Tabla de contenidos para January 2017 en Gamesmaster

“IF YOU LOST HOURS SEARCHING ITS LONELY, AFFECTING UNIVERSE FIRST TIME AROUND, THIS IS A SOLID REASON TO GO BACK” It’s called the Foundation update for a reason. Whether you consider No Man’s Sky to be finished or not, this promises to be the first step on a journey that will change the game. It adds base building, construction, improved interfaces, and tweaks to mystical algorithms which make the universe even more beautiful than before. While the idea of base building is sound, the reality falls somewhat flat. Actually building the stuff is simple, and finding alien employees to staff stations is fun, but it still has the distant emptiness that was present before the update. If you want to create grand structures with the easy, drop-in, drop-out creativity of…

“COMPELLING VOICE WORK MAKES A SEA OF NONDESCRIPT NPCS SEEM LIKE INDIVIDUALS” Showstopper is the rebooted Hitman’s defining level. Vast, detailed, and impossibly glamorous, the first episode of 2016’s season is the perfect playground for avant-garde assassination. It all started with a single workshopped idea: Agent 47 visits a fashion show. Where, and why, were yet to be decided. Early ideas swirled around London’s Battersea Power Plant. “It was a close call,” says creative director Christian Elverdam, “but eventually that location was dropped because we wanted to go back to Paris, which felt like an iconic setting for Agent 47”. Searing style, sneering new money, and a sharply dressed assassin caught in the middle? Perfect. From this concept Showstopper expanded: a catwalk, a packed bar for the post-show festivities, backroom…

Format XO, PC Developer Super Mega Team ETA Summer 2017 Web http://bit.ly/gmriseandshine Let’s face it, when it comes to visual style, we’ve all got a weakness for indie game art that looks like our golden memories of Saturday morning cartoons, but Rise & Shine takes animated nostalgia to another level. From ex-Worms and Plants vs Zombies devs, this side-scrolling bullet hell puzzler isn’t just eye punchingly gorgeous, its titular characters, Rise, and his gun, Shine, are on a quest to save the world of videogames from disaster. Yep, pretty andself-referential. First off. How on earth does it look this good? Hand-drawn illustrations. “It’s been a lot of work. Usually, when making a side-scrolling game, you do lots of tiling textures for the floor, different elements like trees, rocks, houses, etc,…

 Format PC Developer Q-Games ETA Spring 2017 Web http://bit.ly/gmdeadhungry “FAIL TO MEET THE MINIMUM FLAVOUR REQUIREMENTS AND IT’S NOT GOING TO BE PRETTY” Somehow blanking out those teenage years you spent slaving over a molten hot deep fat fryer for pittance, putting on a VR headset automatically makes working behind a fast food counter a ridiculous amount of fun – see Job Simulator for further proof. As with any game from the last 20 years, zombies officially make things at least 54% better and PixelJunk developer Q-Games know it. Thus Dead Hungry, where you have to assemble and serve burgers, fries, and pizzas to the hungry undead before they decide to eat you, a humble food truck worker, is absurdly stupid and brilliantly chaotic. It might not be the most…

Maintaining a relationship between a fictional boy and a made up creature is no easy task, but Sony Japan Studio achieves it by having Trico mirror the ways our real world pets might behave. If you’ve ever formed a strong bond with a dog, cat, hamster, or goldfish (hey, it can happen), it’s highly likely you’ll share a similarly special attachment to Trico. It goes a long way to have a creature that mimics our own favourite animal friends. The detail and design of Trico’s eyes and face in particular are top notch, and his expressions further nurture those fuzzy feelings for the feathered brute. When you’re injured, he looks concerned. When it’s Trico that’s wounded, he might lay down, taking deep, ragged breaths. In a fight, you can see…

 Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Annecy ETA Out now Players 1-4 “THE BEST PRESENT STEEP BRINGS TO THE HYPOTHERMIA-COURTING PARTY IS THE SPORTS WHEEL” Hot damn this is some good videogame snow. Clearly Ubisoft Annecy has made a blood pact with Jack Frost, because this extreme sports open world is blessed with absurdly sexy frozen H2-whoa. Wade through the white stuff and it sloshes satisfyingly under riders’ heavily padded feet. Listen to it crunch in bitterly cold fashion. Watch it crumple whenever you bugger up a landing; your adrenaline-seeking boarder crashing into pristine ice banks like they were gigantic frozen meringues. Judged purely on its snow, Steep gets an easy passing grade. Step back a little from the ludicrously lofty precipice of this open-world Alps effort,…

“CAPCOM’S RETURN TO OLD CURB-STOMPING GROUNDS IS MORE REMINISCENT OF DEAD RISING 3” Format XO (reviewed), PC Publisher Microsoft Developer Capcom Vancouver ETA Out now Players 1-4 Frank West is exactly the kind of hero we needed after 2016: a man who knows how to enjoy himself in spite of circumstance. Sure, his acerbic wit and not-very-professional detachment are a front, but it’s still soothing to spend time over the shoulder of a character who’s happy to wade through a scrum of the undead and bust into a military fort dressed like Captain Commando, wielding a swordfish crossbow and cracking wise all the while. Why so serious, indeed. West has lived through this nightmare once already, of course, back when he kicked off the series in the Willamette mall. He’s…

“THERE’S TONNES OF ADVENTURING FUN IN ITTLE’S BRIEF RUNTIME, EVEN IF IT CAN’T HIT THOSE ZELDA PEAKS” Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher Nicalis Developer Ludosity ETA Out now Players 1 Let’s kick things off with a threat: Nintendo, do you want to see a grown man lying in the foetal position in his home-made Tingle pyjamas, softly weeping? You don’t? Then release Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, a game promised two years ago , or we’re releasing those photos. Sigh… If only there was a morsel of Zelda-style adventuring to keep us ticking over. A throwback to classic dungeon exploring but with the freedom to tackle tombs in our preferred order. Step forward and take a bow, A Link Between Wor… er, Ittle Dew 2! The…

“A CLOAKING DEVICE RENDERS IT INVISIBLE UNTIL IT ROUNDHOUSE KICKS YOU IN THE FACE” You have a small chance of triggering Zed Time whenever you get a kill. It lasts three seconds and makes everything go suuuper slooow. Customise avatars with a range of cosmetic items. We stick a riot helmet on our knight before slathering his face in blue Braveheart paint. There are plenty of ways to fight Zeds. Frenzy them into ramming you, freeze and burn them, knock them down, and stun them with EMP grenades. The game adjusts the difficulty level depending on how many people are playing. With a full complement of six, bosses take some beating. Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Tripwire Interactive Developer Tripwire Interactive ETA Out now Players 1-6 Tripwire’s wave-based zombie survival…

THE MOST DEDICATED TEAM IN THE BUSINESS Final Fantasy XV inspired the GM team to go on its own road trip this month. We got about four miles outside the city before we remembered we’re paid to stay in the office and make a magazine. Ben Griffin Our hard-working senior staff writer penned so many of the entries for our gargantuan cover feature this month that we fear he’s actually forgotten any and all facts that don’t relate to games. Though admittedly he didn’t know that many in the first place. What’s your New Year’s resolution? Discover and name a planet. Rob Crossland There’ll be no New Year’s celebration for our art editor this year – he swears his partying days are behind him. Between that and his new obsession…

Yes! I’m hoping for a Bulletstorm sequel and a new DC game from Rocksteady. That would be epic. Oh and Red Dead Redemption 2 is out! Jon Gates, Facebook Only if Big Rigs 2 is released. Sean Mike Hollyman, Facebook Putting together this issue’s cover feature has definitely got me excited for 2017’s upcoming gaming delights. I reckon it’s going to be one to remember! Robin Valentine, Acting Editor If it includes Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, then it’ll be a good year for this gamer. Michael Scoates, @FantasyMeister Every year is a good year for gaming. 2017 shall be no exception! Barry Burke, Facebook It’s been a bit of a boring generation (in my opinion), fingers crossed though! UK.A, @UK_ASSASS1N…

