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MINECRAFT PROTOTYPE 2 DRAGON’S DOGMAIssue 86 June 2012 www.oxm.co.uk

INSIDE PRE-PAID GAMING BIG BUG HUNTINGTHE MIND OF MOLYNEUX THE PRICE OF FUN

This isn’t modern warfare.It’s what comes next

This isn’t modern warfare.It’s what comes next

modern warfare. This isn’t modern warfare. This isn’t modern warfare. This isn’t modern warfare. This isn’t modern warfare. This isn’t modern warfare. This isn’tnext comes what It’s next comes what It’s next comes what It’s

This isn’t modern warfare.It’s what comes next

EA’s update keeps itsimple: first details

and screens!

HOWTOBE AGAMETESTERWhat does it take tobeat bugs for a living?

FAR CRY 3Preview: this is yourgameondrugs

twitter.com/oxmuk 5THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE XBOX 360

Theteam–andhowtheyspentthemonth

StaffWriterJon ‘Log’ BlythGamertag: OXM LogT:020 7042 4682E: jon.blyth@futurenet.com

WriterChristian DonlonGamertag: Doonvas

Deputy EditorMike ChannellGamertag:OXMMightySevenT:020 7042 4683E:mchannell@futurenet.co.uk

StaffWriterMatt LeesGamertag: OXM JamSpongeT:020 7042 4690E:matt.Lees@futurenet.com

EditorJon HicksGamertag:OXM JontyT:020 7042 4681E: jon.hicks@futurenet.com

Online EditorEdwin Evans-ThirlwellGamertag:OXMETboy

SUBSCRIBE NOW!SUBSCRIBE NOW!SUBSCRIBE NOW!

WriterJem AlexanderGamertag: Yembles

SUBSCRIBE AND GETA FREE GAME!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY ANDGET A COPY OF DJ HERO 2

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Successfully fought off anattempted mugger. ThankedGTA for the inspiration andDance Central for thephysical conditioning.

What with the advances infootball game authenticity,Andy now deems anymatch where West Hamloses to be ‘unrealistic’ incomparison to his FIFAcareer mode.

Found himself delighted bythe co-op hijinks of FableHeroes. Was less enamouredof Trials Evolution:apparently he is so bad at itwe “should probably comeround and watch.”

Was brought to a new andslightly confused audienceas the OXM Breakdownvideo series launched onInside Xbox on Xbox Live.

A banner event in thegames industry this month:there was a party that Mikedidn’t attend. An inquiry asto why is now ongoing.

Took great delight in goinginto Edwin’s Minecraft worldand stealing all his stuff. Theresultant war may well lastfor generations.

Was crushed at Matt’sdesecration of his Minecraftworld, but was instantlyrestored by the discoveryyou can ride pigs. Watch thismoment of sheer delight onYouTube at bit.ly/JEJ8om

Unmoved by Leveson or theending of Mass Effect 3,Jem is focused on the biggerproblems: how he’s going touse up his Nando’s loyaltycard before the designchanges and it expires.

Welcome...

Jon HicksOXM Jonty

jon.hicks@futurenet.com

Issue 86 June 2012 www.oxm.co.uk

How the world’s biggest game got remadeI’ll admit I wasn’t expecting to be surprised by Call of Duty. Who would?It’s become the FIFA of first-person shooters, updated annually yet unableto deviate from the basic and hugely successful model. Without even anew name this year, what could Treyarch change?

Quite a lot, it turns out. Yes, it’s still a combination of bombasticsingle-player and endless online multiplayer, but almost everythingelse is out to rebut the complaints levelled at it each year. A story

that’s not only halfway credible, but branching. Multiple endings. The option tochoose your own path rather than be rushed down a fixed one. Talking withTreyarch, there’s the inspiring sense of a team striving to advance thegame rather than simply rehash it, and while we’ve only seen the firststages it’s clear that more lies ahead. Find out more on p32.

At the other end of game development scale, it was fascinating towatch parodic game ideas blossom into a mass of lunatic prototypes, asprogrammers worldwide joined the Molyjam (p44). For all that they weresupposed to be uncommercial, the results are worth buying. Enjoy the issue.

