Tabla de contenidos para Xmas 2016 en Gamesmaster

Tis the season of celebration, and that’s exactly what the issue in your hands is all about. In our huge Game Of The Year Awards feature, we’re looking back on a year of amazing gaming experiences and giving the coveted GM thumbs up to the absolute best of the bunch. And we can’t help but be excited about the glorious potential of 2017, too. First off, Nintendo’s NX has finally been revealed and named, and we’re already dreaming of the potential of Switch – and digging deep into all the facts in our must-read feature. Then you’ve got Read Dead Redemption 2, perhaps the most anticipated sequel ever, announced and looking incredible – we’ve got all the latest in our massive preview. Have I mentioned our bumper reviews section yet?…

Nintendo Switch has finally been revealed, and it’s pretty much what everyone was predicting. I like it, but as a diehard Nintendo fanboy, it’s not me Ninty needs to convince. In the teaser video (which was brilliant by the way) they have positioned the Switch at a slightly higher age group, which I think is a good move. It purposely marketed it to have no comparison with Wii U, which Nintendo got catastrophically wrong. It didn’t even show off touchscreen functionality, just to separate them further. It will 100% have a touchscreen – in this day and age it’s a must, especially with mobile at the forefront of its business. The two big questions for me right now are how much will the system cost and how long will the…

I wish I could remember what I’ve been playing this year… Zinn, @JinxedThoughts No contest, my favourite gaming experience of 2016 has been World Of Warcraft: Legion – it has been outstanding so far. Rob Polding, @DrConscience Professor Layton made me the gamer I am today! George Anderson, @Gnator8t4 MANIAC OF THE MONTH! I wait for games to go down in price, buy them, then watch as they get remastered on next-gen before I’ve played them… Leigh Way, @LA_Way Me and a mate did a Macmillan Game Changers 24 hour session of all the old Sonic The Hedgehog games and raised over £220 for Cancer Support. Felt exhausted afterwards, but it was worth it! Toby William Allen, Facebook I’ve been many characters in many games. Sometimes a voice not my…

ROBIN’S PICK Sunless Skies This sequel promises to take the brilliant Lovecraftian atmosphere and storytelling of Failbetter Games’ Sunless Seas into space. The stars are dying and the ‘bohemians, revolutionaries, and outcasts’ of the Victorian Empire are heading into the void to find new lives for themselves. That’s my kind of weird. PC – Spring 2018 BEN’S PICK Ghost Recon: Wildlands Wildlands’ open-world Bolivia will offer the wide-eyed exhilaration of Rapture or New Bordeaux, but with the added ability to ride into battle with three mates in a helicopter. I also want to gun a motorcycle across a salt flat and see if the swampland has crocodiles.… PS4, XO, PC – 7 March 2017 ROB’S PICK Gran Turismo Sport As a massive racing fan, I’m seriously excited to see what…

POWDER RANGERS Snow-covered extreme sports sim Steep hits slopes today. Let the wintry games begin! XP GAINED The doors open at PlayStation Experience 2016. Keep eyes peeled for new game reveals. SHOCKING KILLERS The Christmas-themed Dead Rising 4 arrives with some festive ways to murder the undead. LIGHT RELIEF It’s the Winter Solstice, so tonight will be darker for longer. Ergo, stay in and play videogames. DEALS OR NO DEALS? This is our bet for the start date of the Steam Winter Sale – guard your wallet close. CHRISTMAS PLAY Today is a special day for ignoring the family and spending time with all your new games. AT LONG LAST Here it is. The Last Guardian. Out today. Unless it’s been delayed again since we wrote this. NEW YEAR REVELATIONS…

