Innehållsförteckning för January 2017 från Edge

When we laid out every cover in Edge’s history for issue 300, even we were surprised to see the extent to which Japanese games, technology and people have dominated our attention over the years. Partly that’s because in recent times we’ve seen Japan’s place on videogaming’s worldwide stage diminish, and our expectations have lowered all round. Even the mighty Nintendo’s lustre feels a bit tarnished nowadays. But Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune was wrong in 2009 when he said that Japan’s game industry was “finished”. It has shifted, but it’s been a process of fading, not crashing. Wii U limped out of the gate and never recovered, but PS4 emerged as a steamroller, crushing a Microsoft that suddenly looked completely unlike the company that had just bossed a console generation…

Another month, another chance for a vintage arcade racer to make an unexpected comeback. This time it’s the turn of Sega’s iconic Daytona USA, as Daytona 3 Championship USA makes its debut at trade show IAAPA 2016. The prospect of getting stuck into a new Daytona is an enticing one, but it’s difficult not to be a bit underwhelmed by a reveal trailer in which it’s almost possible to miss the transition from the original game to the new one. Even so, Daytona 3 certainly looks bright and sharp on the cabinet’s 47in screen, and those skies have never looked bluer. It’s heartening to discover that the game, which runs on PC hardware rather than an entirely bespoke Sega board, builds on the physics and AI of the original’s engine,…

Tech support Isn’t it strange that, upon watching the Nintendo Switch’s reveal video, I realised how content I was with mainstream games on PS4, Xbox One and PC? I was satisfied. Filled. Not excited. Uncharted 4 was good. Doom was good. MGSV, The Witcher III, Life Is Strange, Bloodborne, Rocket League – all… good. But it’s all a bit familiar, isn’t it? I feel like I could have been playing these games just as contently on my PS3. Especially in the cases of MGSV and LIS, which actually were released on PS3. Rocket League was originally meant to be on PS3, apparently. So, I can’t help but shake the feeling that, so far, the PS4 and XB1 have been the same, just better. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the…

Given the rate at which technology improves, a layman might expect that videogames would only ever get bigger and busier. You’ve got all this new processing power – surely that just means you can stuff more things into the mix than you would have otherwise? “Well, yes… perhaps,” you’d say, your eyes scanning the room in search of someone – anyone – else to talk to. The reality is that, yes, technology improves as time passes, and to creators that extra processing headroom is extremely handy. But as videogames mature, so too does their creators’ understanding of effective design – and in games, as elsewhere, less can definitely be more. It’s a common refrain among this month’s Hype crop. Striking indie adventure Lost Ember (p38) had environmental puzzles and a…

 Developer The Farm 51 Publisher Bandai Namco Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Origin Poland Release 2017 The first hour of Get Even – like, you would hope, the rest of the game – is difficult to define. It’s scary, but not a horror. You have guns, but it isn’t a shooter. Lionel Lovisa, the game’s producer, whose previous credits include Metal Gear Solid 4 and Peace Walker, describes it as a “thriller”. Though its locations are empty and sparse, its interactions bare and few, Get Even puts you on the edge of your seat. “I’m expecting to have people hate the game because it’s not a shooter, or it’s not their kind of a game,” Lovisa says. “I also expect to have people who say it’s blown their minds. With…

Developer/publisher Stunlock Studios Format PC Origin Sweden Release 2017 Battlerite launched on Steam Early Access in September and quickly became one the fastest-selling games on the platform, an impressive achievement for a multiplayer-only indie game from a small studio with only a few credits to its name. It’s a competitive action RPG that mixes elements of MOBAs, fighting games and MMOG player-vs-player combat. Small teams of two or three heroes with distinct abilities are thrust into battle in a fantasy coliseum. The team that manages to wipe out the other wins the round, with the first team to win three rounds winning the match. This format is familiar to Battlerite’s developer, Stunlock: it’s a recipe the studio pioneered with its first game, Bloodline: Champions, back in 2011. “Bloodline never took…

