Innehållsförteckning för May 2015 från New Age Gaming

Sometimes it’s difficult to not be a fanboy/girl. Okay, so I can’t be a fangirl – that’s not possible without taking drastic measures – but in the case of the former I occasionally struggle to contain my excitement. That containment was challenged recently when I was invited to London to attend a small hands-on event for Guitar Hero Live. Guitar Hero 2 was where I had my first taste, and was one of those games that gripped me and took years to let go. It and a few of its sequels were my go-to party games. Having a zombie party? Drop those brains and let’s break out the Guitar Hero. Fancy cocktail evening? Finish it off with Guitar Hero and a Martini. Wake? Look around awkwardly and then let’s jam…

One of the main barriers of entry for getting involved with maker projects is their exoticism. Or rather, their perceived exoticism. All of those electronics and tools and flashing lights and robot fluid sensors can seem really intimidating from the outside, but there’s enough standardisation and workshops out there to give you a port in the storm and learn how things really work. Best of all, if you’re already a game designer and are just looking for something new to expand into, you don’t even have to do all of the crazy stuff yourself! Existing makers are itching to co-operate, teach and learn, so never fear – just hop aboard with one of these groups and find out just how much power you have. MAKE GAMES SA  www.makegamessa.com Though not…

Miklós once at an entire wheel of cheese without telling anyone. He began in the morning with good intentions and a box of crackers, but by the end, there was nothing good left in him. Only cheese. I’m 32, and last week I bought a LEGO set. I “bought it for my son”, which is an excuse that I’ve been looking forward to using ever since my wife got pregnant. It’s also useful being able to sidestep the first-person pronoun “I” when I talk about LEGO: “We now have three LEGO Millennium Falcons in our collection.” And by “we” I mean my son and me but really just me. Of course he is going to want to play with all this LEGO at some point, which is completely fine: LEGO…

HOW TO NOT DIE IN EXO ZOMBIES The end of the world has arrived: thanks to human testing at Atlas, zombies are now a thing, and they want your blood, brains, and all the gooey bits in between. It’s up to you, a rag-tag group of leftovers that wouldn’t be missed if you never turned up again, to hold off the zombie invasion as long as you can. Oh, and these zombies have jetpacks, so that’s nice. Round 1: fight. The zombies start off slow and are very weak, so conserve your ammo and take this chance to practise your knifing skills. One hit with the knife kills. By round two the zombies are twice as strong, so use your handgun and aim for the head. Now’s the time to…

Q Boss battles: do you love ‘em or hate ‘em? What’s your most memorable boss battle (either good or bad)? Dane “Barkskin” Remendes I love them when they’re done right. The final battle against the Queen of Hearts in American McGee’s Alice has always stuck with me. I’m not sure why that is, since there’s nothing remarkable about it. Maybe it’s the grotesque rain of gibs that erupts when she finally falls. Or maybe it’s because of what happens to the Cheshire Cat. CURRENTLY PLAYING Battlefield Hardline, Heroes of the Storm, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Miklós “Mikit0707” Szecsei I like them but know they can break the game experience (see Deus Ex: Human Revolution). My most memorable boss battles: the fifth and thirteenth colossi in Shadow of the Colossus –…

Astrum LED Wireless Speaker ST230 SUPPLIER Astrum Peripherals WEBSITE www.astrum.co.za RRP R649 Wanna listen to all those pumping beats that you have on your phone AND have a mini disco in your room? The ST230 Bluetooth speaker is your go-to solution. Sporting five multi-coloured LED lighting themes that can also be setup to match your music for up to four hours of continuous play, the Astrum LED Wireless Speaker can connect to any of your mobile devices via Bluetooth. Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE Wheel SUPPLIER Megarom WEBSITE www.takealot.com RRP R6,599 Looking for a high-precision force feedback racing wheel for your PC, PS3 or PS4? The Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE Wheel comes with a set of fully adjustable metal pedals and is equipped with the official PlayStation 4 buttons…

SUPPLIER Rectron WEBSITE www.corsair.com ERP R2,799 SPECS KEY SWITCHES / Cherry MX Red mechanical The Vengeance K95 RGB, as the name suggests, features three colour LEDs for every key, which means you can have any backlight key colour or combination you desire. There are literally over 16 million colours to choose from and that automatically means the K95 is compatible in light aesthetics with anything you may place next to it. A key feature, and one that’s easily managed thanks to Corsair’s comprehensive control software. It’s easy enough to configure if you want basic lighting options, but allows detailed and complicated lighting schemes that we could write a small book about. It really is that detailed, but it does not get in your face about it, making simple colour…

