the game where Shoot straight, and you’ll get it all Golems go berserk if wrapped up pretty quick, but take you don’t kill them quickly enough, and the time to explore and figure out an enjoyable challenge if you’re into Clichés, but once you’re past the everything around you simple puzzles and you’ll garner more starts to explode and that kind of thing, but considering the brittle skin of Masters Of Anima, rewards. Little offshoots or secret side become perilous. family-friendly vibe this whole title there’s some lovely meat to enjoy areas add nothing to the store, but This isn’t always gives off… well, maybe it won’t gel inside. Figuring out how your followers the gameplay loop benefits from being super fun. It ends up with some players. synergize, feeling like a genius when broken up by occasional diversion. making most battles you figure out an unexpectedly tricky When you’re in battles, it can all a fight against the Spice of variety puzzle, clubbing a boss to death with get overwhelming. When you’re past clock, as well as Masters Of Anima lurches from genre 50 drones you summoned out of thin maybe the halfway point in the game, against the Golems to genre as you progress—one air… who knew it could all make you in question, and Passtech Games really isn’t scared part feels like an early Dreamworks feel so good. Q adds extra pressure of throwing everything it’s got at you. where, sometimes, adventure flick—where the next feels Different enemy types target different there needn’t be any. like one of the more brutal XCOM death Guardians (read: Stone Pikmin), It’s a very sadistic rushes. Ten minutes later, and you’re Otto becomes something of a glass piece of game design doing some gentle Pikmin-styled cannon, and bosses become harder that doesn’t always puzzle solving, then ten minutes after and harder to decode. pay off. that you’re lying on the floor (dead), OXM VERDICT Parts of the game feel like XCOM: battered by a trio of furious rock Pikmin, honestly. By all rights, you people. You can’t predict it, and in A very different have the tools and the per cent that, it’s a strong game. take on strategy/ chance to win an encounter, yet Yes, levels can be repetitive, and action that uses 7 someway, somehow, you’ll find yes, some of the storytelling is copy/ difficulty spikes as yourself getting destroyed. That’s pasted right out of the Big Book Of a design feature.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 073 PUBLISHER UPPERCUT GAMES / DEVELOPER UPPERCUT GAMES / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST $19.99 City Of Brass
A THOUSAND AND ONE DEATHS MARTIN KITTS
With echoes of layout changes every time, you can within sword range. You can also Spelunky in its never be sure whether a door will knock them backwards into traps or randomly generated conceal a pit of spikes or some spears smash through them while sliding treasure hunt and that stab up through the floor, or short on your knees, and there are plenty of Prince Of Persia a vent that puffs out an extremely cut of explosive vases and pots of fire in its trap-filled, annoying blast of deadly sand with no scattered around for taking down WHAT IS IT? scimitar-swinging Arabian theme, obvious indication of its lethal radius. multiple enemies at once. City Of Brass is a short game that will As a general rule you can consider all Randomly generated rogue-ish treasure test your patience and endurance doorways to be probable deathtraps, Into battle dash with a like few others. and rushing through them will first-person The basic combat toolset is similar to Although the end is only 12 brief inevitably whittle away your precious perspective. Bulletstorm, but it’s nowhere near as levels and a few bosses away, the health points. WHAT’S IT LIKE? slick in action. It’s all very well having difficulty is set so high that death is Because it’s not sensible to run multiple hit zones and a two-handed, always waiting around the next corner, around blindly when the next floor An absolutely whip-cracking, sword-slashing rock-hard struggle to and as is traditional in this roguelike tile is highly likely to slice you to survive for more than fighting style, but the controls are so genre, dying means you get stripped ribbons, and by the very nature of ten minutes at a time. twitchy and imprecise that it’s hard of all your hard-earned items and the game, you have no idea exactly to pull off any decent combos. You WHO’S IT FOR? dumped back at the start. what’s coming up next, slow and might be aiming to whip a skeleton’s You enter the city armed carrying methodical progress is the key Gamers who don’t head but you’re just as likely to hit have the words “I give only a basic sword, a whip, and to reaching the next level with its body, feet or hands as it rushes up” in their (presumably) a humungous backpack enough health to get a little further. vocabulary. towards you. If it gets too close your in which to store the hundreds of Consequently, getting mobbed by whip will almost certainly pass straight gold statuettes and jewel-encrusted enemies is inevitable, and you’ll through it, and the same thing plates you grab as you race through always have a fight on your hands. happens all the time with the sword— the streets and buildings, pursued by The whip can be used to knock it’s not easy to judge the distance, howling skeletal warriors. opponents off their feet, disarm and there’s a significant lag between The levels are filled with a ludicrous them, temporarily blind them, or pressing a button and anything amount of traps, and because the even drag them closer to get them happening on screen.
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It’s named after one of the classic 1001 Nights stories, about a ghost town
LEFT There’s no ebb and flow to the combat. It’s basically just frantic slashing. “The difficulty is FAR LEFT You only get that set so high that many life hearts if you wimp out and play with death is always Blessings turned on. Oops! waiting around RIGHT The narrow field of view the next corner” makes it hard to track enemies to either side.
