Live Magazine Christmas 2016 Edition
Want gift ideas? We've got almost 200 pages of gift ideas, reviews and pics - plus our "Board Games for the Family" special feature - take a look at what you can play as a family this Christmas. And if you like to WIN stuff - we've got movie tickets thanks to Sony, plus a whole lot more!
Want gift ideas? We've got almost 200 pages of gift ideas, reviews and pics - plus our "Board Games for the Family" special feature - take a look at what you can play as a family this Christmas. And if you like to WIN stuff - we've got movie tickets thanks to Sony, plus a whole lot more!
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LIVE<br />
DECEMBER/JANUARY <strong>2016</strong> ISSUE<br />
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION!<br />
WIN<br />
RESIDENT EVIL : THE FINAL<br />
CHAPTER MOVIE TICKETS<br />
UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS<br />
MOVIE TICKETS<br />
PICKTORIAL APP<br />
+ MORE!<br />
GAME REVIEWS<br />
MOVIES & TV<br />
POP CULTURE<br />
COSPLAY<br />
+ MORE!<br />
BOARD GAMES<br />
for the whole family!<br />
TONS OF<br />
GIFT IDEAS<br />
INSIDE!
WELCOME<br />
Merry <strong>Christmas</strong>!<br />
<strong>Christmas</strong> is a time for giving. Gifts, love and time.<br />
What I mean is you make time to catch up with friends and family. You give gifts and you take time off for holidays - nothing like<br />
summer holidays right?<br />
For our <strong>Christmas</strong> issue we covered a bunch of family game ideas as last month our Adults game issue was hugely popular. Plus<br />
we asked readers what they wanted for <strong>Christmas</strong> and some answers were awesome… including the reader who wants a job with<br />
Gametraders…<br />
With a new year around the corner we also asked what you wanted from game developers and the console makers.. some very<br />
interesting suggestions from readers, take a look on page 20.<br />
But back to that I started with and that is <strong>Christmas</strong> is about giving and we’re giving lots. We’ve got tix to the new Underworld Blood<br />
Wars movie to win, tix to the new Resident Evil - Final Chapter movie plus a printed artwork, and a chance to win some free software<br />
if you’re a photographer and use a Mac - the developers at Picktorial gave us a download to give away - check page 186.<br />
The team at <strong>Live</strong> wish you and your family a wonderful <strong>Christmas</strong> and a great 2017!<br />
Published by
INSIDE<br />
4<br />
Feature:<br />
Fun Board<br />
Games<br />
14<br />
Geek Out<br />
70<br />
Gametraders Products<br />
138<br />
Video Games<br />
166<br />
Cosplay<br />
THE LIVE TEAM<br />
Publisher: Rob Jenkins<br />
(GTHQ)<br />
Art Director: Giselle Capozza<br />
(GTHQ)<br />
Game Review & Preview<br />
Contributors:<br />
Nick Getley & Kylie Tuttle<br />
(Sticky Trigger)<br />
VGChartz<br />
Retro Editor: Paul Monopoli<br />
Comics: Scott Sowter
FEATURE<br />
FUN BOARD<br />
GAMES FOR<br />
THE WHOLE<br />
FAMILY THESE<br />
CHRISTMAS<br />
HOLIDAYS!<br />
Oh - they’re great gift ideas too!<br />
Last issue we discovered that there was a bunch of great adult party games with strange names and strange rules that were<br />
actually a lot of fun to play with friends. But they were for our older readers. So this month we are taking a look at games for the<br />
whole family. Many are simple to learn and a lot of fun to play. So let’s get to it!
Ticket To Ride First Journey<br />
Ticket to Ride: First Journey takes<br />
the gameplay of the Ticket to Ride<br />
series and scales it down for a<br />
younger audience.<br />
In general, players collect train<br />
cards, claim routes on the map, and<br />
try to connect the cities shown on<br />
their tickets. In more detail, the game<br />
board shows a map of the United<br />
States with certain cities being connect<br />
by colored paths. Each player<br />
starts with four colored train cards<br />
in hand and two tickets; each ticket<br />
shows two cities, and you’re trying to<br />
connect those two cities with a contiguous<br />
path of your trains in order to<br />
complete the ticket.<br />
On a turn, you either draw two train<br />
cards from the deck or discard train<br />
cards to claim a route between two<br />
cities; for this latter option, you must<br />
discard cards matching the color<br />
and number of spaces on that route<br />
(e.g., two yellow cards for a yellow<br />
route that’s two spaces long). If you<br />
connect the two cities shown on a<br />
ticket with a path of your trains, reveal<br />
the ticket, place it face up in<br />
front of you, then draw a new ticket.<br />
(If you can’t connect cities on either<br />
ticket because the paths are<br />
blocked, you can take your entire<br />
turn to discard those tickets and<br />
draw two new ones.)<br />
If you connect one of the West<br />
Coast cities to one of the East Coast<br />
cities with a path of your turns, you<br />
immediately claim a Coast-to-Coast<br />
ticket.<br />
The first player to complete six tickets<br />
wins! Alternatively, if someone<br />
has placed all twenty of their trains<br />
on the game board, then whoever<br />
has completed the most tickets<br />
wins!
My First Carcassonne<br />
Story: On 14 July, the national holiday<br />
in France, the sheep, chickens<br />
and cows are set free in the town<br />
of Carcassonne. The children have<br />
great fun to catch the animals before<br />
dusk.<br />
The players in turn draw a landscape<br />
tile and place it; unlike in normal<br />
Carcassonne, they always match.<br />
Amongst other features, the tiles<br />
show children in the player colors<br />
on the roads. Whenever a road is<br />
finished, every player places one of<br />
his meeples on each appropriate<br />
picture.<br />
The first player who manages to<br />
place all of his meeples wins the<br />
game.
Catan Junior<br />
Explore the seas! Catan: Junior introduces<br />
a modified playing style of<br />
the classic Settlers of Catan, giving<br />
players as young as five a perfect<br />
introduction to the Catan series of<br />
games.<br />
Catan: Junior takes place on a ring<br />
of islands where 2 to 4 players build<br />
hideouts and encounter the mysterious<br />
Spooky Island, where the Ghost<br />
Captain lives. Each island generates<br />
a specific resource: wood, goats,<br />
molasses or swords, and players<br />
can acquire gold. Each player starts<br />
with two pirate hideouts on different<br />
islands, and they can use the resources<br />
they acquire to build ships,<br />
hideouts or get help from Coco the<br />
Parrot. By building ships, they can<br />
expand their network; the more hideouts<br />
they build, the more resources<br />
they may receive. Just watch out for<br />
the dreaded Ghost Captain!<br />
Be the first player to control seven<br />
pirate hideouts, and you win!
King of Tokyo<br />
In King of Tokyo, you play mutant<br />
monsters, gigantic robots, and other<br />
aliens – all of whom are happily<br />
whacking each other in a joyous atmosphere<br />
in order to become the<br />
one and only King of Tokyo.<br />
At the start of each turn, you roll six<br />
dice. The dice show the following six<br />
symbols: 1, 2 or 3 Points of Destruction,<br />
Energy, Healing and Whack.<br />
Over three successive throws,<br />
choose whether to keep or discard<br />
each die in order to win destruction<br />
points, hoard energy, restore health,<br />
or whack other players into understanding<br />
that Tokyo is YOUR territory.<br />
The fiercest player will be crowned<br />
King of Tokyo... and will end up facing<br />
all the other monsters alone!<br />
Top this off with special cards purchased<br />
with energy that have a permanent<br />
or temporary effect, such as<br />
the growing of a second head which<br />
grants you an additional die, body armor,<br />
nova death ray, and more.... and<br />
it’s one of the most explosive games<br />
of the year!<br />
In order to win the game, one must<br />
either destroy Tokyo by accumulating<br />
20 destruction points, or be the<br />
only surviving monster once the<br />
fighting has ended.
Catan Family <strong>Edition</strong><br />
This New edition of the “Settlers of<br />
Catan – Board Game” features a six<br />
piece reversible board allowing for<br />
more replay value than the previous<br />
Gallery <strong>Edition</strong>.<br />
Get together with friends or family.<br />
Learn to play in about 15 minutes.<br />
Then enjoy countless hours of fastpaced<br />
fun!<br />
Begin a quest to settle the island of<br />
Catan! Guide your brave settlers to<br />
victory by using clever trading and<br />
shrewd development. Use resources<br />
– grain, wool, ore, lumber, and<br />
brick – to build roads, settlements,<br />
cities and key cultural milestones.<br />
Get resources by rolling the dice or<br />
by trading with other players.<br />
But beware! You never know when<br />
someone will block your way or if the<br />
robber will strike and steal your hardearned<br />
goods! Are you the best trader,<br />
builder, or settler? Will you master<br />
Catan?
Agricola<br />
Family <strong>Edition</strong><br />
In Agricola, you’re a farmer in a wooden<br />
shack with your spouse and little<br />
else. On a turn, you get to take only<br />
two actions, one for you and one for<br />
the spouse, from all the possibilities<br />
you’ll find on a farm: collecting resources;<br />
building meadows; and so<br />
on. You might think about having kids<br />
in order to get more work accomplished,<br />
but first you need to expand<br />
your house. And what are you going<br />
to feed all the little rugrats?<br />
Agricola is a turn-based game. There<br />
are 14 game rounds occurring in 6<br />
stages, with a Harvest at the end of<br />
each stage (after Rounds 4, 7, 9, 11,<br />
13, and 14).<br />
Each player starts with two meeples<br />
that can each take an action<br />
per round. There are multiple options,<br />
and while the game progresses,<br />
you’ll have more: each round a<br />
(fixed) additional option becomes<br />
available. Each action can be taken<br />
by only one player each round, so<br />
it’s important to do some things with<br />
high preference.<br />
In comparison with the family game<br />
of the predecessor, much has<br />
changed: the new action each round<br />
is fixed, and the game has been<br />
simplified by removing stone and<br />
vegetables. Similar to Agricola: Die<br />
Bauern und das liebe Vieh, there are<br />
now buildings (replacing the major<br />
improvements) that score points for<br />
leftover resources at the end of the<br />
game.<br />
Also, there are no building restrictions<br />
(nor player boards). And finally,<br />
there are no negative points or point<br />
limits anymore, each player simply<br />
scores for all he has achieved.
Takenoko<br />
A long time ago at the Japanese<br />
Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor<br />
offered a giant panda bear as a<br />
symbol of peace to the Japanese<br />
Emperor. Since then, the Japanese<br />
Emperor has entrusted his court<br />
members (the players) with the difficult<br />
task of caring for the animal by<br />
tending to his bamboo garden.<br />
In Takenoko, the players will cultivate<br />
land plots, irrigate them, and grow<br />
one of the three species of bamboo<br />
(Green, Yellow, and Pink) with<br />
the help of the Imperial gardener to<br />
maintain this bamboo garden. They<br />
will have to bear with the immoderate<br />
hunger of this sacred animal for<br />
the juicy and tender bamboo. The<br />
player who manages his land plots<br />
best, growing the most bamboo<br />
while feeding the delicate appetite<br />
of the panda, will win the game.