SUPPLIER Razer WEBSITE www.corex.co.za ERP R2,899 SPECS TOTAL POWER OUTPUT / 30W (15x2RMS) RMS sound bar / 30W RMS subwoofer IMPEDANCE / 8 ohms FREQUENCY RESPONSE / 20Hz – 180Hz (subwoofer) / 180Hz – 20KHz (sound bar) CONNECTIVITY / 3.5mm audio jack / optical / Bluetooth Razer’s a concept. as a . surround sound solution, but you won’t find five satellite speakers in its box to accompany its beefy subwoofer. Instead, its speakers are all contained within a convenient sound bar, comprised of two 2.5-inch full-range drivers and a pair of 0.74-inch tweeters. Yes, that does mean it’s not true 5.1 surround sound. The Leviathan is driven by Dolby Virtual Speaker – which is the science that powers those two full drivers and enables them to output audio that…

Don’t fear the Reaper “YOU DIED”. My introduction to Bloodborne was embarrassingly abrupt, maybe, but not entirely unexpected. I mean, I’d previously played enough1 of Dark Souls to know that I’m bad at games and should just quit and go find something else to do forever instead. Because I’m also bad at doing things I’m supposed to, though, I didn’t – and that’s why I was killed trying to punch a wolf to death in the opening moments of From Software’s latest hard-as-rocks RPG. But dying is kind of the whole point of the game. At Gamescom last year, I attended a Bloodborne developer session hosted by game producer Masaaki Yamagiwa. He explained that, in Bloodborne, a player’s health bar doesn’t represent some abstract, esoteric amount of potential funeral expenses…

THIS MONTH'S PRIZE The Letter of the Month prize is sponsored by the good folks at Megarom. The winner receives two games for coming up with the most inspired bit of wisdom of cleverness. NOTE: You can’t change the games or the platform they come on. I used to judge games based on reputation and sales (and graphics) and was the main reason why I used to play games like ‘Call Of Duty’. Letter of the Month May 2015 FROM: Tristan Jacobs SUBJECT: Judging a game based on its… Reputation? I still cringe, to this day, every time I think about THAT issue. The issue where a much younger, more ignorant and pretty stupid version of myself sent in a letter to NAG. The letters content is very crucial to…

@nagcoza JRF After reading @nagcoza for over 15 years, I decided to take a sabbatical. This month’s mag taunted me every time I went to the shop. I gave in. Nadine Give me candy and the @nagcoza and I will love you until next month. JS in SA Conference Big thanks to @nagcoza for joining us as a sponsor this year! Z!¥@@d @nagcoza im lovin the new design of the mag! Dominic @nagcoza #theorder1886 I think your score of 62 for the order is madness, I feel the game is quality not quantity. @ TheOrder1886 Lloyd Mackenzie Thanks @nagcoza for my awesome prize! Just in time for the weekend.…

Wave 4 of amiibo figurines hits 29 May Pre-orders crash online American retailers Nintendo has announced the line-up of amiibo characters arriving in the fourth wave of the money-printing figurines. The NFC-enabled collectibles being added to the Super Smash Bros. line-up for the Wii U and 3DS include: Charizard, Greninja, Jigglypuff, Lucina, Ness, Pac-Man, Robin, and Wario. Nintendo pointed out that Ness will be a retailer exclusive in the US, but fret not because local online retailers are already listing it for pre-order. A further Super Smash Bros. amiibo release will happen in July with Dark Pit and Palutena being added; Bowser Jr., Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Olimar, and Zero Suit Samus will be added in September. But it’s not only Super Smash Bros. getting amiibo attention: Splatoon will get its…

By day a TV producer, by night a mom, a gamer, and a writer. In fact she does too many damn things for her own good. My eldest son has become a gamer. A fully fledged gamer. For realsies. And I’m so proud. But I’m also a little scared. He’s four, and as he gets up in the morning for pre-school he asks me, “Mommy, can I play Skylanders?” On one hand it’s awesome that the bug has finally bitten him in a serious way, but on the other hand I’m already having the limiting screen time fight with him. Things that I don’t think our parents ever really thought about because gaming was still relatively new and there were no studies on the impact of screen time on children,…