Of course, while you’re desperately LIKE A BOSS air-slashing at furious skeletons There’s a different and constantly staying on the move mini boss every three to avoid getting shot with arrows or levels, and all of them magic blasts, there’s a pretty good are likely to send you straight back to the chance of stepping on one of those start the first few traps and getting skewered. Oh, and times you encounter possible to get everything you might a little less arduous, with easier there’s a time limit, too. City Of Brass them. Of course, it want, and the shops only stock a enemies, more health, no time limit may be very nice to look at, but it’s far does mean that by small selection of items anyway. But and so on. While it might not be the from a relaxing experience to play. the time you figure they do make a difference, and being hardcore way to play, it beats finding Luckily there are ways of shifting out how to beat the stripped of all your upgrades after yourself with no money and on your the odds slightly back in your favor, fourth mini boss you’ll dying swiftly becomes a massive last portion of health before you’re mainly through the Genie shops that have the others down disincentive to trying again. even halfway through. Back to the offer a chance to exchange some to a fine art—at least start you go. Short it may be, but City one can be killed with of your loot for improved weapons a single hit from an Shouldering Burdens Of Brass comes close to outstaying its or other abilities. The default whip exploding barrel, The only permanent things you welcome in very little time. Q only ever stuns enemies so the fiery which feels like gain after levelling up are called version is an essential purchase, cheating but is just Burdens, which function like the allowing you to set creatures on fire smart play. Anyway, skulls in Halo and make things and leave them to burn rather than after the mini bosses even more challenging. There’s an having to finish them off at close range. there’s a final boss achievement for finishing the game You can also buy better armor, who is obscenely with all Burdens turned on, which is hard, so any shortcuts OXM VERDICT disable the traps for a while, or surely destined to remain one of the are fair game. hire a ghostly buddy who will follow rarest ones on Xbox. On the positive Fun for a while, you around and attack anything side, you have access to a full set of but difficult, that moves until he’s eventually complementary Blessings right from repetitive, and 6 overwhelmed. All of this useful stuff the start, which rule you out of the marred by the comes at such a high price, it’s not leaderboards but make the game controls.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 075 PUBLISHER TEAM17 / DEVELOPER VILLA GORILLA / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE MARCH 29 2018 / COST $29.99 Yoku’s Island Express
A BUG’S LIFE KIMBERLEY BALLARD
Sometimes it’s the flippers dotted across the island, left Later on, you can also turn your pinball small things that for blue and yellow for right. It can be into a grappling hook, which allows make the biggest tricky at first: Jump on the wrong part you to jump on a flipper, grapple onto difference. In this of a flipper and it’ll send you sprawling short hanging flowers, and swing like Tarzan charming open-world through the wrong tunnel, but you can cut to get to hard-to-reach places. adventure game you easily fall back and start again. You WHAT IS IT? play a dung beetle called Yoku, who’s can also hit bouncy nodules to release Rolling on just arrived on the tropical island shiny slabs of fruit, which you’ll need An open-world pinball Despite how cute it looks, the game adventure game of Mokumana to replace an aging to collect, and crack open purple is challenging at times. Puzzles get about a dung beetle pterodactyl as its postmaster. You’re crystals and collect their shards to who must rescue a harder as you progress, requiring all ready to take on the Island Express open doorways into new areas. tropical island from a more attention to detail and finesse. and start delivering post, except So far, so simple, especially if malevolent god. Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s you soon discover the island and its you’ve played pinball arcade games WHAT’S IT LIKE? happening on-screen, especially when inhabitants are in grave danger. An before. But what you won’t realize it’s crowded with slugs, fruit, and The pinball games ancient evil called the God Slayer has until you play it is just how addictively you’d play as a child, crystals. Additional challenges come woken from its slumber, and Yoku tactile Yoku is. You could easily but with gorgeous in the form of thorny drains: If you fall must bring together the Old Ones whittle away hours sliding into new backdrops and between two pinball flippers you’ll land hidden across the island to defeat it. rooms, pinging against crystals and charming creatures. on a dangerously thorny patch, hurting This is a beautifully quirky game nodules, collecting pieces of fruit like WHO’S IT FOR? Yoku, and losing the fruit you’ve they’re beautiful bounties, and sliding collected. This can be aggravating, full of fun surprises. Instead of rolling People who love dung, Yoku is attached to a white down shafts. Near the start of the cracking puzzles especially when falling into a drain pinball, which you roll across the game you can turn your pinball into and exploring magical is the result of an exploding slug, island to get from place to place. a slug buster, which lets you suck up fantasy worlds. and not your own clumsiness. What’s Because this isn’t just an adventure annoying slugs and use them as fuel worse is getting stuck on a puzzle, game, it’s a pinball game too, with to burst through obstacles. (Although where you try your hardest to jump endless rooms and tunnels for you this needs to be perfectly timed into a particular tunnel just to fall into to explore. Using your controller’s before the slug explodes and sends the wrong one. At times this can be triggers, you can switch on the pinball you flying in the wrong direction.) button-mashingly annoying.
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The dung beetle is one of the strongest creatures in the world, making dung balls 1,141 times the size of its own bodyweight—crikey!
LEFT Jump across rooms by using the flippers at the bottom of your screen. “You can whittle FAR LEFT One of your tasks is to away hours just convince a giant eel to let you pinging against across his pond. RIGHT These grumpy juice crystals and makers don’t like beetles. No mail collecting fruit” for you then!
The joy of playing Yoku, however, MONKEY is that there are so many different BUSINESS parts of the island to look at. If you Never heard of devs want, you can leave a hard puzzle Villa Gorilla? That’s and head somewhere else for a bit because Yoku’s Island before tackling it again. And that’s Express is their first game! A four-member great, because exploring Mokumana Spirited Away; the grumpy Skull Gang, spores, and even learn to swim with indie team based in is one of the most delightful things Stockholm, Villa who look like squat gnomes wearing the aid of a fish that you wear as a about the game. Beautifully crafted Gorilla was founded death masks; and a menagerie of dress. It’s bizarre, and endearingly so. and divided into different geographical in 2013 by Jens strangely adorable animals. This There’s also the mysterious God areas, you’ll travel from the jungle Andersson and evokes the feeling of falling into a Egg protected in the Underdark and of Gorilla Woods, with its flaming Mattias Snygg, who treasure chest of strange toys. on the verge of cracking. We’ll let you torches, luscious flowers, and shrines previously worked discover what this means, but it’s of wise monkeys, to the snow-capped together at Swedish Bugging out an element that tips the game from mountains of Ivory Peaks, to the videogame company While searching for the four Old Ones frivolous pinball fun into the realm of Starbreeze. Villa steamy and putrid Mellow Hill. There’s takes up most of your time, there a complex fantasy narrative. Q Gorilla describe the also a creepy netherworld called the story of Yoku’s Island are errands and side quests for Underdark, a dungeon of shrines Express as being you to complete too. At first, you’ll and cave paintings, where you can inspired by the joy of a sigh at the idea of backtracking to uncover the secrets of the Old Ones. small child who has deliver a package in the area you first Another highlight is the creatures just discovered the completed. That is, until you repair you meet along the way. Inspired by doorway to a secret the Beeline, a transport system that OXM VERDICT the films of Studio Ghibli, there are a garden or an attic full whisks you across the island at speed number of unique inhabitants for you of toys. We hope this in a number of tiny rockets. It’s a small A beautiful, means Villa Gorilla has to interact with. There are Tweepers, addition to the game, but a fantastic summery game a banana crate full of with furiously fun white bunny-shaped spirits in a war cute and quirky one. While you’re delivering post, you 8 against the dusty Sootlings, which games planned. can fix bridges and remove boulders, puzzles that adults look like they’ve been plucked from carry around Fungoids to spread their and kids will love.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 077 REVIEW
Impact Winter was originally a Kickstarter project that fell short of its funding target
PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO / DEVELOPER MOJO BONES / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST $19.99 Impact Winter
NO WAY ARE WE GOING OUT IN THAT MARTIN KITTS
With the world as nails he may be, but his quest for Until you’re almost at the end of the plunged into eternal survival is constantly undermined by upgrade path they’ll happily let the fire winter following the four helpless simpletons back go out and freeze to death if you’re an asteroid strike, home, who won’t even remember to short not there to manually add fuel. And there’s no hope for feed themselves unless he takes cut despite the church being positively Jacob and his small food and water from the store and lined with flammable material, you WHAT IS IT? band of survivors. Until, that is, they distributes it among their individually have to trek miles to lug back planks find a strange little robot drone that named ration crates. It’s like leaving Post-apocalypse and old clothing to burn. Maybe that’s triggers a message: In 30 days, help food out for the cat before you go survival in a world what happened to Jacob’s trousers. of ice. is coming. away for a weekend (and yes, they As the timer ticks down, so the come straight over and eat it all as WHAT’S IT LIKE? House of fools group’s health, stamina, and morale soon as you put it on the floor). State Of Decay, Any time Jacob isn’t at home you just depletes. Holed up in a half-buried They do have some abilities but it except the corpses have to cross your fingers and pray church, they watch as the fire burns requires a lot of leveling up before are all frozen solid. that the hopeless housemates don’t out and their meagre supplies dwindle they’ll do anything on their own. So for WHO’S IT FOR? do anything fatally stupid. At the to nothing. The only way to ensure the the first few hours army veteran Blane People who go out start of our play-through they kept rescuers aren’t just collecting corpses can only talk about how good he is at in shirt sleeves in getting beaten up by lone raiders, so is for Jacob to venture out alone hunting, and homemaker Wendy can’t December. we left them a rifle in the hope that into the frozen wasteland and find quite recall the recipes and remedies maybe one of them might defend sustenance in the ruined old world. she spent her entire life collecting. the place. It made no difference, so It takes a hardy soul to survive Maggie’s skill as a mechanic doesn’t we unlocked the Negotiator perk, out there, and Jacob is so tough he amount to anything unless you which sounded like it could save all doesn’t even bother wearing trousers bring her the countless bits of junk those extra trips for medicine and to protect him from the waist-deep she needs for crafting, while hacker bandages. However, next time a snow. An overcoat and a pair of Christophe will eventually learn how to scavenger came calling, the morons walking boots will do him fine. Hard upgrade your robot buddy. ‘negotiated’ a settlement that involved
078 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE “While it’s lacking in polish, there’s a certain FAR LEFT This is shabby charm as about as scenic as it ever gets above about it” ground.