Krogan This musclebound studmuffin may look tough with his large shoulder humps full of fluids and nutrients, but we bet there’s a surprisingly sensitive heart hidden beneath that leathery hide. Asari Asari are known throughout the cosmos for their elegance, and Peebee here has painted an elegant streak of purple right across her elegant eyeballs. And you know what? She is absolutely working it. Salarian Talk about tall, dark, and handsome! We’ve only seen the back of this slender Salarian’s head, but the sight of those horns glistening in the light of an unexplored world has us dribbling with space-lust. Abomination Okay, so this is a space monster and not a crew member, but we need to know: is he single? This hunky beast’s ring finger is tantalisingly out of…

“ROCKSTAR CAN CIRCUMVENT TRICKY NARRATIVE ISSUES BY CONFINING LEGACY CHARACTERS TO ONLINE PLAY” Format PS4, XO Publisher Take-Two Developer Rockstar ETA Autumn 2017 Millions of excited gaming fans across the world are shooting their figurative guns in the air and also figuratively yelling “Yeeehaw!” at Rockstar Games’ recent reveal of this long-awaited sequel. And then, when they’ve calmed down a bit, they’re wondering to themselves, so who exactly do we play as? In what time period is this set? Will there be bears in it? Can we tie-up the bears and place them on railroad tracks and record them getting run over and then upload the footage to YouTube for loads of views? Well, everyone can stop their fretting – we’ve got all the answers right here. At the cobweb…

Format 3DS Pub Nintendo Dev Nintendo ETA Summer 2017 Probably best described as a bonkers mash-up between StreetPass Quest and Tomodachi Life, this oddball Mii JRPG tickles every inch of our fancy. An adorable-looking curio, Miitopia tasks players with assembling a party of Mii buddies, assigning them with traits and abilities, and then heading out to do some turn-based battling against the minions of a big baddie who has been stealing the faces of Miis. It’s currently only confirmed for release in Japan, but if we all hold hands and wish hard enough we’re sure it will arrive here eventually.…

BEST SURPRISE Doom A tempestuous bullet ballet that doesn’t reimagine the original’s run-and-gun philosophy so much as capture its soul and stick it in a powerful new body. Old school successfully transitioning into new. BIGGEST STINKER Dino Dini’s Kick Off Revival If you read our 6/100 review and thought, “Come on, how bad can it be?”, well, it’s really bad. Like the England team, this top-down football title is broken and lifeless. MOST RELAXING Stardew Valley We’ve all dreamed in idle moments of escaping to a simpler life, and this farming sim brings those fantasies to charming, pixelated life. So soothing that it’s basically the videogame equivalent of a long, hot bath. BEST LUNCHTIME GAME Overcooked Appropriately , this food-obsessed co-op game snatched up more of our lunchtimes than any…

Format PS4, PC Developer Thunder Lotus Games ETA 2017 Web http://bit.ly/gmsundered How do you like your Lovecraftian nightmares? Hand-drawn and utterly beautiful? Well, you’re in luck. The developers of the gorgeous Norse actioner Jotun – which stomped onto consoles this year – are back with another feast for the eyeballs. Your sanity might not fare quite as well though. Sundered is a unique mash-up of genres. Think Metroidvania with a difference, sprinkle in some elements of Rogue Legacy, and don’t forget the procedural generation… “A lot of people feel that a procedural Metroidvania is impossible,” teases creative director Will Dube. “In Sundered, the structure of the world does not change, similar to a game like Diablo. Sub-sections, however, are procedurally assembled from hand-crafted levels to keep things fresh. And upon…

Dishonored 2 is one of the first triple-A new releases to get a PS4 Pro patch. So how does it handle on Sony’s up-spuffed PlayStation? The good news is it scales up nicely. The clever chequerboard rendering effect seen in Rise Of The Tomb Raider is again deployed, and the results are suitably sharp, regardless of whether the game is actually running at a native 4K or not. Even if you don’t have an Ultra HD telly to take advantage of the resolution boost, there are definitely still gains to be had for those gaming on 1080p sets. Play at this resolution on PS4 Pro, and super-sampling kicks in – improving anti-aliasing to create a smoother image than the standard PlayStation 4 can muster. Admittedly, it’s not nearly the night-and-day…