Munchkin Deluxe<br />
What makes this edition “deluxe”?<br />
It’s got a big gameboard to keep<br />
your cards in place, and six colored<br />
pawns that you move on the gameboard<br />
as you level up! Plus a card to<br />
go with each pawn, to make it easy<br />
to remember who is what color and<br />
whose sex has changed!<br />
Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything<br />
you meet. Backstab your<br />
friends and steal their stuff. Grab the<br />
treasure and run.<br />
Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering<br />
the Potted Plant and the Drooling<br />
Slime, and work your way up to the<br />
Plutonium Dragon . . .<br />
And it’s illustrated (in full color!) by<br />
John Kovalic!<br />
Fast-playing and silly, Munchkin can<br />
reduce any roleplaying group to hysteria.<br />
And, while they’re laughing, you<br />
can steal their stuff.<br />
Admit it. You love it.<br />
Munchkin is the mega-hit card game<br />
about dungeon adventure . . . with<br />
none of that stupid roleplaying stuff.<br />
You and your friends compete to<br />
kill monsters and grab magic items.<br />
And what magic items! Don the<br />
Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-<br />
Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm .<br />
. . or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody
GET 'EM ALL AT<br />
GAMETRADERS!
geek o<br />
WHAT do you GAMING IS<br />
want for GOOD FOR<br />
christmas &<br />
YOU<br />
why?<br />
VIDEO GAMES<br />
your say<br />
WHAT YOU<br />
WANT FROM<br />
GAMES &<br />
CONSOLES<br />
your say<br />
GAMES & POP<br />
CULTURE<br />
TRIVIA<br />
DID YOU KNOW<br />
HISTORY OF<br />
FINAL FANTASY<br />
RETRO<br />
THE GAMER<br />
DIARIES:<br />
1995-1996<br />
RETRO<br />
THE WESTERN<br />
IS BACK<br />
VIDEO GAMES
ut<br />
TOP<br />
WESTERN<br />
MOVIES<br />
MOVIES<br />
TV FEST <strong>2016</strong><br />
TELEVISION:<br />
BINGE TIME<br />
CHRISTMAS<br />
EVE RECIPE<br />
CHRISTMAS EVE<br />
UNDERWORLD:<br />
BLOOD WARS<br />
SONY PICTURES<br />
RESIDENT EVIL:<br />
THE FINAL<br />
CHAPTER<br />
SONY PICTURES<br />
KIT10<br />
ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
LOCAL ARTIST<br />
TY HANSON<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
LOCAL ARTIST
YOUR SAY<br />
WHAT DO YOU WANT FO<br />
“A job with Gametraders.”<br />
- Mikal Mokbel<br />
“I would like to have my student<br />
debts erased because it is a neverending<br />
cycle of anxiety for me.”<br />
- Liam Martin<br />
“I want my PS3 and just a few of my<br />
games returned from the person<br />
who stole them.”<br />
- Brendyne Conway<br />
“I love getting pops from my boys<br />
for xmas im always loving things like<br />
that from them.”<br />
- Barry Peel<br />
“The games I’m still dreaming about<br />
playing... Shenmue & Chrono Trigger.<br />
I have a few on the gaming bucket<br />
list that are rare to find these days. I<br />
want to play them because they are<br />
important in the history of gaming.<br />
Unlike movies which you can generally<br />
find them again in some way<br />
and a format to play them on. Gaming<br />
needs to be preserved and I’m<br />
happy to play Retro any way I can.<br />
- Simon Che Rodriguez<br />
“A ps4 virtual head set<br />
Omg these things exist!<br />
#thefutureishere”<br />
- Benny Bukchoy Hall<br />
“What i’d want for christmas is more<br />
anime figurines and an xbox one with<br />
forza horizon 3. #gameon #anime”<br />
- Taylor Christiansen<br />
“All I want for <strong>Christmas</strong> is my self<br />
esteem to not be shattered by family<br />
interactions and questionings over<br />
the holidays...”<br />
- TeiJay Jackson<br />
“Cards Against Humanity is the best<br />
present, and everyone knows why”<br />
- Ben Rachow<br />
“I’ve got my kids, I’m good. Got the<br />
best presents I could ever want!”<br />
- Matthew Zessin<br />
“ I want my own Gametraders store<br />
for Chistmas! I love the franchise &<br />
want to open one with more of a<br />
video game focus than the others<br />
currently have, even if I have to buy<br />
stock from eBay & Play Asia to carry<br />
as much video games as possible!”<br />
- Jean-Paul Bartolomei
R CHRISTMAS & WHY?<br />
“I LOVE CHRISTMAS, and have already<br />
started shopping!!! I want a a<br />
few of the new Rose Collection from<br />
PANDORA!”<br />
- Angie Flanagan<br />
“Two sets of the Lego Spider-Man<br />
Bridge Battle set, so I can make a full<br />
section of the bridge, and combine<br />
all the Spider-Man villains and allies<br />
I’ve collected from previous sets and<br />
make an epic battle scene worthy of<br />
the Spider-Man legend.”<br />
- Benson Pearson<br />
“Socks....Because of my Medical<br />
Condition i have to Wear socks<br />
around the house. -__- Slippery<br />
Tiles are not fun, but make every day<br />
a Risky Business ;)”<br />
- Paul Noddy Ballard<br />
“A tes: oblivion remaster/remake<br />
would have been nice.”<br />
- Bevan Sholdas<br />
“An official Game of Thrones expansion/mod<br />
for civ VI - so Sean Bean<br />
can narrate his own tech progression/<br />
inevitable death.”<br />
- Michael Gartland<br />
“Well my sister has been wanting<br />
Pokemon moon lately and unfortunately,<br />
we are unable to buy it for<br />
her due to our tight budget. So what<br />
I want for <strong>Christmas</strong> is for my sister<br />
to receive her own copy of Pokemon<br />
moon. I don’t really care about<br />
myself, I just love seeing my siblings<br />
happy.”<br />
- Micah Fede<br />
“A headset compatible with Xbox<br />
one.<br />
Been waiting nearly a year to get internet<br />
put in because we live in the<br />
middle of no where (Gympie/Curra)<br />
Now we are so close to getting Internet<br />
(just a few weeks, have to wait to<br />
get new cables put in)<br />
Then we can play on Xbox live with<br />
our friends!!<br />
So a headset is a must!!<br />
- Sarah Chancellor<br />
“The Genesect 20th Anniversary<br />
Pokemon card box. And probably<br />
Sun/Moon and Zelda merchandise.”<br />
- Samui Monahan<br />
“I just want to see my daughter for<br />
<strong>Christmas</strong>, so we can watch supernatural,<br />
play lego games and eat<br />
ourselves stupid.”<br />
- Holden Kelly<br />
“The kids to get santa to give me a<br />
holiday or even an hour by myself.”<br />
- Claire H Simmons<br />
“Im pretty much almost done my<br />
xmas shopping! (Thank you afterpay<br />
and layby lol) i really want the harry<br />
potter hard cover illustrated books!<br />
Ahh one can dream.”<br />
- Renae Donohue<br />
“The Mini-NES! Fingers crossed we<br />
manage to get one before Xmas. :)”<br />
- Fern Brassington
YOUR SAY<br />
WHAT DO YOU WANT FO<br />
“Crash bandicoot on ps1....<br />
Still waiting for a copy to magically<br />
appear.”<br />
- Sebaztian TheRangasaurusrex<br />
Barns<br />
“Lego! My Toddler has become obsessed,<br />
and it’s fun building with him,<br />
but I’ve got the urge for some more<br />
complicated stuff for myself ;)”<br />
- Simm Beeston<br />
“Batman - Return to Arkham, I’m late<br />
the the Arkham series and so excited<br />
I can finally get around to playing<br />
my favorite superhero on my PS4.<br />
Fingers crossed Santa is listening,<br />
I’ve been good this year.”<br />
- Jade O’Shea<br />
“I am happy with anything I receive<br />
;)”<br />
- Christine Morris<br />
“ I would love to get new headphones<br />
after snapping mune when<br />
raging at cs. Right now im using<br />
ear buds which work but hey i need<br />
headphones.”<br />
- Logan Xavier Skilling<br />
“As above, I would love new head<br />
phones to give Logan Xavier Skilling<br />
so he stops asking me for some! :P<br />
But any prize would be awesome!!”<br />
- Jodie Crazycatlady Skilling<br />
“An Xbox Scorpio? No? How about a<br />
Nintendo Switch? Still no?? Ok, then<br />
what I really would want for <strong>Christmas</strong><br />
is a custom designed Xbox One<br />
controller from their Design Labs,<br />
decked out with my favorite colours<br />
and etched with my gamertag, so<br />
everybody knows ‘it doesn’t belong<br />
to you, so don’t you touch it’!!”<br />
- Chris McHugh<br />
“I want a job for <strong>Christmas</strong>, that isn’t<br />
just a <strong>Christmas</strong> job, so that I can<br />
spend my money on delicious delicious<br />
games<br />
- Aleida Niamh McCluskey<br />
“I want a dream cast as its such an<br />
underrated console and brings back<br />
some fond memories of simpler<br />
times.”<br />
- Josh Durbidge<br />
“A Boba Fett statue/helmet because<br />
every year I want to get one for my<br />
dad but can never afford it.”<br />
- Brad Meehan<br />
“2 foam swords for a whacking good<br />
<strong>Christmas</strong> when the family debates<br />
get heated.”<br />
- Dash Starkey<br />
“I would like a magnavox odyssey for<br />
<strong>Christmas</strong>, I would like to experience<br />
how it is to play the first console to<br />
ever come out.”<br />
- Sinan Akdag<br />
“I would love the new version of the<br />
old NES. It would be soooo much fun<br />
reliving my teenage years by playing<br />
some awesome old school games!”<br />
- Nicole Woods
R CHRISTMAS & WHY?<br />
“Anything besides a plastic world<br />
globe from the reject shop that still<br />
has the 2 dollar sticker attached to<br />
the box from my older brother. Im going<br />
to buy him a light up street fighter<br />
figurine to make him feel bad about<br />
himself this christmas.”<br />
- Nathan Evans<br />
“If they made Archer Pops and released<br />
for Xmas. I would sploosh<br />
with excitement.”<br />
- Kristin Buzanko<br />
“Well I’ve already gotten a present<br />
for <strong>Christmas</strong> from my girlfriend<br />
bought from Gametraders-Chermside.<br />
Dead of Winter - The Long<br />
Night, it is agonizing not being able<br />
to open it until <strong>Christmas</strong> though! For<br />
something for myself, I think id love<br />
either some more packs for Imperial<br />
Assault or some of the new army<br />
releases for Halo: Ground Command<br />
which I picked up the same time as<br />
DoW.”<br />
- Cameron Edwards<br />
“New book series. Or stationery.”<br />
- Jake Hicks<br />
“ A <strong>Christmas</strong> holiday to clear my<br />
shameful backlog of games. I’ll wear<br />
a Santa hat while playing too haha.”<br />
- Liam Aldridge<br />
“ I would love a LARP Dark Repulser<br />
from Sword Art Online to go with my<br />
Elucidator! Also loads of Copic Markers.”<br />
- Emma Vince<br />
“Like i’d want an PS Vita because<br />
well I wanted to get into persona<br />
and Gravity Rush. I’ve been a huge<br />
fan since borrowing person 4 from<br />
a friend and just can’t get enough of<br />
the PS Vita. Though it is getting old. It<br />
would be amazing to just whip it out<br />
when travelling or more importantly<br />
on vacation. So excited to see if i<br />
even get it for christmas.”<br />
- Jeremy Naupay<br />
“The creepy tongue thing that you<br />
can lick your cat with. I don’t know<br />
who would want one to actually use<br />
on their cat but I’d love to freak out<br />
my boyfriend by waking him up licking<br />
his face with it :P”<br />
- Kirsty Johnstone<br />
“I know it’s not available yet, but<br />
the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has<br />
always gone for innovation, with<br />
varying levels of success. But the<br />
Switch looks like it will really change<br />
the way we think about gaming, and<br />
I’m so excited to try it out for myself.<br />
Maybe someone could pay for my<br />
preorder.”<br />
- Matthew Whittingham<br />
“OoO ...as I am on Disabilty I can<br />
never afford any of your amazingly<br />
beautiful figurines that I always visit<br />
with anytime I am near your stores<br />
(which is often given my gamer-nutzmenfolk!<br />
O.o )To be able to surprise<br />
them all (Hugely!! ) would be incredible<br />
:D ..Husband is particularly fond<br />
of anything dragon-related.... Adult<br />
son no:1 is a DZ nut to the extreme<br />
and Adult son no: 2 is boardgame<br />
crazy! :D Just saiyan! O.o....”<br />
- Fiona Bottorff<br />
GET ‘EM A GAMETRADERS GIFT CARD!
