thegamershub magazine 007
DESCRIPTION
The best of September 2011, with a complete redesign.TRANSCRIPT
In-House:Site Editor: Henry M - [email protected] Pastry Editor: Dan H - [email protected] Editor: Ryan P (Ryan.P) - [email protected] Media Editor: Lewis W
Team England: Community Manager: Sam D Features Editor: Vaughn H (Starfox118) -
[email protected] Staff Writer: Joseph T - [email protected] Staff Writer: Robby D (Rob95)
Staff Writer: Talwinder S (JustaGamer)
Staff Writer: Gagan G (gagan0305)
In-House:Site Editor: Henry M - [email protected] Pastry Editor: Dan H - [email protected] Editor: Ryan P (Ryan.P) - [email protected] Media Editor: Lewis W
Team England: Community Manager: Sam D Features Editor: Vaughn H (Starfox118) -
[email protected] Staff Writer: Joseph T - [email protected] Staff Writer: Robby D (Rob95)
Staff Writer: Talwinder S (JustaGamer)
Staff Writer: Gagan G (gagan0305)
Team Ireland:News Editor: Dylan V (dylan365v) - [email protected] Writer: Robert D (Rob95D)
Team America:US Editor: Anthony D (Anthony D) - [email protected] Writer: Chris C (Chris C)
Staff Writer: Nate DStaff Writer: Liam F (lpfisher)
Staff Writer: Vanessa H (Vanessa H.)
Welcome...This is the seventh edition of TheGamersHub monthly magazine.Each issue brings you the top reviews and news of each month about games and technology.
The magazine will also include events that will be happening involving TGH and the community.
We are still getting to grips with the magazine, so please feel free to give us feedback on improvements that could be made, or future topics you would like to see appearing in here by emailing:[email protected]
About tGHSet up on July 27th 2009 to provide news, reviews, articles, previews and blogs with a community aspect. We have taken big steps to get where we are today, which wouldn’t have been possible without you.
The sites aim was to create a place for budding game journalists to get some experience in the industry and since then we have helped people all over the place to build a respectable portfolio which has lead to many paid freelance jobs in some big publications. We reach 100,000’s of people each month checking out the site and we help provide them with a unique string of relevant content.
We have a team in the UK, RoI and the US who report news throughout the year and we have some big plans for the future.
A word from this months Magazine Editors
Well as you can hopefully see, this months magazine has had a complete overhaul in comparison to its forebears. Gone are the blurry sections, where styles collided and images fought for your attention over their text, gone are the articles needlessly spanning pages upon pages; now in their place four succint sections that do what they say on the tin, crisp lines and clear images are aplenty and the features section has some new regulars in
it too.This month in Newsflash you can find all the latest and greatest news. Anticipation has you salivating at the thought of all those new titles and tech coming your way. Topical Stuff is where you’ll find this months most interesting features, including a brand new magazine exclusive feature from TGH Editor Dan Hook! Finally we have Critique, the place that really matters, here you’ll find the latest and greatest reviews from the last month. We even have a wonderful contribution from our Community Editor, Sam Duggan, that gives you the low-down on all thats happening withing the TGH
community.This month has also been a hotbed of activity for the site as a whole, not just the magazine. We have welcomed some brand new members to the team, ended this seasons stint of podcasts, replaced said podcasts with bitesize listenable digests of gaming goodnes, and begun a fierce campaign to get you guys involved in the day to
day of the site’s community!To see some familiar faces, as well as the brand new guys go check out the lovely looking Staff page on the site, or even in this months mag. There you will find ways to get in touch with us
and give us feedback on everything TGH,-Vaughn. H
As always you can contact the team for any queires at [email protected] or report any problems with the website or magazine to [email protected].
As usual you can keep up to date with everything thats happening at TheGamersHub either via the website www.thegamershub.net or via the ever popular Twitter page @TheGamersHub. Happy gaming guys!
NiNja GaideN 3
Battlefield 3 (Co-op)
furmiNs
diaBlo iii
forza motorsport 4...
projeCt aCes workiNG...
ValVe aNNouNCes New...
GraNd kNiGhts history...
ComposiNG a hit
max payNe
Blast from the past
words from the editor
driVer: saN fraNCisCo
resistaNCe 3
dead islaNd
BloodrayNe Betrayal
Forza Motorsport 4 prepares a demo
Microsoft has released the demo information for Forza Motorsport 4 and its availability for XBL Gold and Silver subscribers.
Forza Motorsport 4 demo will be available on Xbox Live Arcade for Gold members on Oc-tober 3rd. The demo will be available to all subscribers on October 7th. No word on what the demo will entail but we will update this post when more information surfaces.
Forza Motorsport 4 will be available in North America on October 11th and in Europe on Oc-tober 14th.
AutHor: Anthony D
Project Aces working on Ace Combat: Assault Horizon DLC
Project Aces have been working long and hard to complete Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. Now that the game has gone gold, it’s time for the developers to focus on DLC.These premium DLC items will feature new aircraft, skins, and maps. Some post-launch aircraft would include; ASF-x Shinden II, CFA-44 Nosferatu, Su-37 Terminator, Tonado Gr.4,
AV8B Harrier II Plus, YF-23 Black Widow II, F15S/MTD, and KA-50 Hokum. Some premium DLC maps will include Tokyo and Hawaii. These DLC items are to be release over the months ahead.
AutHor: Chris C
Check out the trailer and full screen shots onsite.
Valve Announces New Game Modes for CS: GO
Valve, who has created numerous best selling game franchises (Counter-Strike, Half-Life,
Portal and Left 4 Dead) as well as technologies such as Steam and Source, has announced the
new game modes for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
AutHor: Vanessa H
In early 2012 CS:GO will be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, and will expand on the team-based action gameplay
that it spawned with its launch over a decade ago.
Arsenal Mode is based on Counter-Strike: Source’s mod Gun Game. Valve is working
directly with the creators of Gun Game to de-velop Arsenal Mode.
“Arsenal: Arms Race” and “Arsenal: Demoli-tion” will provide an additional eight entirely new maps, and will also expand on the class
gameplay of Counter-Strike.
Grand Knights History Releasing for PSP
AutHor: Vanessa HThere’s a new gaming coming to PSP – cour-tesy of XSEED Game, Marvelous Entertainment and Vanillaware. The one-of-a-king Grand Knights History is a 2D turn-based RPG and will be releasing for PlayStation Portable in North America this winter.
A recipient of the Platinum Award by Famitsu after its recent release in Japan, Grand Knights History takes players out of the pre-sent and transports you to a medieval world where you will take part in a dynamic conflict between three nations in the land of Listia. Union, Avalaon and Logres are deadlocked in their power struggle and the toll it has taken on their people is tremendous – and no one nation has pulled head to gain control.
One captain must make a decision on who he/she wants to form an alliance with, then recruit and train soldiers to be knights, then send them to war in a unique online campaign experience. The offline questing helps to pro-gress through the game, then enjoy half hour battles online with the massively-multiplayer function to test your knights against others – without the necessity of a constant internet connection. Grand Knights History has incred-ible customization abilities – race, sex, appear-ance, job class, sub-class, and weapon type are alterable for every team member.
“Vanillaware is renowned for their beautiful and striking hand-drawn 2D graphics, and with its stunning visuals and strategic gameplay, Grand Knights History will be a must-have for all PSP owners with a taste for deep, engross-ing RPGs,” says the president of XSEED Games, Juan Iwasaki.
Grand Knights History will be published in North America this winter, both as a UMD disc and download through the PlayStation Store. It will be published in Europe by Rising Star Games.