The strangest new addition to Titanfall 2’s multiplayer has to be Coliseum. This bizarre, one-on-one mode pits two pilots to a best of three death duel, and can only be accessed by purchasing tickets with in-game credits – earned from playing the other online modes. Once you step inside Coliseum’s claustrophobic energy dome, it’s your job to blow your rival to smithereens with well placed shots from an explosive laser rifle. The best way to avoid these blasts? Jump around like a heavily armoured hare on heat.…

It’s incredibly easy to get distracted from the task at hand. While exploring the city your eye might be drawn by a hacking opportunity that opens up a bonus mission, or you might just fancy stopping for a beer or a coffee. Here’s just a small sample of what to expect. 1 Become an insufferable hipster by grabbing an outfit at Stache & Vine, if you fancy showing off your mankles. 2 Some valuables and research points seem out of reach – but not if you have a truck with a hydraulic lift. 3 Selfies aren’t just for narcissists. Take a snap in front of a landmark and you’ll earn DedSec new followers. 4 One side-quest has you hacking an odious exec’s gym treadmill. The pay-off is as inevitable as…

1 TITANFALL 2 PS4 It’s been a long time since I last enjoyed a first-person shooter quite as much as this one. The campaign is stunning, and multiplayer has already got its hooks into me deep. Robin Valentine, Acting Editor 2 STELLARIS PC Thanks to regular free updates and some brilliant downloadable content, this ambitious galactic strategy gem is even more expansive and interesting now than it was at launch. Robin Valentine, Acting Editor 3 BATTLEFIELD 1 PC Ahhh! I’m charging a man with a bayonet! Wooo! I’m barrel-rolling a biplane over a mountain! Crash! I just got run over by a horse! It’s all very respectful of war though, of course. Ben Griffin, Senior Staff Writer 4 TITANFALL 2 PS4 Going from Battlefield 1 to Titanfall 2 has been…

With the impending release of 100 new Pokémon into Pokémon GO, data miners digging into the code have uncovered traces of Gold and Silver’s entire roster – that’s Chikorita (#152) to Celebi (#251) – ready and waiting to spill into the wild through a free update. Along with these, there’s evidence of the shapeshifting blob Ditto’s signature Transform move, suggesting he’s coming along too. And signs point to a new questing system that will award points for completing tasks – likely walking a certain distance or catching a specific set of Pokémon. Meanwhile in The Division’s now heavily snowed-under New York there’s a whole new threat to contend with: the elements. Thirst, hunger and heat will all decide whether you make it through the roughly two-hour-long Survival expansion. Here, after…

We’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of videogame crafts. We’ve seen Perler beads, paper dioramas, and, a long time ago, an entire Plants vs. Zombies-themed garden. However, nothing has been as cute as the work of Liz Henwood. Also known as The Yarn Mouse, Henwood is a pixel artist for indie devs Sock Thuggery and loves RPGs and roguelikes, her eight pet mice, colouring in pixels and, of course, crochet. But how did she get into it and how does she make ’em so gosh darned kawaii? “My mum taught me to crochet when I was very young, but I didn’t really start making things until I was about 11 or 12, when my patience developed,” she explains. “I’ve always loved soft toys, especially less common subjects (I…

NUMSKULL CHRISTMAS JUMPERS £30 http://bit.ly/gmnumskull Oh, that’s why Sonic’s blue – he’s bloody freezing standing around in just his shoes in the middle of a winter wonderland. Bet he wishes he had a lovely Christmas jumper like this one. With his own face on. GEARS OF WAR LANCER RIFLE REPLICA £200 http://bit.ly/gmlancer If you’ve got a ludicrous amount of disposable cash, then: a) can we have some? And b) maybe you’ll like this meticulously crafted Gears Of War Lancer rifle replica, to make you feel like Marcus Fenix. DRAGON AGE TEA £10 http://bit.ly/gmdatea There’s nothing quite like a Bioware brew. This premium tea blend, inspired by Dragon Age Inquisition’s own Dorian, has a real Christmassy feel thanks to its cranberry and almond flavours. Yum. SNES CARTRIDGE SOAPS £13 http://bit.ly/gmsnessoap Isn’t…