Survival sims usually involve making axes and chopping down trees. Maybe a dinosaur here and there. Vehicle building is a new one, but that’s what My Summer Car is all about – crafting a ride for the holidays while managing the usual drives of hunger, thirst, and going to the toilet. Oh, and swearing in Finnish. 0 MINUTES Even having watched the trailers I’m still not entirely sure what to expect here. There’s a promise of a car, obviously, swearing in Finnish (the developer’s language), the ability to urinate wherever and whenever I want, and the joy of permadeath. As selling points go those are… unusual. However, within minutes the real game becomes clear: building the car. And not in a crafting kind of way. Oh no, building the entire…

“It’s haute couture, are you insane? We might as well just rob a bank. You need to get some help.” “Question, and do consider the diamond shape: do I go Marlena or Brook on these brows?” “Madison, please. The world already suspects you did the acid attack on Cecilia Sanchez. Don’t you think people will connect the dots?” “We played at Novikov’s wedding about ten years back, before his glitterati makeover. Nasty bugger. Hey, as long as drinks are free, people tend to forget how tight you are with the Russian mob.”…

 Format PS4, PC Developer Foam Sword ETA April 2017 Web http://bit.ly/gmknightsandbikes “IT’S ALL ABOUT REMEMBERING EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A CHILD OUT TO FIX EVERYTHING” If Stranger Things has reminded us of anything, it’s that kids on bikes are the true heroes. The ones who just saddle up, work out the clues, get stuff done, and beat the bad guys. Perhaps we didn’t have our very own summer that was identical to The Goonies – the ’80s have a lot to answer for – but we all have a memory of how it felt to wake up with those days off stretching ahead and a bike ready to take you on all kinds of adventures. Knights And Bikes wants you to remember exactly that feeling of true…

 Format PS4 (reviewed), PC Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Montreal ETA Out now Players 1-6 “AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, YOU’RE BLESSED WITH A SCREECH ATTACK THAT DISINTEGRATES OPPONENTS” As we find ourselves looking down on a future Paris reclaimed by nature, we feel a conspicuous absence. No, not the lack of humans, but the fact we can swoop down from above the trees, zip through narrow alleys and dart through holes in crumbling buildings, and not feel even a little bit sick. Ubisoft Montreal has somehow captured the exhilarating sensation of flight without making your stomach spin like a washing machine – and it’s central to a VR experience that’s equal parts relaxing and intensely challenging. A free flight mode is the peaceful part. Here you can simply enjoy the…

Warp-strike different bits of enemies and sometimes you’ll slice them straight off. Removing a robot’s shoulder-mounted cannon is always a good bet. Final Fantasy XV’s encounters make the characters feel every bit as agile and deadly when you’re in control as they appear to be in cutscenes. You can hold L1 and team up with your allies for a special attack. These make you invulnerable for a few seconds, which is handy. You don’t need to micromanage your friends – they just get on with combat on their own. You’ll need to deal most of the damage though.…

“CREATE ANYTHING FROM WACKY RIDES TO COASTERS THAT TEETER ON THE EDGE OF VOMITVILLE” Behind the layers of delightfully pretty graphics is a deep, extensive creation system waiting to be mastered. It’s as easy to spend as much time meticulously building scenery as it is constructing the coasters themselves. Besides having fun on the rides, don’t forget park visitors have other needs, such as eating, drinking and going to the toilet. Go mild or wild with loops for your coaster creations. A mix of both ensures something for everyone, regardless of stomach integrity. Format PC Publisher Frontier Developments Developer Frontier Developments ETA Out now Players 1 Theme park sims have been around for over two decades and, a bit like the coasters themselves, the genre has seen some major peaks…

Format PC Publisher Finish Line Games Developer Finish Line Games ETA Out now Players 1 Shafts of sunlight shine over a field of swaying corn, their green leaves towering high above your head. Hidden from view, something rustles in the crops. No, it’s not a stray fieldmouse – it’s a piece of… sentient corn,and it’s running away. This brief glimpse is the perfect incentive to get you to uncover the story behind the creation of walking, talking grain by some dense scientists who misinterpreted a government memo. Maize is a walking sim with puzzling elements thrown in. Prepare to meet with a blaze of colour at every turn, exploring scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Pixar film. Curiosity is rewarded too. Some items can be used to…

