ALL FORMATS LIFTING THE LID ON VIDEO GAMES Predestination The power of Tips for making inescapable fates your first VR game Jacked in FUZE4 Now you can make itch games on Sw Issue 24 £3 wfmag.cc The Outer Worlds: a stellar odyssey from the designers of Fallout UNLOCK YOUR GAME gmaster.iiyama.com JOIN THE PRO SQUAD TM RED EAGLE RED EAGLE GB260HSU I GB270HSU I GB2760QSU GET IN THE GAME TM BLACK HAWK HAWK BLACK GE2288HS I G2530HSU I G2730HSU I GB2530HSU I GB2730HSU IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE GAME TM GOLD PHOENIX GB2888UHSU ENTER A NEW DIMENSION 2560 x 1440 TM SILVER CROW CROW SILVER GB2783QSU Yes, Tetris is political, too hen we say that all games are political, deeper cultural avour symbolised in the original’s a typical ippant and dismissive functional presentation. response is, “What about Tetris?” Looking at how Tetris has developed since then, W Clearly, Tetris is too abstract to really what stands out is how bare eciency is replaced by represent or symbolise events and social groups in any spectacle and performance. As the game erases its way, so how can it be political? We can also think about JON BAILES past to become a slick global brand, even the Tetris creative media in terms of the kind of ideologies they itself is superseded, by T-spins’ and other ashy tricks. Jon Bailes is the embody, not only in their narrative content or overt author of Ideology The difference between versions is most telling in the themes but also their forms. ames are particularly and the Virtual most recent ones – Tetris 99 and etri Eet. ripe for this analysis, when we consider how their City: Videogames, With Tetris 99, its free-to-play status lowers the aesthetics, rules, and modes of interaction interlock to Power Fantasies and barrier for entry. It represents a freedom, but it’s always Neoliberalism. He’s create meaning. the freedom to compete, scrapping for top positions a freelance games It’s often especially revealing to compare similar critic and social against a huge field of rivals. And as some players bring games, as they highlight each other’s ideological blind theorist, with a PhD previous eperience to the game or are simply more spots. or eample, in my book, Ideology and the Virtual in European Studies skilled, not everyone can win. As in everyday eperience, from University City, I look at numerous games set in modern urban formal freedom does not equate to a level playing field College London. settings, such as Grand Theft Auto V and No More Heroes. or make success universally accessible, regardless In combination, the eperiences they offer define the of effort. underlying demands of life in today’s capitalist societies, etri Eet is almost the opposite. Its audio-visuals their contradictions, and how we respond to them. induce a trance-like state and a sensory escape that Each game both criticises and reinforces eisting subliminally pumps words and images into the brain. Its political norms in a distinctive way, building a comple message is about connectivity, or how different cultures, picture of the issues and obstacles we face. nature, and the universe itself all work to the same So what do we find when we compare the different rhythms, while its online events ask the community to guises of Tetris? It’s one thing to see the politics reach goals by contributing according to their abilities. surrounding Tetris, such as in the infamous battle over In a neat twist, it really does make Tetris constructive. licensing rights it inspired. But what about the game So what does the contrast tell us? Struggling in Tetris itself? or starters, it’s interesting that designer Aleey 99 reects the contradictions of freedom in a hyper- Pajitnov has described Tetris as constructive’, given that competitive society, but doesn’t point to any alternative. the aim is to survive by clearing space. #24 etri Eet does present an alternative (co-operating In effect, his view hides the game’s destructive to succeed), but doesn’t confront the eisting realities aspects beneath a positive surface, and we could of cultural division. These aren’t design aws in the speculate what that might signify in the contet of the games, or moral failings, but singular perspectives that Soviet nion in the eighties. are inevitably incomplete. And if each has ideological r, it’s notable how early western and apanese elements – a frustrated acceptance of endless conversions lean into the game’s ussian heritage, competition, a dream-like utopia of universal harmony with backgrounds featuring the Kremlin or that – it thus creates an insight into the other. Together, they famous ame Boy folk music. This whitewashed, hint at a general partiality of worldviews, and what that consumable