ABOVE With all those stats to worry about, no wonder Jacob has no time for trousers.
LEFT Lights do shine through the stygian gloom.
handing over half of our food, plus the MECHANICAL weather worsens, the screen becomes find rather than pick them up. What rifle and all the bullets, in exchange MINION obscured by ice, and Jacob looks like use is that? for not getting punched in the face. The flying robot, he’s having a really miserable time While it’s somewhat lacking in Shooting them all would surely Ako-Light, seems out struggling through the snow. At night polish and the daily routine soon improve Jacob’s chances, but alas it of place in an you only get a limited viewing range by becomes repetitive, there’s a certain was not an option. otherwise torchlight, which also looks excellent, shabby charm about it. It reminds us semi-realistic survival Each member of the feckless four although you’re basically just pressing very much of State Of Decay, without game, and its has a series of missions that will importance to the plot in the general direction of an area and the zombies or the shooting, and unlock new abilities and give you is tacked on right at traveling blind, no matter what the finding a new loot-stuffed building something other than endless supply the end. Until then it time of day. is always a thrill, albeit one that’s runs to do, but there isn’t time to just follows you dampened by the constant nagging finish them all before the 30 days are around, shining a Stutter rap worry about getting home in time to up. A tourist information pamphlet torch in the dark and It’s technically a bit ropey, though. The feed the kids. Next time there’s an ice serves as a rudimentary map, but locating places to framerate lurches from shuddering age, we’re going it alone. Q most of the points of interest are drop beacons that will inconsistency, at best, to a stuttering attract rescuers. buried under the snow anyway. Some slideshow whenever it’s loading Upgrading it will allow buildings can be entered through their you to break into something. Menus respond slowly, protruding roofs, and in places the inaccessible areas, key information always seems to be snow has inexplicably formed huge but its limited battery buried several pages away, and we underground caverns, preserving life means you’ll need blame the poorly designed, laggy OXM VERDICT entire streets where wolves guard to return home to controls for making us throw away some of the more useful salvage. charge it up. If only an item we needed for a quest while A great concept There’s plenty to explore, if you can that magic electricity we were trying to pick it up. Seriously, for a game, but manage your time. supply could be used when you search a closet, desk, or probably somewhat for things like, y’know, 6 The game does a fantastic job storage container there’s an option to lacking in long- heating the base. of looking oppressively cold. As the permanently discard the things you term appeal.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 079
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082 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE extra
We’re not sure if it’s the pre-E3 anxiety that’s beginning to seep in, or just the fact that every time our joints creak we can almost make out the shape of our inevitable demise in the distance, but death seems to have permeated this month’s Extra 084 section, and we’re dealing with it the only way we know how. Firstly by putting our moral standing to the test and discovering just how far we can push it by terrorizing the citizens of Prague in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (p84) without bumping into ludonarrative dissonance. Then, despite having no hope of winning, we once again drop into the 087 behemoth that is Fortnite: Battle Royale (p87). A recent alien invasion has added an extra(terrestrial?) element to proceedings, and we’re eager to discover all the new ways in which we’ll die and have people dance on our corpses. To feel better we took on the role of the reaper ourselves, and dealt swift justice in our in-depth retrospective on Stranglehold (p90), a 090 game we look back on fondly in that it surprised us
PLAY NOW by doing many things no other games were doing, ON XBOX ONE
BACKWARDS and by being a worthy sequel to John Woo’s movie COMPATIBLE Hard Boiled. Finishing things off, we remember the Keep an eye out for this badge over the untimely passing of some of Xbox’s most memorable next few pages: it indicates when a game of old can be characters in our Top 10 Deaths on Xbox (p94). booted up in shiny Xbox One-o-vision. Don’t worry, we had the tissues to hand. 094
CHECK OUT OUR VAST LIBRARY OF XBOX FEATURES AT WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM/OXM
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 083 084 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE NOW PLAYING I feellike mad atme. for thetrainbeforeanyonecanget room, thenturninvisibleandsprint or throwagrenadeintopopulated their buddiescanseewhatI’vedone, security guardsandrunawaybefore knockout ironic.Iconstantly deeply happened, anddecidetheirdeathsare out ofthetrainstationlikenothing blade inbothoftheirtorsosandwalk people withJenseninearshot.Isticka station arebadmouthingaugmented an armchair. Two guysatthetrain while he’s satreadingsomethingin him inthefaceandknockout the receptionareaofahotel.Ipunch edge forme. where EidosMontreal’s gamehasthe apply. Thisis similar restrictionsdon’t being anagentofInterpol,Ifeellike Divided But despiteAdamJensen, like somethingaqueenwoulddo. feel randoms inthestreetdoesn’t playing asEmily, aqueen,andstabbing 2 freedom todowhatIlike.In things. way, andtheybothdoverysimilar Ex levels, andcoolerpowersthan slicker movement,moreimaginative Arkane’s assassinationsimhas Mankind Divided options, orgoodandbadendings. combat-heavy strategies,dialogue that intermsofchoosingstealthor wethinkabout hands, andtraditionally the powerofchoiceinplayer’s beenabout putting series hasalways The weirdness is the magic of the The weirdnessisthe magicofthe mines becauseit might behilarious. throw asleepingbody intosometrip and pickuphisfridgefornoreason, or lets youwalkintoaguy’s apartment , I never kill civilians because I’m , IneverkillciviliansbecauseI’m —it’s a better stealth game in every abetterstealthgameinevery —it’s I am the worst person in Prague, but I amtheworstpersoninPrague,but A guygivesAdamabitofsassin And yet,in ’s robotsupermanprotagonist, Deus Ex Deus Ex has those, but it also hasthose,butitalso celebrates that. This celebratesthat.This spoiled everything. spoiled everything. 2 played and Ifoolishly last year latetothe I’m wellovera first, which has first,whichhas , I feel more , Ifeelmore Just how much of adick youbein howmuchof can Just PUBLISHER game’s the breaking without fiction? Deus Ex Dishonored Dishonored Mankind Mankind Dishonored Dishonored game, game, EIDOS MONTREAL Deus Deus stupid moments more than the actual stupid momentsmorethantheactual and everyDLC,Ienjoyedmanyofthese hours whereIbeatallofitssidequests game, andafteraprettyintensive48 down nexttoapocket ofenemies. between different districtsandplonkit carryitaround of me.Ithenawkwardly program ittoattackenemiesinstead that’s guardingatrainstation,then prepared totrythathard.Ihackaturret discriminate behavior, butI’mnot to killeveryguardinthecityforthis soon astheyseeJensen.Idecide enforcement, andthey’llopenfireas is underlockdownfromthelaw Later inthegame’s story, Prague New pet levels.