YOUR SAY<br />
Tell us what YOU WANT FROM<br />
GAMES AND C<br />
“I would like this Gen of consoles to<br />
man up. So far the best games of<br />
this gen are mainly last gen titles.<br />
People saying they look forward to<br />
play Skyrim or Bioshock. Think it is<br />
time to make a new Elder Scrolls.”<br />
- Michael Peterson<br />
“I would love to see Archer pops.<br />
Archer is one of the best shows<br />
out there. If they made pops I would<br />
have to get them all. Just think of<br />
the differ types they could make of<br />
Pam?? Pam with the dolphin, fight<br />
club Pam, trucker Pam from archer<br />
vice!! Sploosh! And don’t forget the<br />
rest ,Ray in a wheelchair pop.....the<br />
possibilities.”<br />
- Kristin Buzanko<br />
“VR - <strong>Christmas</strong> time is coming out<br />
and no doubt there are going to be<br />
parents looking at VR hardware as a<br />
possible gift idea.<br />
Maybe a piece discussing the pros<br />
and cons of PSVR - and what games<br />
you’d recommend if any”<br />
What do you think about VR? What<br />
would like to see it become?<br />
First and foremost, not for it to be a<br />
gimmick. For years we’ve seen stuff<br />
like 3D technology, Kinect and Motion<br />
Controls praised as the next<br />
evolution in gaming. My biggest fear<br />
is that Sony will cut their losses (like<br />
what they did to the Wonder Book,<br />
PSMove, Vita) and abandon the peripheral<br />
in a year or so, leaving thousands<br />
of gamers stuck with some<br />
lousy on rail shooter titles.<br />
Next, which kinda ties back to my<br />
first point, I want to see developers<br />
be brave enough to make interesting<br />
titles for the system. Think of<br />
interesting ways on how to use the<br />
system, and support it as much as<br />
they can.”<br />
- Jason English<br />
“The Return of JRPGS - It’s been<br />
a fantastic year for the genre with<br />
some minor missteps (Star Ocean 5<br />
anyone?). We’ve had a great year of<br />
some really strong titles like Bravely<br />
Second, Digimon Cyber Sleuth,<br />
Trails of Cold Steel, I am Setsuna<br />
and World of Final Fantasy.<br />
Who knows if Final Fantasy XV will<br />
be worth the wait but if not there’ll be<br />
Persona 5 waiting for us early next<br />
year!”<br />
- Nige Margetts<br />
“I just want more talk of games being<br />
made or brought back rather<br />
than hardware. There has been a recent<br />
trend in the industry obsessively<br />
talking hardware, 4k etc... what<br />
happened to good games or telling<br />
a story?”<br />
- Simon Che Rodriguez
ONSOLES!<br />
“The Nintendo Classic Mini while being<br />
a great little plug ‘n’ play console,<br />
isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be.<br />
Don’t let this deter you from buying<br />
it, just look at this as the fine print/<br />
asterisks on the box... also it’s sort of<br />
a review too.<br />
The cords are criminally short! All<br />
of them! The HDMI & Micro USB for<br />
power are barely long enough to allow<br />
it in an entertainment unit & the<br />
controller cord is as small as the Wii<br />
Classic controllers & Wii nunchuks...<br />
which means unless your TV is no<br />
bigger than a 26 inch, your gonna<br />
need some longer cables!<br />
The versions of games on it in some<br />
cases (like SMB) are revisions & will<br />
have alterations that most won’t notice<br />
but I certainly did. Then there’s<br />
the input lag... which admittedly is<br />
the HDTV’s fault, but since this is a<br />
HDMI device... it should have been<br />
compensated for via the Mini NES<br />
itself. The CRT filter is also fuzzier<br />
than the games on a CRT via the old<br />
NES & can actually cause eye strain<br />
after prolonged use so just stick to<br />
4:3 since pixel perfect is squished<br />
too much & adds no performance<br />
whatsoever to the games.<br />
As for the game selection... it’s pretty<br />
good... but some choices aren’t very<br />
good. Now this will be on a person by<br />
person basis, but I personally found a<br />
few games quite boring or pointless<br />
like Tecmo Bowl for me personally is<br />
both pointless & boring... but again,<br />
this is subjective. Most people will<br />
want this for the NES golden roster<br />
of Zelda, Metroid & Mario, but it’s variety<br />
is really good. Sadly there is no<br />
way to expand the library of games<br />
on the Mini NES so don’t expect an<br />
eShop for it.<br />
The Nintendo Classic Mini NES is excellent<br />
value. The same games via<br />
the Wii U Virtual Console is valued<br />
at $180 so this only being $100 is a<br />
much better choice(when it’s available<br />
again, Preorder asap!). There’s<br />
guaranteed more than enough of the<br />
games here to warrant the purchase<br />
for young or old & most definitely<br />
cheaper than the original hardware<br />
& games... but if you already own all<br />
or most of them on the original hardware...<br />
you wouldn’t be missing anything.”<br />
- Jean-Paul Bartolomei<br />
“I really wish new gen games would<br />
have spilt screen. It has always been<br />
a kind of bonding for my brother and<br />
I to sit down and play the Halo campaign<br />
together, and it was highly disappointing<br />
that I couldn’t do it with<br />
halo 5. I would quite happily sacrifice<br />
some of the graphics if it meant<br />
I could enjoy the story mode with<br />
someone in the same room.”<br />
- Brad Meehan<br />
“I’d like to see evolution through<br />
gaming and how we have arrived<br />
from PONG to things like watchdogs<br />
2. Being a “retro” gaming franchise,<br />
it would be interesting to see your<br />
take on what games made the revolutionary<br />
mark in history.”<br />
- Kodi Willems
THE<br />
TRUTH<br />
DID YO<br />
GAME & POP CULTURE FU<br />
Mario was named after the landlord<br />
of Nintendo’s warehouse. The<br />
gent’s name - Mr Mario Segale.<br />
Nintendo was sued because kids<br />
were getting blisters for playing<br />
games - they offered to give gloves<br />
to the owners of Mario Party after<br />
reports of injuries!<br />
www.cnet.com/au/news/nintendo-offers-glove-to-prevent-joystick-injuries<br />
All the cast of the TV series, Friends, are in their 40s!<br />
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe, is the oldest, she was born<br />
in 1963.<br />
The original Playstation was designed<br />
by Sony as a Nintendo console,<br />
but when Nintendo changed<br />
their mind, Sony went ahead alone!
U KNOW...<br />
N FACTS & TRIVIA<br />
<strong>Live</strong> found a time machine...<br />
for gamers!<br />
Facebook was originally called Thefacebook<br />
and was initially limited to<br />
Harvard students.<br />
It’s not often you come across a<br />
free book that is a must read when<br />
it comes to video games. Halycon<br />
Days is just that. Author, James<br />
Hague, tracked down and interviewed<br />
the people who created<br />
games for arcades, early game<br />
systems and personal computers.<br />
With a forward by gaming legend,<br />
John Romero, Halycon Days has interviews<br />
with some of the creators<br />
of the video game industry, people<br />
that John Romero describes as<br />
“gods”.<br />
If you’ve ever had any interest in<br />
how those early games got made<br />
or just want to take a trip back in<br />
time to the 80s and earlier, this is a<br />
must read.<br />
YOU CAN READ<br />
IT ONLINE -<br />
FREE - RIGHT<br />
HERE:<br />
http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/index.html<br />
This is not the editor of <strong>Live</strong>... he has more hair.
video GAMES<br />
GAMING<br />
IS GOOD<br />
FOR YOU!<br />
Remember back in the good old days<br />
when ma and pa said something like,<br />
“Don’t waste your time playing those<br />
dang games!”<br />
Well they’d be wrong. You see playing<br />
video games is actually very<br />
good for you, in the right amounts<br />
of course. You don’t want to stay<br />
up for 24 hours and exhaust yourself<br />
or worse. Playing has a number<br />
of benefits. For example, a study of<br />
laparoscopic (small incision) specialists<br />
with ongoing video game<br />
experience had superior laparoscopic<br />
skills and fewer errors. The<br />
Science Direct websitestated that<br />
this may be due to better psychomotor<br />
skills in gamers... If you like<br />
a good read and don’t mind scientific<br />
terms, take a look at the article.<br />
(sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919113000599)<br />
Playing video games also teaches<br />
problem solving skills and creativity<br />
according to Parents website:<br />
parents.com/kids/development/benefits-of-video-games/?slideId=37205<br />
Researchers from Deakin University<br />
in Melbourne, did a study that examined<br />
the development of 53 preschool<br />
aged children and found that<br />
those kids who played interactive<br />
games had “better object control<br />
motor skills” then those who’d didn’t.<br />
Another study by 2009 Annual Review<br />
of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine<br />
found games could help with<br />
stress and depression. Physical pain<br />
too is something that has been studied<br />
with two psychologists, Dr David<br />
Patterson and Dr. Hunter Hoffman<br />
from the University of Washington<br />
dreaming up a game called Snow-<br />
World that puts the player in an alternate<br />
world and through that distraction,<br />
their focus on the physical pain<br />
was lessened. You can read about<br />
it here:<br />
rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/24/14648057-groundbreaking-experiment-in-virtual-reality-uses-video-game-to-treat-pain?lite<br />
While theres quite a few more benefits<br />
according to different studies,<br />
one important one is that games<br />
can keep you happy in old age. Researchers<br />
from North Carolina State<br />
University asked 140 people aged<br />
63 and older how often they played<br />
games. The found that those people<br />
who played video games, even occasionally,<br />
reported higher levels of<br />
happiness or well-being - take a look<br />
here for more and then convince<br />
mum, dad, the grandparents to get<br />
playing and keep smiling!<br />
psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/06/playing-video-games-tied-to-happiness-emotional-wellness-in-seniors/52267.html
“Yessss I knew it!”