6 XBOX 360 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE www.oxm.co.ukwww.oxm.co.uk

Subscribe and save!Get OXM delivered to your door, and you cansave 23 per cent of the cover price. Plus,subscribe now and you’ll get a free copy ofDJ Hero 2 with turntable! Details on page 42.

Subscribe and save!can you and door, your to delivered OXM Get

Plus, price. cover the of cent per 23 saveof copy free a get you’ll and now subscribe

with turntable! Details on page 42.

32“This is theCoDwhere actions haveconsequences”

“Crysis 3’s badass hero isnow armed with a bow– but Robin Hood neverhad anything like this”

66What was number one on yourFIFA 13 wishlist? Kinect, you say?

80The son of Sparda’sreturn edges near.

can you and door, your to delivered OXM GetPlus, price. cover the of cent per 23 save

of copy free a get you’ll and now subscribeDJ Hero 2 with turntable! Details on page 42.DJ Hero 2

62There’s no tourist info

centre in Far Cry 3.

70When you’re fighting thislady, you need friends.

www.oxm.co.ukwww.oxm.co.ukwww.oxm.co.uk

58Prophet means business in thetree-infested New York of Crysis 3.

7THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE XBOX 360

Contents

twitter.com/oxmuk

The Full 360

On the discYour Official Xbox 360 disc has tendemos! Flip the page for more details…

Issue 86 June 2012 www.oxm.co.uk

The Full 3600l 3600TThe Full 36e FuThe Fe Fhe F

DashboardExpert opinion and comment…012 Lost Planet 3 If you loved Lost

Planet 2, you’ll hate this.017 Dragon Ball Z You know those

spoof ideas people had forKinect? Well now there’s this.

018 Killer is Dead Suda-51 just won’tstop making games.

020 First Look More details areleaking through about Spock andKirk’s co-op buddy adventure.

022 Number Cruncher A selectionof the month’s most intriguingnews numbers.

024 Most Wanted We unload theinformation shotgun on the gameswe’re aching to jam into our Xbox.

026 Hot Topic Why settle for oneopinion, when you can have two?

InputPost opinion on your games, yourfriends and your magazine028 Letters It’s like being pen pals

with a German – without thelanguage barrier.

FeaturesThe best writers in the industry explorethe wider world of Xbox 360032 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Treyarch shreds the Call ofDuty rulebook.

044 What would Molydeux?The global game jam that madehundreds of fantasies real.

050 How to be a games testerWe chat to the people who strivefor the perfect game and revealhow you can get involved.

106 Mob Rule Pre-order extreme!How crowdsourcing is poweringgame development.

PreviewsExclusive playtests of themost-wanted Xbox 360 games058 Crysis 3062 Far Cry 3064 Bellator MMA Onslaught066 FIFA 13070 Aliens: Colonial Marines074 Epic Mickey 2077 Resident Evil 6078 Port Royale 3079 Battlefield 3: Close Quarters080 DmC: Devil May Cry

ReviewsThe ultimate buyers' guide – everynew Xbox 360 game reviewed!082 Prototype 2086 Dragon’s Dogma089 Sniper Elite V2090 Fez094 Fable Heroes096 Diabolical Pitch098 Minecraft101 Anomaly: Warzone Earth101 Nexuiz102 Skullgirls103 The Splatters103 Shoot Many Robots

Customise and expand your Xbox 360gaming with tips, content and great ideas!112 Dragon’s Dogma Ten things you must do or regret it forever.114 How To The Easter eggs you might have missed.116 UEFA Euro 2012 Downloadable computerised football for sale.118 Indie Games It’s hit and miss, and not in the proportion implied.120 OXM investigates Are prices really getting higher? Really?130 Secrets Hidden treats in Syndicate. Doesn’t include ‘fun’.

86Brilliance that came fromnowhere: Dragon’s Dogma.

twitter.com/oxmuk

122Is Armored Core Vbetter online?

17THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE XBOX 360

Matt telling Mikehe should play it

What’s been onour Xbox 360

How we’ve filledour time…

Month inNumbers

Team OXM’s antics via themedium of infographics

Office References to…Dragon’s Dogma

30

1520

Matt telling the internetthey should play it100,000

MW3 SALES DROPBEHIND BLACK OPSA nalysts are clamouring to interpret what the

sales figures of MW3 mean. After a record-breaking launch, figures have dropped off more quickly,leaving them around 5% behind Black Ops. Does itmean the formula is tired? Is the push for pre-ordersworking? Your guess is as good as Michael Pachter’s…

Matt telling Jontyhe should play it

40%Playingthis has

taught us a brand newword, and it is ‘piton’

I Am Alive

35%We’re notstopping

until we find the secretin the throne room

Fez

‘Mortal Kombat: The Next Chapter’:on sale to the highest bidder.

Quarrel

25%You’vegot to

admire a word gamethat accepts swears

Lobbying foran XBLALegends ofGrimrock

Using pen andpaper to crack

Fez’s cypher

Watchingcelebrities attack

on Twitter

Playing gamesthat came outof MolyJam

Wringing anextra 5% out ofour time-pie

MANGAANGER Matt telling Loghe should play it

twitter.com/oxmuk

The sales figureswent that way, sir.

30%

5%

20%

35%

10%Miming TheKamehamehaDragonball Z Kinect lets you perform the ultimate moves

ny cartoon that can make television outof two men-children pulling ever morestrained faces, and firing increasingly

massive beams of light at each other for 20minutes has to win a certain amount ofrespect, if only for its audacity. However,the games aren’t – how to put thisdiplomatically? – burdened with areputation for excellence.

That might be why it’s made the leap toKinect. With the games growing moreand more into repetitive slaps onfans’ faces, a new and hyper-kineticway to enjoy the equally intenseanime could pull it back from thebrink. With over 50 charactersfrom the DBZ roster, Kinectoptions will be available in Storyand Score Attack modes.

Story Mode is a first-person deal, with you copyingthe on-screen moves in a way that sounds asmuch Dance Central as Dragonball. Score Attack,meanwhile, is simply a series of survival battles foryou to war in the leaderboards. According to the

press release, Namco’s vice-president ofmarketing Carlson Choi says “there’s going tobe no better feeling in the world”. That’sexactly the kind of optimism that’ll land you a

VP job in the marketing department.The multiplayer will remain tied to

controllers, much to the relief of fragilefamily heirlooms and glass-toppedcoffee tables everywhere. We’re as

suspicious as you are, but let’s keepan open mind here – this could be

the nipple-tweak that anincreasingly lacklustre

franchise sorely needs.

A

Land some trulyimpolite punches.

That’s some gooddragon punching, kid.

ring increasingly strained faces, and fi massive beams of light at each other for 20

minutes has to win a certain amount of respect, if only for its audacity. However,

the games aren’t – how to put this diplomatically? – burdened with a

That might be why it’s made the leap tomore growing games the With Kinect.

on slaps repetitive into more and fans’ faces, a new and hyper-kinetic

intense equally the enjoy to waythe from back it pull could anime brink. With over 50 characters

roster, KinectStory in available be will options

for battles survival of series a simply is meanwhile,the to According leaderboards. the in war to you

press release, Namco’s vice-president of marketing Carlson Choi says “there’s going to

be no better feeling in the world”. That’s exactly the kind of optimism that’ll land you a

VP job in the marketing department. The multiplayer will remain tied to

controllers, much to the relief of fragile family heirlooms and glass-topped coffee tables everywhere. We’re as

suspicious as you are, but let’s keep an open mind here – this could be

the nipple-tweak that anlacklustre increasingly

needs. sorely franchise

Featuring numbersin excess of 9,000.

PublisherSegaDeveloperGearboxPlayers1-8Co-op2-4 players

Mustbuy!

Shapingup

Needswork

Can’twait

Lookinggood

70 www.oxm.co.uk

You probably knowAliens:Colonial Marines as achance for gamesjournos to bust out thequips from James

Cameron’s genre-defying 1986movie. Youmight also haveheard it’s a canonical sequel tothatmovie, and that its six-year dev cycle has been longenough for the darker voices inyour head to startwhispering:“Duke Nukem Forever.” So now theTexas studio is finally dishing outprecious hands-on timewith ColonialMarines, what havewe learned aboutthose six years? Is it less of an Alienandmore of a dinosaur?