SUPER MARIO SWITCH Early snippets of a new 3D Mario game from the peerless EAD Tokyo team suggest a return to more open environments, as in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, including a vibrant Mexican-style town and a hazardous temple. Mario’s triple-jump is also back – a welcome change after 3D Land/ World’s more limited moveset. MARIO KART SWITCH Given the frankly astonishing attach rate for Mario Kart 8 (roughly 60% of Wii U owners have a copy), you’ll get fairly short odds on a new version hitting Switch during its launch window. The presence of a playable King Boo and two item slots (as previously seen in GameCube entry Double Dash) hint that this is more than just Mario Kart 8.5. SKYRIM SWITCH What we’re assuming is…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ETA 24 January 2017 Possibly the first question that springs to mind when you find yourself in a remote murder shack with horrible scratching noises coming from the walls is ‘how do I kill whatever that is?’ It’s a question Resi 7 has been very slow to answer. Finally, it has. You shoot the bad things, obviously. But it wouldn’t be a Resi game if it was that easy. The series has always had a knack for adding a layer of vulnerability – the first game’s tank controls and restrictive camera created a clumsy claustrophobia as the dead closed in. Resi 4’s mechanics dictated that you could shoot, or move, but not both at once. Number 7’s take on these ideas is…

FormatPC PubDouble Fine DevFoam Sword ETASpring 2017 There sure is a lot to like about this Kickstarter funded project. The talent behind it has worked on Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet. It’s got a wonderful hand-painted art style. And, perhaps best of all, it’s inspired by The Goonies and Earthbound. Billed as a ‘co-op adventure about childhood’ (which can also be played solo), Knights And Bikes follows best pals Nessa and Demelza on a quest to discover the truth about the legends of fictional Cornish island Penfurzy. The heroines explore the isle on-foot and on their – upgradeable – bikes, stopping to loot the odd stash of treasure and battle possessed creatures. Combat looks delightfully on-point – Nessa can take down the bads with frisbees, while the welly-wearing Demelza can excitedly splash…

Format PS4, XO, PC Pub Rebellion Dev Rebellion ETA 14 February 2017 On the one hand, the newest entry in the deadeye shooter series looks absolutely lovely, basking in the Mediterranean sun of its new Italian setting. On the other hand, however, it looks more brainstabbingly brutal than ever before, with new killcams and takedowns kicking things up several gratuitous notches. More slo-mo ballistics. More exploding internal organs. More stabby-stab-stab. Oh, and players who pre-order will again be able to make a hole in der Führer (aka Hitler). Release date is Valentine’s Day – the perfect gift for a loved one.…

Robin Valentine ACTING EDITOR 1 XCOM 2 2 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End 3 Stellaris “Now that’s what I call a satisfying spectrum of gaming experiences: from the sprawling, simulated space empire-building of Stellaris, to the thrilling and beautiful globe-trotting action of Uncharted 4, to the finely-tuned and pitch-perfect tactical strategising of XCOM 2, I’ve been utterly spoiled by 2016’s offerings.” Ben Griffin SENIOR STAFF WRITER 1 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End 2 Inside 3 Abzu “This year was all about spectacular moments: joining a brightly coloured school of tropical fish and breaching a glittering ocean in Abzu, or outwitting Inside’s deadly merboy. Uncharted 4 was the only game this year that blended standout sequences together over a substantial length – for me, undoubtedly the most momenty game of 2016.”…