Ninja Gaiden 3FormAt: 360, PS3releAse DAte: 2012PublisHer: TemcoKoeiDeveloPer: Team Ninja
Ninja Gaiden is a series renowned among gamers as being notoriously hard. Ninja Gaiden 2 made the entry curve a little bit more manageable but still ramped up the difficulty when it wanted to. Ninja Gaiden 3 however is set to change what we expect from the series. Now don’t worry hardcore fans its all in very safe hands, the Lead Designer of the Sigma series, Yosuke Hayashi, has taken to the helm of NG3 and he has some ideas for where the series should go. Honestly these ideas of his really work. We were lucky enough to get the chance to meet Yosuke Hayashi and sit down and go hands on with the game whilst being talked through the design and
development process.
Although we played the game on the Xbox 360, Yosuke showed us through on PS3. First up he wanted to point out that the focus is on getting new players into the game, so for the first time in the series they have an extra
difficulty mode for those seeking a challenge. You start out with Normal mode for first time players for people who want to get into the story and emotion of the game (more on that later), where as hard mode is there to challenge long time players of the game who really want to step up to the next level. When playing in the Normal mode onscreen controls will come up to guide players through the basics, luckily they don’t intrude or pop up and get in the way of the game play but sit translucently at the bottom of the screen, ready for those who want to use them.
As far as the story goes, it follows on straight after the events of Ninja Gaiden 2, and there has been a real focus on portraying the enemies as humans in their own right. Yosuke wanted to make it so that
you are no longer cutting down
just another swarm of
enemies but
instead having to atone for what you have done. This ‘Karma of Murder’ moral dilemma has woven itself into the game narrative, as now you are made to feel the heavy slice of cutting through a person as well as hearing enemies cry in pain and scream for their lives; this makes quite a change from the enemies of Ninja Gaiden 2 which were hell bent on coming after you despite having nearly no limbs. Yosuke sees the game as focusing on the traditional story of a ‘dark
hero’, a man troubled by what he has seen and is
fighting for good despite having to kill so many.
AutHor: Vaughn.H
The demo really did convey these moral feelings that Team Ninja had tried to create. Combat was fast and smooth as ever, typically Ninja Gaiden, the buckets of blood were back and now looking darker to fit in with the tone of this story. Team Ninja conveyed weight of taking a human life through QTE’s, now don’t join the communal sigh of ‘oh no not more quick time events in games’, this system really works well and doesn’t feel intrusive. Imagine you are swathing through enemies like the badass ninja you are, and then you pull off a great combo that lands a strike right into the stomach of your opponent, in most games now the sword would slice through them like butter, not in NG3; the camera swoops up frantically and close, time slows and the sword makes
a slow crunch as it begins to slice through bone, up in the centre flashes a button prompt, upon pressing the button Ryu makes a powerful stance change and you hear and feel the lunge of his body putting effort in to cut through the bone and sever this mans life in a shower of blood. It all has that Extreme Asia feel to it, but that is typically Ninja Gaiden. Ryu also has a charged up semi magic move, that isn’t Nippon based, to pull off. As for some unknown reason Ryu’s right arm is mangled with, what looks like, an infection. It is clear that this has some value to the gameplay as it allows him to perform a crazy move that can kill most enemies (in the demo at least) in one single hit, luckily it isn’t game breaking as it cant be used repeatedly. Also without
wanting to ruin the game or the demo for you, it does end with a typically large boss fight, although one that seems like it may become a reoccurring enemy rather than a one off boss.Overall Ninja Gaiden 3 looks like it will be one bad ass game from start to finish. Under the new lead of Yosuke Hayashi, the series seems to be going in a very good and strong direction and the gameplay re-ignites the fun found in the original Xbox title, something that was lacking from Ninja Gaiden 2 on 360. With Playstation Move support, something we unfortunately did not get to talk about or even see, as well as Online Co-op and competitive multiplayer, again something we weren’t allowed to see, this is set to be the best Ninja Gaiden game yet.
From these screenshots alone you can see just how intensely violent
Ninja Gaiden 3 will be. Fair to say its in safe hands with Yosuke Hayashi.
Battlefield 3 (Co-Op)FormAt: 360, PS3, PCreleAse DAte: Oct 25 (US) 28(EU)PublisHer: EADeveloPer: DICE
After seeing some amazing scenes of gameplay, and being completely gripped by high testosterone situations, it was a bit of a disappointment and worry to hear that console versions of the game wouldn’t be running at that oh so perfect 60 frames per second. Well, worry no more!
We got a chance to have a go on the PS3 version of Battlefield 3, and have a good play through the Co-operative mode and it was all an extremely positive experience; except for having to play C0-Op with someone who has no idea of how teamwork is
supposed to work.The mission was,
theoretically, a very
straightforward. We were tasked with moving quickly into, and up, an apartment block, clearing out all the ‘tangos’ and rescuing the hostage. Once rescued we had to then securely escort him out of the danger zone, luckily for this part he was inside an armoured Humvee, whilst we were on foot clearing a path to safety. This took place entirely at night and so our guns had built in night vision scopes, which worked incredibly well when picking out hard to find foes in the rubble of the war torn urban environment. All in all it seemed a simple enough mission.
It really helped to work as a team through the mission (as the title of co-op would suggest), regardless of teamwork though the game
controlled really well. For a shooter
what is most important is
the way the guns feel, playing Battlefield it’s evident that DICE spent some time making sure that guns really feel like they have some serious clout to them. The sound and rumble feedback, as well as the visual recoil, muzzle flash, and enemy reactions, all adds up to create an incredibly engaging shooting experience. Of course it isn’t just the controls that are important when making a great game, it’s really how the game depicts itself too. Some shooters go down the arcade style route of bullet hell, others aim for the heights of Hollywood and a small selection go down the simulation route; Battlefield has gone for a mixture of the simulation and the Hollywood, and has pulled it off excellently. Instead of the explosions and the awful one liners found in movies, Battlefield has gone for the big budget and visual sheen
and in doing so has created what seems like a very
subtle and realistic war simulation game.
AutHor: Vaughn.H
This mixture of Hollywood and simulation goes right down into the games visuals too. Using a pallet of subtle, and soft, grey and brown hues mixed in with some soft lighting, it creates textures that look smooth and believable in this future battlefield. Reassuringly the console version, at least the PS3 version, looks only slightly worse than the PC footage shown off. It isn’t running at the 60 frames per second that its PC sibling is running at, but that isn’t at all noticeable. The
console version runs smoothly and even with a whole street full of enemies shooting and buildings exploding it didn’t seem to slow or judder once; clearly testament to the powerful Frostbite 2 engine running under the games bonnet. Another visual element is the games HUD. It floats very nicely over the screen instead of being slapped into place, it feels natural and looks much like an overlay from a modern helmet feed. Its inclusion only adds another layer of
believability to the experience of playing the game.
Ultimately Battlefield 3 seems to be shaping up as an excellent must have game. Unfortunately due to the rather silly feud that seems to be going on between EA and Activision some players will probably never pick up this fantastic looking, and fantastic playing, game. It is an enjoyable experience and one that will only improve as its release draws closer.
Visually Battlefield 3 will be absolutely superb. Pushing the boundries
expected from hardware everywhere.
FormAt: iPad, iPhone, iPodreleAse DAte: Q4 2011PublisHer: HousemarqueDeveloPer: Housemarque
Furmins
AutHor: Vaughn.HHousemarque has made a
name for itself thanks to the world of Playstation Network. Via PSN Housemarque have released three immensely popular titles that all deliver top-notch gameplay, from shooting up asteroids in Super Stardust HD, surviving a zombie hoard in Dead Nation, or even adventuring across world of mythology in Outland. Housemarque crafted each of these unique experiences in such a fantastic way, because of the low cost of producing PSN games they could give a greater focus on creating a fun games that everybody would enjoy. This naturally has led to the development of their brand new game for the iPad, Furmins.
Running on the same engine as Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD, although you couldn’t tell from looking at it, it really shows how simple Furmins was to produce, thus letting the Housemarque team really focus on producing some high quality fun for everybody to play. Enticed by the iPad’s huge touch screen and its powerful internal architecture it seemed like the
perfect platform to create a fun and inventive interactive game, and so the physics based puzzler Furmins had found itself a home.
