EXCLUSIVE: INSIDE NAUGHTY DOG FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 2015 EDGE-onlinE.coM uncharted 4: a thief’s end UNCHARTED 4 A THIEF’S END THE STORY BEHIND THE B IG G ES T G A M E O F THE YEAR REVIEWED THE MAKING THE CREW GUILTY GEAR XRD OE F T KKEN GAME OF THRONES DESTINY: THE HOW TO BUILD DARK BELOW THE TALOS PRINCIPLE Y O UR O W N SCROLLS #276 ARCADE FEBRUARY 2015 The pleasure and pain of excavating old treasure More than any other kind of entertainment, videogames are obsessed with the future, and we don’t always make time to look back. As 2015 kicks in, are we thinking hard about all of the great games we didn’t get around to playing in 2014, vowing to try them now that release schedules have calmed down? Or are we fixated instead on the new PS4 games from Sony’s PlayStation Experience? Is it too soon to be thinking about what may be at GDC? Is it out of order to even consider E3’s lineup in June? With regulars such as Time Extend, we make an organised effort to consider the past, and our recent replay of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves provided a timely primer for this issue’s cover story. In E275, we focused on the considerable strengths of Nathan Drake’s best adventure to date, but playing it again, five years on from its release, also reveals a number of cracks we simply didn’t notice the first time around. What once felt so slickly executed now seems weirdly clunky in places. (And we’re not talking about that Lazarevic fight, which was always rough.) The reality, of course, is that every high-octane thirdperson action game of 2009 was clunky in places. Our expectations have been ratcheting up slowly, year on year, as technology has evolved alongside game makers’ artistry, to the extent that even the most seemingly bulletproof games of the PS3 era feel a little ragged around the edges in the unforgiving glare of 2015. That Uncharted 2 feels this way today is good news for Naughty Dog because it leaves plenty on the table to work with. And it’s doing so not by papering over cracks, but by rethinking Uncharted at an elemental level, creating something with aspirations of standing alongside The Last Of Us. As Naughty Dog moves on, so do we by opening our doors to new freelance contributors. If you’re interested in being a part of Edge – and particularly if you have experience working on features, interviews and reviews – submit your copy samples via [email protected]. 3 games 108 Hype Play 34 The Order: 1886 104 The Crew PS4 360, PC, PS4, Xbox One 38 Metal Gear Online 108 Guilty Gear 360, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One Xrd Sign PS3, PS4 40 Bloodborne PS4 112 Game Of Thrones: Iron From Ice 42 Adrift 360, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One 34 PC, PS4, Xbox One 114 Lara Croft And The 44 Until Dawn Temple Of Osiris PS4 PC, PS4, Xbox One 46 Block N Load 116 Scrolls PC Android, iOS, PC 48 Street Fighter V 118 Destiny: The PC, PS4 Dark Below 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One 50 Hype Roundup 120 The Talos Principle PC 122 Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed PS4 Explore the iPad Follow these links edition of Edge for throughout the magazine additional content for more content online 4 #276 98 18 sectionsFEBRUARY 2015 Knowledge Dispatches 74 Gold Rush 8 Experience points 22 Dialogue Investigating the psychology and science behind our Reporting from Sony’s community- Edge readers share their opinions; insatiable craving for shiny loot focused PlayStation Experience one wins SteelSeries hardware 82 Infinite Lives 12 Lost in deeper blue 24 Trigger Happy How America’s keenest coin-op Get marooned on the Pacific Steven Poole on the danger collectors are preserving the rich sands of Stranded Deep of promising, well, anything heritage of the arcade scene 14 A farewell to Ralph Baer 26 Difficulty Switch 94 The Making Of… Saluting the father of videogames Gambling’s flirtation with gaming How an animation experiment and Magnavox Odyssey creator only devalues it, says Ian Bogost went on to become the arcade 16 Soundbytes 38 Big Picture Mode and PlayStation classic, Tekken Light shed on the creative process Nathan Brown puzzles over the 98 Studio Profile by Ron Gilbert and Koji Kondo future of free-to-play’s image We drop in on a surprisingly 18 My Favourite Game 129 Postcards From hirsute Turtle Rock, the Californian creator of Left 4 Dead and Evolve Musician Ghostpoet on tape- The Clipping Plane loading screeches and GTAV James Leach considers the pitfalls 124 Time Extend 106 of relying on playtest feedback 20 This Month On Edge How the frozen North reheated roleplaying in Bethesda’s The The things that caught our eye Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim during the production of E275 Features 54 Pushing Forward Naughty Dog opens up its doors and its horizons as Uncharted evolves for new hardware 68 An Audience With… Sports Interactive studio boss Miles Jacobson on nearly ten 54 years of Football Manager 74 5 EDITORIAL Tony Mott editor in chief Nathan Brown deputy editor Ben Maxwell writer Matthew Clapham production editor Mark Wynne senior art editor Andrew Hind art editor CONTRIBUTORS Ian Bogost, Gerard Buchko, Richard Cobbett, Martin Davies, Samuel Horti, James Leach, Alice Liang, Nick Lombardo, Jamie Madigan, Angus Morrison, Matthew Pellett, Steven Poole, Daniel Robson, Matthew Sakuraoka-Gilman, Chris Schilling, Alvin Weetman ADVERTISING Kevin Stoddart account manager (01225 687455 [email protected]) CONTACT US +44 (0)1225 442244 [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS UK reader order line and enquiries 0844 8482852 Overseas reader order line and enquiries +44 1604 250145 Online enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.com Email [email protected] MARKETING Laura Driffield group marketing manager Kristianne Stanton marketing manager CIRCULATION Juliette Winyard trade marketing manager +44 (0)7551 150984 LICENSING Regina Erak senior licensing and syndication manager ([email protected]) Tel: +44 (0)1225 442244 Fax: +44 (0)1225 732275 PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Mark Constance production manager Frances Twentyman production controller Nathan Drewett ad production controller MANAGEMENT Daniel Dawkins group editor in chief Graham Dalzell group art director Declan Gough head of content and marketing, film, music and games Nial Ferguson content and marketing director Printed in the UK by William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Future. 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Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick company quoted Non-executive chairman Peter Allen The ABC combined print, digital and digital on the London Chief fi nancial offi cer Richard Haley Stock Exchange publication circulation for Jan–Dec 2013 is (symbol: FUTR). Tel +44 (0)207 042 4000 (London) 20,485 Specialist Magazine www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 (Bath) A member of the Audited Bureau of Circulations Of The Year 6 EDG276.flannel.indd 6 12/23/14 8:41 AM KNOWLEDGE PSX Experience points Why Sony’s community-focused PlayStation Experience was just what game-hungry PS4 owners needed hile it wasn’t like Sony had any (none more damning than DriveClub), Viewers of the livestream might have Wchoice in the matter, PlayStation’s Sony has had to rely on remasters and been surprised by the apparently muted 20th anniversary could hardly have ports of indie favourites to prop up the reaction to A Thief’s End, but you can arrived at a better time.