Not even a little bit. Somewhere deepwithin Gearbox the coders haveproduced a very contemporary-lookingbespoke engine, with some bleedingedge graphical tech in the form of adeferred lighting system. While you’re

walking around the Sulaco, thesurface of LV-426 or anywhereelse Colonial Marineswill takeyou, the engine’s rendering theout-of-frame part of that level

before you arrive. When you dorock up to that pre-rendered area, allthe cogs and pistons inside your Xbox360 can focus solely on lighting inreal-time. Cue tons of scary silhouettesdancing across walls, realistic lightbeams and a metric ton of atmosphere.

And that atmosphere is somethingwe got to sample first-hand in the formof Colonial Marines’ 8v8, first to 50 killsteam deathmatch in a claustrophobicspace station level oddly reminiscent ofRebellion’s 1999Alien vs Predator.Pitting marines against aliens, thegameplay’s asymmetrical. The Xeno’sviewpoint is third-person, which bothaids quick progression throughventilation shafts, across ceilings andany other sneaky routes on the way toyour soldier-buffet, and shows off somefairly ropey and hopefully placeholderXenomorph movement animations. Yourvision’s augmented (again, likeAvP) soyou can see friends and enemies fromafar in a kind of x-ray tint.

ReleaseTBC

WATCH YOUR BACKAlien AI is sharp and believable, which means– like the movies – you won’t know they’rearound until they’re right on top of you.Encounters at this range are the norm ratherthan the exception then, unless you lookat your motion tracker more regularly thana teenage boy at his copy ofRazzle. It alsomakes shotguns really useful in multiplayer –just watch out for the hail of acid-blood.

Aliens:ColonialMarinesGearbox extends the Aliens universe

Aliens: Colonial Marines

71

“You won’t know analien’s around until it’s

right on top of you”

arinesAliens: Colonial MaAliens: Colonial MarinesAliens: Colonial Marines

twitter.com/oxmuk

SHOCK IN THE DARKXenomorphs can creep up on you from anysurface, which takes some getting used towhen you’re conditioned to watch out forRussians popping up from behind storagecrates and roadblocks. Thanks, modernshooters. The new ‘lurker’ enemy is especiallysneaky, and is sure to be a thorn in your side inevery badly-lit corridor. So, every corridor then.

“Hello? Nah mate, I’vegot nothing on me.”

LV-426: a terrible place foran activities weekend.

Further exploration of the marines’mothership is promised.

72 www.oxm.co.uk

“It’s respectfully authenticto the 1986 Aliens movie”

We hear you’ve even gone so faras to mimic the film stock that themovie used.This is interesting. So, the stock wasexperimental – Kodak 5294. As Iunderstand, that stock was chosenmainly because of the exposure,because it was gonna be mainly ondark sets, and it was very grainy.I actually got in touch with the Kodaklabs, and had them send me the specsof that stock, with the curves andgraphs of the film itself and we’reworking to reproduce those curves inthe game. So we can have the sametone and the same contrast in thegame like there was in the film.

One of the hardest things for youmust be having to show the alienon screen clearly, because in thefilms that’s such a rarity. How doyou approach that challenge?Not a lot of people think about that,and it never really occurred to me howmuch of a problem that would be untilI started working on the game. [In thefilms] they always show the topportion of the Xeno. When you seeXeno-feet, they’re not scary-looking.There’s no way to make Xeno-feetlook cool. But we had to change theirdesign a bit to accommodate for that.In Alien and Aliens, they’re just like ahumanoid leg, they go from thigh tocalf to foot. But when we saw that inthe game, it wasn’t that interesting.So we made it double-jointed so thatwe have that extra leeway, we canmake creepy double-jointedmovements. The other thing thatwe’ve done is, when the Xenos areattacking in AvP there’s a lot ofquadruped movement. Cat-like. But inthe films you’re getting a lot ofhumanoid ‘I’m on both feet’ kindathing, so we try to go back and forth tokeep them scary-looking when they’removing around.

ARTDIRECTORBRIANCOZZENSIS AN ALIENSSUPER-GEEK

Yuck, Xeno-breathis never pleasant.

The Lurker always looksfor the sneak attack.