Furmins themselves are small creatures that look like a bundle of fur, half black and half white with huge eyes that engulf the tops of their bodies. These peace loving forest creatures go out on a journey to wake up their sleeping king, who has rolled into the river and dammed it up meaning no water can flow into the homes of the Furmins. Your task is to take the Furmins to where the King is. To do this you’ll need to guide your critters from the start of each level to a goal basket that seems to be guarded by, an immensely amusing and equally, creepy bird situated onscreen. To do this you have to edit moveable parts of each level so the furry creatures can get around, and don’t just drop to the floor, some levels even contain interactive moments during the playback - such as touch operated bounce pads or conveyer belts. Housemarque ease the mechanics in so players don’t
feel swamped straight away by so many options. Levels can range from setting up objects and then letting physics do its thing, to some that are entirely based around touch inputs to control the flow. Later levels really mix it up by throwing together the different level styles into one big package and implementing the idea of time based blocks too, such as a block of ice that can be used as a platform or a support until it melts and breaks away.
As the game works according to physics, and because levels are so incredibly simple to design, it meant that the team could come up with thousands of level ideas and create intricate puzzles. Because of this Furmins has some of the best level design for any downloadable puzzle game. Levels look interesting and challenging, and yet feel that there is always a simple and ideal way to solve them, and with it being a physics based puzzler you can still find another way to solve a puzzle. With stars to collect along the way it seems like each level will really suck players back in so they can find another way to try and get a higher score on the level, although they aren’t needed to finish a level.
Currently Housemarque are planning on releasing two versions of the title. One version will be a full release where players will get over 40 levels across 4 worlds straight away and then can purchase more via the DLC if they want to. The other version is a stripped down Lite model where players will get around 12 levels or so, and then if they decide they want to dabble a bit more they can purchase extra packs to have some more fun! Housemarque plan on supporting Furmins after its release with some extra level packs, although how many extra levels is yet to be decided, as is their method of distribution. In terms of DLC they plan on releasing the first set of level packs two weeks after the game
launches on the app store, the extra content will also include different Furmin designs too so you can customize the way you play.
On the surface Furmins looks like quite a departure from the Housemarque people have grown to know and love, however after even a minute or two of seeing this game running you can see instantly it’s a Housemarque game. Furmins is all about having fun and bringing back that childhood sense of exploration and curiosity that seems lost in modern games. Hopefully its new audience of iOS users should embrace such an inventive and brilliant title quickly, and then will really have a lot of fun playing through its quirky adventure.
Although the bird didn’t turn
out to be exactly the wierdo
they imagined it to be, as you can see its still unfomfortably
creepy.
FormAt: PC, MacreleAse DAte: 2012PublisHer: Activision-BlizzardDeveloPer: In-House
Diablo III
AutHor: Joe TylerAfter waiting
so long to experience the
next chapter in the Diablo universe. The
Diablo 3 Beta has finally been released!
Two decades have passed since the demonic lords, Diablo, Mephisto, and
Baal, set out
across the
world of Sanctuary on a vicious
rampage, twisting humanity to their unholy will. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils, the memory fades slowly.
When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram Cathedral seeking clues to defeat these new stirrings of evil, a fiery harbinger of doom falls from the heavens, striking the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. This fire from the sky reawakens ancient evils and calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the
rising powers of the Burning Hells once
again.
You can watch and hear all about the Beat over at FeralInstincts’ YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/6rcnFJHmGpI
Visually Diablo III will be packed with more effects
than you could shake a stick at! Featuring simple, yet
effective, gameplay mechanics that anybody can enjoy as well as a deep system for
those returning to the series. Supposedly its better with a pad
Driver: San FranciscoAutHor: Anthony D
FormAt: PC, PS3, 360, WiireleAse DAte: Sept 6th 2011PublisHer: UbisoftDeveloPer: Ubisoft
The Driver series has a long history in gaming and always involve Tanner, a cop who is usually out to catch one main bad guy. In Driver 3 he was set on capturing the infamous Jericho, which at the end it is left unclear what happens. Driver: San Francisco takes place after the events in Driv-er 3 and we know that both men survived and Jericho has become imprisoned. This is where the game starts Tanner and partner Jones. Can this ti-tle live up to the legacy of fast cars and insane adrenaline fueled driving or is this a car crash waiting to happen?
Step Into The Driver SeatIt has been quite a while since we last stepped into the Driver’s seat as Tanner. San Francisco is an ode to the city, and all those famous car chases that took place in it during the 70’s and 80’s cin-ema years. The story contin-ues from where Driver 3 left Tanner and Jericho, still arch rivals and one on his way to the state prison but soon eve-rything changes when Jericho is busted out by an unknown accomplice. The story goes crazy from there and the player has to uncover whom is working with Jericho and get
get revenge on them, while Tanner meanwhile tries to discover why he now has the ability to shift to other drivers. The story can be nonsensi-cal at times but in the end is rewarding by taking a chance to implement a new feature that simply works really well in the Driver universe and uses it to throw a few surprises at the player. The story racks in around 8-10 hours but players will be sure to find a diversion or two along the way.
Welcome To San Francisco Ubisoft really worked hard on this one and it shows. The detail not only in the city it-self that feels alive and brim-ming with feeling, from the cars, the music and the char-acters you will meet on the adventure. The title has some of the best music of the series with over sixty (60) tracks that will keep you on the edge of your seat and your foot on the gas. Since the game has done away with what many thought ruined the series (out of car experience) the focus had to be on the cars and they re-ally went all out with licensing over a hundred and twenty (120) vehicles and twenty other unlicensed cars made for the game (such as transport trucks, buses and security vans). Driver: San Francisco will not only test your com-prehension of the story but your driving skills as well. The game will throw at you merci-less races, sharp turns, in-tense and always different
activities to do. The sheer amount to do in Driver: San Francisco is simply mind bog-gling. The entire map itself is more than 200KM of road that spans many great San Fran-cisco land marks such as the famous Golden Gate Bridge. The detail in the city is quite extravagant.
opponents in races and even enemies who are chasing you as well as on cops. It is also helpful to get around the map quickly and try out new cars before you buy them at a garage. Dares add even more to do which give you small little stunt-like objectives such as jumping a car transport, jump-ing other vehicles, or getting a set amount of overtakes or oncoming meters while in first-person mode. With over eighty (80) Dares to complete play-ers will be pushed to the limit. Normal games would stop right there with content, however Driver: San Francisco keeps the ball rolling with unique chal-lenges, twenty in all. The best ones are the movie or film chal-lenges that require you to find ten film tokens to unlock one, which has the player search-ing for 130 film tokens for the thirteen film challenges. Just about every film challenge is based on a famous car chase or sequence from movies and television of the 70’s and 80’s era. The sheer detail put into each challenge is immense, the music choices, the vehicles and even the city and pedestrian vehicles all change accord-ing to the time period of the source material. The player will not be able to use any of their shift abilities during this mode so it is all skill based as it is also leaderboard ranked, as are many of the activities and oth-er challenges. One other cool feature of the movie challenge is that the screen will flicker with watermarks like it is a film reel, simply brilliant and on the spot detail which shows a lot of love was put into this game.
Never A Dull MomentDriver: SF has Tanner con-stantly be on his toes with having to complete side mis-sions to earn Willpower which allows John to progress through the main story. Will-power also acts as currency to buy new cars, upgrade his special shift and boost abili-ties, all of which can be done at a garage that as the city grows the player will have to purchase more garages to unlock more cars and have a better advantage. You can also earn Willpower by do-ing activities which are side missions that are not directly related to the story. They range from anything from checkpoint, short little stories where you have to save some-one, or raise someone’s blood pressure who is being not so nice, stunts or even a good old fashioned street race. It can also be earned by simply driving around the city as driving fast, oncoming, jumps and drifting all earn Willpower on the fly. The Shift ability will become a crucial part of the game it progresses. You can use it to shift into oncoming traffic and drive cars into
other drivers to be ‘king’ or ‘it’ and stay as long as possi-ble to gain points as well as a team matches like team relay. There are numerous modes and plenty to keep players busy within the online mode and it is a great team based title as well as solo play or with friends. The title also allows you to play offline split screen co-op if you’re up for some couch gaming.