/ extra DEVELOPER Deus Ex EIDOS MONTREAL letsyoubeatotalweirdo. / FORMAT XBOX ONE SAMUEL ROBERTS
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Divided Mankind DeusEx: who are just who arejust Mankind Divided no purposein NPCs whoserve plenty of telling meoff. in thestory without anything game thisway option toplaythe I likethathavethe entire policeforce,but one smallrobotturretwipesoutan hides behindacar. Itlookssilly, as 15 enemiesthiswaywhileJensen killabout location. Allinall,Iprobably up andcarryittothenextpopulated / RELEASE DATE There are There are After they’regunneddown,Ipickit 2016 , there to populate the world. Every time “Here I just wanted to do anti- I find one by his or her self, I knock ABOVE After the them out, because who’s going to opener, you’re social things and see how pretty much stop me? After that, I wander back stuck in Prague onto the game’s critical path, where for most of the Adam Jensen works for Interpol and Deus Ex would respond” game. investigates terrorism for a living. I like BELOW I’d knock the idea that my Jensen is leading a the story isn’t really his. It’s about the inhabiting, but here I just wanted to all of these double life: International do-gooder political uncertainty of a world where NPCs out and do anti-social things and see how gladly rifle to collect his paycheck, and total augmented people are hated, Deus Ex would respond. I wanted to through their bastard who plagues the and that’s not explored in a be the guy who used his powerful pockets. streets of Prague in particularly resonant way robot arms to deal with what would his downtime. WHAT IS IT? by the game’s dialogue or often be the pettiest grudges, and I cutscenes. After nearly A first-person stealth found a surprising amount of joy in Dialling out FPS where you play as 50 hours, I didn’t feel like doing so. Q I partly attribute my a man with augmented I’d learned anything new chaotic methods to the limbs, special abilities, about Jensen. game’s story, which fails and a cool coat. Without a story that I to engage me at all. There’s could tune into emotionally, so much wordy dialogue then, it let me ignore what I about organizations, betrayals, perceived as the right way to do and the game’s pretend world politics things more than ever before. If I don’t that I invariably tune care about the fiction, I don’t have to out. What the Xbox 360’s Human follow what I consider its rules. So how Revolution had was a much simpler about I knock out ten guards, then story where you were aware of what put them into a big pile, and take a Adam had lost at the start of the screenshot because it’s funny? Or how game—namely his body parts, replaced about I break into a fancy apartment, with powerful augmented ones, and knock both residents out, then throw (seemingly) his partner Megan. This their bodies off the balcony onto the gave the story an emotional weight. streets below, and see how the law Mankind Divided lacks that, and it’s a enforcement reacts? (The answer: They real problem for me. don’t like it at all.) Jensen looks cool in his ridiculous I often consider the morality of jacket, and he has the same excellent what I do in games, and whether my gravelly voice actor as before, but actions line up with the character I’m
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More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 085 086 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE NOW PLAYING expanse. That’s oneofthegame’s open relatively the SouthMidwest’s instead plowingthrough thefieldsof plot, gettingboredwithroadsand the Midwest’s landmarksasIlosethe Day 3seesmecheckoffthelastof Changing scenery American RoadTrip like A beautifulsite. plains belowColorado’s PikesPeak. the settingsunstreakingacross the ‘Badlands’ofDakotas, and thedayendstakingin majestic skyscrapers, off theWindyCity’s morning sunlightshows impressive vista.The the gloamingforan skyline pokingthrough the loomingChicago virtual Americawhipsby, some impressivespeedas time onDay2,pickingup about, Imakegoodprogress. with landmarksscatteredliberally visit thecity’s rundowndistricts,but brown island.ArainstormhitsasI the cityonanuninvitinggreyand Michigan StatePrison,justoutside Detroit, andthefirstportofcallis digital tarmac.Thegamestartsin of thegame’s startervehicles—and a 2013Nissan370Z—thespeediest there’s nofasttravelallowed;justme, around eachofthemap’s regions, itself. Taking anorthtosouthroute goingtosee Mount Rushmoreisn’t murdered incoldblood(inthegame), but althoughmybrother’s justbeen ahead ofme,planningisamust, With thewholeofUnitedStates attractions bothfamousandobscure. renderingof to admireIvoryCoast’s map. EachofferXPandachance landmarks thatscatterthegame’s on avirtualjourney, taking inthe242 I hit the highways for the first I hitthehighwaysforfirst With asequeluponus,Iembarked feeling of the Great feeling oftheGreat captures the States, nogame of) theUnited recreation of(most accurate (mostly) As youzipacrossa America in Ubisoft’s original driving epic, driving original Ubisoft’s in America virtual treksacross Nelson Alex soon, arriving thesequel With PUBLISHER The Crew driving game that features driving gamethatfeatures a virtual recreation of the a virtualrecreationofthe meets arcade racing in a meets arcaderacingina UBISOFT The Ubisoft-template The Ubisoft-template . WHAT ISIT? entire USofA. / DEVELOPER travel rule when I spotted that a data travel rulewhenIspottedthatadata picturesque. Ididbreakthenofast- wintry SaltLakeCityisespecially smaller side. though onethatseemstobeonthe massive regionsundermybelt, hindering my driving skills” isunsurprisingly stuff white the but well gritted, are roads “The bankrupt mirage. I head towards the bankrupt mirage. I headtowardsthe shimmering atdusk; amorally the twinklingLEDs ofmegacasinos the trip’s arrestingcity, mostvisually across theHooverDamintoLasVegas, hindering mydrivingskills. the whitestuffisunsurprisingly and thoughtheroadsarewellgritted, builtfortheseconditions, Nissan isn’t winter wonderland.Butmynippy extra Day 4’s tripfromSantaFetothe Day 6startspromisingly, zipping upon arrival I discover a veritable upon arrivalIdiscoveraveritable station I was after was on the station Iwasafteronthe IVORY TOWER states like Wyoming, and states likeWyoming,and wrong side of the Grand wrong sideoftheGrand mountains of northern mountains ofnorthern Canyon, and it’d be a Canyon, andit’d bea takes me into the snowy takes meintothesnowy lengthy round-trip to get lengthy round-triptoget there. I hopped across, there. Ihoppedacross, hopped back. got whatIneeded,and Day 5’s journey / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE
cheaper thandoingitforreal. across Ubisoft’s virtualAmericais road trip.Whateverhappens,driving in—I’m optimisticabouttheremaining coast, andthespitofFloridatotake eastern seaboard,Texas, thewest at thewheel—there’s stilltheentire estimated twomore(in-game)weeks has takenapounding,butwithan engineering mustdie.TheNissan reminder thatallworksofmechanical the Tucson AircraftCemeteryisa temperatures of134degrees,and doesregisterroasting Thermometer’ ‘Big though theMojaveDesert’s worthwritinghomeabout— barely them longdrivesbetweenlandmarks southern states,whichbringwith The Crew DECEMBER 2014
ALEX NELSON Q More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm at news Xbox More NOW PLAYING never actually won, and sometimes won,and sometimes never actually Bus formorepunishment. soon enoughit’s backtotheBattle jump, addingtothemadness—but strewn around,allowingyoutosuper- players aretheretoo.Glowingrocks lie being new, allother100 seemingly surrounded bymilitaryporta-labs.This crater withaspacerockatitscenter for whatwasDustyDepot,nowahuge My four-playersquadheadedfirst Die easy new featuresunveiled. been leveled,andcool locations hadinstead stood, whileother settled, TitledTowers carnage there. schadenfreude totheusual around, addinganapocalyptic the atmosphereandexplodingall Towers’, meteoriteswerebreaking the city-blocknoob-cullthatis‘Tilted it gotclosertotherumoredtargetof in-bound forawhile,andas visibly community. Thecomethadbeen spectacular eventforitsever-growing and theendofSeason3wasa things likeemotesanddancemoves, cosmetic costumes, andothermostly withnewweapons, regularly game isrunin‘Seasons’;updating PVP modecalled popular100-player and amassively shooter withbase-buildingelements, Fortnite dance overmycorpse. in acraterwithanidiotdoingrobot changed themap,andnowhereIam island-arena andsignificantly was end oftheworld.Althoughyesterday aim. We weresoclose,butit’s notthe execution, andcursemypanicked In But, when the dust But, whenthedust Helping tokeepthingsfresh,the For those not resident of Earth, For thosenotresidentofEarth, —a cometsmashedinto Battle Royale is a cartoony co-op survival isacartoonyco-opsurvival Battle Royale , IdieALOT. Ihave for the inevitable for theinevitable closer. Ibrace player gettingever footfall ofanother the dirt,dread and I’mcrawlingin My squadaregone, Survival shooter Survival PUBLISHER andwe’re goingpopularity, more for back still Fortnite . EPIC GAMES building elements and building elementsand Co-op zombie survival Co-op zombiesurvival 100-player PVP shooter withbase- WHAT ISIT? Royale ’s ’s
/ mode. DEVELOPER Battle Royale Husk-blasting joy, notfornothinghas bright aesthetic,den-building,and co-op SaveTheWorld mode,withits yet Istillgoback. the playingfieldseemsfarfromlevel, the storm’s shrinking center, we hopeless, butas we continuetowards survive asniperambush. It’s looking twoofus drive-in cinema,whereonly head forthebrand-new‘RustyReels’ take amorecautiousapproachand least keepmealive. yes,butthesetacticsat Cowardly intheknees. people ineffectually to panicatclosequartersandshoot and them—theand squads” two last it’s us suddenly down, and ticking is counter player-number “The Battle Battle extra As muchasIalsolovethegame’s So parachuting back in, this time we So parachutingbackin,thistimewe from distance—I have a tendency from distance—Ihaveatendency Fortnite Battle Royale It’s fun, furiously so, and so,and It’s fun,furiously the storm and snipe players the stormandsnipeplayers EPIC GAMES success is deeply satisfying. success isdeeply and wait it out. Move with and waititout.Movewith up on gear; run away up ongear;runaway really isn’t everything. everything. isn’t really captured imaginations. capturedimaginations. one else is going; stock one elseisgoing;stock Most ofthetimeIjust survive. Go where no survive. Gowhereno make itmybusinessto But winning this game But winningthisgame
/ FORMAT XBOX ONE
/ RELEASEDATE is enjoying meteoric meteoric enjoying is this isthebestfeelingever. dancing… eight months!Cuethesilly Battle Royale happened.I’vewonmyfirst what’s gasping inexhilarationasIrealize and loadblasthiminthechest, his loot-drop,an‘epic’shotgun;Ilock just killedthelastofhisandgrabbed He’s gunneddownmyfriend,butI’d then quickly it’s downtomeand then quickly tense, andwe’reoutnumbered.But and them—thelasttwosquads.It’s it’s us ticking down,andsuddenly while wepickthemoff. helplessly bomb’ thatmakesenemiesdance for cover, andemployinga‘boogie skirmish withothersquads,building The player-number counter is The player-numbercounteris SEPTEMBER 2017 CHRIS BURKE THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE ! I’ve only been playing for beenplayingfor ! I’veonly Q him 087 . extra HOW TO... CUSTOMIZE THE DASHBOARD
Follow our incredibly simple step by step guide on how to spice up your Xbox One dashboard ADAM BRYANT
YOU WILL NEED USB FLASH DRIVE / AWESOME IMAGES OPTIONAL AN EYE FOR THE PERFECT SHOT / CREATIVE FLARE
Okay, we admit it. Most of us here at Long gone are the dark days of needing to buy expensive OXM Towers live fairly uneventful videogame capture kits, that were at the time only and mundane lives; it’s not all action, accessible to the elite few with deep pockets, to record excitement, and glamor when you’re game footage. Now, the ability to capture screenshots from sat at home in your comfy slippers and your spectacular gaming feats and record those bizarre pyjamas sipping, on a nice coffee and or terrifying glitches you stumble across is, quite literally, getting ready to play our favorite games. available at the tips of your fingers. Well, more precisely, So the one way we like to get our kicks is by personalizing your thumbs. It’s from the likes of these screenshots that our virtual environments and making them look just that you can transform that dull visual real estate and turn your little bit prettier. Ever stared at the dashboard of your Xbox eyes into happy little peepers indeed. So follow our step- One and thought that it was in dire need of sprucing up by by-step guide on how to change the dashboard background adding a splash of your personality? of your Xbox One.
YOUR FREE DASHBOARD BACKGROUNDS 01 02 GUIDE TO HAPPINESS VISUAL ACHIEVEMENTS Fear not, your path to visual joy is a swift and painless one. Customize your background. The first option allows you You’ve probably been there many times before, but the first to use a solid color as your background, but we want thing you’ll need to do is navigate over to the settings menu something better, so select ‘Achievement art’. Every time you http://bit.ly/ located in the guide, which is found by pressing the Xbox unlock an Achievement on a game you’ll be rewarded with art OXMbackgrounds button on your controller. Once in the settings menu, you’ll that you can use as your background. Browse through the Problems dowloading? be greeted with various sections, but the one we want is the achievements you’ve unlocked, and once you’ve settled on Email [email protected] Personalization menu. Select ‘My color & background’. your image, select it and choose ‘Set as background’.