We doubt he’ll be theone to talk fine winewith during down-time.

loadout screen after each death. It fallssomewhere between a pulse rifle and thesuper-powerful S.M.A.R.T. gun (whichcomes with an auto-aim function and canonly be picked up from hard to reachlocations in each level like a Quake railgun).It’s the first taste we get for the level ofcreative licensing Gearbox is allowing itselfwith this game. So far, so safe.

Large and in chargeOur second taste of Gearbox’s expansionof the Aliens universe is a little morecontroversial – and a lot smashier. It’s anew alien type called the Charger,which introduces itself by filling thescreen with its triceratops-likeform, then pounding it into apulp of failure and humiliation –much like L4D’s Tank. Hespawns every two minutes,turning the tide of what’sotherwise a really close battle –there’s never more than three killsin it as both teams race to 50. Theother new alien type we’re treatedto (read: callously mutilated by) isthe Lurker, a much closer relativethan the Charger to the Xenos we’reused to from the movies. His angle isstealth – moving quickly and silentlybefore closing in for the melee kill.

LADY KILLERWhat kind of canonical sequel would ColonialMarines be without the inclusion of a strongfemale character? This is Bella, and at thestart of the game you see a facehuggerscuttle away from her after god knows howlong down her throat. She’ll probably be finethough, right? She certainly seems to thinkso – and that ongoing tragedy is somethingGearbox is keen to play on.

Life’s much simpler as a marine.Poking out reassuringly in front of you is aniconic pulse rifle, complete with authentichigh-pitched burst fire. You also have amotion tracker which uses the original skin-crawling beep sounds from the 1986movie. It’s far from a simple nod to the film,though – constant flipping back and forthbetween weapon and tracker is vital. Itonly takes a few dozen sneak attacks frombehind to realise that.

What’s really striking about the action,as we trade kills with the Gearbox devsplaying as Xenos, is how the game’smechanics brutally guide both teams intobehaving like their movie counterparts.Marines really do need to watch thosecorners, stick together, and anything elseyou might imagine Apone saying. Shotgunsreally do come in handy for close encounters– along with a brand new weapon we’regiven the option to use in the weapon

Facehuggers: violatingpersonal space since 1979.

www.oxm.co.uk

“It’s respectfully authentic movie”

with during down-time. itself allowing is Gearbox licensing creativewith this game. So far, so safe.

Large and in charge expansion Gearbox’s of taste second Our

more little a is universe controversial – and a lot smashier. It’s a

Charger, the called type alien newthe lling fi by itself introduces which

triceratops-like its with screen form, then pounding it into a

– humiliation and failure of pulpL4D ’s Tank. He

minutes, two every spawns what’s of tide the turning

– battle close really a otherwise kills three than more never there’s

The 50. to race teams both as it intreated we’re type alien new other

to (read: callously mutilated by) isrelative closer much a Lurker, the

Xenos we’re than the Charger to theis angle His movies. the from to used

silently and quickly moving – stealthkill. melee the for in closing before

73

Aliens: Colonial MarinesAliens: Colonial MarinesAliens: Colonial MarinesAliens: Colonial MarinesAliens: Colonial Marines

twitter.com/oxmuk

Syd Mead (of Tron’s light bike and Aliens’Sulaco fame) has been channelled, andother than promising to uncover secretsand apparent inconsistencies from themovies such as ‘what the hell is that giantspace jockey thing in Alien?’ Gearbox iskeeping its cards extremely close to itschest (burster).

Alien conceptWhat was shown in the brief dev-drivendemo was a fanatically recreated Sulacowhich your marine steps onto just after theevents of Aliens, right down to Bishop’slower half still twitching and spillingrobo-milk in the cargo bay, post-queenattack. It’s almost too slender an insight todraw any proper conclusions from, buteven in that brief sliver of gameplay theauthentic sounds, impressive lightingeffects and obsessive attention to detail

have an effect. Our marine takes sometentative steps around a roughed-upSulaco before encountering a fellow grunt,encrusted to the wall by Xeno-matter.As we’re trying to free him a Lurkerappears, and the first firefight kicks off toa cinematic score and frenzied marinechatter Hudson would be proud of.

