Table of contents for Issue 271 in Hyper

WITHIN SECONDS OF PLAYING THE DIVISION 2 AT DEVELOPER MASSIVE’S STUDIOS ALL THE OLD HABITS COME FLOODING BACK: WE DO JUMPING JACKS IN THE STAGING AREA. OUR RECENTLY ACTIVATED, HIGHLY-TRAINED, WORLD-SAVING SLEEPER AGENTS PASS THE TIME WITH EMOTES LIKE THE MACARENA AND SLOW HAND CLAPS, AS TECHY PEOPLE FIDDLE WITH SERVER STUFF TO GET THINGS STARTED. AT ONE POINT SOMEONE SEES A DOG IN-GAME AND WE SCRAMBLE DESPERATELY OVER ABANDONED CARS AND PLANT COVERED WALLS TO CONFIRM THAT, YES, IT’S DEFINITELY A DOG. TECHNICALLY WE’RE MEANT TO BE RESTORING ORDER TO AN EPIDEMIC RAVAGED WASHINGTON DC BUT, YOU KNOW, DOG. This, along with the direct PvP multiplayer I’ll get to later, was largely great fun (although you can’t actually pet the dog) because messing about with other people in a…

What does it mean for a game to have that “Tom Clancy’s” logo with that little tactical man in the goggles on top? If you started with the Rainbow Six series, it meant you were in for an intensely tactical shooting experience, where studying maps and carefully diagramming assault routes was the only path to victory. If Splinter Cell was your introduction to the Clancy clan, it meant thoughtful stealth fused with “it could happen tomorrow” stories of shadow governments and insurrections. Or if you started with HAWX, er, sorry about that. The late author has lent his name to a veritable universe that has assembled games for every interest at this point, as long as you’re into highly detailed military machinery. Let’s take a look at the best ones.…

Judging the best Total War games is tricky. Maybe it’s because the concept of ‘best’ depends on what kind of mood you’re in – I play them on rotation, influenced by whichever books, films, or other games I’m consuming at the time. Watching the Battle of the Hornburg makes me crave Total War: Warhammer; reading about the crusades make me yearn for Medieval 2. These are ‘feel’ games, which satisfy cravings beyond the need for sharp strategy or pitched battles. They let you twist history, create new stories, or roleplay as your favourite generals. There’s also precious little to separate them, especially at the top end of the order. The factors that make the series a success are found in every game, and it’s often only the strength of the…

The best Warhammer 40K starter sets – indeed, all Warhammer 40K starter sets – start with a grim tone: “In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war”. Shiver. However, its bleakness is matched by its accuracy and it sticks in the memory. It’s memorable because it is dark and scene-setting; and it is accurate because its universe is filled with a high quantity of things, races and events that are almost perfectly conducive to war and suffering. For example: chaos-driven daemons that claw into reality; evil space elves that torture people for sustenance; and organisms akin to the worst kind of H.R. Gigernightmares that invade and devour entire planets. It has long been a rich and fascinating setting and universe, and it is full of different stories…

When it comes to the best strategy games, we look for a variety of elements. We like a mix between explosive, large-scale action and more complex games of difficult decisions. In this list, you’ll find everything from fast-paced and competitive action games to long burn 4X games. In the case of series with multiple entries, we’ve picked what we feel was the best game to play now. We might feature more than one entry from the same series if we think they’re different enough that you might benefit from playing both. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2’s cosmic battles are spectacular. There’s a trio of vaguely 4X-y campaigns following the three of the Warhammer 40K factions: The Imperium, Necron Empire and the nasty Tyranid Hives, but you can…

1 Injuries will affect what you can do: hurt your leg and you can’t run; damage your shoulder and your aim will be off. Taking time to fix injuries is essential. 2 You can make your own entry points in Breakpoint by using the torch cutter to create gaps in fences. We can’t wait to see what other freedoms the game will offer. 3 Even though you’re trapped on an island the Ghosts have access to a variety of vehicles, and the handling has been improved for this soft-sequel to Wildlands. 4 Each class has its own weapons to master, and in Breakpoint you’ll need to keep these guns clean. If you don’t, their aim and power will be affected.…

So you want to join the esteemed ranks of video game guards, do you? Be warned, it’s a tough life. The hours are long, the work is repetitive, and constant vigilance is a must. And then there’s the bad PR to consider. Forever being throttled, stabbed, shot and blown up, and usually without the slightest warning bar a slight shuffling noise in the shadows behind them, people tend to assume that our noble troops are a bit stupid. They’re not. They’re just trained in a very particular way. And if you want to join them, you’ll have to get with that program sharpish. Read on, and we’ll take you through the official training manual. KEEP YOUR BACK TO ANY OPEN DOORWAY You definitely don’t want to be looking towards the…

For new players that may not be familiar with War Thunder, how would you describe the game? At its core, War Thunder is a realistic vehicular combat game. That means if you ever wanted to know how it feels to, for example, fly in a P-51 Mustang or drive a T-72 main battle tank, this is the game for you. You can try more than 1300 aircraft, helicopters, tanks and ships from the 1930s to the 2000s and clash with players from all over the world in epic battles in the air, on land and at sea. One of the game’s key focuses is accessibility, so all you need to get started are a mouse and keyboard or gamepad to enjoy a realistic, physics-based vehicle experience, which before you could…

