Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Edge

As weird as it might seem thinking back on it, we were once expected to buy videogames without even knowing what they looked like. OK, most computer games during the fledgling 8bit era offered a screenshot or two on the back of their packaging – even if such images weren’t necessarily sourced from the inevitably inferior version inside the box. But not all did, leaving consumers to make buying decisions based purely on the strength of some optimistically rendered cover art depicting action approximately one thousand times more exciting than what ended up on their TV screens. Whatever else we can rose-tintedly yearn for from a more innocent era in videogames, we can safely give this one a swerve. The modern equivalent is the entry on a console’s digital storefront…

Another month, and another professional haver of insta-opinions in the mainstream press denounces videogames. This time it is the turn of freshfaced Times columniator James Harriott, whose thought bubble is headlined “All gaming taught me was how to destroy stuff”. Well, dear Edge readers, allow me to read it so that you don’t have to. Let us first leave aside the obvious truth that, in certain circumstances, destroying stuff is a very useful skill. One might be a demolition engineer, or a heroic Ukrainian sapper trying to clear Russian minefields. But can it really be true that videogames teach us nothing else? Growing up with a ZX Spectrum, I learned a lot about Norse mythology from Legend’s Valhalla (1983), and Celtic mythology from Gargoyle’s Tir Na Nog (1984). I learned…

NEVERWINTER NIGHTS Developer BioWare Publisher Atari Format PC, Xbox Release 2002 STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC Developer BioWare Publisher LucasArts Format PC, Xbox Release 2003 JADE EMPIRE Developer BioWare Publisher Microsoft Format PC, Xbox Release 2005 DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format 360, PC, PS3 Release 2009 MASS EFFECT 2 Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format 360, PC, PS3 Release 2010 STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format PC Release 2011 DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format 360, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One Release 2014 MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2017 ANTHEM Developer BioWare Publisher EA Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2019 NIGHTINGALE Developer/publisher Inflexion Games Format PC Release 2023 For many developers,…

STILL PLAYING Tren Dreams E389’s visit to Media Molecule compels us to return to Dreams, not least so we can spend more time with the studio’s love letter to childhood pursuits without being interrupted by a PR manager because we’ve got an interview to conduct and we’ve already had five attempts at that stage anyway. Outside a couple of late-game puzzle levels that feel a little too much like busywork, this is an absolute treat: handsomely constructed, shrewdly designed, at times exquisitely maddening, and, in its heartfelt closing message to the Dreams community, really rather moving. Daily Observer Dreams We highlighted this firstperson puzzler as a mustplay in the pages of E389, and that was before we’d seen its head-spinning climax. With a little outside assistance, we belatedly wrap our…

Baldur’s Gate 3 will undoubtedly be remembered for its systemic and narrative flexibility, but it’s worth sparing a thought for how its more crafted experiences are designed to mimic the improvisational nature of pen-and-paper roleplaying. Quest design is highly organic, with smaller stories flowing in and out of the main plot in freeform, unpredictable ways. There’s no systematised method of acquiring, progressing or resolving quests, and for most of the game it’s rarely obvious where a chosen path will lead. One of the most interesting aspects of this design is the dearth of formalised sidequests. Optional adventures are plentiful, but they rarely take the form of helping out someone standing around with an exclamation mark over their head, obviously waiting for you to interact with them. Instead, Larian draws you…

Developer The Game Kitchen Publisher Team17 Format PC, PS5 (tested), Switch, Xbox Series Release Out now Held aloft by naked supplicants under a black sky, a Christ-like figure painted onto a gigantic canvas speaks to us with an otherworldly voice: “How sweet the pain when it is our own”. Hearing this after defeating a particularly tricky boss, we’re inclined to agree. We encounter similarly taxing challenges at a steady cadence during our journey, whether scouring maps for new abilities or repeatedly failing challenge rooms. Yet, as we gain mastery over a complex combat system, the pain begins to feel all the more worthwhile. Perhaps it helps that we’re not the only ones experiencing hardship. Protagonist The Penitent One is charged with preventing the birth of an antichrist, gestating in an…

Developer Ascendant Studios Publisher Electronic Arts Format PC, PS5 (tested), Xbox Series Release Out now Look towards one of Aveum’s extensively artdirected horizons and you’ll see them: floating ley lines, threaded across the land like elemental twine. Not too long into Ascendant Studios’ FPS (that’s ‘firstperson spellcaster’), you gain the power to ride these streams of untrammelled magical energy, but not before one character has warned you that the process is likely to induce severe nausea. There is, then, a sense of anticipation and trepidation the first time we hold the Square button to latch on using our grapple. What follows, though, is a fleeting few moments of slow, automated airborne traversal; during subsequent trips, we’re encouraged to lean left and right to avoid colliding with scenery, but in each…