You can never be equipped with enough gaming facts, stats, and nuggets of knowledge. And to become a truly wise and revered scholar you’ll need to be acquainted with everything , from the eye-rolling ‘everybody knows that’ to the crowd pleasing ‘how the hell do you know these things?’. If you fancy yourself as an overflowing fount of gaming trivia, then you need to make space on your shelf of learning for the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition. It’s more than 200 pages of feats and facts, high scores and history, and much more besides. The largest Lego diorama based on a videogame map? Boom! It’s in there. The longest wall run in Titanfall? Wallop! It’s in there. First gamer in space? Honk-honk! It’s in there. The…

They say that death and taxes are the two great inevitabilities in life, but given that the Cayman Islands isn’t home to any crafty corporate death havens, at least not that we know of, it seems reasonably safe to say that basic mortality is the more inescapable of the two. Videogames, for their part, have always been incredibly keen to confront death, although not in the chin-stroking philosophical sense. Instead, games offer the chance to inflict senseless slaughter in a consequence-free environment, usually offering some flimsy narrative explanation to justify your virtual violence. Every once in a while, though, a videogame death will stop us in our tracks. Perhaps it’s the demise of a beloved character. Maybe it’s a doomed NPC that represents something greater than themselves. Or perhaps it’s…

“STAND IN FRONT OF A GIANT GLOBE, SPIN IT AROUND, AND CHOOSE A LOCATION” Despite being an undeniably impressive resource of visual information, Google Earth has always been something of an oddity. While almost every Google product benefits the tech giant by gathering data from users, Google Earth gives data back as a god’s-eye view of the planet. It’s not for work, but it’s not really for play – it’s simply an experience, meant as a demonstration of Google’s knowledge. Google Earth VR, available on the HTC Vive for free on Steam, is the Google Earth you know, but up close. Stand in front of a giant globe, spin it around, and choose a location. Zoom in and fly around, seeing astonishing landscapes from all angles. Grab the sun at…

“For the longest time we had this desire to walk the catwalk. And then the moment you took to the catwalk… it was such a good example of fantasy fulfillment. Not just in killing your target but the voyeurism that we always want to have in the game. What does it feel like to be the model on the catwalk? What does it feel like to be in Morocco in the middle of a military coup? Asking some of these voyeuristic questions is beautiful in a way. The catwalk became the image of Paris.”…

Format PS4, PC Dev Videocult ETA Spring 2017 Web http://bit.ly/gmrainworld You’ve heard of Burmese, Maine Coon, and even Munchkin (aww, those ’ickle legs) but the hero of this 16-bit side scroller might just surprise you. You’re a slugcat and that means exploring an apocalyptic world as a furry and slightly gloopy protagonist. No, don’t run away! He’s still cute and he needs you to help him find his family in a hideous abandoned industrial environment where rain that will crush your bones keeps animals in hiding. See? Now you’re interested. It might look like a simple side-scrolling platformer, but Rain World is hiding an open-world narrative that lets you explore in any direction you like. More than 1000 procedurally generated rooms appear…

 Format 3DS Publisher Nintendo Developer Nintendo EAD ETA Out now Players 1 “YOU LEARN HOW TO ESTABLISH CONCEPTS, DEVELOP THEM, AND TWIST THEM TO SURPRISE PLAYERS” Mario’s co-creator Takashi Tezuka paid the ultimate compliment to the Super Mario Maker community by claiming that Nintendo’s own designers had been inspired by their creativity, while acknowledging there was room for improvement. To that end, this 3DS port aims to be a better teacher, but it comes at a cost – you can’t share courses online anymore. That sounds like an unfair trade-off. But anyone familiar with the Wii U game knows the quality of user-created levels leaned more towards chaff than wheat – and the much larger 3DS userbase would likely have tipped the scales even further. Here, your potential audience is…

