Содержание выпуска: October 2015 — Gamesmaster

Super Mario Bros was the first game I owned, back when I was knee high to a Goomba, so to celebrate 30 years of the plumber’s Super-flavoured exploits this issue, with an exclusive chat with legendary designer and producer Takashi Tezuka (p48) and a huge review of Super Mario Maker (p50), has me a touch aflutter. Save your smelling salts, though, as our steely special feature over on p22 is enough to fortify the nerves. Halo 5, Quantum Break, Tomb Raider… Xbox One has some real face-melters on the horizon, and we’ve been behind the scenes with all of them. The big names keep on coming, too. Star Wars Battlefront (p26) continues to incite salivation in the GM office whenever we get a crack at it. And we’ve played Dark…

The dilemma of buying a game nowadays isn’t about which one to buy, but how to purchase it. This generation of gaming, especially on current-gen consoles, seems to steer far too heavily (in my opinion) in the direction of digital downloads, and pre-order incentives or additional bonuses. Buying an external hard drive for your console to have all your games available at the click of a button seems great and can be efficient. However, it takes away the whole feel of being a gamer and physically collecting your games, like we did back in the good old days. When I was younger I used to be proud as I watched my PlayStation 1 game collection build and gain muscle. I still have my copy of Crash Bandicoot and my Pokémon…

Destiny should have been named “Profit” – that’s the only part of the game the developers care about. Braden Burgess, Facebook In Batman: Arkham Knight, I stopped the Batmobile at such an immense speed it toppled off a bridge and a bad guy happened to be walking under at the wrong time. Daniel Climo, Facebook Leave Ellie and Joel out? Bad idea, what’s the point in new characters when their chemistry was so good? We need to know what happened next! Adam Ssz Lugia, Facebook Good Egg Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy would make a great crazy golf course, actually – try to hit the ball into the star launcher while avoiding the black hole. Jake Parr, Facebook I would love an amphibious vehicle in GTA. It would be awesome…

1 Clean up your act Konami sounds like a terrible place to work, if Japanese financial paper Nikkei is to be believed. Devs deemed “useless” have apparently been given humiliating new jobs, including as janitors at the company’s health clubs. 2 Quest wishes When Dragon Quest XI was announced, it was for PS4, 3DS, and Nintendo’s mysterious NX, making it the console’s first confirmed game. Square Enix has downplayed it, suggesting that it’s only being “considered”. 3 Bungie jump The Destiny developer has put up a job listing for a ‘PC compatibility tester’, suggesting the currently console-only shooter may be about to get a port . That is, unless they’re working on something entirely new… 4 NX in line Nintendo has filed a patent for a console without an optical…

Legion, the latest World Of Warcraft add-on, has been revealed – and signals the return of Azeroth’s old enemy, the Burning Legion. The demonic horde is back for a fresh stab at conquering both Alliance and Horde, and it’ll take another banding together of disparate races to stem the tide. Thankfully, while that sounds familiar for long-time players, there’s lots more which is totally fresh. For starters there’s a new hero class, the Demon Hunter, inspired by the returning lore-ific villain Illidan Stormrage (he’s the chap pictured, with horns and an urgent need for medicinal eye drops). With a pair of head adornments and a melee-focused bent, the Illidari will be the first Warcraft-ians with the ability to double jump. Oh, and they can transform into hellspawn, too. Sign us…

MAKE MY DAY What better way to celebrate ol’ tache-face’s 30th than with Super Mario Maker, out today? EAST MODE Time for a serving of red-hot Japanese gaming news out of Tokyo Game Show. BALL SAINTS Scrum enthusiasts of England rejoice as the IRL Rugby World Cup 2015 commences. GOAL IN ONE FIFA 16 arrives – and hopefully isn’t an elaborate bribery simulator. TOY ZONE Rev your engine and make space on your shelf; Skylanders: Superchargers is here. BLOCK WORK Build a better tomorrow (with Batman and Gandalf) in Lego Dimensions. REUNION TOUR Dust off those plastic guitars for the return of a music legend – Rock Band 4 is out today. SOUL AGAIN Summon yourself a copy of GamesMaster’s fantastical latest issue, on sale now.…