It doesn’t feel new, or emergent. ButColonial Marines does feel respectfullyauthentic to the 1986 movie. It’s clear thatGearbox isn’t using the Aliens license tomake a Call of Duty with facehuggers.Whether it alienates (sorry) newcomers ornot, Colonial Marines has its sights squarelyset on exploring one of the mostcompelling sci-fi universes around. Whetherit can gel the new alien types together andavoid the fatigue of the movie’s corridor-driven action all takes a backseat to onequestion – can a game carrying the Aliensname ever meet expectations? If any can,it’s Colonial Marines.Dan Underwood

“We feel really good about showing him offbecause it’s very important for the fans toknow that we’re not going to do anythingsilly with the franchise,” explains artdirector Brian Cozzens. “There were anumber of action figures that came out inthe late ‘80s based on Aliens – the ‘gorillaalien’ and things like that. It’s an interestingidea, but it’s probably a little too cheesy.”We find the action figures pinned up on awall in a Gearbox meeting room later thatday, clearly beacons of what not to do withthe precious Aliens IP.

Colonial Marines’ multiplayer componentis impressive in that it balances genuinetension and atmosphere with a compulsiveand accessible play style – but it’s not theprimary focus of the game. The single-player campaign is where the studio’scollaboration with illustrious names likeRidley Scott and esteemed concept artist

Macho quipping ahoy!Marines love a natter.

SMART SHOOTINGNot only does the S.M.A.R.T. gun make thatunmistakable hissing sound and come witha HUD overlay that helps you aim, it also hasa bandana tied to it, just like Vasquez wouldhave wanted. These are the go-to guns inmultiplayer and solo play alike, such is theirXeno-shredding ability. Feedback feels justright, too – it knocks aliens right back out ofacid-splashing range.

LOCK AND LOAD A multiplayer lifespan

“We’re not goingto do anything sillywith the franchise”

twitter.com/oxmuk

alien’ and things like that. It’s an interesting cheesy.” too little a probably it’s but idea, gures pinned up on a nd the action fi We fi wall in a Gearbox meeting room later that

day, clearly beacons of what not to do with precious the

Marines Colonialgenuine balances it that in impressive is

compulsive a with atmosphere and tensionthe not it’s but – style play accessible and

primary focus of the game. The single- studio’s the where is campaign player

like names illustrious with collaboration Ridley Scott and esteemed concept artist

LOCK AND LOAD Staring at the ventthe Xeno emerged fromto kill you last round, thenturning round just as itappears – killing you again.

Watching the motiontracker, realising they’recoming from everywhere,then putting it away againbecause it’sway too scary.

Finding the S.M.A.R.T.gun, laying waste to awave of Xenos in oneburst, and not cracking asmile ‘cos you’re a badass.

Screaming in sympatheticagony as your marinesteps in the acid-spillingcarcass of the Xeno youjust exploded.

Buddying up to trackthe ceilings and corners,before a Xeno dropsdown from the ceilingand spoils the party.

Firing off grenades todestroy one incomingenemy, then cursingwhen his friends approachyour grenade-less ass.

10% 30%

6%

4%

32%

18%

The second version of theFrostbite Engine isspreading like a deliciousalgae across the EAfranchises –Need For

Speed used it last year for The Run, andMedal of Honor has made the rubble-strewn jump forWarfighter. But whileits engine is doing the rounds, if there’sone thing belongs to DICE andDICE alone, it’sBattlefield. Thatmeans it can’t do the annualcycle of its tag-team competitors– it’s just not feasible.

Instead, it’s focusing on a chain ofsubstantial expansion packs. We’ve alreadyhad Back to Karkand, which gave aFrostbite makeover to popular Battlefield 2maps. The next on its list is Close Quarters,which will be knifing its way into your lifethis coming June. Focusing on infantry-onlybattles where you “feel the world crashingaround you”, the maps included will be a

claustrophobic contrast to the openvastness of Karkand.

We’re allowed to play 20 minutes ofConquest Domination – a new Frankensteinmode that’s about as genuinely innovativeas its hybrid name suggests. It’s moretweaks than anything else, with looserrespawn points dropping unwise playersinto a nest of angry bullets.