088 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 03 04 ABSOLUTE SCREENS IMAGE PROBLEM Those hours spent trying to find the perfect shot are going But that’s not all, you even have the option to use practically to be put to even more use. In the ‘My background’ menu, any image you want. This will require you to have a USB flash select screenshot. You may not see all of your screenshots drive to transfer the image to the console. To get started, right away. But you can search from images that are on your simply follow the instructions on the left side of this page, console or ones that you’ve uploaded to Xbox Live. Select and download the ten awesome backgrounds we’ve gifted the image you want and choose, then ‘More actions’ at the you this month (see below, left). Transfer them to a USB flash bottom of the screen to set this image as your background. drive and plug it into your Xbox One.
FREE GIFTS Because we’re all super nice here at OXM Towers, we’ve done the hard work for you and tracked down some awesome backgrounds to splash on your Xbox One dashboard. To download your ten free images, simply follow this url: 05 06 http://bit.ly/ OXMbackgrounds. CHOICES, CHOICES SO YOU Right click the images With the USB flash drive connected, choose ‘Custom So there you have it. What was once a dull and almost you wish to download, image’ and select the USB drive from the menu. If you’ve stygian display is now graced with blossoming beauty. So and save them to your chosen location. We’ll downloaded many older images you may need to do some sit back, admire your hard work, and enjoy your very own be including more searching through them. When you’ve found the image you personalized dashboard. We certainly hope you like it, but if backgrounds in future want, press the menu button and select ‘Set as background’. you don’t or just get bored of it, thanks to this guide you’ll issues, so keep an Any image you want to use as a background must be a JPEG now know just how to change it with ease. All you have to eye out. or PNG file format, and its size cannot exceed 3mb. think about is what your next background will be. Good luck.
HOW TO...
TRAVEL NEW YOU BE CONSISTENT THE NOMAD CUSTOMIZE The first thing you’ll need to You’ll then want to come up Make sure you stick to your If you make a mistake and YOUR OWN do is to relocate to another with a completely new history story. There’s nothing worse you get rumbled you ought county. Seems drastic, but for yourself. Get creative, you than getting caught in a lie, to think of relocating. This’ll BACKGROUND you can’t keep bumping can be anyone you want to especially when you’ve spent give you another chance to into people you know. Even be now. Except other people, the time on thinking up a try a new identity. Be ready to consider small islands. they’re already taken. really good one. repeat more than once.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 089 090 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE RETROSPECTIVE STRANGLEHOLD extra
How the once-maligned videogame sequel to 1992 movie Hard Boiled ultimately put a Stranglehold on its critics BEN WILSON
PUBLISHER MIDWAY / DEVELOPER MIDWAY CHICAGO / FORMAT XBOX 360
Across the history sequels and half-baked sports offal of this beautiful such as Blitz: The League and NBA medium, few Ballers. Again, what few realized terms have filled then was how vital a title this was gamers with dread for Midway; it couldn’t afford for so consistently Stranglehold to fail, in either the as “official movie critical or financial sense. tie-in”. Imagine the collective global Sure enough, whispers soon eye-rolling, then, which greeted the emerged that this may be more than a May 2005 announcement that a sequel hastily assembled cash-in. Journalists to John Woo’s cult celluloid smash allowed to go hands-on for the first Hard Boiled was finally underway time at E3 in 2006—albeit within a after 13 years of fan clamor—but in single restaurant level—reported that game, rather than film, form. The news all Woo’s signature elements were that Chow Yun-Fat was to reprise his present and correct, from cool-looking acclaimed role of Inspector Tequila bullet time (Tequila Time, to give it only added to fan cynicism. Evidently, its in-game label), to widespread Illinois studio Midway had splashed environmental destruction, to his big dollar on bringing these two Hong most famous calling card: Doves. Kong heavyweights aboard, in the hope of shifting copies based on name value rather than game quality. “Midway couldn’t afford It was an unfair assumption. “After so many years of working with John for Stranglehold to fail, Woo as a movie director, I’m thrilled to venture into the world of videogames in either the critical or with Woo and Midway at the creative helm,” said Yun-Fat upon the financial sense” announcement of Stranglehold. “Being able to bring movie-like action where All the doves. More importantly, the people can watch and enjoy, to the level was great fun to play. Sensibly, world of videogames where they can developer interviews sought to anchor experience the adrenalin-filled action Stranglehold to Midway’s most recent first hand is a great experience to be success, art director Jason Kaehler a part of.” During an era where any going on record to call it “the next rent-a-quote celebrity could iteration of Psi-Ops”. be attached to a game PIRATE for publicity purposes SOFTWARE Woo tang clan in exchange for a few Despite those initial quid, which reached Stranglehold isn’t Chow murmurs of excellence, Yun-Fat’s lone game its nadir with 2010’s credit—others include visits to the studio itself Get Fit With Mel B, few a tie-in for Pirates a summer later were anticipated that Yun-Fat Of The Caribbean: At nonetheless approached might actually be telling World’s End. with caution. Other recent the truth. Hindsight is a movie offspring, such as wonderful thing. PS2’s King Kong, had also For balance, it should be noted threatened to break through the ABOVE Bullet that some concern was justified. iron curtain of mediocrity on early time was known as Tequila Time, Based within a semi-anonymous, playtests, only to regress to the and very cool it single-storey grey building 20 minutes mean once the completed game had was too. drive from downtown Chicago, the been sampled. But Midway was now developer once famed for Mortal opening its doors to offer full access Kombat had by this point lost its mojo to two of its seven levels—effectively, in the eyes of fans, sandwiching 30 per cent of the final game—months the excellent Psi-Ops: The Mindgate before its planned release, suggesting Conspiracy with undercooked MK utmost confidence that it was on the
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 091 extra right track. This dangerous strategy opponents while sliding down a paid off. bannister, or along on a waiter’s trolley. The studio visits demonstrated And the special moves, aka Tequila the Tai O shanty town environment Bombs, are brilliant, and so perfectly for the first time. An early chapter Woo. Mapped to the Xbox D-pad, of the game, it’s here that Tequila’s they’re a four-way callback to the search for antagonist Jimmy Wong— ‘90s: Simple in execution yet satisfying head of the nefarious Triad group on every single deployment. Tap left Dragon Claw—spreads beyond for a health boost, or press up to downtown Hong Kong, and those trigger Precision Aim, so necessary open-door hands-on demonstrated for those aforementioned private-part for the first time how Woo staples assassinations, as you get to steer would affect gameplay in ways that your bullet once it’s left the gun. Cool! went deeper than the cosmetic. For Press right to enact Barrage mode, instance, you could use ramshackle where the screen turns blue and huts for cover from the waves of goons Tequila goes invincible for a short time, blocking your path to Wong—but those enabling you to decimate everything huts would buckle and ultimately in his path. Or, best of all, tap down for collapse after taking a few bullets, his Spin Attack, where he turns himself forcing you to amend your path into a lead-dispensing carousel that through the level in real-time. kills everyone onscreen, while Woo’s Only Criterion’s Black, published by trademark doves take to the air in the EA the previous February, had dared perfect visual flourish. used scenery in a similarly fluid, path- Inevitably, Daddy Time hasn’t been changing manner. The widespread kind to the few flaws Stranglehold acclaim it and Stranglehold garnered for doing so transformed developer mindsets and paved the way for “Curiously, no one publicly admits to knowing modern destroy-everything-in- sight shooters, DICE’s Battlefield who owns the rights to Stranglehold, but what series being the most powerful contemporary example. is known is that a sequel was planned”