RELEASE DATE TBA PLATFORMS PC GENRE Third-person action DEVELOPER Psyonix WEBSITE www.nosgoth.com PUBLISHER Square Enix If you’re any sort of a fan of Legacy of Kain, then I’m willing to bet that you’re perpetually a moment away from taking up arms and marching down to the offices of Square Enix to demand the next game in the series. Unfortunately, it looks like that sequel is unlikely to happen in the near future (the latest attempt was canned after a not insignificant amount of work had been done on the game), so until that day comes, Nosgoth is your best chance to enjoy something at least vaguely related to a few things that the wacky duo of Kain and Raziel got up to all those years ago. It’s important to…

PLATFORMS / PC / XBO REVIEWED ON / XBO GENRE / Platformer DEVELOPER / Moon Studios PUBLISHER / Microsoft Studios DISTRIBUTOR / Prima Interactive WEBSITE / www.oriblindforest.com In the dreamy opening moments of the game, we’re introduced to Ori, a sort of rabbit thing and our hero, and Naru, a sort of bear thing and also Ori’s adopted mommy. Like paging through a children’s book come to vivid life, we watch Ori and Naru’s story unfold in a series of charming adventures around the watercolour woods of Nibel. And then, everything changes. I won’t spoil what happens except to say that owls are assholes, and now it’s up to us to save the world. A word of warning, though – under its whimsical veneer, Ori and the Blind Forest…

With the abundance of connectivity options we now have access to all kinds of information which was previously reserved for the elite, those in special circumstances and those with the right connections. This is particularly true when it comes to reviews of games, hardware, peripherals and just about any form of entertainment. Theoretically then information should be better, more authentic and subject to rigorous testing and the highest quality testing methods. Unfortunately this is anything but true. In fact things have become rather dire in the world of hardware reviews. Game reviews have taken on a different life on the web and they too have suffered because of the sudden rise of video reviews as opposed to the written word. However, there is merit in the ability to see a…

SUPPLIER Intel WEBSITE www.intel.com ERP R5,399 SPECS CORE / 22nm Haswell-E FREQUENCY / 3,300MHz (3.6GHz Turbo) CACHE / 17.5MB Total (15MB L3) TDP / 140W PLATFORM / LGA 2011-3 (X99) BENCHMARKS 3DMark 11 physics 11,528 wPrime 1,024 132.901 seconds Cinebench 11.5 11.61 AIDA 64 CPU Queen 63,451 AIDA 64 FPU VP8 6,967 This is the baby X99 CPU from Intel. At around R1,000 more than the Core i7 4790K you may be wondering why you’d want to buy such a CPU. Well there are plenty of reasons for that and one of them is in future proofing your investment. R1,000 is a lot of money if you’re on a tight budget but if you were considering a 4790K chances are you were going to invest in a fairly expensive…

SUPPLIER TPN Technology E-MAIL info@tpntechnology.co.za ERP R999 (500GB) / R1,699 (1TB) / R2,499 (2TB) SPECS STORAGE SPACE / 500GB / 1TB / 2TB READ SPEED / approximately 100MB/s WRITE SPEED / approximately 85MB/s INTERFACE / USB 2.0/3.0, self-powered There’s not much that distinguishes most portable hard drives from one another besides read/write performance – but when an external drive can be carelessly thrown around the NAG office (crashing into floors, walls, desks and dubiously muscular RedTide shoulders along its deadly journey) and still maintain data integrity, that’s a sure-fire way to grab our attention. Silicon Power’s Armor A80 is tough. It’s been drop-tested under a variety of strenuous conditions to a height of three metres. It’ll withstand 300 kilograms of pressure. It’s compliant with waterproof tests that proves it’ll…

SUPPLIER Syntech WEBSITE www.syntech.co.za ERP R399 SPECS BUTTONS / Ten digital, two analogue sticks, two analogue triggers, two shoulder buttons CABLE LENGTH / 1.9 metres VIBRATION SUPPORT / yes SUPPORTS / XInput and DirectInput Very obviously drawing inspiration from the design of Microsoft’s timeless Xbox 360 controller, the Speedlink XEOX is a PC gamepad which boasts a smooth rubberised surface that provides a good amount of grip. The familiar X, Y, A and B face buttons adorn its right side, although they’re not colour coded and therefore not quite as recognisable as the Xbox 360 controller’s buttons. They’re joined by a pair of analogue sticks, start and back buttons, and you’ll find triggers and bumpers on the pad’s shoulders. The D-pad is a pinch better than the infamous D-pad…