One new map is Donya Fortress.It sports an Eastern theme, withdomed structures obscuring thehorizon from every angle, and

adding to the sense of enclosure.Clean white tiles and pillars soon

taste the wrong end of Frostbite’sdestruction algorithms, and the map flipsfrom dazzling sunlight on the balconies andstaircases to dingy, oppressive shadeindoors. The intimacy of the map meansplayers are everywhere – it’s essential tokeep turning and moving. Close Quarters isrun-and-gun personified.

DICE may not to be able to compete withthe release schedule of Infinity Ward andTreyarch’s tag-team Call of Duty offerings,but this long spread of more substantialmaps and modes will help to keepBattlefield in our brains. It’s a compromisewith benefits – the game’s 14 millionplayers won’t be be split across twodifferent releases.

The next pack, Armored Kill, will arrive inthe autumn and focus on bringing a fleetof new vehicles and “all-out” warfare overa range of the biggest ever Battlefieldmaps. Then finally, there’ll be the secretand mysterious End Game. We don’t haveany details about this one yet, but if thereare nukes, we’ll have it.Jon Blyth

After Karkand, it’s time to get intimate

Battlefield 3:Close Quarters

ReleaseJune2012

PublisherEADeveloperDICEPlayers1-16Co-opNo

Mustbuy!

Shapingup

Needswork

Can’twait

Lookinggood

79

Battlefield 3: Close QuartersartersBattlefield 3: Close Qua eld 3: Close Quarters Battlefi eld 3: Close Quarters Battlefi eld 3: Close Quarters Battlefi eld 3: Close Quarters Battlefi

twitter.com/oxmuk

A noisy and inefficientsubstitute for a flashlight.

Donya Fortress: an openhub and dark corridors.

You picked the wrongspawn point, friend.

THE FULL 360THE FULL 360THE FULL 360

114 www.oxm.co.uk

How to…

SEEREMEDY’SFIRSTGAMEINALANWAKE’SAMERICANNIGHTMARE

Play the chapter Drive-In I: The Curator until you reachthe projector building. In there you’ll find an arcadeversion of Death Rally – Remedy’s first gamereleased back in 1996. You can’t play it, but you cansee it in action if you press B near it. Coincidentally,Death Rally was just re-released on iOS, with BarryWheeler from Alan Wake added as an opponent.

Your guide to getting the bestAchievements and in-game extras

“Direct the camerato the big crane andyou’ll find a chickenbehind the controls”

FINDTHESPACEHAMSTERINMASS EFFECT 3

In ME2 you could buy a spacehamster for your room from thesouvenir shop in the Citadel.Your hamster is missing in ME3but that’s because it’s scuttlingaround the engineer area whereJack used to live. Head downthere and you’ll see the hamsterrunning about. Catch it (it’shard) and you can put it backinto its cage in your room. Welove it when a plan comestogether, the plan in this casebeing hamster imprisonment.

FINDTHECHEEKY300GRAFFITI INGOTHAMCITYIMPOSTORS

There are more 300 references in gaming than therewere people in the Spartan army, but this is one ofour favourites so far. Play in any game mode andload up the Ace Chemical stage. Inside one of thewarehouse-type areas, directly across from a big redcolumn is a small table. Above the table is a posterinforming people not to push others into thechemical tanks, but there are a few modifications...

TEDDY TIME The downloadable maps in ModernWarfare 3 each have their own little hidden nodsand winks in them. In the recently released BlackBox map, head to the big brown condo with theswimming pool outside, then run into the pooland walk right into the corner to see a teddy bearsitting in a rubber ring.

THAT’S SO RAVEN Also on the Black Box map,head to the plane that’s crashed in the building,stand alongside its wing and face the building.Walk forward and enter the little side door infront of you to get into the building, then headup the stairs to find a photo featuring fourmembers of the Raven Software team.

CLUCKING HELL Our favourite of the lot, though,is in the Overwatch map and can only be seenwhile you’re spectating. Move the camera intothe air and direct it to the big crane, where you’llfind a chicken behind the controls. There’s noexplanation for it, but we don’t care. It’s a chickendriving a crane, and we’re happy with that.