Developers Ed Key, David Kanaga Publisher Twisted Tree Games Format PC, PS3, Vita Origin UK/US Release 2012 Fittingly, the inception of Proteus can be traced back to a walk. Specifically, around the village of Avebury in the southwest of England: it’s a site of startling otherness, a village wrapped in three stone circles, as if layers of time and presence have been stacked atop one another. In the winter of 2008 Ed Key, lead designer of Proteus, was wandering through the neolithic monuments with his friend, Alex May, discussing how they could ease the process of designing landscapes.“We were just walking and talking and Alex was saying, ‘I really want to make a landscape renderer’, and I was thinking, ‘How could we make a landscape generator?’ We started out working…

Those of you old enough to remember the days when we bought music from actual, like, shops will know how useful genre could be. It was a handy way of finding what you were looking for – a way for the shopkeeper to categorise, and the shopper to home in on, different flavours of music. Perhaps the same is true of games, though our retailers have never paid too much heed to genre. Pop into your local second-hand store and you’ll find Nier nestled next to a NASCAR game, Street Fighter next to Syndicate. Perhaps it’s for the best: on the evidence of this month’s Play, genre has never mattered less. Take, for instance, Titanfall 2 (p112). This is, on the face of it, a sci-fi FPS. It has a…

Ideas strong enough to power entire games are introduced and then tossed away casually Developer Respawn Entertainment Publisher EA Format PC, PS4 (tested), Xbox One Release Out now The first Titanfall gave us the Smart Pistol, a gun that automatically locked onto multiple targets before emptying its clip into the lot of them. It was a beautiful piece of design, subverting decades’ worth of shooter tropes by making the humble sidearm among the most powerful weapons in the game, and certainly its most satisfying. While it returns in Titanfall 2, it’s an endgame pursuit, both in single- and multiplayer. By moving it, if not into the background then at least far off in the distance, Respawn is in theory leaving a gaping hole in Titanfall 2’s arsenal. Needless to say,…

Illustration box-kite-curve.com I’ve had people – vital people with crucial roles to play – just leave the keyboard to go and watch TV or eat fish fingers I’ve been deep in the world of Battlefield 1, and I’ve never been muddier, more tense or more shot at. The word ‘immersive’ is used too much, but this game does really put you into the First World War and shake you until you rattle. I was sitting in front of it, haunted at the carnage I was causing, when I received an annoyed message from another player. It read: “Tell your mother and your sister to get out of my house”. Instantly the spell was broken, and I had to laugh. The ability to send and receive messages to and from other…

John-Luke Roberts has written for television, radio and theatre, including shows such as Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The News Quiz and The Now Show. He also performs live regularly, and co-hosts comedy night The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society. When he wants to spoil his productivity, he turns to games. When did you first come into contact with videogames? The first game I can remember was the Game Boy Mario game where he flies a plane for one level and shoots things... Super Mario Land. I’m not sure if it was made by Nintendo or a thirdparty, but it’s got lots of the usual Mario things and then there’s stuff like Easter Island heads running around. It’s a bit odd. I mean, I was seven…

Illustration kaeru.com.ar The next edition of the diagnostic manual for US psychiatrists may include ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ As long as you and I have been playing videogames, there have been scare stories about their noxious effects on our minds. You’d think that after decades of the artform’s maturation, and the constant, patient rebuttal of accusations, more care would be taken over the subject. And then you read a newspaper story headlined ‘Fears grow for children addicted to online games’. Oh, do they? Whose fears? How many children? Are they really “addicted”? Soon enough, the article in question cites some anecdata offered by a certain “Dr Aric Sigman, a freelance lecturer in child health”. Now I don’t know about you, but when I see someone described as a freelance lecturer in…

 Developer/publisher Capcom Format PC, PS4, PSVR, Xbox One Origin Japan Release January 24 Jill sandwiches might not be on the menu during the Baker family’s mealtime, but it’s one of only a few ingredients from the first Resident Evil that haven’t been brought back for the series’ latest makeover. As we’re let loose inside the game for an entire afternoon, it’s hard to decide whether the biggest shocks come from some fine-tuned jump scares or the sensation that Resident Evil 7 is simply a modern-day remake of the original with zombies traded out for Nemesis-like menaces. Familiar items, weapons and even puzzles are riddled throughout, and the structure of the world is too similar to Chris and Jill’s Spencer Mansion episode to be accidental: early hours are spent clearing out…