YOUR RETROSAY<br />
History of Fi<br />
Between Classics<br />
With the release of Final Fantasy IV in<br />
1991 the series had found its greatest<br />
success to-date with sales of<br />
almost two million units across all regions.<br />
Encouraged by this continued<br />
growth the development team once<br />
again went immediately to work on<br />
a sequel. Just as IV had been less<br />
about experimenting with new design<br />
elements and more about improving<br />
already existing ones, Final<br />
Fantasy V had a very similar ethos,<br />
albeit one with a very different focus.<br />
While Final Fantasy IV had been all<br />
about creating a captivating story<br />
and memorable characters for players<br />
to become attached to, in V the<br />
goal was to improve upon the series’<br />
gameplay, making it more complex<br />
and compelling. As a result the game<br />
is in strong contrast to its predecessor;<br />
the strengths and weaknesses<br />
of the two are almost completely<br />
opposite from one other.<br />
Switching Focus:<br />
Final Fantasy V<br />
Hironobu Sakaguchi was once again<br />
at the center of the game’s development.<br />
He created the basic story<br />
and directed the game, while many<br />
other familiar names returned, reprising<br />
their roles, including Nobuo<br />
Uematsu, Yoshitaka Amano, and Hiroyuki.<br />
Additionally, Tetsuya Nomura<br />
made his first significant contribution<br />
to the series as a monster designer,<br />
while Yoshinori Kitase made his<br />
debut as a scenario writer, working<br />
closely together with Sakaguchi to<br />
create the game’s event script.<br />
All in all, 45 people worked on the<br />
game’s development at various<br />
times - a significant increase over<br />
the team of 14 that had worked on<br />
FF IV. Final Fantasy V was released<br />
in Japan for the Super Famicom on<br />
December 6, 1992, but unlike its<br />
predecessor was not released in the<br />
west despite there being plans to do<br />
so at the time. The reason cited for<br />
the cancelled localization was that<br />
the game was considered too difficult<br />
for western gamers at the time.<br />
It wouldn’t be until 1999 that Final<br />
Fantasy V would makes its way to<br />
the west as part of the Final Fantasy<br />
Anthology collection on the PlayStation,<br />
although a fan translation of the<br />
Super Famicom version had been<br />
created in 1997. The PlayStation<br />
version was otherwise well received,<br />
but its translation was critisized for<br />
being of poor quality and this resulted<br />
in subsequent releases of the<br />
game using an entirely new English<br />
translation, starting with the GBA<br />
version that came out in 2006.<br />
The game’s narrative centers on<br />
four crystals that control the four<br />
elements, and which have suddenly<br />
begun to shatter for unknown reasons.<br />
After a chance encounter the<br />
four main characters decide to band<br />
together to investigate the mystery.<br />
After it is revealed that the crystals<br />
act as seals for an evil sorcerer<br />
named Exdeath, who is plotting to<br />
take control of the unlimited power<br />
of the void and control the world with<br />
it, the four begin working towards<br />
defeating Exdeath and saving the<br />
world from him.<br />
Final Fantasy V’s most significant<br />
change over its predecessor was<br />
in bringing back the job system that<br />
had been introduced in FF III, but in<br />
a significantly improved state. Many<br />
of the systems’ issues were fixed,<br />
and the rest of it was expanded and<br />
improved. The game introduced aspects<br />
such as ability points which<br />
the player earned in battle alongside<br />
normal experience points. They<br />
were then used to learn new abilities<br />
by using the various jobs.<br />
In addition, Final Fantasy V expanded<br />
upon the jobs themselves, allowing<br />
a character to learn multiple abilities<br />
from each job, as well as use their<br />
already learned skills as secondary<br />
commands with other jobs. For<br />
example, a Thief who had gained<br />
levels as a White Mage could use<br />
white magic while still being a Thief.<br />
This allowed for much greater freedom<br />
for players in developing their<br />
characters, especially as the jobs<br />
themselves were also much more
nal Fantasy:<br />
(Final Fantasy V)<br />
BY TANELI PALOLA FROM VGCHARTZ.COM
varied than the ones found in Final<br />
Fantasy III. There were no more advanced<br />
versions of earlier jobs, such<br />
as a Black Wizard update for a Black<br />
Mage, instead the jobs simply improved<br />
as they were used in battle.<br />
The ATB system was also improved<br />
over its original incarnation in FF IV.<br />
Most notably, the game introduced a<br />
visible time gauge in battle that filled<br />
based on the character’s speed<br />
and allowed the player to see which<br />
character’s turn would be coming up<br />
next. This gauge would become another<br />
series staple, going on to appear<br />
in numerous later Final Fantasy<br />
games in some form.<br />
Final Fantasy V also featured numerous<br />
new elements first seen here.<br />
Among these were various jobs<br />
that would become staples of the<br />
series, including Blue Mage, Samurai,<br />
and Mime. Another new element<br />
that would become a key part of the<br />
series was the concept of a recurring<br />
minor villain, who in this case<br />
was one of the series’ most beloved<br />
minor characters – Gilgamesh, who<br />
himself would later go on to appear<br />
in numerous other Final Fantasy<br />
games.<br />
While the gameplay received numerous<br />
notable improvements, the<br />
story and characters were much<br />
more linear and simplified compared<br />
to Final Fantasy IV. The character<br />
development is much more subdued<br />
and lacking in depth, as the game<br />
is largely devoid of events that truly<br />
change any of the characters. The<br />
story’s main problem is very similar,<br />
as it holds very few genuine surprises<br />
that would greatly affect the narrative<br />
in the long run. Generally, the<br />
narrative feels a lot like a simplified<br />
version of the more popular parts of<br />
Final Fantasy IV.<br />
The music is, as usual, one of the<br />
game’s true highlights, featuring<br />
numerous excellent pieces of music<br />
that have become classics of<br />
the series. However, amidst excellent<br />
songs such as Clash on the Big<br />
Bridge and Dear Friends there were<br />
also quite a few forgettable tracks<br />
that weren’t quite on par with Uematsu’s<br />
usual standards.<br />
Graphically, the improvements over<br />
the previous game weren’t nearly<br />
as clear as they had been in Final<br />
Fantasy IV. Minor updates to various<br />
visual elements, such as the number<br />
of details on the character sprites,<br />
were made, but the jump between<br />
the previous two games, as well that<br />
between this one and Final Fantasy<br />
VI, was much greater due to change<br />
in hardware in the first case and a<br />
better understanding of the SNES’s<br />
capabilities in the second.<br />
The Best Part<br />
The job system. It offers a huge<br />
amount of freedom and flexibility to<br />
the player, thanks in large part to the<br />
improvements made to the system<br />
from its original version in Final Fantasy<br />
III. There are countless different<br />
ways to organize and customize<br />
your party, and often you’ll have to<br />
experiment with various job classes<br />
to find the best way to defeat a difficult<br />
boss, for example. It opens up a<br />
lot of tactical elements for the battle<br />
system and makes them much more<br />
engaging than in previous Final Fantasy<br />
games.<br />
The Worst Part<br />
In general, I’d say the story and characters,<br />
but more specifically I’d have<br />
to say the main villain. Exdeath is just<br />
a boring bad guy, with vague, largely<br />
unexplained motivations for his actions.<br />
His design is silly and overall<br />
the storyline surrounding him is<br />
quite bland and uninteresting. Even<br />
his final battle theme is fairly lacklustre<br />
compared to most other final<br />
boss themes in the series. It’s really<br />
a shame because the game also<br />
features one of the most memorable<br />
minor villains in series’ history in<br />
Gilgamesh.<br />
Does Final Fantasy<br />
V Still Hold Up?<br />
Mostly, yes. There are many genuinely<br />
great elements in Final Fantasy<br />
V, but also some that, while not<br />
necessarily bad, are forgettable or<br />
average. Still, most of these are minor<br />
issues in an otherwise very good<br />
game that is still a lot of fun to play.<br />
The improved job and the Active-<br />
Time Battle systems are a joy to use<br />
and experiment with, the music for<br />
the most part is great, and visually<br />
it still has a certain charm to it, despite<br />
now being almost 25 years old.<br />
Even the story and characters, with<br />
their shortcomings and all, are good<br />
enough to never feel annoying.<br />
Of course, there are certain aspects<br />
that don’t hold up quite as well. As<br />
already mentioned, the game’s main<br />
villain is fairly lacklustre. Exdeath<br />
is among the weaker villains in the<br />
series in general, although I suppose<br />
him being an ancient tree that<br />
became sentient and decided to<br />
take over the world is at least quite<br />
unique. It does lend itself to quite a<br />
memorable boss design in the final<br />
battle, if nothing else.<br />
Final Fantasy V is also very clearly<br />
an old-school RPG. There are times<br />
when the encounter rate gets fairly<br />
ridiculous, and the difficulty level<br />
goes through some pretty excessive<br />
spikes. The final boss is a very
good example of a tortuous increase<br />
in difficulty; one which makes<br />
the end of the game feel needlessly<br />
stretched out through mandatory<br />
grinding for levels.<br />
If you’re interested in playing Final<br />
Fantasy V there are various different<br />
platforms you can find it on. The<br />
best version of the game is probably<br />
the one on the Gameboy Advance,<br />
but naturally that might be difficult to<br />
get your hands on. The PlayStation<br />
version can be found on PSN, but its<br />
translation is quite poor compared<br />
to GBA version.<br />
The mobile and Steam versions<br />
would be highly recommended, as<br />
they contain basically all of the elements<br />
from the GBA version as<br />
well as various gameplay updates,<br />
but unfortunately they represent a<br />
significant visual downgrade due to<br />
the poor work that was done with<br />
the character sprites in the process<br />
of porting. You’ll get used to the flat<br />
and blurry look of the sprites after<br />
a while, and the gameplay is still as<br />
good as it has always been, but it’s<br />
a regrettable aspect of a port that<br />
could have been the definitive version<br />
of the game.<br />
Ultimately, I feel that Final Fantasy<br />
V is a very good game that doesn’t<br />
quite reach the same level as Final<br />
Fantasy IV. Although the gameplay<br />
side is the best the series had seen<br />
up to that point, the story and characters<br />
simply took too many steps<br />
backwards and this hurt the game’s<br />
overall quality.<br />
Fun Fact<br />
Some designs for new job classes<br />
that were originally created for Final<br />
Fantasy V, but which were unused<br />
in the game, would later serve as inspirations<br />
for two characters in Final<br />
Fantasy VI. These two inspirations<br />
were a gambler who would fight using<br />
dice and cards in combat, and<br />
a ninja with a dog, which of course<br />
became Setzer and Shadow in FF<br />
VI, respectively. These two particular<br />
ones were thought up by none other<br />
than Tetsuya Nomura, who would<br />
later become the franchise’s main<br />
character designer.<br />
Nomura was also able to impress his<br />
superiors during the game’s development<br />
with his design book, which<br />
not only contained his ideas and<br />
notes for the game but also various<br />
sketches and artwork that he had<br />
created for his ideas. This made his<br />
book stand out from everyone else’s,<br />
and led to Sakaguchi and Kitase often<br />
asking for his book during design<br />
meetings.<br />
Additional Sources:<br />
- Wikia<br />
- Weekly Famitsu<br />
BY TANELI PALOLA<br />
FROM VGCHARTZ.COM VGCHARTZ.COM
Read <strong>Live</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Anywhere...<br />
issuu.com/gametraders
THE CONTINUING STORY OF RETRO EDITOR, PAUL MONOPOLI’S GAMING JO<br />
The Gamer dia<br />
YOUR RETROSAY<br />
The Super Nintendo was about to<br />
make a big impact on my gaming<br />
life as James had acquired a Super<br />
Wildcard unit, something I was more<br />