Being The Driver, OnlineThe multiplayer mode is an-other place where Ubisoft could not just add a few modes and call it a day, no way Tanner. The multiplayer mode features eleven differ-ent modes, a shift meter that requires the player to use it sparingly unlike the story mode where it was near infi-nite. Prior to every race there will be a qualifying challenge and the one who preforms the best will be first in pole position and so forth down the line. There is also a free-roam for friends to just relax and drive around the city a la ‘Burnout: Paradise’ which is pretty cool to just relax. The game comes with the stand-ard free for all type which throws different challenges at you such as king of the hill type, where you tag
Driver At It’s Best Driver has always been a series with a nostalgic feel to cinema and adrenaline fueled car chas- es. Driver: San Francisco really captures that feel and improves on the series to create what is the best driving game out now. It may not be super realistic like driving simulators out there but it is one thing that trumps realism, fun. Driver: SF is the most fun I have had in a driving title since Burnout: Paradise. Driver: San Francisco also adds a unique social networking aspect that allows you to re-cord your triumphs and go into a film director mode as well as uploading your progress to Twitter and Facebook. The gripping story will keep you guessing and on edge until the very end, and even then there are activi- ties, challenges, vehicles to unlock and an entire city to explore. Still only scratching the surface the online multiplayer smacks you hard with a deep progression system for a driving title with ranks and XP system. If you buy one story driven driving title this year, make it Driver: San Francisco.
Score: 5/5
Resistance 3AutHor: Andy take its foot from the gas,
killing the momentum. It re-covers, but after the tortur-ously slow boat level (see the demo), the game really didn’t need another slow one.The first really exciting level involves a role-reversal. You’re the one being pro-tected while unarmed and carrying a power cell after a botched ambush. You run through a rainstorm with leaper Chimera raining down on you too before a giant Wid-owmaker crashes the party. Combined with the cinematic sprint through the carnage and the stormy weather, it’s heart-pounding stuff.
R3 is at its best when you’re firing its fantastic range of weaponry, and thanks to the return of the weapon wheel, you can carry all of them at once after the disappoint-ing two-weapon rule of R2. There’s no other game out there that constantly encour-ages you to swap between your weapons so much. Bull-seye and marksman for hy-brids, then shotgun when they get close, explosive magnum shots for leapers, EMP gre-nades for shock drones fol-lowed by almost every bullet you have to defeat a boss like a Widowmaker. It’s just a gun porn montage of awesome.Weapons can be upgraded through extended use. Shot-guns gain incendiary rounds, the bullseye gets extra tags, the marksman gets a scope and so on. some of the crazier
FormAt: PS3releAse DAte: Sept 6th 2011PublisHer: SCEDeveloPer: Insomniac Games
With Insomniac Games mov-ing onto a multi-format future with Overstrike, this could well be the final Resistance title on the PS3.You now play as Joe Capelli, (R2 SPOILER!) the man forced to kill Nathan Hale as the Chi-mera virus finally overcame the former hero. Despite Capelli’s hand being forced, he was given a dishonour-able discharge from the army. Four years later, the Chimera are still slowly strangling the remains of the human race from the earth and we find Capelli living with a small group of survivors and his wife and child.Naturally the quiet can’t last, mainly thanks to one Dr. Ma-likov coming to find Joe to enable his help. The old doc-tor leads the enemy right to the base making for a frantic escape and a painful deci-sion for Joe to leave his family and head to New York with the Doctor so they can destroy a tower that’s slowly freezing the world to death.The first part of the game has you fighting the Chimera through farmland and ram-shackle towns. Just as you’ve hit a strong pace of pro-gressive violence, the game slumps into an underground mine level that has the game
weaponry includes a cryogun that freezes enemies, allow-ing you to smash them to bits afterwards. There’s also a brutal sledgehammer and a gun that shoots out poisonous globs to infect enemies. The Ratchet & Clankinfluence is clear, and fans should keep an eye out for an Easter egg in one of the cutscenes.Human enemies play a part this time in the shape of a group of escaped convicts calling themselves the War-dens. The level where you defend a train from them is a great spectacle as you blow up chasing vehicles and gape at the Chimera sponsored conclusion.Also new to the series are the feral Chimera, creatures that were never militarised and simply roam the wilds. They still want to rip your face off, but they will also attack regular Chimera if their paths cross. The feral ones don’t have guns; most of them are faster versions of the lanky grims. There are some new acid bursting enemies, but it’s the Widowmakers that really steal the show. These giant monsters vary from the ones found in the first game in that they have multiple stages to taking them down, involving shooting the glowing eyes, glands and guts. Shooting glowing parts of bosses is nothing new, but it is fun and it provides ideal feedback to knowing you’re attacking it effectively in the absence of a health bar.
Speaking of health bars, yours does not replenish over time, as unlike Hale, Joe is not infected with a strain of the Chimera virus. The first game had it best as you had four health bars with only the near-est one recharging. It struck a nice balance to the Halo mod-el. This is old school though and it completely changes how you play, but for the better. Yes, it can be intimidating, but ultimately it provides a much more rewarding experience.The checkpoints are gener-ously placed for the most part. However, the game feels harder than ever before, especially the stage where you’re boxed in against four Stalkers (crab-like tanks) and you’re trying to avoid acciden-tally picking up the one health pack too soon. This is one of the many times you start to think the game was designed more for co-op.We’re all for co-op cam-paigns, but Resistance 3 has an early stumble thanks to not allowing you to join forces with a stranger. Only people on your friends list (or offline split-screen) can join. So if nobody’s bought it, you’re go-ing to have to go and recruit a new buddy during a few
not even a decent cutscene to go out on, there’s a severe ‘that’ll do’ feel to it. So it’s up to the multiplayer to keep us going after a mere six-hour campaign.
rounds of multiplayer.PlayStation Move functional-ity isn’t as well implemented as in Killzone 3. Admittedly, it worked better there because of the cover system and auto-aim. The main culprit here is the sluggish aiming. The Chi-mera will eat you alive com-pared to using a DualShock.Downsides of the campaign include a lack of varied loca-tions and colour, small broken town after small broken town and survivor camps of people lying around complaining. The game is far from ugly and some of the weather effects are impressive, but there’s no attempt to truly wow you with any impressive vistas like that sight over the Golden Gate Bridge in R2. Most disappoint-ing though is the conclusion, it’s achingly similar to the pre-vious games and there’s
MultiplayerThe first notable difference is the reduction in size from previous games. Gone are the 60-player games in favour of tighter 16-player games. The separate co-op modes are gone completely, which is a bit of a letdown, despite their flaws last time out. The weapons are upgradable, gaining similar functions from the campaign, although it’ll take time to get a
nice collection.You can look to the multiplayer to get your passport out and travel as the maps are based all over the world from Aus-tralia, New York, Europe and Wales. Despite their being twelve maps, I found that most modes painfully recycled the same handful repeatedly.
If you enjoy the weapons of Resistance 3 (and you’d be a freak not to), then you’ll have fun online. However, some of the Killstreak rewards give strong players an unfair advantage and later unlocks will make life difficult for new players. A few minor laggy moments and team matches starting with 8vs3 are prob-lems that I’m sure Insomniac
will iron out before Overstrike starts to dominate their time.
Modes on offer include death-match, team deathmatches, CTF, and modes involving dominating bases or destroy-ing targets. The modes may be familiar, but at least there are a healthy range of perks and abilities to give your load-outs some depth. Standing bubble shields, healing bea-cons, radars, ammo drops, doppelganger buddies, radar-
friendly silencers, auto-tur-rets, thermal vision, extended clips, armour, enemy footstep tracking, increased damage and quicker ability cooldowns are just a taste of what to expect. Hell, you can even have leapers sprout from your corpse to avenge you. Killstreaks are rewarded with temporary invisibility, wall-piercing augers and more.