PUSH ME PULL YOU Just because your sport-loving friends haven’t heard of a game where you wrestle a double-ended snake-human for control of a ball, doesn’t mean it’s not a legitimate pastime. But with all the creaking and squeaking of naked flesh, this might not be something you want to watch while eating a hot dog. 100FT ROBOT GOLF How do you make more people enjoy golf? Put it in space or underwater, and make huge destructive mechs play instead of humans. Sure there’s a ball, a hole, and the odd word like ‘par’ thrown in, but you won’t mind nearly as much when you’re smashing up buildings on the way to your next putt. ROCKET LEAGUE Three words. Football with cars. See, you do like this whole list, don’t…

 Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Bethesda Developer Arkane Studios ETA Out now Players 1 “WHETHER YOU PLAY AS CORVO OR EMILY, DISHONORED REMAINS ROOTED IN VIOLENT ESPIONAGE” Forget Metal Gear’s kidnappy Fulton balloons, the concealed blades of Assassin’s Creed, or Saints Row’s Manapult. The wonderful Void Timepiece has ’em all beat. The best game gadget since Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun, this devilishly inventive gizmo lets you view two time periods simultaneously, flick between them, then creep up and slit enemy throats in such seamless fashion, you’ll be back in the present before the corpses hit the ground in the past. It shows Arkane’s stealth sequel at its very best, and cements the series as one of the most effortlessly clever around. In most games, the Void Timepiece would be…

The decision to wall off Modern Warfare Remastered behind Infinite Warfare’s expensive premium edition has gone down about as poorly as a WWF rally serving up panda burgers. The good news? Captain Price’s magnificently moustached shooter still holds up. Sure, anti-aliasing is poor – the game looks rather jagged – but the crunching weapons still thrill, while those snappily paced levels have rarely been topped, even nine years on. Throw in a spruced-up take on COD 4’s beloved multiplayer, and this is a package that easily outguns Infinite Warfare. Now let’s hope Activision sees sense and puts it on general release.…

After accessing Poké Pelago – a charming Pokémon getaway – from the menu, you’ll find it populated with the captured creatures currently residing in your PC. Essentially, it’s a set of base-building minigames about harvesting beans which can be spent on developing the Poké Pelago islands. Isle Aplenny lets you plant and grow berries. Isle Abeens attracts wild (and mostly rubbish) Pokémon. Isle Avue is for Pokémon recuperation. Isle Aphun contains a cave for them to fetch items from. And a stay on Isle Evelup slightly raises their stats. Rewards are minor, but with islands only unlocking when you’ve boxed a set amount of Pokémon, there’s even more incentive to catch ‘em all.…

Tough time In July, I started having pains in my hands, which has now been diagnosed as arthritis at the young age of 17. This has put a dent in my gaming and writing time. I continue to read your magazine, but merely holding it hurts, and that’s before I try to pick up my PlayStation controller. I have pushed myself the last two weekends to enjoy the Infinite Warfare beta, and I am now paying the price. (I really, really enjoyed it and can’t wait to pick up the final game.) I also want to get Battlefield 1 and Watch Dogs 2, which will easily take me into next year and beyond. Although my hands are bad, it has put into perspective how much I take gaming and writing…

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Format PS4, XO ETA Autumn 2017 This may well be the most votes a game in this list has ever received! Read more about Rockstar’s latest on p34. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD Format Switch, Wii U ETASpring 2017 Despite all the Switch excitement, Zelda can’t compete with cowboys. HORIZON: ZERO DAWN FormatPS4 ETA 3 March 2017 Robo-dinosaurs come clanking back on to the list after a long absence. Will this be the game to get a PS4 Pro for? SPIDER-MAN Format PS4 ETAWinter 2017 It’s rumoured this game will feature Mr Negative as the main villain, but you lot are Mr Positive that it’ll be a corker. MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA Format PS4, XO, PC ETASummer 2017 Head to p28 for a galaxy-sized…