than a little envious of. The Super<br />
Wildcard was a cartridge backup<br />
device for the Super Nintendo. It<br />
meant that James could hire a cartridge<br />
from a video shop, bring it<br />
home, copy it to a 3 1/2” disc, then<br />
return it the next day. There was a<br />
parallel port in the back of the unit<br />
that would allow the device to connect<br />
to a PC, though we were never<br />
able to figure out how that was supposed<br />
to work. I had a parallel cable,<br />
but I never found the software<br />
needed for the PC to interface with<br />
the Wildcard.<br />
James ended up selling the Super<br />
Nintendo games that he owned,<br />
with the exception of Super Mario<br />
Kart. The Super Wildcard did not<br />
support any extra hardware used<br />
in games like Mario Kart or Starfox,<br />
so these games were unable<br />
to be backed up. He sold his copy<br />
of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4:<br />
Turtles in Time to Carmelo, though I<br />
ended up finding it in my collection<br />
with no idea how it got there. Maybe<br />
I borrowed it and forgot to return it<br />
or maybe I bought it off him at a later<br />
date. Either way, I still have it in a<br />
VHS case with a butchered TMNT4<br />
SNES box for a label.<br />
While I had always enjoyed the<br />
original TMNT arcade game, in my<br />
opinion it never received a worthy<br />
port. While the NES version has a<br />
hardcore fanbase, I never really<br />
felt that Nintendo’s humble 8-bit<br />
console was able to do the game<br />
justice, and I didn’t enjoy playing it.<br />
Turtles in Time was a very different<br />
story, and being ported to 16 bit<br />
hardware meant that Konami were<br />
able to provide a more definitive<br />
arcade experience. The lack of 4<br />
player support wasn’t a problem for<br />
James and I, and we played through<br />
the game many times. The graphics<br />
were fantastic and well animated,<br />
the controls perfect and the music<br />
was just amazing. The only problem<br />
I had with the game was that it only<br />
lasted around 20 - 30 minutes.<br />
I was starting to become obsessed<br />
with side scrolling beat em ups.<br />
Though I had played a few of them<br />
over the years, game developers<br />
really seemed to be pumping them<br />
out in the early to mid 90s. A few<br />
years earlier Double Dragon on the<br />
Amstrad CPC had been a favourite<br />
of mine, and it was the first of its<br />
genre that I played repeatedly. Actually,<br />
I preferred the smooth, 128k<br />
CPC version of the game over the<br />
jerky arcade original, but I digress…<br />
The original Final Fight had been<br />
released on home systems a few<br />
years earlier, and while the Super<br />
Nintendo version was to be found<br />
lacking, the sequel was not. Final<br />
fight 2 disposed of Guy and Cody,<br />
and featured Carlos and Maki, the<br />
latter of whom has appeared in
URNEY...<br />
ries:<br />
other Capcom titles including Capcom<br />
vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium<br />
2001. Poor Carlos doesn’t appear<br />
to have shown up in any other<br />
games since. Unlike the Super Nintendo<br />
version of Final Fight 1, the<br />
sequel allows 2 players, and the visuals<br />
appear to have been refined.<br />
The Mad Gear gang have reformed<br />
and kidnapped Guy’s fiancee. Guy<br />
is way on a training journey and<br />
cannot be reached, so Haggar, Carlos<br />
and Maki team up to defeat the<br />
Mad Gears once again. The music<br />
is as good as the original, as are<br />
the controls. I’m not sure whether<br />
James and I ever completed the<br />
game, but we played it many times.<br />
Earlier James and I had played a<br />
game called Rival Turf. Everything<br />
about this side scrolling beat em<br />
up just felt very average. I think that<br />
we may have completed it with the<br />
aid of an Action Replay, though this<br />
was the only way we could beat it.<br />
The gameplay was very ‘cheap’,<br />
and you could be in the middle of attacking<br />
an enemy, when out of nowhere<br />
they would be attacking you<br />
back with no means of stopping it.<br />
Collision detection was also a little<br />
questionable, but we persevered.<br />
The sequel, Brawl Brothers, was<br />
greatly improved over the original.<br />
It was James who informed me that<br />
the Rival Turf went by the name<br />
Rushing Beat in Japan, and that<br />
Brawl Brothers was the sequel,<br />
also known as Rushing Beat Run.<br />
At the time James was far more<br />
savvy on video game trivia than I,<br />
as I was always more interested in<br />
playing the games. Brawl Brothers<br />
featured 5 characters, and James<br />
1995 - 1996
favoured the ninja, Kazan. I would<br />
alternate between Hack, a character<br />
from Rival Turf, and Wendy, who<br />
had a speed advantage. The game<br />
featured puzzle elements, though<br />
these were a bit annoying at times.<br />
The sewer stage is a maze, and<br />
going through the wrong door can<br />
take you right back to the beginning<br />
of the level. While we enjoyed this<br />
a lot more than its predecessor,<br />
we never did end up playing the final<br />
game in the series, The Peace<br />
Keepers.<br />
Having grown up with Double Dragon<br />
1 and 2 on the Amstrad CPC,<br />
James and I were excited to continue<br />
the story with Super Double<br />
Dragon 4. I had previously played<br />
the third game in the series on the<br />
Amiga, and was far from impressed.<br />
Double Dragon 3 felt like a cash in<br />
on the popular franchise, and the<br />
media were scathing of both the arcade<br />
and home ports of the game.<br />
Redemption was to be found in Super<br />
Double Dragon 4. The graphics<br />
were your average Super Nintendo<br />
fare, though there were nice visual<br />
affects used. The soundtrack was<br />
a high point, with remixes of the<br />
original Double Dragon theme song<br />
being used. The controls were spot<br />
on, and the only problem I could find<br />
with the game was the slow down<br />
when there were too many enemies<br />
on the screen.<br />
James had earlier purchased a<br />
Nintendo Entertainment System at<br />
a garage sale. It had come with a<br />
variety of games, one of which was<br />
called Ufouria. I was already become<br />
a fan of Wonderboy 3: The Dragon’s<br />
Trap a few years earlier when<br />
Clinton had rented a Sega Master<br />
System with the game. Ufouria, like
Wonderboy 3, is a restrictive platforming<br />
adventure that opens up<br />
as you unlock new characters. You<br />
begin the game with a single character,<br />
Bop Louie, who has to rescue<br />
his brainwashed friends. You rescue<br />
them by battling, which restores<br />
their memories and they become<br />
part of your team. While Bop Louie<br />
can jump, he is restricted by water<br />
and large jumps. This is where your<br />
rescued friends come in handy, as<br />
Freeon Leon can swim on the water’s<br />
surface, Gill can go under the<br />
water, and Shades can float. James<br />
and I would take it in turns playing<br />
through the adventure, and Ufouria<br />
quickly became one of my favourite<br />
games of all time.<br />
The Virtual Boy was a console that<br />
James and I would read about in<br />
Nintendo magazines, and while we<br />
were curious about the technology<br />
we were put off by the lack of<br />
colours. By 1996 it was clear that<br />
this console would never make it<br />
to our shores, but the Nintendo 64<br />
was on the horizon. The Playstation<br />
and Saturn didn’t make much of an<br />
impact on me. I’m not sure about<br />
James, but I was fiercely loyal to<br />
the Big N. As it was, the Nintendo<br />
64 was still a fair way off its Australian<br />
release, and we had so many<br />
more Super Nintendo games to get<br />
through.<br />
I remember James not being too<br />
fond of Run Saber, though he did<br />
enjoy playing Strider on the Amstrad<br />
CPC years earlier. I thought<br />
that the game was an above average<br />
Strider clone, with an option for<br />
2 players. The graphics were nothing<br />
special, but the game moved at<br />
a brisk pace, and the controls were<br />
precise. The music was appropriate,<br />
but hardly memorable. We did<br />
end up playing this one to the end,<br />
though we may have been using<br />
cheat codes to do so.<br />
The Super Wildcard has a feature<br />
called “Goldfinger”, which is a cheat<br />
system that’s similar to the Action<br />
Replay. Before you can use the<br />
cheat codes you have to load the<br />
game into the Wildcard’s memory,<br />
then you can enter your codes before<br />
executing the game. James<br />
was given a select number of<br />
codes with the unit, but there was<br />
supposed to be a way of converting<br />
Action Replay codes to be used<br />
with Goldfinger. This process was<br />
a bit hit and miss, as sometimes<br />
the codes would work, sometimes<br />
they would do nothing, and sometimes<br />
they would crash the game. I<br />
have since learned that some SNES<br />
games received multiple releases,<br />
with different revisions of the game<br />
code. This was mainly done to fix<br />
bugs, though it may have been one<br />
of the contributing factors as to<br />
why these codes didn’t work half<br />
the time.<br />
Though the likes of Ninja Scroll and<br />
Akira were already well known, anime<br />
as a form of entertainment was<br />
still only starting to gain ground.<br />
Anime had been around for years,<br />
but the public didn’t really associate<br />
shows like Astroboy or Battle of the<br />
Planets with Japanese animation.<br />
Super Play magazine was where I<br />
received my anime education, and I<br />
was fascinated with this more adult<br />
form of animation. One film that<br />
caught my attention was Street<br />
Fighter 2: The Animated Movie. I<br />
didn’t read about it in Super Play,<br />
but someone told me about it… I forget<br />
who. As soon as I heard about<br />
1995 - 1996
it I went to Alpha Video in the Ingle<br />
Farm Shopping Centre and rented<br />
it during a lunch break. That night I<br />
went to see James and we watched<br />
the movie, while making bootleg<br />
copies of it for ourselves. I had previously<br />
seen the Van Damme Street<br />
Fighter movie in the cinema and had<br />
been disappointed. In my mind this<br />
animated movie was how a Street<br />
Fighter film should be made.<br />
After reading Super Play and watching<br />
Street Fighter 2 I decided that I<br />
wanted to watch more anime. Luckily<br />
I found that there were other like<br />
minded people at school. Through<br />
them I managed to source copies<br />
of Space Adventure Cobra, Akira,<br />
Ninja Scroll, Legend of the Overfiend,<br />
Fist of the North Star and<br />
more. Some of the tapes I watched<br />
were of questionable quality, having<br />
been watched many times or<br />
copied again and again. Another<br />
title I stumbled upon was Samurai<br />
Shodown: The Motion Picture.<br />
Having played the Neo Geo titles,<br />
I was quite excited by this one. At<br />
the time I remember it being a lot of<br />
fun, but having recently purchased<br />
it on DVD I find that it hasn’t aged<br />
well. The dubbing is ordinary, and<br />
the story is a bit simplistic.<br />
Clinton was also developing an interest<br />
in anime, and he introduced<br />
me to the Fatal Fury OVA specials<br />
and movie. Seeking revenge for<br />
the death of their adoptive father,<br />
a young Terry and Andy Bogard<br />
go their separate ways to develop<br />
their martial arts training. 10 years<br />
later they reunite to defeat Geese<br />
Howard, their father’s killer. Terry<br />
defeats Geese, but doesn’t kill<br />
him. While I was puzzled over Andy<br />
Bogard having silver hair in the first<br />
OVA, this was corrected in the second<br />
OVA and movie.<br />
The second OVA follows the events<br />
of the second game, with Geese’s<br />
brother, Wolfgang Krauser, attempting<br />
to avenge his defeat.<br />
Krauser beats Terry who falls into<br />
a pit of depression, drinking himself<br />
senseless and getting beaten<br />
up in pub fights. Terry is stalked by<br />
a young wannabe fighter named<br />
Tony, who eventually gets through<br />
to him. Terry trains to develop a new<br />
technique that he uses to defeat<br />
Krauser.<br />
The movie is a part of the same series,<br />
but doesn’t follow the storyline<br />
of any of the games. It appears that<br />
this could have led into an adaptation<br />
of Fatal Fury 3, as one of the<br />
scenes shows Geese developing<br />
his raging storm technique. Sadly it<br />
was never to be, and no further sequels<br />
were made.<br />
That’s all the space I have this<br />
month. Join me next month as I discover<br />
emulation, and take my first<br />
steps into the world of Azeroth!<br />
If you want to follow me on Twitter<br />
I can be found @dizrythmia or at<br />