Developer/publisher Team Reptile Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release Out now Three little words. There’s a temptation to repeat them ad infinitum, to point out the similarities between this cel-shaded, music-led skating graffiti game and that one – which are legion – and call it a day. But Team Reptile has never been shy about the gap in the market it is trying to fill, and dwelling on such concerns seems against the rebel spirit of the thing. So let us leave the words unsaid, and consider instead what holds together these component parts in the first place. Marking public spaces that would otherwise remain blank; translating street furniture into opportunities for tricks; even just blasting music on headphones as you travel through the world.…

Developer/publisher Universal Happymaker Format PC Release Out now The Flaustrian Royal Space Academy’s maiden voyage doesn’t go quite according to plan; having failed a skill check, our pilot takes a wrong turn on lift-off and ends up at the local pancake house. On the second, having agreed to perform a space seance for one of Flaustria’s high priests, a cosmic spirit absconds with our ship’s electrical and filtration systems. And with our co-pilot’s maverick personality leading him to disregard pre-flight routine checks, the ship’s door opens on re-entry, the infinite void claiming all three hapless astronauts. Still, having beaten our Vladagarian rivals in a pre-launch boxing match – and the space race itself – the collective glory is sufficient to host a ticker-tape parade, in which a trio of floats…

The origins of Fortnite may be shrouded in controversy – and discussed enough within these pages and elsewhere that we needn’t rake over them again – but since the game’s transformation into a battle royale in September 2017, Epic has barely put a foot wrong. Six years on, it’s the biggest videogame in the world: as much a social hangout spot and occasional concert venue as a competitive shooter, and now a creative platform in its own right. With March’s announcement of Unreal Editor For Fortnite, Epic extended its hand to professional game developers, offering them an expanded version of the main game’s Creative toolset and an opportunity to reach a potential audience of 500 million players, with the ultimate aim of eventually hosting full-fledged triple-A games. With UEFN still…

“Most of the game studios that have been created in the last three years have TERRIBLE names. Nothing timeless like Capcom or Rare. It’s always something whack like Shake My Foot or Maybe A Cartwheel?” Naughty Dog’s Del Walker may not remember the bad old days of stuff like Interactive Dreams, Silicon Realms and Infinite Realities “Just left the game dev coffee shop and we’re all really mad and upset and afraid because of Baldur’s Gate 3’s scope and quality.” Artist Scott Benson is just one more of Larian’s many victims ”The top talent… that we employ will be amplified and will never be, in my mind, replaced.” EA’s Marija Radulovic-Nastic isn’t as clear about the future for lesser talent in the AI era “No part of me is worried about…

Where do all the old game designers go? Developer Ido Yehieli of Stellar Cartography Interactive recently wondered, “You almost never see dominant designers from the ’80s and ’90s still making games, at least not notable ones.” He’s right to ask. When I was growing up, I was entranced by the games of Richard Garriott, Sid Meier, Will Wright, and Roberta Williams. Some of them are still active – Roberta and Ken Williams released a new 3D version of Colossal Cave earlier this year, to mixed reviews – but most are not. What happened? Perhaps technological advances eroded their skills and experience. The way games are made is completely different nowadays – 3D graphics instead of 2D; Unity and Unreal instead of C; teams of hundreds instead of a dozen. It…

Developer Red Thread Games Publisher Quantic Dream Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series Origin Norway Release TBA For anyone who spends too much time online, it’s a common refrain: Twitter is not the world. But what, Dustborn asks, if it was? In the game’s dystopian America, the Internet’s been shut off by an authoritarian government, but that hasn’t stopped ideas from our online world bleeding into their reality. This is a place where ‘block’, ‘gaslight’ and ‘trigger’ take on different meanings – where they are, in fact, superpowers. Though perhaps not ones you’d especially want. We see the first of these Vox powers at work in the game’s prologue, as protagonist Pax rides in the passenger seat of a hatchback carrying her crew – Sai, Noam, Theo – across the Divided…