X-Wing Standard Rebel craft, equipped with homing proton torpedoes, laser cannon, and shields. In-game, they function like TIE Fighters, except that being in the Rebel Alliance makes them 100% cooler. TIE fighter The entry-level Empire starfighter looks like an eyeball between two chopping boards, and can even make noise in space. Armed the same as its Rebel counterpart, but a speed boost replaces the shield. Slave I Boba’s iconic craft is a modified Firespray-class starship, complete with stealth capabilities. Empire players can pretend they’re the coolest bounty hunter in the universe by grabbing this upgrade. Millennium Falcon Seriously, do we need to describe this to you? Han Solo’s spaceship is the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, and Rebel players can pilot it if they find the power up……

Format PS4, XO, PC, PS3, 360 Publisher EA Developer EA Canada Out 24 September Our last hands-on session covered on-pitch matters: Passing With Purpose, No-Touch Dribbling, Clinical Finishing, and – yes! – vanishing foam. These subtle innovations form a tight and satisfying footy effort. Our latest hands-on, then, happily introduces new ideas for off the park too. FIFA’s most successful feature is Ultimate Team, in which players buy and sell cards to create fantasy sides, and Draft mode is its biggest addition yet. You’re given a random assortment of players with which to build a squad and take part in four matches – the more you win, the better quality your prize packs. “It’s a cool way for new people to get a distilled taste of Ultimate Team,” says FUT…

Format PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, Mobile Pub Activision Dev Vicarious Visions Out 25 September The big deal here is vehicles, with the Skylands explorable by car, boat, and plane. Activision hopes it’ll be enough to make people forget Lego Dimensions and Disney Infinity, and any attempt to evolve the genre is welcome. All previous toys will be supported, while the 20 new Skylanders and vehicles include Bowser and Donkey Kong. Those two figures will actually function as both in this game, and as amiibo (hopefully they’re getting paid for the overtime).…

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub Deep Silver Dev Dambusters Out Summer 2016 After a troubled history, this is now Far Cry But In A City, with the open world, health syringes, and radio towers we’ve come to expect from Ubi’s exotic shooter. Yet this isn’t based in a tropical or mountainous setting, but a grey-brown urban environment under the grip of an occupying army – will that be as fun to explore? So far, the standout feature appears to be its comprehensive weapon customisation system, which allows you to change every constituent element of every gun on the fly.…

Any uploaded user-made levels can be found within Course World, which offers a range of ways to search and sample stages, and even to follow your favourite individual creators. Here’s an overview of how it works. 1 If you’re not particularly choosy, or you’d prefer to tackle multiple stages in one go, then the 100 Mario Challenge is the option for you. This randomly selects a series of courses, giving you 100 lives to complete the lot. It’s just 8 stages until you reach the princess in Easy mode, while Normal makes you finish 16 before finding out she’s in another castle. At the end, you’ll see a credit roll of all the creators whose stages you beat: another lovely touch. 2 Choose Courses and you’ll be presented with a…

Fulton Recovery Do yourself a favour and upgrade this vital system as early in the game as you can. Once you’ve got the technology to extract cargo crates, weapon emplacements, and vehicles, you’ll be able to earn improvements to Mother Base much more quickly. Phantom Cigar If you’ve ever fantasised about owning a cigar capable of speeding up time then firstly: um, why? Secondly, you’re going to be in (outer) heaven here. This carcinogenic gadget ensures you can always count on the cover of darkness when sneaking about. Suppressor Keep in mind that the silencers in MGS V have a finite life span. Shoot enough bullets through one and it’ll eventually break and become useless. Keep an eye on its durability at all times while you’re in the field, or…

1 Burn, baby There’s an arsonist on the loose! Every so often you’ll stumble upon police reports and see flames blazing in the distance. Just who is this mysterious firestarter? 2 Get a clue Examine discarded lockets, glasses, and love notes to uncover the mystery of the group’s two lost friends. How exactly did they die, one year ago today? 3 Peak your curiosity There’s clearly more to the history of Blackwood Mountain than meets the eye. Just what happened here back in the 1950s?…