Score4/5
Dead IslandAutHor: Chris C
FormAt: PS3, 360, PCreleAse DAte: Sept 6th 2011PublisHer: Deep SilverDeveloPer: Techland
Announced in 2006, it’s been nearly five years for Dead Island to finally be released. By taking elements and queues from other games, Techland hopes to achieve the ultimate zombie survival game. Giving players the freedom and co-operative experience that oth-er zombie games fail to give. So should you book your stay on Dead Island? Or should you check-in somewhere else? Find out in this review of Dead Island.
STORY:Dead Island is set on a fictional island called Banoi. Banoi was once a peaceful island till the night that changed the lives of many. A mysterious virus outbreak has been released and zombies soon overrun the island. After one of four main characters wake up in their hotel room, they must learn to survive and escape this nightmare. The overall story is basically quite simple and unoriginal. The story does feel like a B-rated movie as a whole. The four main charac-ters each have a back story when the player is choosing their character. Sadly, their back story is completely for-gotten during the course of the whole main storyline. Overall, the plot of the story is thin and quite predictable.
GAMEPLAY:Dead Island is a first person horror action adventure. Dead Island is made up of an open world, RPG elements, co-operative and a major focus on melee weaponry. Before all of that the player has to pick from one of four main char-acters. The player can choose Xian Mei, Sam B, Logan, or Purna. All four of these char-acters have their own set of abilities and skills. Xian Mei is good with blade weapons and the assassin of the group. Sam B is the blunt weapon expert and the tank of the group. Logan is the throwing master and jack of all trades guy. Purna is the firearms expert and the leader of the group. Once the character has been selected the game can finally begin.Banoi is a big island to explore with multiple locations. Rang-ing from the sunny beaches of Banoi and the surrounding resort, to the city and jungles that Banoi has to offer. Play-ers will find themselves explor-ing every inch of the island before moving on to the next section. The whole island is basically divided up into dif-ferent sections, instead of being one huge island. These section are not small either, they are quite huge with a lot of variety. It also helps to keep focus on the mission at hand and to avoid unneces-sary back tracking.The RPG elements of Dead Island are barrowed from dif-ferent types of RPG games.
Players will gain experience points to level up their char-acter and once leveled up the player can soon spend a skill point on the skill tree. As basic as leveling up can get there is more RPG elements within. Players can take on a variety of missions that he/she can gain rewards and EXP. These mission ranges from getting a certain item to said per-son, lending a helping hand, gathering and go to point A to point B. These missions do have variety to a certain limit, but more or less hit the typical MMO type of missions. Overall, the RPG elements are traditional as it can get.Dead Island also houses its own elements to keep the sus-pense going. Players will have a stamina bar, meaning that players must choose to attack wisely or their character will be tired out and can be easily knocked down. The stamina bar is used by swing weapons, running, jumping, dodging and using their curb stomp. Also the players will have to watch out for their health, if you die the player will lose 10% of their money. Players will also have flashlight to light the many dark areas during the course of the game. It also features a weather system, whereby the weather will change on a regular base for a few sections. Sadly, there is no day or night cycle. Players have the ability to fast travel to different sections of the game that they have unlocked during the course of the story.
So what about the combat in Dead Island? The combat is the mix of both melee combat and gun play. Melee combat has a heavy focus here, with the ability to customize your weapons. Nearly every single weapon in the game can be customized to be even more deadly than before. Players can make flaming axes, elec-tric baseball bats, poisoned samurai swords, and explo-sive guns. There is much more customized weapons than that for the player to experiment with. Gun play has a big role during sequences of human on human fighting. When fac-ing multiple human enemies, gun play will always be a must. Customized weapons can be fun to experiment with, but the actually combat can be re-petitive and mediocre. Slicing and bashing zombies is fun and all, but there is the point where that this formula does get boring.Co-op is a big deal in Dead Island. Instead of playing the boring story by yourself, you can experience it with friends. Dead Island supports up 4 players online, with no op-tion to play split screen. Dead Island felt like it was meant to be played with friends. It makes the experience that much enjoyable. You can ex-plore, fight zombies, do mis-sions, and finish the story and more with friends on Dead Island. With more players come more challenges, be-cause the enemies gain power with the number of players in the room. Overall, Dead Island has got the cooperative as-pect down.
Everything might look sunny on Banoi, but there are some dark sides of Banoi. There are collectibles in the game. These collectibles vary from audio recordings, documents and ID cards. Sadly, these collectibles are nothing more than trophy/achievement progression. The audio recordings do have something to tell about the story, but the documents and ID cards don’t display anything or provide additional informa-tion on the misfortune.There are some question-able things about Dead Island. Dead Island feels too easy and doesn’t offer much of a challenge. Everything can easily be overcome and the survival aspect is completely tossed out. The island of Banoi is littered with Energy drinks to keep the players health up and items respawn into their original place rather quickly. The suspense that Dead Island has to offer is thin when it comes to these issues and more. A hardcore setting would have been nice to up the challenge and more.
Overall, Dead Island is a sim-ple game that everyone would enjoy. It may not be fun play-ing solo, but really enjoyable once you have friends to play with. The island of Banoi is a big place with many locations to explore, loot, level up, and more. Sadly, the game never felt too much of a challenge and that the combat was too repetitive. A hardcore set-ting would have been nice to up the challenge. Combat is satisfying with the experimen-tation of customization. Game-play elements may have been barrowed ideas from other games, but Dead Island still makes it work for itself.
PRESENTATION: Graphics of Dead Island can be a mixed bagged. The engine is the same engine that was used in Call of Juarez: The Cartel, The Chrome 5 engine. This time around it’s a lot better to look at. The environ- ments are detailed and great to look at. The characters models on the other hand look creepy, but do have variety depending on the sections of the game. The zombies come in a good vari- ety too and have a feature whereby their skin gets cut for their arms, legs, or head to be chopped off or broken bones to be less effective in combat. There are problems of slow-down, screen tear- ing, pop-on, freezing, and more when the action gets too heavy for the game to process. The VO is your standard stereo types with bad to decent voice acting for the many differ- ent characters in the game. Most of the time players will hear more of the characters breath- ing when they are running, which can get annoying,
repetitive, and losses most of the atmosphere tone. The sounds of zombies roaring in the distance to the whack of a blunt weap-on hitting a zombie in the face are done quite well. The soundtrack for the game isn’t much, but sets a good atmosphere and tone for the whole game.CLOSING NOTE:Dead Island is a good game that offers a good experience with friends. The story of Dead Island is thin and unoriginal with a simple plot that can easily be discovered within few hours of gameplay. Even the four main characters feel one dimensional when it comes to the story and situations. The gameplay side of Dead Island fairs better with mechanics and elements barrowed from other games to make Dead Island an enjoyable expe-rience. A big open-world, RPG elements, cooperative play, and customization are all part of Dead Island experience, whereby all these elements make the game work. Sadly, Dead Island feels shallow from time to time with standard boring missions, worthless collectibles, a poor chal-lenge, repetitive combat and post-game content. Presentation wise, Dead Island is a huge step in the right direction, where Call of Juarez: The Cartel took a misstep (also from Tech-land).
Banoi’s environments have a good variety and gor-geous detail. The char-acter models could have been better to look at, but have a good variety in both human and zombie models. Dead Island has a good atmosphere and tone with the sounds and soundtracks that it pro-vides, but the voice acting can terrible to downright laughable with addition to the amount of over-breathing that the charac-ter’s dish out.
Overall, Dead Island is a great try on zombie sur-vival games and if you have friends to play with it’s worth the co-op experience.