You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one who thinks the NAG forums are still the best place to chat about games with like-minded people. Did that sound like a sales pitch? How about “eh, we’re a decent enough lot that you might want to stick around”? Either way, join us at www.nag.co.za/forums/ Q Do you take “gaming holidays”? "2/3 times a year, its usually happens when its 4 in the morning and I’m screaming at the TV/monitor. I pull myself aside and think about my life and realise I need a break." - Tarisma "I lose interest in a game and pause for anything between a few days to a few weeks. I then return with will and play on. I’m on one…

When Rodain isn't writing about game development, he's doing it. With years of experience in the local community and the critically acclaimed Desktop Dungeons under his belt, he's at least 50% confident that he's not talking entirely out of his ass. It’s easy to assume that game development in South Africa is a small, isolated community. For most of its history, it kinda has been. But recent growth and connection with other societies and interest groups has been a fantastic indicator of healthy, locally-focused expansion and co-operation (which, I’m inclined to believe, is a Really Nice Thing). There’s always been a few links, of course. Quite a lot of South African dev studios hail from animation companies and the like – there’s a lot of skill overlap and lower studio…

Travis Bulford is a coffee crazed game developer who’s been hacking away since the early 1990s. Most notably he founded Celestial Games and released Toxic Bunny in 1996. He is now VERY busy working on rebuilding Celestial Games and setting a few coffee drinking world records (not necessarily in that order). It’s not often I talk about things of a personal nature, but I have been convinced this is something worth sharing. So get some coffee… Right, got that? Good. Let’s have a chat about things now past. In particular about how to evaluate a successful moment. For me I am talking about our 1996 success with Toxic Bunny. Firstly let me put a few mistaken ideas to rest. Toxic Bunny was not successful because it was local. On the…

Got a legal boxed game and need some technical help? Before you call please do the following. Update your system software, drivers and have a look online for a game patch. Just these simple tasks eliminate 93% of all problems – it’s a made up statistic but probably close enough.. Publishers / Activision / Blizzard 2K Games Rockstar / Ubisoft / Codemasters / NC-Soft / Namco-Bandai / Disney e-mail / support@xtremems.co.za Telephone / 0861 987 363 Publishers / Microsoft Xbox Telephone / 0800 991 550 Publishers / Electronic Arts e-mail / zasupport@ea.com Telephone / 0860 EAHELP/324357…

RELEASE DATE TBA PLATFORMS PS4 / XBO GENRE Action role-playing game DEVELOPER Square Enix WEBSITE finalfantasyxv.com PUBLISHER Square Enix For a long time, Final Fantasy XV seemed like the gaming equivalent of an urban legend. Young RPG fans would gather around message boards to talk about THAT GAME. You know, the one that was announced, and then disappeared, never to be seen again. Sometimes, if you listen to the forums at night, you can still hear it howling… First announced in the Dark Ages of 2006 and under a different name, Final Fantasy XV is finally playable, but only in demo form. Subtitled Episode Duscae, the demo takes place in a supposedly early part of the game. It begins with very little context, and introduces us to our party…

PLATFORMS / PS4 REVIEWED ON / PS4 GENRE / Action role-playing game / survival horror DEVELOPER / From Software PUBLISHER / SCE Japan Studio DISTRIBUTOR / Ster Kinekor Entertainment WEBSITE / www.playstation.com/en-us/games/bloodborne-ps4 I know not why I came to Yharnam. It is an imposing city, suffering the most horrible plague. Gargantuan buildings scratch at the sky and cast the longest, darkest shadows. The city’s inhabitants – those not infected or turned beast – patrol the streets with fire and makeshift weapons. I am in a run-down clinic, about to receive a transfusion of blessed blood. A man with bandages over his eyes tells me that once I wake, I can pretend this was all a terrible dream… UNRELIABLE NARRATION AND YOU Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls)…

PLATFORMS / PC / PS4 / XBO REVIEWED ON / PS4 GENRE / Third-person shooter DEVELOPER / Rebellion Oxford PUBLISHER / Rebellion Developments DISTRIBUTOR / Silverscreen Trading WEBSITE / www.rebellion.co.uk/games/zombie-army-trilogy First up, the title needs a bit of explaining. It’s a series including the remastered Nazi Zombie Army and its sequel, as well as a third new episode, but there really isn’t much different about each. They really may as well have just smooshed it all into one title with three parts. The term “trilogy” makes you think you’re getting three separate and different games in one. You aren’t. That being said, it’s nice to have 15 different missions to choose from at any time, even if they are all very similar; you certainly get your money’s worth in…