Developer Team Ninja Publisher SIE (EU, US), Koei Tecmo (Japan) Format PS4 Origin Japan Release February 8 As elevator pitches go, ‘Dark Souls meets Ninja Gaiden’ is almost irresistible. Especially in Nioh’s case, since it’s the work of Team Ninja, latterday steward of the Ninja Gaiden series. Yet there’s plenty of room for concern amid the optimism. Gaiden has, since the departure of controversial figurehead Tomonobu Itagaki, lost its way somewhat. Team Ninja’s stock has fallen, the days when it was considered among the finest developers of action games on the planet long gone. After the lacklustre Ninja Gaiden 3 came the forgettable Dead Or Alive 5 and the gender-politics scandal of Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3. As for the other half of the equation? Souls clones don’t tend to…

When you wake up being masturbated by a great big horny gorilla, you’d best look like you’re enjoying it. So advises Thundercrack!, a pornographic black comedy horror B-movie, one of many weird fables to pass through London’s notorious Scala Cinema during the late 1980s. Another tells of hooligan futuresports, luxurious dungeons, and happenstance worthy of a godlike piston-powered computer. Let’s start at the beginning. Daniel Malone spent his time at Ipswich Art College arguing with all but one of his teachers: the typography tutor who let him draw comicbook characters in class. Not that he didn’t like the subject, she understood, but he already had two masters in superhero artists Jack Kirby and John Buscema. “Batman was the first guy I drew,” Malone explains, “but Marvel is my biggest influence.…

Lead designer Proteus, along with a few other titles, encouraged a style of play less focused on the mechanics of player input. How do you feel about Proteus’ place in that history? Well, in a real way, it’s still all about the input – there’s a tight loop of action and reaction from the game, which is part of what makes it work, but of course the tempo and reward structure is massively different. I’m proud of that, but sometimes wish other people had run with that more! I’m always a bit sad to see an exploration game based on collecting orbs. The port of Proteus to PS3 and Vita included Trophies, an element that feels almost antithetical to the tone of the original vision. Were you concerned about the impact these…

Even though there aren’t many surprises left to mine, the game remains an extravagant, imaginative plaything Developer Arkane Studios Publisher Bethesda Softworks Format PC, PS4 (tested), Xbox One Release Out now The key to any successful stealth mission, surely, is to maintain the element of surprise. The first Dishonored dropped out of nowhere, playfully choking crowds of delighted players who had no idea how good the game would turn out to be. But the sequel, burdened with the weight of sky-high expectations, lacks its predecessor’s tactical advantage. So it’s especially frustrating to discover that many of Dishonored 2’s best surprises have been squandered in the intense publicity drive that led up to its release. Dust storms, the Clockwork Mansion and its incumbent mechanical soldiers, the Timepiece – each a gamechanging…

Well, it was only ever a matter of time. Amazon bought gamestreaming service Twitch in 2014, so it makes sense that the retail giant would eventually want to nudge all those viewers towards the checkout. That has now happened with Streamline, a game currently available in Early Access that’s designed specifically with streamers and their audiences in mind. Any Twitch stream of Streamline has a ‘Get this game’ link underneath. If a viewer clicks it, connects their Amazon and Twitch accounts and buys the game, the streamer gets a 30 per cent cut of the purchase price. Twitch calls this a Bounty, and it’s a new opt-in feature available to Twitch Partners – the streamers with the largest audiences who already receive a cut of revenue from the advertising that…

“I wanted you to never give up. No matter how fucking sucky you were, if you stuck with it, you’d get there. And that’s life, man.” Oddworld founder Lorne Lanning reveals why he gave the hero of Abe’s Oddysee infinite lives. Ah, if only that really was life, man Gage Skidmore “Sony have their own plans for it, and I think Neil’s plan for it is not the same. Because my company doesn’t have the rights, I can’t help him too much.” Will Neil Druckmann’s The Last Of Us movie happen? Sam Raimi seems doubtful “We got it out and I think we played until 4am. We had work to do, but we did nothing. I said, ‘You’ve got to get that thing out of the house – it’s taken…