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UNCOVER SHADOWLOOPARK IN STREETFIGHTER X TEKKEN

It seems someone at Capcomis a fan of Jurassic Park,because the Jurassic EraResearch Facility stagepays even more homage toSpielberg’s dino flicks than youmay first think. When you playthe second round on this stageyou’ll see a truck in thebackground and a jeep on theright. It’s hard to spot on thetruck but move all the way toright and you’ll see a ShadowlooPark logo, just like the JurassicPark one, on the side of the jeep.

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Capcom at someone seems ItJurassic Park, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park

Era Jurassic the because Research Facility stage

pays even more homage toyou than icks fl dino Spielberg’s

play you When think. rst fi maystage this on round second the

the in truck a see you’ll background and a jeep on the

the on spot to hard It’s right. truck but move all the way to

right and you’ll see a ShadowlooPark logo, just like the Jurassic

jeep. the of side the on one,

130

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Secrets of...Syndicate

Pub EADev Starbreeze

StudiosScore 6/10

We use our cranial DART chipset to delve into Starbreeze’s mind

With a sinister raised hand to the cleverestpart of our brain, we felt a familiar warmbuzz as we extrapolated information from

two of Starbreeze’s finest. Art director NicholasSiren and senior co-op level designer AndreasGschwari were powerless to fight our every whim,as we stole vital corporate details.

Whenever you come across anemployee locker in Syndicate,the name daubed on the frontof it is that of a developer fromthe team at Starbreeze.

The way that co-op players scream, “I need a reboot!”when they’ve been shot to pieces is a deliberatereference to the fact that the game is a reboot of theSyndicate series. What pranksters…

It’s well-known that Starbreeze habitually puts itsemployees into its games, so is this the case withSyndicate? “There are plenty of Starbreeze developerswalking around in the world of Syndicate!” laughsSiren. “They range from the security guard standingin front of the ‘Agent Operation’entrance, to some of the hobos locatedin the Downzone levels.”

There were plenty of momentsthat didn’t make it into the finalcut of game – including ‘jet packdude’ enemies and a battleagainst a white Rapina Dropshipin the La Ballena level. “We had areally cool scenario in one of ourAspari levels with big rotatingfans that you were supposed

to control,” explains Siren.“You were going to suck

enemies into them with abig gibbing explosion as

the payoff…”

In early builds of the game,breaching wasn’t so muchdirected at enemy minds, asenemy installations. You could,for example, breach hidden gaspipes to create explosions.“Another example would befrom one of our Downzonelevels,” adds Siren. “There youcould breach the controls of abig magnetic crane and dumpbig chunks of metal on enemieshidden behind cover.”

At one stage during the game’sdevelopment, Persuade andSuicide mind breaches worked inthe co-op mode. However, theformer unbalanced the game andthe latter was found to remove alot of the fun. “Suicide would haveworked on Reactives,” explainsGschwari. “I’ll admit that it was funwatching them kill themselveswith a minigun…”

References to the originalSyndicate are everywhere, butsometimes you have to lookclosely to find them. “A fewdo go a little more unnoticed,like some of the Downzonecommercials,” says Siren.“Various lamp and car designsare extrapolated directly fromthe original games, while aco-op character’s red hair is ahomage to one of the originalgame’s agents.” Gotta lovethose retro redheads.

with case the this is so games, its into employees developers Starbreeze of plenty are “There ?

walking around in the world of Syndicate laughs !” standing guard security the from range “They Siren.

in front of the ‘Agent Operation’ located hobos the of some to entrance,

There were plenty of moments nal that didn’t make it into the fi cut of game – including ‘jet pack

battle a and enemies dude’Dropship Rapina white a against

in the La Ballena level. “We had aour of one in scenario cool really

rotating big with levels Asparisupposed were you that fans

Siren. explains control,” to “You were going to suck

enemies into them with a as explosion gibbing big

payoff…” the

be would example “Another from one of our Downzone

levels,” adds Siren. “There you could breach the controls of a

dump and crane magnetic big big chunks of metal on enemies

cover.” behind hidden

original the to References but everywhere, are

sometimes you have to look nd them. “A few closely to fi

unnoticed, more little a go do like some of the Downzone

Siren. says commercials,” designs car and lamp “Various from directly extrapolated are

the original games, while a co-op character’s red hair is a

original the of one to homage game’s agents.” Gotta love

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