““GOOD KILL, GOOD KILL,” CHIRPS THE AC-130’S PILOT AS YOU ANNIHILATE SMALL CROWDS OF RUSSIAN NATIONALISTS FROM ON HIGH.” MODERN WARFARE’S MISSION BRIEFINGS MIGHT BE PORNOGRAPHY FOR HARDCORE MILITARY FETISHISTS – ALL BRISTLING GUN BARRELS AND INTIMATE HARDWARE CLOSE-UPS – BUT THERE’S REALLY ONLY ONE VEHICLE THAT MAKES AN IMPACT DESERVING OF INFINITY WARD’S NEAR-REVERENTIAL TREATMENT. FOR A GAME THAT’S IN CONSTANT, UNABASHED THRALL TO MILITARY HARDWARE, THE AC-130 ALONE MANAGES TO COMMUNICATE THE SHEER, TERRIFYING MIGHT OF WESTERN POWER – AND THE HORRIFICALLY ONE-SIDED NATURE OF MODERN WAR. Your first good look at the AC-130, by way of a briefing scene, offers little more than a plane covered in stats. A 25mm Gatling gun capable of firing 1,800 rounds per minute, a 40mm Bofors autocannon capable of a more…

“THE CLANCY NAME DOESN’T IMPLY SO MUCH AS GUARANTEE A TALE OF MODERN-DAY MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL FETISHISM” FAR CRY 5 WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE POLITICAL, THE GAME’S STORY AND SETTING NAILED DOWN LONG BEFORE THE PHRASE ‘TRUMP COUNTRY’ HAD ANY MEANING. THAT’S WHAT UBISOFT WOULD PREFER YOU TO BELIEVE, AT LEAST. EVEN BEFORE GLOBALISM WAS YANKED INTO ITS ONGOING EXISTENTIAL CULTURE WAR, THE US HAD ITS POLITICAL DARK SIDE, AND SO FAR CRY 5 – A TALE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS, CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND GUN NUTS – HAD POLITICAL COMMENTARY BAKED HARD INTO ITS THEMATIC CODEBASE. THE DIVISION 2 FOLLOWS A SIMILAR PATTERN: IT IS AN INESCAPABLY POLITICAL WORK THAT, WHETHER BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN, TAKES ON EXTRA LAYERS OF MEANING GIVEN THE CURRENT STATE OF THE WORLD INTO WHICH IT HAS…

THESE DIVISION 2 TIPS WILL COME IN VERY HANDY IF YOU’RE THINKING OF GETTING INTO THE GAME POST-LAUNCH, BECAUSE THE DIVISION 2 IS A MAMMOTH GAME TO ENGROSS YOURSELF WITH. PRIOR TO THE GAME’S RELEASE, WE SPOKE TO ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR CHADI EL ZIBAOUI WHO GAVE US A PLETHORA OF DIVISION 2 TIPS FOR BEGINNERS, SO THERE SHOULD BE PLENTY OF HANDY TIPS IN HERE FOR ANYONE NEW TO THE GAME. READ ON FOR ALL OF OUR BEST DIVISION 2 TIPS. DO THE FIRST MISSION! Yes it sounds obvious for a The Division 2 tip but it’s easy to run off into the world and forget the essentials. The first mission doesn’t just ground you in the story, it also give you vital progression. “You need to start by doing…

THE METAL GEAR SOLID FRANCHISE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LITTLE... WEIRD. FROM CYBERNETIC NINJAS TO AUTOMATED CAMOUFLAGE TO IMMENSE WALKING TANKS, FRANCHISE DIRECTOR HIDEO KOJIMA HAS NEVER SHIED AWAY FROM THE BIZARRE. BUT THE MOST INTERESTING BIT OF KOJIMAS STRANGENESS IS THE DYSTOPIAN FUTURE HIS SERIES DEPICTS. Each entry in the Metal Gear Solid franchise (well, except for MGS3) makes a series of bold predictions of the state of the world in the early years of the 21st century. But as we dive towards 202, we find ourselves living in a world sort of similar to the one in Kojima’s game. At this point, we’ve met that future in the real world. How does Kojima’s predictions stack up? GENETIC MANIPULATION OF SOLDIERS WILL BE ADVANCED ENOUGH TO SEE WIDESPREAD USE…

If you own a PC you should probably be playing Total War. It’s as simple as that; it doesn’t matter whether you’re a history buff looking to take command of some truly epic battles, or an inquisitive player eager to watch thousands of little soldiers smash into thousands of other little soldiers until your graphics card shatters into pieces. Total War is a strategy series that offers something for everybody; that’s in spite of how imposing or complicated it may at first seem. That’s why we’ve put this together, everything you need to know about Total War: Three Kingdoms. Listen, we get it. This is a niche genre, one that requires more investment than your typical action-adventure, FPS or RPG. Maybe you caught a Let’s Play on Twitch and became…

If there’s one thing that continues to irk gamers, it’s the constant need to manage storage space for games. As games become more complex and graphically detailed, they’re taking up more and more drive space, meaning a constant need to delete and re-download games. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to avoid this – with the growing convenience and affordability of Samsung Portable SSD T5 range, it’s now simple to have your collection on hand, installed and ready to go. Convenience is actually just the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous benefits to using a solid state drive (SSD) over a traditional, mechanical hard drive. LESS WAITING, MORE PLAYING Unlike traditional hard drives, which read data from a spinning magnetic disk at transfer speeds determined by revolutions per minute (RPM),…

Cassidy Little is a big fan of Tom Clancy’s The Division. A TV presenter and actor you might recognise, he’s especially fond of the game’s harrowing mingling of PvP and PvE – the Dark Zone, an area of plague-ridden New York in which the distinction between friend and foe collapses and death costs you hard-won gear and character progression. The Division is, Little says, the only game to muster “a fraction of the adrenaline” he felt during his time as a Royal Marines medic in Afghanistan, which ended in 2011 when he was caught in an IED explosion, suffering extensive injury across his body and losing his right leg below the knee. Betrayals are frequent in the Dark Zone, as players team up at random to tackle other squads or…