1 1942 (Arcade – 1984) Before Capcom’s arcade debut year was out, it took wing with a second accomplished shooter and first big hit. Either humbly or cynically, 1942 featured a heroic Allied pilot ripping through the big bad Japanese WWII forces like wet tissues. The gamble paid off, spawning a sequel every few years in an order only Capcom understands: 1943, 1941, 19XX, and 1944. 2 Ghosts ’n’ Goblins (Arcade – 1985) From vertical to horizontal with a new level of unwary player pain. This made Commando look like a picnic – one with fancy pâté sandwiches, Pimms, and fluffy cushions for a post-picnic doze. But the punters loved it, and each of Sir Arthur’s later lance-launching comic horror exploits became a cause for celebration. He, thankfully, never went…

GUEST MASTERMIND Takashi Tezuka In the 30 years since helping shape the original Super Mario Bros alongside Miyamoto, Tezuka has worked on countless Nintendo classics, including The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and most recently Super Mario Maker. “SUPER MARIO 64 IS BURSTING WITH GREAT IDEAS AND INTRICATELY DESIGNED LEVELS” One thing is constant in this topsy-turvy videogame industry: Mario games are the business. The rotund mascot pretty much birthed a generation of gamers, and it doesn’t matter where you stand in the marketing conflict between consoles, PCs, mobiles, et al – we’ve all fallen for a Mario game at some point. But which one is top of the pile? Matt: It’s Super Mario 64, surely? Even booting it up now it’s still bursting with ideas, tactile controls,…

This month: Martyn Newton, email Not content to have just one impressive collection, Martyn has two to show off. “One is the current-gen collection, the other is last-gen,” he tells us. “Totalling around 430 games plus various other gaming merchandise, the rarest item is probably Phantasy Star II.” Not only that, but we spy a burgeoning Amiibo collection there too. Not planning on ever removing them from the boxes and having a little play? The temptation must be unbearable… Think you can do better? Perhaps you’ve got an even rarer game than Martyn? Send us your pics! •…

What’s the perfect level of difficulty? The dev Hideteka Miyazaki Director, Dark Souls III For me it’s about level designs where the player almost gets killed, but ultimately makes it through and overcomes the difficulties – that’s something I wants to let players experience during my game. The critic Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman Editor A game can be harder than a walrus hide if it wants, so long as it inspires some kind of story. I’m not talking about narrative, but the juicy anecdotes about the time you beat that impossible boss or finally cracked that impassable level. The fan Adam Wiper GM Reader Done right, difficulty can be a challenge you strive to conquer. Done lazily, it’s cheap and infuriating. Games are ultimately meant to be fun, and make you feel…

There are no zombies in this apocalypse – just the cold, the search for food, and wolves. The idea is simple: stay alive. Find supplies, search out shelter, and put off the inevitable as long as possible in a frozen wasteland, with no rescue in sight and no second chances. What could possibly go wrong for our scrappy survivalist? • 10 MINUTES My first attempt makes it clear that mother nature hates a smart arse. I start off feeling cocky because I’m right by a hydroelectric dam and a dead deer. How hard can survival be, with food and a building full of supplies right here? Except the deer’s frozen solid and the dam’s empty. Worse, the sun goes down while I’m inside, plunging me into darkness and forcing me…

MASTER PLANET Can’t wait for Mass Effect 4? You’re in luck, as enormo space-sim Elite: Dangerous is about to take a few cues from Bioware with a new expansion. The aptly named Planetary Landings will let players “seamlessly” touch down on atmosphere-less planets and moons, to explore, mine, and fight using a handy recon vehicle. BIG NEWS The latest Disney film to crash head-first into the glorious mash-up world of Kingdom Hearts 3 is robotic superhero romp Big Hero 6. We’ve not seen gameplay yet, but released art shows Sora riding Baymax (!) and jousting with his Keyblade against a shadowy Heartless copy of the friendly android. TOAD RAGE Just when we think Killer Instinct couldn’t get any weirder, they add a shapeshifting amphibian-man. That’s right, you can now bash…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher EA Developer DICE Out 23 February 2016 A lot about DICE’s first-person free-runner remains familiar. It’s still about Faith, a young Runner operating across the City of Glass. It’s still about traversing the rooftops, and building momentum in order to gracefully building-hop towards your destination. It’s still about the resistance to a dystopian government, and the endless chatter of hip jerks in your headset. The move to an open world system, however, has a profound effect on the design of the city. “No object in the environment is there just to be pretty," DICE senior producer Sara Jansson tells us. “It’s there because it’s a gameplay object. It’s something you interact with.” Faith’s moveset has been enhanced too, to help navigate a space that sprawls…