“A GAME WHERE YOU FINISH THE LAST BOSS, TURN IT OFF AND FORGET ABOUT IT – I DID NOT WANT TO MAKE A GAME LIKE THAT!” Often in interviews you know roughly what to expect before you walk in the room. With industry veteran and Grasshopper CEO Suda51, we had no earthly idea. This is a man who made waves with interactive detective novel The Silver Case (1999), before helming survival horror Michigan: Report From Hell (2004), complex shooter-noir Killer7 (2005), and Kinect powered baseball action Diabolical Pitch (2012). True to his unpredictable oeuvre, Mr 51 swerved through a variety of topics. We came for his newly localised re-release of The Silver Case, we also got his appreciation of a good title screen, his skinny legs, and his burning desire…

Thanks to Minecraft, there are now at least a million games about building things with blocks that you’ve collected from around you. Mined, you might say, so that you can craft. This month our versatile reporter straps on his tool belt and, erm, gun, to check out Stellar Overload. It’s about building, sure, but with a few twists – including a more refined art style, and a single-player campaign that spins a tale of space war and kidnapping. Right then. 0 MINUTES While this is a game about construction, I’ve made enough wonky houses with badly planned stairs and uncomfortable-looking bedrooms by this point to last a lifetime. So I decide to try the single-player to see how Stellar Overload works its crafting charms over a…

Topping the leaderboard this issue HILL START It’s been a while since we were genuinely excited by Sonic The Hedgehog, but fan-made demo Sonic Utopia has us spinning in our seats. Described as an experiment that “tries to expand on Sonic gameplay in an intuitive way in 3D”, it reimagines the Green Hill Zone as an open world. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/gmutopia BOOM TOWN PS4 looks like it will hit 50 million consoles sold by the end of the year (and PS VR sales are ‘on track’), while Xbox One has enjoyed an almost 1000% rise in units shifted since the release of the Xbox One S. So it’s good news all round – for Sony, for Microsoft, and for the industry in general. Happy days! MARS ATTACKS Id…

Format PS4, PS3 Publisher Deep Silver Developer Atlus ETA 14 February 2017 Atlus’ social sim RPG has been out for almost three months in Japan, but Europe has to wait until February to gets its hands on the game. So what do players over there think? Is the game we’ve been looking forward to for years worth the wait? Yes, says Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, who have given it 39/40 already, making it the highest-scoring game in the series so far. That number puts it in the same league as Uncharted 4, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and A Link To The Past – basically, it sounds like a classic. Drama class What’s so good about it, then? According to the translated review, it’s the high production quality, the fun battles,…

Format PS4 Pub Sega Dev Sega ETA 24 January 2017 Feels like we’ve been waiting forever for this PS4 exclusive slice of Oriental thug life to arrive – it’s been out in Japan since early 2015. But the final touches of localisation are almost done, and we recently got to see more of Goro Majima, one of the game’s two playable protagonists (the other being Kazuma Kiryu) in action, wielding his trademark weapon – a tanto knife. Players swap between Majima and Kiryu every couple of chapters, and each has his own seperate story, although Sega say the plots intertwine along the way.…

Format TBC Pub Thatgamecompany Dev Thatgamecompany ETA Winter 2017 Here’s a seriously mysterious proposition. We know it will be multiplatform. We know it will be multiplayer. We know Thatnextgame is just a working title. However, the most important thing we know about this curious morsel is that it’s being made by Thatgamecompany, the studio responsible for one of the most perfect gaming experiences of forever – the 2012 masterpiece, Journey. So, yes, info is thin on the ground, but it’s the next game from the Journey people. We’re allowed to be dancing-in-our-pants excited.…

10 No Man’s Sky 9 FIFA 17 8 Gears Of War 4 7 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 6 Fire Emblem Fates 5 XCOM 2 4 Dark Souls III 3 Battlefield 1 2 Overwatch 1Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End In the end, it was no contest. Nathan Drake’s final adventure won your hearts like nothing else. We can’t blame you – we’d follow that cheeky smile anywhere too. Disagree with the results of unrestrained democracy here? Let us know your picks on our social media pages or via email! Survey conducted on 4 November…

