Hyper is Australia's leading multi-format gaming magazine. It consistently delivers all the information a gamer could want on all the next-generation consoles, handhelds, mobile phones and PC gaming as well as the latest Blu-Ray movie release.
Games thrive on conflict. With few exceptions, games involve some kind of competition against another force of some kind, whether it be an armed enemy or a turtle that has to be jumped on. Rather than looking at a specific genre in this issue of Hyper we instead chose to investigate a unifying concept in many games - war. Whether you're fighting the undead, Nazis, evil aliens or any combination thereof (space Nazis and Nazi zombies never seem to go out of style), the war for conquest, justice or simple survival lends an easily understandable and palpable urgency to games. Why do we love conflict so much? Read on to find out. WARGAMING Nothing but war. And gaming.…
Wargaming.net knows what it means to create niche games. In 1998, Victor Kislyi co-founded the company in Belarus, with a handful of enthusiast friends from high school whose initial development ideas revolved around improving on strategy juggernauts such as Civilization and Warcraft. Because of this, Wargaming was initially focused on PC-exclusive multiplayer strategy titles. DBA Online, the company’s maiden title, was a licensed digitised version of a tabletop game with 1,300 hand-painted units. This paved the way for Wargaming’s first original IP, Massive Assault, with another three releases in the series in as many years. Then Wargaming expanded. It bought out fellow Minsk-based studio Arise, and focused on creating real-time strategy series Order of War, with back-to-back titles released in 2009 and 2010. It was during this time that household-name…
Wargaming is a really interesting company. It’s developed one of the biggest money-spinners in gaming in the shape of World of Tanks, and while its effort on taking that same formula into the air – World of Warplanes – may have stalled, the more recent World of Warships is just as addictive and fun as its predecessor. We recently attended the recording of an upcoming promotional video for World of Warships, and it was a chance to see how Wargaming interfaces with museums and conservation societies in action. The company spent a weekend filming on and around the HMS Cavalier, a light cruiser that saw action in World War II, at the Chatham Historic Dockyards in the United Kingdom. The video — yet to be released — was hosted by…
DEVELOPER: UBISOFT MONTREAL PRODUCER: UBISOFT PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBO RELEASE DATE: TBA Three of history’s greatest warrior-types going at it sounds like the setting of a kid’s (read: my) bedroom. Surely the only way to claim the 'Ultimate Warrior' crown is to mush the plastic bodies of action figures together until one ends up victorious? But it seems Ubisoft Montreal has found a better path, taking up the cry of, “Chronology be damned!” with an attempt to create the most historically accurate, albeit chronologically inaccurate, competitive hack and slasher, to date. Thanks to a strong focus on each faction’s unique fighting style, this could be the definitive place for Vikings, Knights and Samurai to strut their stuff, creating intense individual bouts that put my epic plastic duels to shame. CLASH…
DEVELOPER: GEARBOX SOFTWARE PRODUCER: 2K GAMES PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBO RELEASE DATE: 3 MAY, 2016 Here at Hyper we have issues with being objective about Borderlands. Nothing shady is going down, it’s just we love it so damn much. Editor Wilks has put more time into Borderlands 2 than anyone thought humanly possibly, and I’ve championed Roland and Axton more than could be considered healthy — variation may be the spice of life for some but, y'know, turrets. Needless to say, we have huge expectations when it comes to Battleborn. At first, the game looked like Gearbox's own MOBA, but to pigeonhole it in such a way is not only lazy but downright wrong. FLAVOUR CITY The MOBA element comes from Meltdown, one of Battleborn’s three multiplayer modes. This mode…
DEVELOPER: POCKETWATCH GAMES PRODUCER: POCKETWATCH GAMES PLATFORM: PC, MAC, LINUX RELEASE DATE: TBA 2016 Sometimes real-time strategy games can be a little overwhelming. There’s nothing wrong with having a hugely engrossing game to fall into, but when every game relies on how many attacks per minute, clicks per second, or macros per millisecond you’re able to achieve, things can get carpal tunnel crazy. Tooth and Tail plans to simplify this, selling itself as an arcade RTS that’s easy to pick up and play. All matches sit under 12 minutes, and the gameplay itself utilises only four buttons, making it just as comfortable to play on a gamepad as it is with a keyboard and mouse. SUPPLY AND DEMAND Simplifying controls doesn’t mean the game is light on. While the devs…