WEBSITE Deus Ex design document bit.ly/deusexdoc Though published in part on Eurogamer in 2013, Reddit user Defaultplayer001 has now acquired the original design document for Deus Ex, along with similar documentation for the cancelled Thief 4 and Deus Ex 3 projects. While all three are fascinating reads, it’s the voluminous Deus Ex doc – called Shooter: Majestic Revelations – that pulls rank. The 64-page document was created in August ’97 and is covered in handwritten annotations from lead designer Warren Spector. It details the original intention to create a semi-open world, as well as characters who didn’t make it into the finished game, and different endings. But the best aspect is its combative tone, the document riddled with aspirations such as: “Guess what was in the designer’s mind when he…

Illustration kaeru.com.ar I’d inch round real-world corners with my shield up too, if I had one, and wasn’t worried about looking weird Misery. Loss. A sense of futility, as if nothing you ever do matters, or ever will. I am talking, of course, about videogames. Like many of you, I suspect, I’ve found games an essential source of comfort from the real world of late. We all play games to relax, and escape – or so we think. With the world outside such a relentless source of anxiety and misery, the games on my consoles’ hard drives no longer feel like enough of a break from the norm. This is a matter of setting, admittedly – The Last Of Us feels like a training program these days – and also…

Developer/publisher Llamasoft Format PS4, PSVR Origin UK Release 2017 The apocryphal Polybius arcade machine was said to induce amnesia and bouts of night terrors. It’s something of a relief, then, to find that developer Jeff Minter isn’t interested in replicating any of the urban legend’s defining characteristics in his PSVR game of the same name, and is, in fact, working to avoid inflicting psychological distress altogether. Which is probably why Polybius feels so comfortable to play, despite our early fears after seeing the first videos of this psychedelic conglomerate of retro arcade aesthetics and farm stock thundering past at what appeared to be an entirely unreasonable speed. Strapped into the HMD, however, and surrounded by Minter’s surreal vision, the effect is one of trance-inducing relaxation. Rather than enemies coming…

SUPER FIRE PRO WRESTLING SPECIAL Developer/publisher Human Entertainment Format Super Famicom Release 1994 THE SILVER CASE Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher ASCII Entertainment (Remaster: Grasshopper Manufacture/NIS America) Format PSone (Remaster: PC, PS4) Release 1999 (Remaster: 2016 (PC), Early 2017 (PS4)) KILLER 7 Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher Capcom Format GameCube, PS2 Release 2005 NO MORE HEROES Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher Marvelous Entertainment/Ubisoft/Rising Star Games Format Wii Release 2007 SHADOWS OF THE DAMNED Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher Electronic Arts Format 360, PS3 Release 2011 LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/Kadokawa Games Format 360, PS3 Release 2012 KILLER IS DEAD Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher Kadokawa Games/Marvelous USA/Deep Silver Format 360, PC, PS3 Release 2013 LET IT DIE Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Publisher GungHo Online Entertainment Format PS4 Release TBA Goichi Suda…

There’s a trio of homebrew stills, each containing a different-coloured beer, nestled at the back of Rebellion’s cavernous warehouse. The vast space, which is attached to Rebellion’s offices and must be passed through to reach the company’s in-house green-screen and facial-capture studio, is filled with 24 years of company history, abandoned devkits, and memorabilia from 2000AD – the British comic publisher that Rebellion acquired, appropriately, in 2000. This treasure trove might record nearly two-and-a-half decades of Rebellion’s evolution, but it’s those stills that best represent the do-it-yourself nature of this plucky British stalwart’s worldview. “I suppose the thing that drives Rebellion’s psyche, if you like, is a sense of being fiercely independent. Doing things our own way,” head of creative Tim Jones tells us once we’re safely back in the…

“What we’d rather do is set up something almost universally recognisable, then turn the player loose” Arkane Studios co-creative director Harvey Smith has spent the past eight years of his life working on the Dishonored series. He takes some time out to reflect on the process of making a remarkable sequel. (Warning: contains spoilers.) Opening the game in the grey docks of Dunwall was a bold choice, given the new engine’s capabilities. One of the first ideas we had was, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could start in Dunwall, seeing the stuff that you had seen before, then set out for the new world and see this more lush environment, Karnaca, where your father comes from?’ And then later come home to find it a bit wrecked. It was…