PSU Corsair AX1500 R5,699 / www.corsair.com GRAPHICS EVGA GTX 980 Classified R10,870 / www.evga.com OS DRIVE Intel 750 1.2TB PCIe R14,999 / www.intel.com/ssd STORAGE DRIVE WD Black 4TB FZEX R3,199 / www.wdc.com CHASSIS Corsair Obsidian 900D R4,599 / www.corsair.com DISPLAY BenQ XL2430T Gaming Monitor R6,399 / www.benq.com KEYBOARD Razer BlackWidow Ultimate R1,899 / www.razerzone.com COOLER Cooler Master Nepton 280L R1,499 / www.coolermaster.com MOUSE GAMDIAS Zeus gaming mouse R869 / www.gamdias.com MOUSE PAD ASUS Whetstone R469 / rog.asus.com SOUND Creative Sound Blaster ZxR R3,599 / www.soundblaster.com HEADPHONES HyperX Cloud R1,499 / www.kingston.com INTEL Intel Core i7 5960X R13,999 / www.intel.com MSI X99S XPOWER AC R5,999 / www.msi.com Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2,800MHz 16GB Kit R5,599 / www.corsair.com R80,996 AMD AMD FX 8350 R2,999 / www.amd.com ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z R3,699 /…

SUPPLIER Intel WEBSITE www.intel.com/ssd ERP R14,999 SPECS CONTROLLER / Intel CH29AE41AB0 NAND TYPE / 20nm Intel NAND CACHE / 1.25GB FORM FACTOR / Half height PCIe or SF-8639 INTERFACE / PCI Express / NVMe BENCHMARKS Average read 2,234MB/s Average write 1,056MB/s Read IOPS 275,681.44 4K read (QD32) 944.5 4K write (QD32) 871.6 Intel’s X-25M was, for most of us, the first consumer SSD we ever came across. That was all the way back in 2008. Since then and with each successive generation, reliability, interfaces, protocols and a host of others mechanisms have improved. With the 750 series, Intel has brought all of this advancement to bear. Specifically with this 1.2TB model. This model represents the largest capacity drive from Intel in consumer, desktop orientated SSDs based on one of…

SUPPLIER Rebel Tech WEBSITE www.rebeltech.co.za ERP R1,525 SPECS KEYS / Cherry MX mechanical switches, individually backlit ANTI-GHOSTING / Full n-key rollover INPUTS / 2x USB 2.0 ON-BOARD MEMORY / 128KB Func’s been around since 1999, but I’d never heard of the brand before getting my hands on the KB-460. It gives a good first impression upon opening the snazzy white box it ships in, with a smooth rubbery texture applied to the whole board and a detachable wrist-rest included to ensure minimal discomfort during extended use. The wrist rest is actually an important addition, because without it the KB-460 stands quite high, which could potentially lead to uncomfortable gaming sessions. It’s a solid, weighty board that feels like it can take some punishment, so it’ll be a great companion…

HDMI gained popularity with the shift to home theatre systems and LCD TVs. Where our homes were previously littered with all kinds of cables from Component to S-Video and DVI the move to HDMI negated the need for all these various connectivity options. We only needed one cable and it would take care of it all. HDMI was and remains a success story. It has found its way to home consoles, TVs, graphics cards, mobile phones, tablets and notebooks. In short it is the default connection mechanism for nearly all devices that are able to output to a display. It may be hard to believe but HDMI was initially developed in 2002, even though it was only in 2006 that it saw a popularity explosion. Since it was developed and…

WEBSITE www.nintendo.com/3ds/new-nintendo-3ds ERP R2,999 When the first 3DS came out, it was pretty exciting, especially for Nintendo fans. However, the novelty of the 3D technology soon faded away and all you were left with was a kind of fun device that you paid a whole bunch for, just to have a slider that was always turned right the way down, teasing you with its potential. The 3D tech demanded that you stay absolutely still for it to remain stable, somehow also making you feel like you’re suffering from motion sickness in your stillness. The controls were fine for most of the standard Nintendo titles, but for more intricate shooters and the like, the limited control dynamics were frustrating to say the least (especially if you have small hands). The…