Score3/5
BloodRayne BetrayalFormAt: PS3, 360releAse DAte: Sept 6th 2011PublisHer: MajescoDeveloPer: WayForward
AutHor: Rob95
The BloodRayne series first appeared back in 2002 with the release of BloodRayne. BloodRayne was a 3rd person action game and was hit with some pretty average reviews, scoring a Metacritic of 65. The new game BloodRayne Betrayal is a downloadable title and is part of the PSN Play service available on PS3 at the mo-ment. BloodRayne Betrayal is different to BloodRayne asit’s not a 3rd person gamein fact it’s a side scroller.The question is, is it anygood? Read on to find out.
StoryThe story doesn’t really seem to be Betrayals strongest fea-ture but it’s still there for you to enjoy. You play as Rayne, a half vampire, half human who is on a mission to find and kill the evil vampire lord. With some help she storms his castle killing everything on her way to finding him and finishing him for good. As I said already the story isn’t BloodRaynes’ strongest point but it’s nice that there’s some bit of a story to get into. The game consists of 15 stages to work your way through, each level takes place either inside or around the castle which Rayne storms at the begin-ning.
GameplayRayne has two basic weap-ons; she has her blades and her pistols. Her blades are of course best used up close and it feels great slicing up your enemies and pulling off com-bo’s. Raynes Pistol is best used from a distance and deals some nice damage although you can run out of ammo. Seeing as Rayne is a vampire whenever you are low on health you are able to feed on enemies to bring your health bar back up which is very handy because the game can be very hard at times. One thing I noticed was that no matter how fast I got through levels, or how good I felt I did at the end I always got an F rank. Now maybe I just suck but it seemed way to hard to do any better then this which was quite annoying at points as I felt I was doing much bet-ter then I was been told. The game features some replay-ability as well which is nice, it features leaderboards, as I said above it also features a grading system for every level and also each level has collectibles. If you collect a certain amount of collectibles you are then allowed choose if you’d like to upgrade Raynes max health or the amount of ammunition she can hold. If you’re the kind of person who likes to rank high on leader boards and love a challenge then play BloodRayne, I can’t understand how to get above an F on any level no matter
how good I do. Enough about me sucking, you may think that the game may get repeti-tive as you just run from left to right fighting enemies until you reach the end but the game also has a lot of plat-forming to it and sometimes there are puzzle elements to make the gameplay feel fresh. The game also features boss fights, which are challenging but also fun.
VisualsPossibly my favorite thing about the game is the art style. I’m a sucker for games with great art styles such as El Shaddai, I think these games look great and Bloodrayne is the same. The art in BloodRayne is very eye catch-ing as everything looks very good in the game. The char-acters and backgrounds both look great and the graphics in BloodRayne really stand out when I compare it to other PSN and XBLA titles, which is exact-ly what I like in a game.
VerdictOverall BloodRayne Betrayal is a pretty fun PSN/XBLA title. It’s a decent length at about 5-8 hours, it’s challenging, it features a very nice art style and the combat is quite fun. Although it has good points to it there’s also some bad things about it. First off the story is pretty weak and I feel like they could of done a bit more with it to make it a better game. Also as I mentioned earlier about the grading system it’s very annoying to get F’s over and over again when you feel you deserve much better. I also felt that after 30-40 min-utes of playing the game I had to take a break as I was be-ginning to get bored of it and didn’t feel like playing it any longer. Overall BloodRayne Betrayal is a fun PSN/XBLA game, it’s not the best out there but it has some things to it that make it worth playing. If you’re a sucker for good looking games with unique art styles, or enjoy side scrolling games that offer up a chal-lenge then BloodRaynes worth checking out.
Final Verdict 3/5
is viDeoGAme music insPirAtionAl?
musiC CaN Be iNflueNCed By thousaNds of differeNt
thiNGs; NoBody quite kNows what iNspired led zeppeliN to Create ‘immiGraNt soNG’, or what made the BlaCk eyed peas
ruiN ‘misirlou’. these are thiNGs we will NeVer really kNow without
first delViNG iN aNd askiNG the artists themselVes, howeVer oNe upComiNG musiCiaN from
Bristol, joker, Clearly shows his iNflueNCes oN his sleeVe. with soNGs like ‘sNake eater’ aNd ‘troN’ its Clear that Games haVe shaped the souNd of his musiC. this has drawN tGh to woNder what makes a Great souNdtraCk to a Game. does it haVe to Be somethiNG oriGiNal? mayBe all it Needs are a few liCeNCed traCks from some deCeNt BaNds? we also waNt to kNow what you thiNk oN the matter!
Game soundtracks for many are as important as the gameplay itself. Who would want to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution if Edios Montreal decided they were going to play La Cucaracha over that futuristic and moody setting? Nobody that’s who, or at least not with the sound switched on! Hours of investment go into creating a soundtrack that really suits the game itself. Epic Role Playing Games get epic soundtracks, stealthy and sneaky games get quiet and subdued soundtracks to keep you focused, dark dungeon crawlers keep music to a minimum so you really get that feeling of being alone. Sound is a powerful device in games.
AutHor: Vaughn.H
You have two different sides of the game music landscape, on one hand you have the games that employ a music production team to create an original soundtrack, and then you have the games that just licence other music for the game. More recently you also have developers outsourcing to a single band for them to create an entire soundtrack or just a title track for the game, such as Megadeath doing NeverDead’s title track, or The Damned providing the entire soundtrack for Shadow’s of the Damned.
Games that decide to licence music for their soundtracks tend to be of a similar genre. Sports and racing games tend to be the big two, although not all racing games employ this tactic the vast majority of sports titles do. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was one of the first titles to do such a thing, and it made complete sense to populate a game about skating with a track list of bands synonymous with skating culture. It worked a charm, and its something they haven’t stopped doing. As soon as Burnout became an EA game they scrapped the old self-created Criteron soundtrack in favour for licenced tracks. These tracks personified the feel of Burnout, they were fast and hair-raising songs that really made you want to drive fast and furiously. The same can be seen with EA’s Need For Speed franchise, when updating it to Underground and the related franchises they chose music that replicated that underground street racing sound, something that would make those oversized subwoofers in your suped-up ride really reverberate. They made it sound dirty and dark, in essence they
made it appeal to the target market. When Hot Pursuit came out they changed how it felt completely and so the licenced tracks also changed to reflect this, going for more of a popular choice track listing with a fair bit of electro/dance to bullet along to down highways and dirt roads, over the rock guitars found in the nail biting Burnout games. Wipeout’s use of licenced dance and electronica tracks also apes the audience’s like for the music as well as reflecting that vision of the future. Studio Liverpool found the songs that were popular, and then went with the trend whilst finding songs that weren’t anywhere near the public eye. Looking at a track list from a Wipeout game will show you the big tracks that will emerge into the mainstream over the next year or so. They are surprisingly ahead of the game.
With sports
t i t l e s , t h e
reasoning is different.
People play these games
usually with mates, the vast
majority of players also don’t play many
other games but their sports title of choice, a lot of Fifa or Madden players
would say that they aren’t primarily
gamers despite picking up the title every year.
In these cases publishers know players only really
care about how the game works and plays and not
much else. This means that they can make these
casual players enjoy the game more by putting in the songs
that they enjoy listening to, or indeed put in songs they may
not have heard before but will like. It may seem like the easy option at first, but it is probably a more arduous way to create a soundtrack, having to find and
follow the latest trends of the series demographic so appropriate
songs can be chosen. EA and other big publishers wouldn’t want to put in a song
that the vast majority of players will just hate, it seems unlikely you will ever find a Feist or Frank Zappa song in one of these titles, but
it wouldn’t be surprising if you stumbled upon Gorillaz or Jamiroquai. Although some may see creating a soundtrack of licenced songs as the lazy option by developers, in many cases it is in fact quite tough work sourcing all these tracks and finding who works best for each game. However you can’t deny that when a game has its own original soundtrack it adds to the feel of the game so much more than any licenced track could.