Format PS4, XO, Wii U, PS3, 360 Pub Warner Bros Dev TT Games Out 29 September Aaaand there goes all our Christmas savings. In September. Yep, in news that will dismay your partner and your bank manager, Ghostbusters is coming to TT Games’ nostalgia-baiting toys-to-life game. Across the various confusing add-on packs, you can grab mini-figures of Peter Venkman and the iconic Ecto-1 car, Slimer, the Stay Puft Man, and other bits of busting paraphernalia. It’s easy to forget that there’s also a game attached – the Venkman-enabled Level Pack granting access to a haunted Adventure World. Separate from the main story, these extra levels can be explored with any character, from any license, though you’ll obviously play them all as Doctor Who or Marty McFly. Between this, Skylanders and…

Format XO, PC Pub Fullbright Dev Fullbright Out Summer 2016 Gone Home is one of the best pokingaround-a-personless-place games on the market, so there’s reason to be optimistic about Fullbright’s follow-up, which plonks you in a space station that’s lost its entire crew. You’ll witness holographic conversations, make friends with a hopefully non-murderous AI, and even walk on the ceiling thanks to the station’s artificial gravity controls. It’s a big step up from opening cupboards and reading diary entries. The game world seems larger too, and if it’s packed with as much detail we could be onto a winner.…

It’s hard to think of another character whose history and legacy is bound to a single action. When Mario first leapt over a barrel in Donkey Kong, he wasn’t a plumber, but a carpenter, known simply as Jumpman. It wasn’t him that made the 1981 arcade classic a hit, yet that moment would go on to define a hero who would – from 1985 and his Super-flavoured platforming escape onwards – transform Nintendo’s fortunes, and change the face of games. Ironically, the company’s greatest success was born out of failure. A young Shigeru Miyamoto designed an arcade game called Radar Scope, which was a hit in Japan in 1979. Nintendo’s newly-founded American division decided to ship 3,000 cabinets to the US the following year, but it didn’t win over western…

How better to celebrate this happy occasion than with a chat with one of the intrepid developers who originally brought the happy little plumber into this world? Q To start with, we’d like to ask you to cast your mind back all the way to your very first contact with Mario. Did you have any kind of inkling that this character would end up being so prevalent over the next three decades of gaming history? I actually knew of Mario even before I joined Nintendo, but after I joined and we released Super Mario Bros, you could really feel how he became much more widely known. Still, I never even suspected that he would become a character so loved even decades into the future. Q In your opinion, why is…

THIRTY FLIGHTS OF LOVING The shortest of the five here, the less we reveal about this first person adventure the better. All you need to know is it’s the follow up to Gravity Bone from Blendo Games, involves a heist, has excellent music, and takes less time to finish than that cup of tea you’ve just poured. HER STORY Available on both PC and iOS, there’s no excuse not to play this riveting detective story from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories creator Sam Barlow. Using only FMV to unravel its secrets – no, it’s nothing like Night Trap – this is an utterly compulsive tale you won’t be able to put down until it’s well and truly over. DEAR ESTHER One of the original ‘walking simulators’, this haunting tale, set on…

Ever fancied having a kip in the seat of power of the western world? Finally, the president of the United States’ very own crib can be yours. This Minecraft recreation – including the building itself, its grounds, Lafayette Square, and the Washington Monument – is probably the closest that most people will ever get to stepping inside the real thing. The build is part of a recreation of the entirety of Washington DC by BlueSheep123. “It isn’t going to be exactly the same," he wrote in a post on Reddit about his plans for the build. “It’s going to be like how GTA V is to Los Angeles.” Now, where did I put my Minecraft Obama skin? HOW TO ... SURVIVE HARDCORE DIFFICULTY Tread carefully – there are no second…