www.retrospekt.com.au<br />
1995 - 1996<br />
WRITTEN BY PAUL MONOPOLI
YOUR VIDEO SAY GAMES<br />
the wester<br />
the king of the wild west: looking forward to<br />
red dead redemption 2<br />
In case you missed it, Rockstar<br />
Games officially announced that<br />
Red Dead Redemption 2 is in development.<br />
Even better, they’ve<br />
even let us know the release period:<br />
Fall 2017 (that’s Spring 2017<br />
for us Aussies!). That’s right gamers,<br />
one of the greatest openworld<br />
action games is getting a sequel<br />
in 2017 and will be available<br />
on all current-gen consoles. So<br />
what do we know about the game<br />
so far and what can we expect?<br />
Here’s what we think, but please<br />
note, that as very little is known<br />
about red Dead Redemption 2 at<br />
this point, some of this article will<br />
be simple speculation.<br />
A Massive and<br />
Gorgeous<br />
Open-world<br />
Rockstar Games have a penchant<br />
for creating massive detailed<br />
worlds such as the ones seen in<br />
Red Dead Redemption and Grand<br />
Theft Auto V. In fact, they are considered<br />
by many to be the pioneers<br />
of the open-world genre, as Rockstar’s<br />
own Grand Theft Auto III set<br />
the standard when it was released<br />
for the PlayStation 2 in 2001.<br />
The original Red Dead Redemption<br />
released on the PlayStation 3 and<br />
Xbox 360 in 2010 – roughly two<br />
and a half years before the current<br />
generation of consoles. It was built<br />
on Rockstar’s RAGE (Rockstar Advanced<br />
Game Engine), the same<br />
game engine that powered titles<br />
such as Grand Theft Auto IV and<br />
Max Payne 3. Whilst Rockstar’s<br />
games pushed the last generation<br />
of consoles’ hardware to the limit,<br />
they were still a couple of years<br />
ahead of the next console generation.<br />
A lot has changed since 2010,<br />
and today’s consoles are more<br />
much more powerful than that of<br />
the last generation – and there<br />
are even more powerful versions<br />
of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4<br />
on the way.<br />
While Red Dead Redemption 2’s<br />
trailer didn’t reveal anything about<br />
the game’s story, the one thing it<br />
did show was an immense and<br />
breathtaking world. Lush, green<br />
fields, craggy cliffs, dusty deserts<br />
and bustling towns were all on<br />
display. Deer and bison roam the<br />
landscape, with steam-trains roaring<br />
along heavy iron tracks. From<br />
a more technological standpoint,<br />
the game utilises more advanced<br />
visual techniques as well, such as<br />
crepuscular rays (AKA God rays).<br />
It’s fair to assume that there will be<br />
other modern design techniques<br />
in the final game as well, such as<br />
more advanced particle effects<br />
for dust and debris. One this is for<br />
certain, this is bound to be the best<br />
looking version of the Wild West<br />
we’ve ever seen.<br />
A Layered and<br />
Rich Story<br />
The original Red Dead Redemption<br />
had a fantastic story, and featured<br />
one of the most popular protagonists<br />
in gaming history. Playing as<br />
John Marsten, gamers experienced<br />
the story of a man who needed to<br />
bury his past, only to have it catch<br />
up with him. Travelling across the<br />
land, Marsten encounters a host of<br />
colourful characters, and goes on<br />
a number of thrilling adventures.<br />
He’ll take on the Mexican army, defeat<br />
a gang of bandits, and even<br />
face corrupt lawmen in his quest<br />
for a new life with his family.<br />
Red Dead Redemption captivated<br />
players with its enthralling story,<br />
and while it was unmistakably a<br />
Rockstar game, it had a more cohesive<br />
and emotive narrative than<br />
that of Grand Theft Auto IV, Bully<br />
and the Max Payne games. As far<br />
as Rockstar game plots go, it was<br />
the cream of the crop.
n is back!<br />
Screenshot from Rockstar Games official site.
All we know about Red Dead Redemption<br />
2’s story is that it is set in<br />
the Wild West and features a posse<br />
of seven men. Who these men<br />
are and what their roles will be, is<br />
anybody’s guess. Are they a gang<br />
of bandits? Have they been riding<br />
together for years, or have they<br />
just formed a posse recently?<br />
If Grand Theft Auto V is anything<br />
to go by, we could see a return<br />
of multiple protagonists. Rockstar<br />
surprised the world with story missions<br />
that saw the player switch<br />
between multiple roles on the fly,<br />
and some of GTA V’s best missions<br />
were easily its heists, where<br />
co-ordinating multiple characters<br />
was essential to success. Could<br />
Red Dead Redemption 2 feature<br />
a similar mechanic? Will players<br />
use one character to snipe guards<br />
while another plants dynamite to<br />
blow open a safe? Will they sneak<br />
into an enemy camp with one<br />
character while others engage in<br />
a fire-fight with the Mexican Army?<br />
With the seven riders featuring in<br />
the game’s trailer and concept art,<br />
anything is possible.<br />
More Missions<br />
Than You Have<br />
Bullets<br />
If there’s one thing the original RDR<br />
had, it was missions. There were<br />
57 story missions, 18 Stranger<br />
missions, 20 bounty locations, as<br />
well as outfits, rare weapons and<br />
more. Not only that, but there were<br />
side activities including Poker to<br />
play. Not only was the player spoilt<br />
for choice, but the game’s quality<br />
ran consistently throughout –<br />
there was no padding, just quality<br />
activities.<br />
Red Dead Redemption 2 is likely to<br />
have even more missions and side<br />
activities in its single-player campaign,<br />
as Rockstar’s more recent<br />
GTA V has over 69 story missions.<br />
An Exciting<br />
Online<br />
Component<br />
Rockstar’s most recent game,<br />
Grand Theft Auto, has seen a very<br />
healthy post-launch lifespan because<br />
of its online mode. Rockstar<br />
are frequently updating GTA<br />
V’s online mode with free content,<br />
whether it’s more missions, clothing,<br />
vehicles and game modes, or<br />
something different altogether.<br />
It’s unusual for a game that isn’t an<br />
FPS or MMO to have the longevity<br />
that GTA V has had, and most FPS<br />
games drop support for a game<br />
after the first 12 months (when<br />
the next game in the franchise<br />
releases). It’s a credit to Rockstar<br />
Games that players are still hungry<br />
for more GTA Online three years<br />
after GTA V’s release.<br />
It’s safe to assume that Rockstar<br />
will be aim for similar success with<br />
an online mode for Red Dead Redemption<br />
2. It will be more difficult<br />
to fill an online Wild West with as<br />
many activities as GTA V’s Los<br />
Santos (there will definitely not be<br />
any parachuting or jet races!) but<br />
we’re hoping we will have riverboat<br />
casinos, saloons, heists, and<br />
heck, maybe even some farming<br />
or gold panning. Let’s have a balance<br />
between the chaotic and the<br />
authentic!<br />
An<br />
Atmospheric<br />
Soundtrack<br />
Red Dead Redemption had a fantastic<br />
soundtrack, which helped<br />
provide the player with an amazing<br />
atmosphere. Whether you were<br />
riding through the desert, tracking<br />
animals in the forest on a hunt, or<br />
playing through an intense story<br />
mission, the soundtrack was integral<br />
to the experience.<br />
It was one of the first games from<br />
Rockstar Games to have an original<br />
score, which was composed by<br />
Bill Elms and Woody Jackson. Elms<br />
and Jackson aimed for a similar<br />
sound to popular Western films<br />
of the 1960’s, such as A Fistful of<br />
Dollars. Making a soundtrack for a<br />
two hour film and a forty plus hour<br />
video game are two very different<br />
things, however, with Elms and<br />
Jackson achieving something truly<br />
special with the RDR soundtrack.<br />
At certain points in the game, Red<br />
Dead Redemption’s story played<br />
very real music from Jose Gonzalez,<br />
perfectly capturing the mood<br />
of the story’s current state. They<br />
were two of the very few times in<br />
modern video games where music<br />
and gameplay fuse together<br />
to become art, and we’re hoping<br />
that something similar pops up in<br />
RDR 2.<br />
A Musthave<br />
Game<br />
Regardless of what direction<br />
Rockstar Games takes Red Dead<br />
Redemption 2 – whether it has<br />
more of a focus on an online<br />
mode, whether it has a staggering
The original Red<br />
Dead Redemption<br />
scored highly with<br />
gamers and critics.<br />
It has a score of 95<br />
on metacritic, and a<br />
user score of 8.8.<br />
amount of single-player content<br />
or even (fingers crossed) if it has<br />
a co-operative multi-player campaign,<br />
one thing is for certain: it’s<br />
going to be an amazing game. This<br />
is a studio with the Midas touch,<br />
with a string of hits dating all the<br />
way back to 1991 with their smash<br />
hit Lemmings (back then Rockstar<br />
North was called DMA Design).<br />
They’ve pioneered the open-world<br />
action game sub-genre and created<br />
some of the best video games<br />
in history, and Red Dead Redemption<br />
2 can’t come quick enough.<br />
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmA6MrX81z4<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmA6MrX81z4<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmA6MrX81z4<br />
WRITTEN BY nick getley<br />
www.stickytrigger.com
YOUR MOVIESAY<br />
The trailer for Red Dead Redemption<br />
2 recently dropped onto our<br />
screens getting fans excited for<br />
what might be. The original game,<br />
Red Dead Redemption developed<br />
by Rockstar Games was released<br />
for the PS3 and Xbox 360 back in<br />
2010 (the first of the franchise was<br />
Red Dead Revolver). It sits on a<br />
score of 95 at Metacritic from critics<br />
and is probably the best westerner<br />
themed video game released.<br />
Coincidently our “Friends in Podcasting”<br />
Phil and Dean over at Chillpak<br />
Hollywood did a show on the top<br />
10 western movies of all time. We’ll<br />
take a look at their picks in a minute<br />
or two but first I’m sitting here<br />
on a spring Adelaide morning wondering<br />
what is it about the western<br />
genre that we love..? There’s been<br />
some brilliant western movies, like<br />
one of my favourites, The Outlaw<br />
Josie Wales, with Clint Eastwood<br />
as director and star. (Philip Kaufman<br />
was the original director and<br />
had completed much of the work<br />
on the film’s pre-production). So as<br />
I’m sitting in my comfortable office,<br />
I’m trying to imagine what it was<br />
like back in the 1800s, no airconditioning,<br />
no cars to quickly run down<br />
the shop and grab milk and bread.<br />
No TV, game consoles or mobiles<br />
to keep you amused whilst hanging<br />
around... it was a very different<br />
world.<br />
speaking of wes<br />
OUR FRIEND<br />
SHARE THEIR T<br />
(If you don’t know much about Chillpak,<br />
check out their website here<br />
http://www.chillpakhollywood.com/)<br />
Phil is an independent film maker<br />
and and Dean is a comic and actor<br />
who you’ve seen as Langly in the X-<br />
Files...<br />
As Phil says, westerns matter... you<br />
need to listen and appreciate how<br />
well thought out this list is and to<br />
simply get some ideas for great<br />
movie watching over the <strong>Christmas</strong><br />
break.<br />
So to get a feel for the west, Phil<br />
and Dean have a list of their favourite<br />
western movies that we highly<br />
recommend you take a look at over<br />
the <strong>Christmas</strong> holidays. Let’s take a<br />
look...<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.chillpakhollywood.com/<br />
www.instagram.com/deanandphil/<br />
itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/chillpak-hollywood-hour-podcast/id265851882?mt=2
terns...<br />
S IN PODCASTING<br />
OP WESTERN MOVIES<br />
Deans top 6:<br />
10 - (a flawed western) One Eyed Jacks, a 1961 film directed<br />
by Marlon Brando and was originally directed by Stanley Kubrick.<br />
Brando is the lead character and it also features Karl Malden<br />
and Katy Jurado.<br />
9 - The Magnificent Seven made in 1960 with a huge cast including<br />
Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen and Charles<br />
Bronson plus a ton more. Directed by John Sturges and also<br />
added to the U.S National Film Registry for preservation. As<br />
Phil says, it wasn’t originally a hit in the U.S until they changed<br />
the marketing campaign, which it then became a hit. Based<br />
on a Japanese movie - Samurai Seven, it’s not only a great<br />
movie but has a great musical score! (listen here : https://youtu.<br />
be/9iteRKvRKFA)<br />
8 - Cowboys featuring Jack Lemon and Glenn Ford, the film<br />