“It’s time for the dramatic announcement that’s sure to make everyone faint. It’s the return of the wurm! The next instalment of the epic award-winning duelling tug-of-war is coming! Push your coloured sack of flesh past your opponent using weapons ranging from swords to bows and arrows, battle axes, and more. Fulfil your bloodrite and deposit your corpse into the bowels of the flying worm known as Nidhogg. Players have a variety of acrobatic moves at their disposal – divekick your opponent, or disarm them through a parry. Hurl your weapon at them or even try to run away! Choose from ten different multiscreen fields of play – battle in the castle, stomp in the swamp, slaughter by the water… the world of Nidhogg beckons you. Enjoy new monstrous visuals…

Like last time, you upgrade abilities with Runes, which can be located with the Heart – the returning Void ticker is still as disgustingly squelchy and useful for finding hidden goodies as ever. The Heart can also be whipped out to detect Bone Charms, with the returning modifiers again affecting your abilities. Some dole out more HP when you’re eating fruit, while others carry double-edged qualities, such as a variant that increases your movement speed but sees you take more damage during fights. Whether hunting Runes or Bone Charms, collectibles are often guarded by enemies or bloodflies.…

Locate and collect special kits on maps to turn the tide with Elite Classes. The Tank Hunter carries a massive 1918 Tankgewehr capable of destroying armoured vehicles, the Flame Trooper roasts foes with a hefty flamethrower, and the sturdy Sentry dons metal plates for a defence boost. Picture Star Wars Battlefront’s Heroes and Villains but, you know, real. There are also four regular classes. Support suppresses and resupplies. Scouts provide reconnaissance and engage from distance. The Engineer is gone, its traits given to Assault, which destroys vehicles, and Medic, which repairs them. Levelling-up earns you war bonds to unlock equipment (limpet charges, mortars, trench scopes, tripwires) and attachments (scopes, recoil counters, under-barrels).…

Civilization V didn’t have the strongest release. Firaxis changed the art style, added new features, and tweaked a lot of the core systems, but it didn’t quite spark with life… Sound familiar? However, with the release of the Gods & Kings expansion, and later Brave New World, Firaxis turned it around. Fans went from hailing Civ IV as the pinnacle of the series to largely moving over to the sequel. We may see that pattern repeat with Civilization VI – it has an interesting core, but it may take an intelligent expansion to tease it out and make it accessible to players.…

1 Castlevania (NES – 1988) While the series would eventually come to be defined by open-ended exploration, Castlevania’s debut was a surprisingly straightforward linear action platformer. You had three lives, 18 stages to make your way through, and a whole host of preternatural predators out for your blood. It also established the Castlevania mythology, pitting the righteous Belmont clan against Dracula and his forces of evil. Later entries would render this lore rather more complex… 2 Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES – 1990) Konami drew inspiration from Nintendo’s flagship franchises for its gothic follow-up, introducing light role-playing elements of the kind seen in the Legend Of Zelda series, as well as the non-linear exploration on show in Metroid. In a sense, this was the game that most directly sowed the…

GLOVE WHAT YOU DO Controllers? Pah! Where we’re going, we don’t need controllers. The Gloveone enables you to pop on, well, a glove and use vibrations to feel physical features and the shape and weight of in-game items. Ten sensors across your palm and fingers deliver all of the info you need to know. Welcome to the future. FIGMENT TO BE Why pay for an expensive VR headset when you can just transform your phone into one? The Figment VR is a phone case with flip out goggles to let you experience portable virtual reality. It might be a bit bright, though, as there’s no foam or headset… CHAIR TODAY VR has a problem when it comes to controls. We feel fine when we’re static, but the minute our in-game…