Unreal ambitions Those key elements which demonstrated upon release. Some Implementation and modification ABOVE The Woo impressed during summer previews— curious camera angles feel migraine- of Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine, combined way: If it moves, in the process switching pre-release inducing judged against modern with Midway’s careful selection of the shoot it; if it attitudes from heavily cynical to shooters, and while those seven doesn’t, also guns available in game, meant that shoot it. Sorry mildly intrigued—were successfully levels pack in some spectacular, location-based damage wasn’t limited not sorry, Mr extrapolated to the game’s five other unforgettable moments—including, to the scenery. It was on that Tai O Dinosaur. levels, and ultimately delighted towards the game’s climax, multiple showcase that journalists discovered Hard Boiled devotees even more intense firefights through the halls of the delightful number of ways in than reviewers when Stranglehold the Chicago History Museum—they still which enemies could be picked off, hit shelves in September. The best only amount to 6-7 hours play time. from a sniper shot to the left eye to, parts still remain enjoyable 11 years Just as you’re getting started, it’s all yes, a cap between the legs. Indeed, on, such as combo-heavy gunfights over. Epic itself would use this as partial where the quality of your killshots Director Brain Eddy also admitted inspiration for the over-the-top, are as important as their quantity, online play, now so key to any major testi-kill stylings of Bulletstorm and moments that really do feel shooter, wasn’t a priority. “With every half-a-decade later. like interactive cinema: Picking off game you have all of these giant ideas—co-op, 32-way multiplayer— and you aren’t able to do all of it well. We could have gone wild with all of that stuff but done a mediocre job, so MORE BIG we decided: ‘Let’s just keep focus on that John Woo movie experience, let’s BANGS pool the core elements, and let’s see if we can start expanding on that.’” Pick the game up for a few pounds now and, unsurprisingly, Stranglehold’s MURDER BY NUMBERS THE KING OF KONG A DOG’S LIFE (AND DEATH) meagre online options are non- Stranglehold dialled back BULLETSTORM SLEEPING DOGS DEAD TO RIGHTS: existent, its servers long shut down— the seriousness to focus RETRIBUTION Took the OTT template set Adopts Stranglehold’s much like the publisher that supported on all-out carnage—and by Stranglehold and added Hong-Kong-cinema You’re beckoned to carry set the tone for an entirely a high scores table: The mantle, but melded onto out executions in the most them. Moderate success kept the wolf different kind of shooter in funnier the kill, the more the foundations of a GTA- absurd ways possible—and from Midway’s door for two further the process. points you scored. style open-world. not just with your gun. years, but it finally closed up in 2009, its last major release another celebrity
092 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE tie-in which surpassed expectations in Vin Diesel’s Wheelman. Some properties went to Warner, others to THQ, and then (after THQ’s demise) Nordic Games. Curiously, no one publicly admits to knowing who owns the rights to Stranglehold. What is known is that a sequel was planned, and in the works at the time of Midway’s end. “We definitely see a chain of events taking Tequila through new adventures,” said Eddy in the summer of 2007. Five years later, visual effects lead Sean Lantis shared further details. “I was fortunate enough to work at Midway Games for a year prior to its financial demise in 2009,” he said. “[My] project was basically the sequel to Stranglehold and was getting fully rebranded to appeal to a wider audience.” Diesel fumes Entitled Gun Runner, the follow-up was set to star both Yun-Fat and Diesel, who’d evidently signed a multi- to history. Woo made noises in 2009 which preceded it (and, by some, game deal with Midway stretching TOP Check out the about revisiting the genre at some accused of stealing from Max Payne— beyond Wheelman. Two minutes of panelling on those point—“I don’t have that much time, an ironic claim given that Payne itself in-development footage, shared by pillars. Scenery even though I want to make one borrowed liberally from Hard Boiled coming apart in Mantis under the username Prottok, real-time was a again”—but any ideas floated in that in the first place) but likely to be left is easily found on YouTube. It shows big, big deal back area have never come to light. Given untouched as an IP. Which perhaps both major actors unloading bullets in 2007. those rights mysteries, there’s never means the next decade will be even into vehicles and buildings and, ABOVE The Chicago likely to be an HD remake either. less kind to its memory. Even so, best of all, moving through a smokey History Museum Indeed, the American trademark for there can be no doubt that of its level saw enemies environment aside one another, rappelling in the name ‘Stranglehold’, last time, Stranglehold more than served suggesting that the co-op play teased from above, and registered to the Woo-owned Tiger its purpose and defied the odds as a by Eddy first time around was a focal the tragic-yet- Hill Entertainment, expired back in movie tie-in which did justice to the inevitable demise point of game two. of some classic August 2014. film that inspired it. Credit to Midway All of which is of zero consequence artefacts. It’s now a game which exists in for turning widespread pessimism into now, with that project long consigned splendid isolation, linked to the film a whole lotta dove. Q
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 093 TOP 10 BEST DEATHS ON XBOX
Not even the denizens of virtual worlds can escape the grim reaper’s scythe—but some go out with more style (or hilarity) than others. Here are our favorite croakers on Xbox PHIL IWANIUK
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ISAAC CLARKE—DEAD SPACE 1 & 2 You’ve really got to feel for Dead Space’s hapless hero. As if it wasn’t bad enough for him to be stuck aboard a spaceship full of horrors made of the spare parts from a John Carpenter film, Isaac also has to be subjected to countless gruesome and elaborate deaths whenever you miss a QTE. Fail to fight off an enemy, and it’ll run a fleshy spike through Isaac’s face with scant regard for his Hollywood good looks. Take too long getting through an airlock door, and it’ll rip his arms off and leave him to bleed to death alone in space. Worst of all is the malfunctioning eye surgery machine in Dead Space 2 which, frankly, needs no further explanation. Isaac, you poor man, we’re sorry for every time our fingers let you down.
ANTHONY CARMINE—GEARS OF WAR It’s never a classy move to laugh at someone’s misfortune, but, look, Private Anthony Carmine’s death scene in the first Gears Of War is a moment of slapstick brilliance that Charlie Chaplin himself would be envious of, okay? Don’t judge us for giggling while he goes gently into that good night during the opening phase of the Lightmass Offensive. It comes down to the voice acting, really: Despite appearing like a superhuman juggernaut, Anthony has the voice of a teen brat doing a Super Soaker advert. “Something’s wrong with this thing—ugh, it keeps jamming,” he squeaks, before an abrupt sniper bullet makes his previous problem moot. Gone but not forgotten, Private.