Whenever you’re presented with a side mission that promises to provide you with a translator as a reward, make sure to get right on it. Without someone on side who speaks the lingo, Snake is unable to probe foreign enemies for information. You’ll need experts in many different tongues too, as Snake’s adventure takes him across many different regions. Once you can understand what your foes are saying, you can pump them for information, such as where their buddies are, where prisoners are being housed, and what sort of resources a base might be holding in storage.…

In any compilation of this size, it’s easy to find yourself spoiled for choice. Not Rare Replay, as we’ve done the hard work for you. Here’s our guide to the games that should be at the top of your playlist: 1 Jetpac – The oldest game here happens to be one of the best – it’s a slice of classic, addictive twitch gaming. 2 Battletoads Arcade – A gloriously unreconstructed, old-school scrolling brawler that looks beautiful. 3 Blast Corps – Trucks, bulldozers and giant robots smash buildings in a wonderfully silly destruction derby. 4 Perfect Dark – Alas, GoldenEye is missing – but Rare’s spiritual successor is the perfect substitute. 5 Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise – An expansive sequel, which was criminally ignored on release.…

INK PIECE One Splatoon fan in Japan has taken his love of the game to the next level and crafted an Inkzooka. 180 cm long, 14 kg in weight, and with a range of up to 25 metres, it’s shoulder mounted, and can’t be fired without you falling over. See the ink-redible footage here: http://bit.ly/gmsplat CAKE OFF This Mario-shaped tower of yum isn’t just an absurdly tasty treat with a red velvet interior – mmmm – nabbed crafty baker Cory Pohlman an impressive $10,000. An entry on a Nintendo themed episode of Cake Wars, it was over three feet high. See more images at: http://bit.ly/gmcakewars ME-OWWWTH Professional tattooist Alicia Thomas from The Boston Tattoo Company has been on a mission to collect all 151 Pokémon in ink form. Well, by…

CONTACT US Email gamesmaster@futurenet.com Twitter www.twitter.com/gamesmaster Facebookwww.facebook.com/ officialgamesmaster Web www.gamesradar.com/gamesmaster Post GamesMaster, Future, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1AU, UK Waiting game In 1979 I started my love affair with gaming, and it’s long been a tempestuous relationship. For two years I have been underwhelmed by what current-gen consoles had to offer. And then I finally bought an Xbox One… Well all I can say is, whose bright idea was it to have it have to load the games onto the hard drive? I spent the best part of my childhood having to wait five minutes for each game to load. Now I have to wait hours! Sean Beech, email We can sympathise with where you’re coming from! Still, at least we’re beyond our PS1…

FALLOUT 4 FormatPS4, XO, PC Out 10 November Top of the wish list again – it seems no one can wait to explore the wasteland with a faithful doggy pal… JUST CAUSE 3 Format PS4, XO, PC Out1 December We can’t blame you lot for wanting to catch some sun this winter by taking a trip to Medici. Pack a medkit. ASSASSIN’S CREED SYNDICATE Format PS4, XO, PC Out23 October Maybe it’s the top hats that have got you excited? Or maybe it’s because Evie is looking totally badass? SUPER MARIO MAKER FormatWii U Out 11 September The prospect of an infinite supply of homemade Mario levels is just too exciting for anyone to ignore. DOOM Format PS4, XO, PC Out 2016 Maybe it’s our bloodlust talking, but there’s nothing…

Non-linear platformer Wonder Boy III was the first game to make me feel like I was in a worldrather than a collection of levels. I’ve been hooked on that feeling ever since. Every time an open-world game is announced, my mind races at the possibilities – but the results too often let me down. Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Skyrim: I was engrossed in these worlds for an afternoon or two, before my spirit was broken by a billion meaningless objectives. You don’t feel grounded in these environments in a coherent and satisfying way; you’re a janitor cleaning up exclamation marks, sweeping across areas that are all surface and no depth. The games that have stuck with me, the likes of Bloodborne and Akrham Asylum, have limits. They have impassable obstacles, just…