Publisher THQ Nordic Developer Format Ashborne Games PC Origin Release Czechia TBA History has a way of repeating itself. Less than two weeks after last summer’s PC Gaming Show revealed Last Train Home, an RTS-management hybrid set during the Russian Civil War, the crisis in Ukraine raised the spectre of that conflict. Wagner Group’s rebellion against the Russian forces might have been short-lived, but it lent an unexpected sense of urgency to a game that takes place a century ago, during a conflict that began with the communist Bolshevik party’s seizure of power from the liberal Provisional Government in 1917, and ended with the collapse of the anti-Bolshevik White Army in 1923. We suggest the parallels to Petr ‘Pettka’ Kolár, studio manager at Ashborne Games, who explains that the game…

Videogames are uniquely able to not just conjure up challenging situations, but to place us at the very heart of them and task us with figuring out the best way to respond. What if you were charged with heading up a space programme for a country’s dimmest and worst? Or you were a witch, condemned to a centurieslong exile? How about piloting a mech against enemies the size of tower blocks? Or negotiating the last days of secondary school – and possibly the world? In the latter case – and thanks to Ko-op’s Goodbye Volcano High for putting us through the emotional trauma of that scenario – you may not be able to save the planet from an incoming asteroid (assuming, of course, that it is going to hit), but…

On a pocked battlefield, a mech kneels, its frame silhouetted against the pink sky. Singed and shredded, in places its armour plating has been blown away, exposing sparking cogs and circuitry. The machine’s left hand is missing. The pilot, somewhere inside the safety cage of its chest, steadies the machine using a gun as a walking stick. This image, used for Armoured Core VI’s box art and loading screens, suggests a task of incredible effort. Tellingly, it echoes the original box art used for FromSoftware’s 2009 game Demon’s Souls, which showed a knight slumped against a wall clutching a shield pincushioned with arrows. Both covers share a message: you might survive, but only just. In the 11 years since the fifth Armored Core game, FromSoftware has evolved from a semi-obscure…

Developer/publisher Fireplace Games Format PC Release Out now There are rules to a good cinematic sword fight, in the grand tradition of Zorro, Errol Flynn and The Princess Bride. Quips should be traded as freely as blows. Style is paramount: flourishes, leaps, backflips and, of course, pirouettes are all more important than actually landing a hit. And duellists must be in constant motion, trading positions like dancing partners and using the surroundings to their advantage. Ideally, a staircase will be involved at some point. En Garde! is faithful to each of these rules, but there’s another tradition it gleefully disregards: the unspoken agreement that when a lone sword-wielder faces multiple combatants, they will politely wait their turn to attack. Here, you’re often dealing with a dozen opponents who don’t see…

Developer/publisher Ko-op Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5 Release Out now The cocktail of hormones coursing through veins in teenage years means the end of secondary school feels like a cataclysmic event. It comes at a point when we’re asked to make pivotal life choices before we’re properly prepared to do so; when friendships drift apart or come to an abrupt conclusion; when ideas and future plans we thought were shared perhaps only ever belonged to us; when a chapter in our lives comes to a conclusion, whether or not we’re ready to close the book. As it explores all of these themes, Ko-op’s visual novel makes the apocalyptic metaphor literal: these anthropomorphic dinosaurs could soon be facing an extinction-level catastrophe, as newsflashes report that an asteroid is approaching. Already, it’s…

Dialogue Send your views, using ‘Dialogue’ as the subject line, to edge@futurenet.com. Our letter of the month wins an exclusive Edge T-shirt Lose yourself The other day I was tooling about on a vanilla World Of Warcraft server, and as I explored Stormwind with my boring human warrior, I was struck by something that in more recent games (and some older) is rather more advanced. I’m used to, or perhaps spoiled by, proper aids to navigation within videogames nowadays. I recently replayed the original Mafia; in that game, the map is basic, has no rotation, and there is no GPS to plot a route to your destination. You have a simple radar that shows local traffic but no roads, a compass that points to your goal, and a map that…

Developer/publisher Cygames Format PC, PS4, PS5 Origin Japan Release February 1 By the time Relink launches, it will have been almost a decade since Granblue Fantasy first arrived on mobile. The uninitiated, then, could be forgiven for assuming that this new 3D action-oriented title was a successor to the former, in this post-Genshin world where free-to-play games can boast the same production values as their full-priced counterparts. But while it has endured a long development cycle following its announcement back in 2016, Relink had always been envisioned as a console spin-off to complement rather than replace the mobile title – which, despite its age, continues to receive content on a regular basis. Meanwhile, anime adaptations, art books, annual fan conventions and even, as of last year, its own museum demonstrate…