The trick system can be super rewarding when you learn to tame your board and skis. Pity, then, it’s not always as reliable as it should be. An aggressive safety system stabilises your ollies, kiboshing any plans to really cut loose with jumps. Turn this off in the options menu and you’re granted much more agency over the height and pitch of take-offs. Once you’re properly lined up with a ramp or ridge, build up your jump for a second or so, then release at the highest point. After you’re airborne you can rotate the left stick to hit manoeuvres, then tweak these with grabs by holding the shoulder buttons. Just make sure you don’t get greedy going for an extra fakie or nosegrab – if you don’t give yourself…

Sparkly stuff Magic is only available to be drawn from elemental sources scattered around Eos. You can combine elements together to increase their potency, or make it so you cast a spell at random. Introducing items into the mix can add healing properties, cause enemies to be frozen in time and more. Fire hurts Well, lightning and ice hurt too, but fire is especially sore. When you cast any spell, you need to keep the location of your teammates in mind, as you can accidentally set them alight along with the enemy, which isn’t good. Magic in this world is incredibly destructive, so it’s best used sparingly. God help us Plough through the main story for a bit and you’ll soon get your first summon. These massive attacks from friendly…

“LOADING SCREENS ARE LONG, IT SUFFERS FROM SLOWDOWN, AND IT CRASHES MORE THAN ONCE” If you’re not careful, the enemy AI will completely swarm you and you’ll have to beat foes back with large area of effect attacks. Each of your heroes has different abilities mapped to the D-pad. You can pause the action with the X button to play more tactically. A lot of the battles boil down to killing tonnes of orcs before you can move to the next cinematic. A sign of a rather hasty port, these icons can’t be selected with a controller and are probably a hangover from the PC version. Format PS4, XO (reviewed), PC Publisher THQ Nordic Developer King Art Games ETA Out now Players 1 Dwarves. They gorge on beer, love a…

Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Pub Daedalic Entertainment Dev Daedalic Entertainment ETA Out now Players 1 Ordinarily you wouldn’t be glad that a game started by dropping bombs on you. Yet in Silence this devastation creates a doorway into a beautifully vibrant realm, full of details which’ll fill you with a thirst to discover its fantastical world. A point-and-click adventure to the bone, Silence is the follow up to The Whispered World, and has more of the same enticing storytelling. It’s all relatively easy, which means you can focus on falling in love with the three principal characters: Noah, elder brother to the young Renie, and Spot, a large green caterpillar. Yes, you read that right. A caterpillar. The story and spectrum of events you navigate lead you into bewitching…

Format PS4, XO, PC (reviewed) Publisher Microïds Developer Pendulo Studios ETA Out now Players 1 You might not have experienced the adventures of John Yesterday before, but you’ve played a game like this – an old school point-and-click adventure à la Monkey Island. That might sound like quite the treat, but its style also holds it back from greatness. Every object you find, and interaction you have, means something and is key to solving the various puzzles. Collect clues from conversations, and from world-foraging, to complete what would normally be mundane everyday life problems, such as finding your misplaced SD card. But here, the everyday becomes critical and crucial, and sometimes exactly as tedious as it sounds. Sure, there are moments where it all comes together and you give yourself…

“FINAL FANTASY VII EITHER TAPPED INTO OR CREATED A DEMAND FOR JRPGS OUTSIDE OF JAPAN” Developer Square Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Released 1997 Format PS1 Get it PSN, Steam, iOS App Store Legend has it the name Final Fantasy was first coined as an oblique reference to Square’s looming bankruptcy. The title suggested this NES RPG represented one final roll of the dice for an embattled developer, one last attempt to reverse its fortunes. As it turns out, the name was actually chosen to reflect Hironobu Sakaguchi’s personal situation – the series creator was on the verge of quitting games altogether. If that first Final Fantasy hadn’t sold well, Sakaguchi would have retrained in another industry. The origins Fortunately, Final Fantasy launched to respectable critical and commercial success in Japan,…