ANYONE WHO DIES DANCING—FORTNITE Fortnite’s every bit as much a lesson in human psychology as a battle royale game. Just as some people can’t live with the ignominy of default character skins, and would gladly pay real money to wear different imaginary clothes, there are also those who can’t kill without breaking out into a dance. What compels these awful, awful people to start flossing and body-popping the very instant they take another human life? You never hear about executioners in the Middle Ages celebrating every beheading with a lively jig. Still, it’s always nice to see them obliterated by a sniper bullet while they’re dancing on your corpse, isn’t it?
JOHN MARSTON—RED DEAD REDEMPTION Real talk: Red Dead’s ending had real impact and emotional substance when it was first released. Sure, videogame characters had kicked the bucket before 2010, and some of them were even protagonists. But the manner in which the stoic hero of Rockstar’s grand Western went out—that’s what really stays with you. It’s a shootout that leaves you wondering Could I have saved him? Maybe If I’d been quicker, got more headshots… Maybe you even reloaded and played the final standoff again a few times, hoping for a different outcome each time you did. Alas, John’s number was up, and he was an ex-cowboy. RIP Mr Marston, you maniacal murderer of people and animals alike.
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EVERYONE—MORTAL KOMBAT X Death is a kind of art form in Mortal Kombat. It’s been that way since Rain turned herself into an elephant and let out a trumpet which ripped her opponents’ skin clean off in MKIII. At least half the development time of any new title must be spent in meeting rooms discussing daring new ways to separate meat from bone, and boy howdy, did NetherRealm exceed itself in MKX. The sadistic and convoluted fatalities here are too numerous to list, but suffice to say if you ever wanted to watch a girl coquettishly shoot someone in the head and then use her bubblegum to plug the spurting cranial chasm—here’s your game.
MORDIN SOLUS—MASS EFFECT 3 Sorry, we’re… we’re just going to need a minute with this one. Salarian geneticist and professor Mordin’s death is just one part of a huge body count in Mass Effect 3, but still manages to do serious damage to your heartstrings. He’d always been such an earnest, unassuming character, matter-of-factly doing what was best for the many whenever the opportunity arose. And that’s exactly what Mordin did when he saw an opportunity to cure the genophage, that weaponized plague designed to wipe out the Krogan. He matter-of-factly tinkered on a console while the world burned around him, knowing full well that he’d be scorched to cinders in just a few moments’ time. What. A. Hero.
FACE McSHOOTY—BORDERLANDS 2 It’s rare to meet a psycho in Borderlands 2 who doesn’t immediately open fire on you. It’s rarer still to encounter one who actively seeks out your help in eliminating them. But if there was ever a case to be made for nominative determinism, it’s with Face McShooty, the mohawk-sporting chap who asks just that in an amusing variety of ways (“Now! Bullets in the face! Want ’em! Need ’em! Gimme gimme gimme! At the sound of the bell!”). ‘Shoot This Guy in the Face’ is as easy a mission as it is perplexing: He literally just wants you to shoot him in the face. He even yells “Thank you!” just before he expires from all those bullets to the face. So, you know, nothing if not polite.
COMMANDER CARTER—HALO REACH Many, many games try to shoot for that rousing, blood- pumping atmosphere of heroism and sacrifice that James Cameron so often created in his ’80s repertoire, but no one does it better than Halo. Commander Carter’s Noble Team all live up to their name during Halo Reach’s campaign and make the ultimate sacrifice for their mission, but it’s Carter’s own death that produces the biggest lump in the throat. With a furrowed brow and excellently coiffeured hair, Carter flies Noble Six and Emile-A239 to their objective while riddled with bullet wounds, draws the Covenant’s attention away from them, then pilots his ship into a Behemoth. An underplayed, tear-jerking, moment that always gets us.
096 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE JOKER—BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY Is the Joker’s ironic expiration on this list for its surprise factor and emotional clout, or the unintentional comedy of such an iconic character dying in such bizarre and easily avoidable circumstances? The latter, 100 per cent. When Bats and Joker face off during Arkham City’s denouement, our hero is holding the cure for Joker’s malady. All Joker needs to do is let Batman go through some gravelly-voiced monologues, and he knows he’ll cough up the cure in the end thanks to his innate good nature. Instead, in a move that can only be considered rash, he attacks Bats and the cure falls to the floor. After barely trying to lick it up the Joker gives up and uses his remaining energy to say: “That is pretty funny…” If you say so.
YOU—LIMBO Who’d have thought the consequences of missing a ledge or falling into some water could be so dire? Anyone who ever played Limbo, that’s who. At first a simple and darkly pretty game of silhouettes, Playdead’s side-on platformer quickly reveals itself to be a rigorous death simulator. One in which the developer built its puzzles with no expectation of the player succeeding in finding the correct solution. And it keeps piling on those doomy credentials every time you slip up. Caught by the spider in act one? Watch a kid get eaten. Got too close to an electrified wire? Watch a kid fry. Spent too long working on a puzzle underwater? Watch a kid drown in fits and flails. Thank heaven for minimalist art styles.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 097 OXM OUT the disc slot They make the games we love, but what do they play for fun? We ask developers to pick their faves from Xbox history. This month: Andy Griffiths
Project Gotham Racing 2 [1] opened my eyes to the potential of console multiplayer games. I [1] nagged my mom incessantly for broadband just to get my OG Xbox online, and from the first race I was absolutely hooked. That game also proved that online communities will always find a way to have fun outside of the rules you’ve set as a Andy Griffiths developer—cat and mouse anyone? Crackdown Communications Manager, Freejam [2] also sticks out for its clever co-op wizardry. [3] Andy’s work day The memory of drop-kicking my best pal off the involves interacting with the Robocraft Agency tower at the center of the map, after Infinity community, climbing it for a good five minutes, still makes me and strategizing the game’s future laugh. I still also go back to Mass Effect 2 [3] every updates. When few years. That feeling of being a bad-ass space he isn’t removing ‘suggestive robots’ marine/diplomat is intoxicating, and the narrative from the in-game decisions are genuinely impactful (sorry, Kaiden!). Factory, he’s pining for a new Burnout. Designing believable characters in videogames is [4] hard, especially likable ones, but BioWare nailed it. Dead Rising 2 [4] remains my go-to experience for imparting some mindless violence on zombies when the mood strikes. There’s something very satisfying about seeing that zombie kill counter go up. If I ever need my gaming palette cleansed of [2] the aftertaste of violence, I boot up Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts [5]. Its capacity to make you feel [5] genuinely smart while snapping different wheels, wings, and rocket boosters onto cobbled-together chassis still makes the game feel refreshingly different. Just make sure you mute those sound effects, as Gruntilda’s squeaks will drive you crazy!
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