is about a Chicago hotel clerk who falls for the daughter of a<br />
hotel guest and dreams about being a cowboy. The director is<br />
Delmer Davis.<br />
7 - Blazing Saddles - the 1974 satirical western directed by<br />
Mel Brooks and starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder ( who<br />
recently passed away) it’s a classic comedy that features a<br />
bunch of moments you have to see as they’ve now become<br />
classics!<br />
6 - High Noon directed by Fred Zinnemann in 1952 and starring<br />
Gary Cooper. Interestingly it’s almost told in real time - as the<br />
clock counts down to high noon. It’s the story of a town marshal<br />
forced to face a gang of killers by himself.<br />
phils top 6:<br />
For number 10, Phil has two pics:<br />
10 - The Oxbo Incident 1943, directed by William A. Wellman<br />
and starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews and Mary Beth<br />
Hughes. In 1988 this film was selected for preservation in the<br />
U.S National Film Registry.<br />
10 - The Professional directed by Richard Brooks and starring<br />
Burt Lancaster. It’s based on the novel by Frank O’Rourke - A<br />
Mule for the Marquesa.<br />
9 - 3.10 to Yuma (1957 version) with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin<br />
and directed by Delmer Davis. Based on a short story by<br />
Elmore Leonard, and has been remade in 2007 and it too, was<br />
selected for preservation by the U.S National Film Registry.<br />
8 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance made in 1962 and featured<br />
James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin.<br />
Directed by John Ford it is also preserved in the Film Registry.<br />
The story is about the myth and the truth behind the myth<br />
7 - The Magnificent Seven - already mentioned by Dean.<br />
6 - Rio Bravo from 1959 features John Wayne, Dean Martin,<br />
Ricky Nelso and Angie Dickinson, it’s directed by Howard<br />
Hawks and is based on the short story by B.H. McCampbell.<br />
Unlike High Noon, in Rio Bravo the towns folk offer to help the<br />
sheriff but he declines.<br />
For the rest of the list you’ll need to head on over to the podcast for the top 5. In fact if you’re into<br />
movies and humour get over to iTunes and subscribe, it’s one of the most refreshing and funny podcasts<br />
around and it’s been on air for 10 years!
YOUR television: SAY BINGE TIME<br />
TV FEST <strong>2016</strong><br />
Ahh, the holidays. A time where you really have nothing but time to kill. It can<br />
lead us to catching up on a lot of things we missed out on. Thus, I present to<br />
you, four top notch TV shows to catch up on in this holiday period.<br />
WESTWORLD<br />
HBO brings us this thrilling adaptation<br />
of the 1973 film of the same<br />
name. That said, if you have seen<br />
the film you ain’t seen nothing yet.<br />
The TV show explores the theme<br />
park Westworld. A painstaking recreation<br />
of the American frontier.<br />
However not all is what meets the<br />
eye, the theme back is populated<br />
by what people call “hosts”, highly<br />
advanced robots that meet the<br />
every need, wish and desire of the<br />
park’s guests. In a story where average<br />
people get broken down and<br />
begin to indulge their darkest fantasies<br />
you watch a story where you<br />
begin to feel more and more sympathy<br />
for the robots who are seemingly<br />
real people. Sometimes to the<br />
point where you don’t know who is<br />
a guest and who is a host.<br />
Things slowly begin to take darker<br />
and darker turns as the hosts begin<br />
to learn and evolve. Season one is<br />
nearly over but I’m sure it’s not going<br />
to end well for the guests of Westworld.<br />
Catch this one on iTunes or<br />
on HBO services or even on Foxtel,<br />
but it is a must watch!<br />
ASH VS EVIL DEAD<br />
Wow! For any fans of the 80’s masterpiece<br />
Evil Dead and it’s subsequent<br />
sequels Ash Vs Evil Dead is a<br />
dream come true. The series picks<br />
up some twenty years after Army of<br />
Darkness and we once again follow<br />
Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams into<br />
the dark and twisted world of the<br />
Necronomicon. Deadites, insane<br />
violence and returns to some of the<br />
series best locations ensues. This<br />
show is just a breath of fresh air. So<br />
insane and over the top it is simply<br />
a joy to behold. That said not for<br />
the faint of heart or for the younger<br />
viewers. This show is violent! Like<br />
full tilt 80’s horror splendour violent.<br />
Just blood everywhere... Just...<br />
Wow... But for the horror fans or for<br />
fans of Three Stooges slapstick<br />
comedy this show was made for<br />
you. Evil Dead and Ash himself have<br />
become pop culture icons and this<br />
show is a warm reminder that not all<br />
things that die are dead.<br />
STAR WARS: REBELS<br />
Star Wars Rebels is a fantastic<br />
example of good child based television.<br />
This show is for the whole<br />
family. The show is set between<br />
Episode Three and Episode Four<br />
of the Star Wars films and introduces<br />
us to one of the first bands<br />
of rebels that would become the<br />
Rebel Alliance from the films of old.<br />
We get some wonderfully complex<br />
characters for a children’s television<br />
show as well as some fairly mature<br />
plots that have wonderful payoffs.<br />
We also get the return of some of<br />
our favourite Star Wars characters,<br />
Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin,<br />
Darth Maul, Lando just to name<br />
a few. For a fan of Star Wars this<br />
show is simply a treat. It rises mush<br />
higher than the clone wars series<br />
and it really feels like a great deal of<br />
love and care went into making this<br />
show a reality.<br />
There you have it, three fantastic shows to keep you busy this coming holiday’s! Each show has some super cool merchandise<br />
available too! So if you love them don’t forget to check out the awesome toys you can get yourselves aswell!<br />
WRITTEN BY scott sowter<br />
twitter: @ ScottFSowter
YOUR CHRISTMAS SAY EVE<br />
CHRISTMAS<br />
INGREDIENTS<br />
1 Handful of Friends<br />
1 Serve of Social Lubricant<br />
4 Pizzas from a Reputable Pizza Establishment<br />
(Recommended serve more is always better)<br />
1 DVD (Or Bluray) of The Muppets <strong>Christmas</strong> Carol<br />
1 DVD (Or Bluray) of Gremlins<br />
1 DVD (Or Bluray) of Die Hard<br />
? Serve of Presents (Remember to work to a budget!)<br />
EVE<br />
RECIPE<br />
Step 1: Invite over your closest friends, this can be done via tools such as Facebook, instant messaging or you<br />
could even experiment with calling them on the telephone and asking them with your words! The old fashioned way<br />
we call it.<br />
Step 2: Ask your guests to bring a social lubricant of their choice. Don’t forget to get some for yourself!<br />
Step 3: Order pizza. Don’t forget to ask your guests what kind of pizza they like. Not everyone likes meatlovers, so<br />
remember to get a selection, we recommend a peperoni or even the simple yet elegant margarita. Remember that<br />
smaller pizza joints usually make bigger and better pizza’s than their corporate rivals.<br />
Step 4: Insert DVD or Bluray of Gremlins. Enjoy the <strong>Christmas</strong> classic from horror director Joe Dante and Steven<br />
Spielberg. This gem will shock and delight with it’s insane use of puppets that tear a town apart on <strong>Christmas</strong>. Keep<br />
an eye out for Gizmo, that guy is just the cutest. Yes he is, he’s so cute!<br />
Step 5: The Muppets <strong>Christmas</strong> Carol. This one will bring the group together with classic songs put together and<br />
sung by our favourite furry puppets, the Muppets! It will also get everyone in the <strong>Christmas</strong> spirit and remind everyone<br />
why you are all together at this special time of year. The message is important, as is Gonzo the great, THE BEST<br />
MUPPET!<br />
Step 6: Presents!<br />
Step 7: DIE HARD! BOOM! EXPLOSIONS! Bruce Willis shooting terrorists yeah!!!! This one is the ultimate <strong>Christmas</strong><br />
movie and the ultimate end to your ultimate <strong>Christmas</strong> Eve party, filled with explosions and epic one liners like Yippie<br />
Ki Yay Mother F*&$@!<br />
Remember to <strong>Christmas</strong> Responsibly.<br />
WRITTEN BY scott sowter<br />
twitter: @ ScottFSowter
YOUR SONY SAY PICTURES<br />
UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS<br />
Cast:<br />
Genre:<br />
Director:<br />
Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Lara Pulver, Tobias Menzies,<br />
Bradley James, James Faulkner, Charles Dance<br />
Action / Supernatural<br />
Anna Foerster<br />
The next instalment in the blockbuster franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars follows Vampire death dealer,<br />
Selene (Kate Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction<br />
that betrayed her.<br />
With her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must stop the eternal<br />
war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice. Only at the<br />
movies! December 1.<br />
Watch the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ahjVsOn4M<br />
© <strong>2016</strong> Screen Gems Inc. All Rights Reserved.<br />
want to win 1 of 5 merch packs<br />
including a double pass to<br />
the movie?<br />
15 runner ups will also win a double pass!<br />
Watch the trailer above, and tell us what Kate<br />
Beckinsale says after co-star Theo James says<br />
"There are too many of them..."?<br />
Facebook Inbox us your answer here:<br />
www.facebook.com/Gametraders.Australia
UNDERWORLD<br />
Kate’s back as Selene in Underworld<br />
Blood Wars!<br />
Like Resident Evil, the Underworld<br />
film started out in the early part of<br />
2000 and featured a strong female<br />
lead. Rather then zombies, we see<br />
vampires and werewolves featured,<br />
with Kate Beckinsale as Selene,<br />
a Death Dealer who kills Lycans<br />
(werewolves) who she believes<br />
killed her family.<br />
The first film, Underworld, directed<br />
by Len Wiseman and written by<br />
Danny McBride sees Selene hunting<br />
Lycans. With a budget of just<br />
$22 million the film went on to gross<br />
$95 million, although critics generally<br />
were negative. The rich visuals<br />
and gothic stylings, however, stood<br />
out and were praised.<br />
The film delves deeply into vampire<br />
and werewolf lore and as critic Andrew<br />
O’Hehir conceded that despite<br />
the movie’s flaws, the complex<br />
vampire-werewolf mythology<br />
back-story “has been meticulously<br />
worked out.”<br />
There’s a lot of gothic architecture,<br />
lots of leather wearing and drama<br />
by the vampires with gory fight<br />
scenes. Beckinsale is spot on as<br />
Selene and moves with grace and<br />
determination according to her<br />
character.<br />
In 2006 Underworld: Evolution was<br />
released and again featured Beckinsale<br />
as Selene. The plot is detailed<br />
and complex, take a look here:<br />
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld:_Evolution<br />
With a budget of $45 million it went<br />
to to make $111.3 million but again<br />
was not well received by critics.<br />
Fans loved it and this led to Underworld<br />
: Rise of the Lycans in 2009<br />
- a prequel to the original and did<br />
not feature Beckinsale as the story<br />
was not based on her character<br />
but was narrated by her. Instead we<br />
see Rhona Mitra as Sonja, Viktor’s<br />
daughter who falls in love with Lucian,<br />
the first werewolf capable of<br />
taking human form.<br />
With a budget of $35 million, it went<br />
on to make $91 million at the box<br />
office.<br />
In 2012 Beckinsale reprised her role<br />
as Selene in Underworld : Awakening.<br />
Filmed in 3D, IMAX 3D and 2D.<br />
The story is set six months after<br />
Evolution and in this film the general<br />
public and government are now<br />
aware of the existence of werewolves<br />
and vampires. The government<br />
commences a program to<br />
harness the powers of both and Selene<br />
is then imprisoned in cryogenic<br />
suspension. Twelve years later, she<br />
manages to escape, fighting her<br />
way through tunnels infested with<br />
Lycans.<br />
The film had a budget of $70 million<br />
and made $160 million at the box<br />
office. It’s a fast paced action film,<br />
again with lot’s of leather costumes<br />
and blood and gore.<br />
The success of the series sees<br />
the next title about to be released:<br />
Underworld Blood Wars. Again with<br />
Kate Beckinsale as Selene. The film<br />
is due for release in January 2017.<br />
There’s a bunch of clips here:<br />
instagram.com/underworldmovie/<br />
and look out for ticket giveaways in<br />
this issue of <strong>Live</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.