A REAL DRAG Square Enix has announced the hugely exciting Dragon Quest XI for PS4 and 3DS, but it’s not sure if it’ll bring the gorgeous JRPG to us here in the west. It all depends on the sales of Dynasty Warriors-style spin-off DQ Heroes, apparently. We’re still waiting on the Wii U’s DQX, though that seems less likely with each passing day. ASHES TO ASHES It’s one of the year’s most bungled Kickstarters, but Mega Man Legends spiritual successor Red Ash is still going ahead. Developer Comcept has received external funding for the game, something it wasn’t particularly upfront about during the campaign. In related bad news, Comcept’s Mighty No. 9 has been delayed to next year. LOST SOULS Twitch users may have beaten Pokémon, but they’ve bitten off…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Bethesda Softworks Developer Bethesda Game Studios Out 10 November To say that seeing this latest entry in the series in action cloaks you in a blanket of comfort and yearning is an understatement of nuclear proportions. With five years having passed since our last post-apocalyptic adventure, our thumbs and minds are more than ready to navigate the horrors of the wasteland once again. Despite the gap in time, Fallout 4 is certainly no radical departure from what’s come before. The approach here is one of continuity and expansion, rather than reworking or reimagining – with a series as popular and revered as this one, it makes sense to hold on to the elements which work. The changes that have been included are designed to provide…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Square Enix Developer IO Interactive Out 8 December Agent 47 loves to play dress-up, but that isn’t why he’s come to a fashion show, in Square Enix’s demo of the upcoming Hitman’s Showstopper mission. Everyone’s favourite killer-for-hire is in Paris to take out the show’s organiser, Viktor Novikov, a Russian oligarch and the financier of the IAGO spy ring. His first step is exploring the area. The setup is similar to Hitman: Blood Money’s Curtains Down mission, but the scale of this Parisian palace feels bigger than anything IO has attempted before – it’s a huge, sprawling space. The first floor is teeming with guests, while, around the peripheries of the publicly accessible areas, there are workers, models, stylists, chefs and guards, all going about…

Format XO, PC Pub Superhot Team Dev Superhot Team Out Winter Time only moves when you do in this abstract indie shooter which spins that one great scene in every action movie into a fully-fledged game. The minimalist crystal-people and monochrome world concentrate your focus on the graceful shooting, allowing you to follow every particle, bullet trail, and severed limb without any extraneous detail getting in the way. In addition to guns, you’ll also be able to slow-mo wield a katana, and chuck weapons when you’ve run out of ammo. This is the most original FPS we’ve seen in quite some time.…

SUPER MARIO BROS (1985) Nintendo didn’t invent the platformer, but popularised it, refining it beyond recognition with precise controls and stellar level design. A standard-bearer and a standard-setter. SUPER MARIO BROS 3 (1988) A revolution for the series, expanding Mario’s moveset so he could slide, climb, lift and throw, while introducing new power-ups and an overworld map that brought the setting to life. SUPER MARIO WORLD (1990) A great new look, sublime soundtrack, a map stuffed with secrets, one of the best-ever power-ups (the Cape Feather), and Yoshi’s debut: understandably, for some, this remains the finest 2D platformer ever. SUPER MARIO 64 (1996) As influential in its own way as SMB, this defined 3D games for many years. Its analogue controls gave Mario unrivalled freedom of movement with which to…

“We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from an alternate 1960s English city filled with cheerful denial. As one of the only lucid individuals in a society pumped full of happy drugs and desperate to forget their past, you’ll have to blend in with the inhabitants, and quickly learn the governing rules of their world, before making a daring escape. It’s a first-person game, set in a procedurally generated, fully 3D city that you must escape before everything collapses around you. But, like any good roguelike, you’re probably going to die a few times before you figure out how it all works. You will need to learn how to conform and avoid suspicion. You will need to hunt for supplies,…

Diamond Dog Once grown up, D-Dog becomes one of your most reliable buddies, thanks to the ability to sniff out enemy locations and highlight them on your map. Quiet Quiet has a huge range of interesting talents, but it’s her skill with firearms – particularly long range sniper rifles – that makes her someone to be feared and respected. Big Boss Despite being rather younger than in previous outings Snake is still every bit the grizzled, tortured warrior. Fresh from the events of Ground Zeroes, he’s out for revenge on his enemies. DHorse Without question, D-Horse is your most important companion, and your only real option, aside from walking, when it comes to silently approaching enemy locations. Ocelot If Snake is the one willing to take risks and flirt with…