The games that opt for creating their own soundtracks still outweigh those with licensed tracks, even though many people may not realise it. Your FPS series’, that puzzle game you can’t put down, and especially those time consuming RPG affairs you’ve been having have all been to the backdrop of some truly original music. Nothing would feel quite right if in the middle of your adventure, shootout or brainteaser if a bit of Huey Lewis and the News came parading in; this is why the development team put a lot of effort into sound production for their pet projects. For many the game series with the quintessential soundtrack is Final Fantasy. Every track has been lovingly created from scratch to reflect the moment you are playing, as well as tie in together to create a complete soundscape. Every track is so iconic that it ties to the moment perfectly and hearing the song again just triggers memories of that moment completely. Ask any Final Fantasy fan, they can tell you exactly what’s happening when Maybe I’m A Lion from Final Fantasy VIII is played, or when Honeybee Manor from FFVII is funneled into their ear canals. RPGs as a whole have these epic and sprawling soundtracks that really give the game a sense of its own character. Mass Effect’s mixture of moot electronica spliced with large gaping sounds really creates that futuristic, yet lonely vacuum of space, feeling present throughout the game.
T h e r e are games that do mix the two up. They aren’t entirely original tracks and they aren’t all licenced tracks either. The developer who seems to be at the forefront of this style of music development is Rockstar. Rockstar games have a melding of completely original music as well as some tracks people may or may not recognize. Red Dead Redemption had a completely original soundtrack, and was even outsourced to musicians Bill Elm and Woody Jackson who can create those smoky western sounds. L.A. Noire was again a completely original soundtrack full of sounds you would expect to hear from a film portraying that era (as the majority of musical styles were actually inspired by music from the late 50s/60s). Grand Theft Auto however blurs the lines. In GTA music is a mixture of original score and then licenced tracks, one look at the manual for GTA IV and you can see the hundreds of songs that they licenced, the same can be seen in GTA San Andreas. Rockstar North did this mix and match style approach because it fitted in well with the narrative they were trying to weave, and the gameworld they had created. Liberty City is New York City in every way bar name, and an occasional landmark, and so to mimic this skewed sense of realism the music is a medley of original and licenced music played through the radios that populate the land. Flicking through the stations you would hardly notice the change between what they created
and what they bought, and that’s the point. It brings in realism when someone recognizes a certain song or sound, and then reminds you its not a real depiction of city life by throwing in a piece of original music. Still there is plenty of Black Devil Disco Club on Electro-Choc to keep anybody going!
Music in games plays a pivotal role, just because some games opt for music from licenced sources, whilst others prefer to create their own sounds, it doesn’t make them any less of a musical achievement. Listening to Joker’s tracks you can hear that those titles with original soundtracks really inspired the music he creates, it makes you wonder if these newer games can still do the same thing. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter as these games trigger memories for the player and create an ultimate immersive world for people to enjoy.
Personally I’ve always loved Final Fantasy soundtracks, but recently Cave Story’s original Midi Soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, I recommend you all go and look it up!
MAX PAYNEThe Rise and Fall of the Anti-Hero
The Max Payne franchise is a sToried, and Much loved one, by gaMers. Tgh Takes a dive inTo The series and Talks abouT iTs PasT and iTs fuTure. We’ll Try our besT To leave ouT The iMPorTanT sPoilers for This arTicle, so Players can go and exPerience iT for TheMselves.
Max Payne Max Payne was a very ambitious bullet time
and action ridden title from Remedy Studios. The plot, which would be etched into gamer’s minds, was penned by Sam Lake, who was also the model for the title character. The title, which was heavily influenced by John Woo films, utilized comic panels with voiceovers instead of your standard cutscenes, like many of the titles released around that time. Max Payne starts life as a regular New York City police officer, until one day he comes home and finds his wife and child murdered by junkies, who are revealed to be addicted to the hot new drug Valkyr. After the death of his family Max is transferred to the DEA. Fast forward to three years later, Max now works undercover in the Punchinello crime family, responsible for trafficking the drug Valkyr. A colleague of Max’s, B.B., tells him to meet an old friend, Alex Balder, who has information for him at the subway station. Upon arrival at the station he is greeted by Jack Lupino, an underboss in the Punchinello family, who is staging a bank robbery via the subway tunnels. A gunfight ensues and, as Max works his way to the surface, he comes across
Alex who is shortly murdered by an unknown assailant. The murder is pinned squarely on Max by the media, as they are unaware that he is an undercover cop, and they tag him as a member of the gang. Meanwhile, due to the events at the station the mobsters now know that Max is in fact a cop, so now they are after him as well. The entire game is a race against the clock for Max to prove his innocence and get his revenge. Along the way he befriends Mona Sax, a hired killer, and takes down various mob bosses, and underbosses, in the Punchinello family as well as the Russian mafia. The game ends on top of the Asir Corporation building in New York, where Max began the story, and destroys a helicopter that is armed with a minigun. He is then taken into custody but knows he will be safe because of the friends he has made. The title went on to win numerous PC gaming awards.
Author: Anthony.D
The sequel Many were happy, and some were distraught,
at the announcement of a sequel to Max Payne. Many thought the story was great as is. The implementation of a love interest in Mona Sax, and given that the title was advertised as a ‘Film Noir Love Story’, many were confused if the direction of the Max Payne series has changed to appeal to a broader audience. Nevertheless, Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne released in 2003 and took place two years after the original, and used a different character model instead of the original. Max has quit his job at the DEA, and returned to the NYPD as a Detective. Max Payne 2 had the players rotate a few times between Max and Mona as playable characters. As the two characters paths cross in the story they begin to fall in love, and this leads to a web of deceit and action. All of this culminates in an ending that some may still not have discovered, and is only available after completing the title on the hardest difficulty level.
The fuTure Little is known about the upcoming Max Payne
3. It takes place eight years after the events of Max Payne 2, Max now finds himself in San Paulo, Brazil. He’s now working as private security for a wealthy family and is soon double crossed. His life seems to go from bad to worse with every title and this looks to be no different. Setting off on a tear of revenge to South American nature, which of course fits with the setting. However many fans seem worried that the title may deter from its noir stylization that made the first two titles gritty. The story also comes into debate since Remedy’s involvement hasn’t been mentioned at all and looks to be solely developed by Rockstar, and its various studios around the world. The writer has not yet been confirmed to be Sam Lake as the first two, however the voice actor James McCaffery, of Rescue Me fame, is reprising his voice and motion capture work as Max Payne himself. So there is still hope for this now alcoholic once vigilante cop.
From The
G-PoliceFormAt: PS1, PC, PS3 relAse: 1997 (Ps1,Pc), 2007(PS3) Genre: Shooter DeveloPer: Psygnosis
G-poliCe, short for GoVerNmeNt poliCe, is a VehiCular shooter Game from 1997 that was released oN the playstatioN, pC. deVeloped By psyGNosis, the famed liVerpool Based studio Now kNowN as sCe studio liVerpool, whom were fouNded iN 1984 aNd are soNy’s oldest first party deVeloper. i’m sure you’ll haVe heard of these deV GeNiuses wheN the Name ‘wipeout’ is meNtioNed, as the wipeout series is arGuaBle their most iNfamous fraNChise.
G-poliCe is set iN a futuristiC sCi-fi uNiVerse with the protaGoNist ‘slater’, who works as a top Vtol pilot CarryiNG out a striNG of missioNs, whilst iNVestiGatiNG the death of his sister ‘elaiNe’ who also worked for G-poliCe. G-poliCe Not oNly CoNsisted of a deCeNt plot But also proVided my faVourite pieCe of aNy Video Game CiNe-sCript, pleNty of BaCkstory.
so, WhaT’s The sTory?
Ok, darken the room, cue some smokey music and let me narrate to you:
In 2057, the depletion of Earth’s resources
coincided with widening space exploration. After a catastrophic war over ever-declining resources, ending 10 years prior to the events of G-Police’s 2097 fiction, Earth’s governments were stripped of military power. As a result, powerful corporations had exerted control over Earth and the burgeoning space colonies. The Government Police (G-Police) was formed by Earth’s remaining coalition government to maintain order in these colonies.