image of ussianness’ overrides any means for our political reality. wfmag.cc \ 03 Contents Contents 6 Attract mode Interface 06. The Outer Worlds 18. Roads not taken Obsidian give us the lowdown “You hear that, Mr. Anderson? on their planet-hopping RPG That is the sound of inevitability…” 10. Across The Grooves 22. Guts ’N Goals Dropping the needle on a laid- Meet the maker of an anarchic back visual novel from France arcade football game 12. Shenmue III 44. FUZE4 Hands-on with Yu Suzuki’s sailor How it’s bringing BASIC to the hunting sim Nintendo Switch 16. Incoming 50. Special FX Best friends, empires, and a The British studio behind some 18 nice helping of rabbit stew Spectrum classics 04 / wfmag.cc Contents WELCOME This week, I’ve mostly been playing The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – developer Grezzo’s adorably dinky Switch reworking of the 1993 Game Boy hit. Although it might seem like a lightweight adventure after the 44 behemoth that was Breath of the Wild, Link’s Awakening is, it turns out, a solid candidate for a modern remake. The game itself has a hint of wistful nostalgia throughout its story: the setting, a sunny, remote island named Koholint, is full of mysteries and dangers, but it’s also peaceful and idyllic. Its handful of towns are populated by eccentric yet basically benign characters, and animals potter happily in lush green fiels. That ink looks like a toy in the remake underlines a theme that’s hinted at but never spoken outright: the game depicts childhood as an Eden- like moment in time – a state of innocence that ends as our curiosity forces us to explore and discover more about the 50 60 wider world. Characters in the game warn us not to keep pushing back against the game’s secrets, but as in the real world, we don’t really have a choice but Toolbox Rated to press on to the end. As Sean Martin writes on page 18, inevitable endings are often the most effective ones, and Link’s 28. CityCraft 56. Control Awakening epitomises this. Weaving secrets into video game Remedy’s latest outing is like Its sketch of a playful, innocent city streets Ma Payne meets The -iles world that we must inevitably leave in order to move on is, I’d argue, one of the most affecting 32. Game audio: part 2 60. Telling Lies in the entire Zelda series. Positional sound: what it is and Combing through footage has Enjoy the new issue, readers. how to use it in your games never been so thrilling Ryan Lambie 36. Virtual reality 62. Gears 5 Editor Tips to ensure your first V game Time to cower behind some is a great one waist-high walls yet again 40. Source Code 64. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw Recreate Donkey Kong’s deadly The perfect modern Wing rolling barrels Commander reimagining? wfmag.cc \ 05 Attract Mode Interview BRAVE NEW WORLDS ulpy sci-fi and digs at unfettered capitalism come to the fore in bsidians latest, he uter orlds t’s still too early, at the time of The Outer Worlds is serious, dangerous, and the best FPS-RPG since Fallout: New Vegas, writing, to say The Outer Worlds as dicult as you want it to be – but at the and to those of us of a certain mindset, will be great. Obsidian’s latest, same time, it’s there with a cheeky wink that’s a very good thing indeed. I a planet-hopping first-person and a handful of jokes at the expense of… A bit of time with the brave new world RPG with all the choice and well, capitalism, really. of the future behind us – and a bit more consequence you would hope for from the This is a future owned by the to follow – we sat down with Carrie Patel, team behind the likes of Tyranny and Pillars corporations; one in which regular senior narrative designer, and Brian of Eternity, has a lot to it – and a lot riding members of the public live under Heins, senior designer, to find out more on its shoulders. See, a lot of us remember corporate-nation states, spouting about Obsidian’s latest stab at the role- Fallout: New Vegas, and a lot of us still rank rehearsed taglines and only using their playing genre. it up there as the best of the modern company’s products (and living in their Fallout titles. Obsidian made that, and housing, protecting their interests, dying The Outer Worlds, then. Where’s this all eOter orld riffs on it quite heavily. and not having earned enough for a come from? The studio even has Fallout alumni Tim decent burial, etc. etc.). It’s endgame Patel: It’s in the classic Obsidian Cain and Leonard Boyarsky heading up capitalism, at the far reaches of space, in tradition… We really want players to feel the project, adding to that whole ‘better a world you don’t belong to – and there’s that they’re defining their character in than Bethesda’ hope we have going on.