1 ELITE: DANGEROUS PC Inspired by the New Horizons mission to Pluto I got my sprog a telescope (that he’s too small for) and have spent a month looking for Elite’s star systems in the real-life night sky. I’m cool. Matt Sakuroka-Gilman, Editor 2 ROCKET LEAGUE PC It’s been a very long time since a multiplayer game grabbed me quite like this. I don’t like cars or football, but there’s something undeniably special about the combination of the two. Robin Valentine, Production Editor 3 MOTO GP 15 XO My first foray into motorbike sims – once I’d mastered the handling, I was hooked. The slick environments and controller rumbles make for some serious immersion. Sam Freeman, Art Editor 4 EVERYBODY’S GONE TO THE RAPTURE PS4 This game would be setting…

Dragon Age: Inquisition is going underground with The Descent, its second piece of story DLC, and one that takes the Inquisitor to everyone’s favourite location: the Deep Roads. The Dwarven tunnels might have gone on forever in the original game, but they’re a vital location in Dragon Age lore, on account of all the Darkspawn that keep emerging from their cavernous depths. Bioware reckons that the events of this quest will shake the world to its very core, although that might just mean you’ll be given a massive hammer after beating it. Still: massive hammers are pretty great. Hammers are unlikely to be a major part of Pillars of Eternity’s The White March: Part 1 expansion, which ups the level cap, adds new companions, and whacks in a load of…

1 Reaching any end-of-stage congratulations screen (as Joe hit the ciggies and booze – bad Capcom) was an accomplishment. 2 An alternating competitive mode for total arcade bragging rights.Co-op would’ve made the game too easy, or slowed it to a crawl by doubling the opposition. 3 Tactical experimentation. Using cover to duck and weave, or just spraying and slaying? Either could work… if you kept it together. 4 On-the-fly objectives: POWs to save, officers to gun down, and those chunky grenade boxes – the most satisfying collectibles in town. 5 Enemies upped the ante in each successive stage, lurking in ponds for a soggy ambush or manning watchtowers to unleash bullet hell.…

Mega Man Format NES Developer Capcom Released 1987 In boss terms, the Mega Man series is fuller than Mr. Creosote – with few more recognisable than the mustard mauler, Yellow Devil. His ridiculous signature attack involved hurling lumps of himself across the screen to reform on the far side as you tried to dodge andblast his big red eyeball. Super Smash Bros for Wii U recently made him a gatecrashing guest star at Wily Castle. Ecco: Defender Of The Future Format PS2, Dreamcast Developer Appaloosa Released 2000 The dilemma: how can Ecco be coaxed out of the sea and into a world of more versatile platform game challenges? The solution: add a level to your nutso sci-fi dolphin game where giant globes and tubes of water hang in the air…

Format Wii U Publisher Nintendo Developer Nintendo Out 11 September 1 Remember Kishótenketsu Recent 3D Mario games are built upon a design philosophy espoused by Koichi Hayashida. It’s Kish›tenketsu, a story structure traditionally used in Eastern narratives (Hayashida was particularly inspired by four-panel manga comics). The four steps are: introduction, development, twist and conclusion. In Super Mario games, each new concept is taught, embellished, twisted in some way and then discarded at the end of a stage. It’s definitely worth keeping this in mind as you build a stage: start simple, then increase the challenge before throwing in a curveball to keep things interesting. Better still, try to include one last flourish en route to the flagpole as a final reward. 2 Don’t overdo it Once you’ve unlocked…

MULTIPLATFORM DARK SOULS Combining challenge, intrigue, and desolate beauty like nothing before or since. The finest game ever made. GRAND THEFT AUTO V The most comprehensive and densely-packed sandbox going, full of wonderful distractions and typical Rockstar humour. THE WALKING DEAD Some of the greatest interactive storytelling that gaming has to offer – and season two even outdoes the original. MINECRAFT The phenomenon shows no signs of abating. Far more than just a game, this is a magnificent creative outlet. THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT An epic proposition that truly lived up to its promise. Vast, mature and engaging – and one of the best fantasy RPGs ever. BIOSHOCK INFINITE What a world, what a story, and what a twist. Plus the original still deserves to be played, eight years…