The game’s protagonist, Slater, introduces himself as a war veteran who had joined the G-Police to conduct his own investigation of his sister’s apparent suicide, suspecting that she was murdered. He provides his view of the G-Police, stating they lack authority and “turn a blind eye” to “shady corporate deals” while attempting to maintain order. He describes the pilots as a mixture of desperate war veterans and naïve idealists, and the Havoc Gunships as dated.
Author: JustaGamer
hoW does iT Play?As I played this an awful long time ago, G-Police
was a great experience. Mostly due to the VTOL handling. Ducking, diving, strafing and shooting was an extremely smooth experience, making piloting your vehicle both fun and responsive. The game allows you to switch perspectives at anytime from 1st person, to 3rd person, cockpit view, birds eye view from below to drop bombs and a number of chase angles from extra outlook.
All of this comes in handy during high speed, high altitude dogfights, or air to ground combat with mech’s and other ground based targets. I usually preferred to fly low turning between buildings and using cover when in situations where I was outnumbered. Weapons were upgradeable and consisted of missles, front end guns and bombs for starters.
The game offered a training section and 35 main missions, all vehicle based, which were received on the fly from G-Police HQ and included seeking out and destroying enemies, escorting friendly ground units, preventing smuggling, bomb disposal, and more.
didn’T They do Well?G-Police was largely received well by critics.
It was noted for it’s solid gameplay and superb handling, but slightly knocked for short draw distances, rare difficulty spikes (which I remember, aaagghh) and the odd visual hiccup, but nothing to withdraw from the overall experience. Taking on a Blade Runner vision of the future and utilising wide sectioned arena’s (contained by domes), G-Police was a technical marvel during it’s release and was noted particularly for the use of force–feedback, thumbsticks, 3D sound, and Direct3D Hardware Acceleration.
In 1999, G-Police: Weapons of Justice was released as a direct sequel to G-Police. This also starred Slater as the main protagonist. Weapons of Justice ended with a hook for the sequel, but a third installment was never created, and the game’s production team has now been disbanded. The games generally received good reviews, but did not prove popular enough to be continued.
ah, MeMory lane…Now I’ve written this article, I’m tempted to
hit PSN and download this gem one more time. If you’re tempted to check it out, then let us know in the comments section. If you also have fond memories, like me, then share them here! It’s always good to hear from fellow fans on something rare.
soMe Prefer iT hoT
i’M noT sure if iT’s jusT Me, buT having iT hoT drink, is cerTainly Much beTTer Then having a cold one. Well, usually… i guess iT dePends Where you are. The counTry i live in is iconic To a cerTain hoT one. Tea. The uniTed kingdoM, england in ParTicular has alWays been sTereoTyPed for Tea drinking, and righTly so To be honesT! i have aT leasT TWo or Three cuPs a day, nicely breWed and WiTh no sugar.
The method to make tea is simple, although it changes slightly from each household. If you are unaware of the correct method (if you do it any other way, like leave the stupid teabag in the cup you are wrong), here is how:
Every couple of weeks or so, Dan Hook’s role at The Gamers Hub seems to change. Each month we will bring you the nuggets of wisdom his new role has brought him.
This monTh Dan hook has been The hoT Drinks eDiTor anD The Danish PasTry eDiTor for The Gamers hub.
1. Get yourself a proper sized cup or mug.2. If you have a kettle, fill it up and switch it
on to boil. If you still live in the dark ages, find a pan or pot of some sort and fill it with water, and put it over the fire. Oh and if you are using a kettle, be sure no one is about in the house to hear it boil, as you’ll end up making tea for the whole family. This can be extremely annoying when your rushing to get back on CoD before the match starts.
3. (This is where making tea starts to differ) Put your selected tea bag either in your mug or into a teapot. Teapots are usually used when you make more then one cuppa, but we’re only going to be brewing for one today.
4. Pour in the boiled water and let the tea brew for around ten, to a maximum of thirty, seconds. Too long and it tastes rather disgusting, too short and its too weak.
5. Get a teaspoon and stir the teabag around.
6. Dispose of teabag. Usually in a bin.(Also please note, when the tea is brewing,
feel free to get the milk out ready, and even start stirring the teabag with your spoon.)
7. Put the desired amount of milk in to your tea. Personally I like mine quite strong. This probably reflects the type of person I am.
8. Finally, add sugar. It’s just common sense to do this last; it means you don’t get sugar in other people’s teas who don’t want sugar. Some humans fail to understand this concept.
So to reiterate: my perfect cuppa is strong with no sugar, the best type. Another favourite hot drink of mine is hot chocolate. However we can’t talk about that as it’s a pathetic girl drink and people may see it as a weakness in a man.
a Tea-rrible exPerience aT TghWhilst recording podcast 006, the end of what
we suddenly named a series, I went to go and make the hot drinks for the team. When doing so, the site’s Content Editor, Henry, assisted me. It was here we discovered two Hot Drinks Editors just would not work. The main issue was not seen at the time, but in fact later on during the podcast. You see, Henry put the sugar in the tea and coffees. In one drink went several teaspoons, which I guess would have been all right, if we had stirred it. We didn’t. He thought I must of, and I thought he must of, which is what lead to the disaster of drinks. Luckily for Henry and me, we don’t take sugar so all was good as far as we were concerned. The others weren’t so pleased.
Anyway, lesson learned – Make your own bloody drink.
favouriTe drinks WhilsT gaMing.Now whilst gaming we all like a drink, and
part of this was covered during the podcast. Personally I like a cup of tea, though usually it’s too much effort to make. If I game in the evening its more likely to be coffee, which again also takes a lot of effort. Alcoholic drinks are something entirely different. I don’t tend to drink whilst gaming, least not on my own. It’s a waste and no fun. Instead I prefer to drink whilst sitting in the corner of my room with the lights off and headphones on. Much more socially acceptable…
FYI, my favourite alcoholic drink at the moment is Brothers Toffee Apple Cider, and also Amaretto. Amaretto tastes like Battenberg, and if you have no clue what that is, then you, Sir, have not lived; it is possibly one of the best cakes in the world.
sWeeT, fruiTy and danish.No its not Connie Nielsen, its in fact none
other then the Danish pastry that has become so popular. Connie Nielson didn’t just roll off the tongue when I thought about Denmark, but with research she’s the only recognizable face I could find.
If you have absolutely no idea who she is, then watch Gladiator, although Google may be easier.
Anyway, I am guessing you all know what a Danish pastry is. If you don’t, have a look at the tantalising background image.
Got the idea? Good. Now Danish’s are sold worldwide and have many with different variations, usually they contain fruit, can have icing on, and are glazed.
They aren’t the healthiest option, and I can imagine it wouldn’t take too long for them to go stale.
danish PasTries and gaMing
Now, I wouldn’t recommend them if your playing a game, as they usually take two hands and are quite sticky. This stickiness wont do your keyboard or controller any good, unless it’s already sticky, meaning it would make no difference at all… why is it sticky?
Personally I rarely eat Danishes. There are much better options on the market, like the Belgium bun for example. Belgian Buns are tastier, yet still just as annoying.
Other then that, Danish pastries and gaming have nothing to do with each other, I can’t even find any games related to it.
Short and sweet for this article, the Danish lack interesting pastries to talk about I’m
afraid. Maybe someone should put more
Danishes into a game…
When is the next issue of theGamershub maGazine?
The next issue of TGH magazine will be released 7th November 2011.This will be our Eighth edition of the magazine and hopefully with all the feedback we recieve from you,
it will be improved even more and so we always are aware off what our audience would like to read.As TheGamersHub Magazine is a new introduction for the site, please bare in mind we are still getting
on our feet with it.
If there is anything you would like to see appearing in this magazine or just want to give us feedback please email Dan at: [email protected]
For advertising in the magazine please contact Henry at: [email protected]