Developer/ publisher Frost Giant Studios Format PC Origin Release US TBC Power-armoured marines and mech suits. A two-resource build system with infantry, vehicle and aerial upgrade paths. An unforgiving competitive meta, which gets the better of us in one early match when our fortifications are overrun by cheaply produced robo-dogs (a Zerg rush by another means). This free-to-play RTS is essentially StarCraft II in both form and feel. Coming from Frost Giant Studios, the company founded in 2020 by former lead developers of various Blizzard titles, it’s also something more. “The most exciting part of creating a new game universe is being able to make exactly what we want,” assistant game director Brett Crawford says. “With Stormgate, we are creating something similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a setting…

Developer Michael Frei, Raphaël Munoz Publisher Format Origin Playables PC, PS5, Switch Switzerland Release TBA That might well be the perfect videogame title: at once an idiom and a pun, it features the game’s protagonist, one of its most crucial systems, and touches upon its underlying theme of mortality. Relative to the span of our universe’s existence, our own is not long at all; are we not all, in some way, as insignificant and vulnerable as a common housefly? And should we not, perhaps, more closely consider how we should be spending the short time we’re here? At heart, this is about making most of the limited time you have, ticking off as many items on your bucket list as you can, as a character wh0, for the most part,…

Given that Life Is Strange: True Colors’ small-town setting of Haven Springs is located in Colorado, the state where Deck Nine is based, we can’t help but ask whether the studio is in a similarly picturesque spot. Co-founder and CEO Mark Lyons and COO Jeff Litchford both laugh and shake their heads. “Denver is 20 minutes that way, and Boulder is 20 minutes that way,” Lyons says. “So we’re not nearly as rural as that.” In fact, Litchford – a native of the Centennial State – tells us that the choice of setting was influenced by publisher Square Enix. “We were excited about heading down to Louisiana, setting something in the bayou, but the team in London were like, ‘You know, Colorado is pretty amazing – those mountains are phenomenal’.…

Developer/publisher Larian Studios Format PC (tested), PS5 Release Out now Not so much a revelation as it is a long-overdue reunion, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a glittering gala that brings together almost 40 years of RPG innovation. Mingle with the crowd and you’ll find virtually everyone in attendance. The dark choices and lingering consequences of CD Projekt brood in one corner, while the emergent play of Ultima and its Underworld cousins set fire to the tablecloth in another. The dice rolls and branching dialogue of early BioWare chat amiably with the cinematic drama of the studio’s later years. Even Planescape: Torment is here, and it’s every bit as weird and amusing as you’d expect. Standing proudly on stage, meanwhile, is Master Of Ceremonies Larian Studios, which brought its own flavour…

Developer Fallen Leaf, Black Drakkar Games Publisher Dear Villagers Format PC, PS5 (tested) Release Out now To attempt to define what Fort Solis is requires that you first establish what it isn’t. It might feature an over-the-shoulder camera and be set in a (largely) abandoned facility on Mars, but this is no Dead Space or Callisto Protocol. Nor, despite appearances, is it a triple-A production: it may well feature the vocal talents (and physical presence) of blockbuster luminaries Roger Clark and Troy Baker, but this has been assembled by two small studios based in Liverpool and Warsaw. It isn’t a walking simulator in either the pejorative or reclaimed sense of the term, either. Granted, you spend most of your time wandering around the the titular station, gaining insight into events…

Developer Covenant.dev Publisher Team17 Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series (tested) Release Out now Our party heads deeper into the haunted forest, the flickering torch held by our scout serving as their sole source of illumination. With food supplies running low, they push onwards through swamps populated by fantasy staples given a gruesome makeover – gargoyles, imps and figures borrowed from Slavic folklore, such as the forest dryad Rusalka. All the while, our minds are occupied by thoughts of the two children left behind to pray at our camp’s temple, a set of hastily assembled wooden fences all that separates them from whatever lurks in the shadows beyond. In blending elements from strategy and survival games with a steady stream of randomly generated events, Gord excels at generating unsettling stories such…

Developer Deconstructeam Publisher Devolver Digital Format PC (tested), Switch Release Out now As humans, we’re naturally invested in the search for deeper meaning. For many of us, that inclination became especially potent during the pandemic – and, given extra time and space, our imaginations ran wilder than usual. There is, then, something cathartic about Deconstructeam’s latest. Cast into exile after her dire prognostications created discord among her coven, lonely witch Fortuna summons a Behemoth for company; together they create a new deck for divination, more flexible and potent than the tarot cards with which she’s more acquainted. As such, it feels as if you’re learning the art alongside Fortuna. Context and instinct are key, you’re told, in interpreting messages from the cards you’ve designed yourself, from a mix of cosmic…