UNDERWORLD<br />
COSPLAY TRIBUTE<br />
With the new Underworld Blood<br />
Wars film about to hit we got together<br />
with a local cosplayer and<br />
fan of the series to have some fun<br />
creating some photos inspired by<br />
the movie. Megan (Yaniv Cosplay)<br />
and I sat and talked about the new<br />
movie and I first asked what she<br />
loved about the Underworld films.<br />
“I love that they are so in depth,<br />
there’s a lot of underlaying history,<br />
characters and events that are<br />
happening during the movies and<br />
before the movies which makes<br />
them feel more in depth and detailed,<br />
making them feel more realistic<br />
to me.”<br />
What about the sets used and the<br />
mood they create? Do you think<br />
they capture the whole feeling and<br />
drama of the story?<br />
Definitely, I think the darkness mixed<br />
in with the rain and gothic costumes<br />
make the story feel so much more<br />
intense and add this edge of drama<br />
which I love! It draws me into the<br />
movies more and makes me feel as<br />
though I want to be a part of it.<br />
Kate Beckinsale is perfect as Selene<br />
- What did you think of “Rise of<br />
the Lycans” and Rhona Mitra in the<br />
key role as Sonja?<br />
Kate Beckinsale is my ultimate female<br />
crush and is perfect for the<br />
role of Selene! I don’t think anyone<br />
else would’ve been better suited<br />
for the job.<br />
Out of all the movies, Rise of Lycans<br />
is my favorite. I like how the<br />
producers of the film really wanted<br />
to tell the story of how the war between<br />
the lycans and vampires<br />
(death dealers) started.<br />
I think that Rhona was the perfect<br />
for the role of Sonja. She is a fantastic<br />
actress and really made me<br />
feel like her love for Lucian was real<br />
and that she would do anything just<br />
so that she could be with him. I also<br />
think that her sharp features made<br />
her look intense and perfect for the<br />
role as a vampire.<br />
Which movie is your favourite?<br />
The first film is my favourite, but<br />
they are all fantastic!<br />
Thanks for the chat Megan! If you’d<br />
like to see more of her Cosplay,<br />
head on over to:<br />
facebook.com/yanivcosplay
YOUR SONY SAY PICTURES<br />
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER<br />
Cast:<br />
Genre:<br />
Director:<br />
Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Ruby Rose, Iain Glen, William Levy, Shawn<br />
Roberts, Rola Lee Joon-Gi<br />
Action / Sci-Fi<br />
Paul W.S. Anderson<br />
Based on Capcom’s hugely popular video game series Resident Evil comes the final instalment in the most<br />
successful video game film franchise ever, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide to date.<br />
Picking up immediately after the events in Resident Evil: Retribution, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only survivor<br />
of what was meant to be humanity’s final stand against the undead. Now, she must return to where the<br />
nightmare began – The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a<br />
final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.<br />
Only at the movies! January 26.<br />
Watch the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-epkDvc1PlE<br />
© <strong>2016</strong> Screen Gems Inc. All Rights Reserved.<br />
want to win a double pass?<br />
Watch the trailer above, and tell us what Mila<br />
Jovovich says after “My name is Alice...”<br />
Facebook Inbox us your answer here:<br />
www.facebook.com/Gametraders.Australia
Art<br />
Residen<br />
become<br />
imitating Art<br />
When Constantin Film bought the<br />
rights to the first Resident Evil film in<br />
1997, the original choice for writer<br />
and director was George A. Romero<br />
- he of Night of the Living Dead<br />
fame. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_A._Romero)<br />
Capcom producer, Yoshiki Okamoto<br />
stated that “Romero’s script<br />
wasn’t good, so Romero was fired.”<br />
A new script was written by Paul W.<br />
S. Anderson and in 2000 he was announced<br />
by Sony as writer and director.<br />
A key point by Anderson was<br />
that the movie would not include<br />
tie-ins with the game as he felt the<br />
movie deserved a good “celluloid<br />
representation”. Milla Jovovich was<br />
announced as the key character,<br />
Alice.<br />
She was also in the Fifth Element<br />
as Leeloo, and previous to that<br />
was a super model who quit school<br />
at age 12 to focus full time on her<br />
modelling.<br />
Synopsosi (source: Wikipedia)<br />
The first film, simply titled Resident<br />
Evil, sees us introduced to the Umbrella<br />
Corporation and Alice, The<br />
Red Queen and the T-Virus:<br />
In the film, the Umbrella Corporation<br />
operates a top-secret genetic research<br />
facility named The Hive. Located<br />
deep beneath Raccoon City,<br />
The Hive has been sealed by The<br />
Red Queen (the AI that controls the<br />
Hive) due to the release of the T-Virus<br />
into the facility. The Red Queen<br />
kills every living thing in the facility<br />
to ensure that the T-Virus doesn’t<br />
reach the surface, but the T-Virus<br />
reanimates them, transforming the<br />
humans into ravenous zombies<br />
and the animals into highly aggressive<br />
mutants. Alice (Milla Jovovich),<br />
once a security operative working<br />
for the Corporation until her memory<br />
was wiped by the Red Queen’s<br />
nerve gas. As the team attempts to<br />
escape The Hive, an Umbrella test<br />
subject, a huge monster called the<br />
Licker, escapes and pursues the<br />
team. When they reach the train<br />
that leads them to the exit, the<br />
Licker attacks and scratches Matt<br />
before Alice can kill it. When they<br />
reach the surface, Matt is taken<br />
away by Umbrella workers and he<br />
eventually transforms into Nemesis.<br />
Alice wakes from a coma to a ravaged<br />
Raccoon City after a T-Virus<br />
outbreak.<br />
With a budget of $40million, the film<br />
did borrow elements of the game<br />
and went on to make $102 million<br />
worldwide. While not all critics liked<br />
the film, fans did, including James<br />
Cameron (Terminator and Aliens)<br />
stating “You don’t have to defend<br />
a guilty pleasure.” There’s a bunch<br />
of references to the game that you<br />
can find in the detailed article on<br />
Wikipedia including the the wedding<br />
picture Alice finds and the newspaper<br />
headline.<br />
In 2004 Resident Evil: Apocalypse,<br />
again featuring Jovovich in the lead<br />
was released and made even more<br />
at the box office than the original<br />
film but again critics were mainly<br />
negative. Fans however proved<br />
that they would decide the success<br />
of the film.<br />
In 2007 Resident Evil Extinction<br />
was released. Alice (Jovovich)<br />
leads a group of survivors across<br />
the desert to Alaska to escape the<br />
zombies. The film was number one<br />
at the North American box office<br />
on its opening weekend and made<br />
$147 million worldwide. Again critics<br />
were negative with the film gaining<br />
a rating of just 22% on Rotten<br />
Tomatoes.<br />
The next title, Resident Evil: Afterlife<br />
hit screen ins 2010 and featured<br />
Jovovich again as Alice.<br />
The synopsis from Wikipedia:<br />
Set after the events of Extinction,<br />
Alice and her clones attack the
t Evil : The game<br />
s a 6 MOVIE SERIES
Umbrella Headquarters in Tokyo.<br />
Wesker escapes and destroys the<br />
facility, killing the clones. Wesker is<br />
confronted by Alice aboard his helicopter.<br />
He injects Alice with a serum<br />
that removes her super-human abilities.<br />
The helicopter crashes, and<br />
only Alice is seen emerging from<br />
the rubble. After months of a failed<br />
aerial search for other survivors, Alice<br />
heads toward the supposed location<br />
of Arcadia. She lands on an<br />
airfield in Alaska, where she finds<br />
Claire in a different state.<br />
Claire has an Umbrella controlling<br />
device attached to her chest and<br />
her memory has been wiped. Claire<br />
and Alice fly to Los Angeles, where<br />
they stumble on a prison where<br />
they meet Luther West and Chris<br />
Redfield, Claire’s brother. The survivors<br />
explain that Arcadia is really a<br />
tanker off the coast that has been<br />
broadcasting a looped message<br />
and is picking up survivors. During<br />
an attempted escape, Alice, Claire<br />
and Chris are the only ones to<br />
emerge and they reach the tanker<br />
only to find it abandoned. Claire’s<br />
memory begins to return when she<br />
remembers Umbrella workers attacking<br />
her group of survivors and<br />
moving them to the tanker. They<br />
learn that the ship is an Umbrella<br />
research facility, which is conducting<br />
experiments on the survivors.<br />
The three then meet Wesker, who<br />
has been granted super-human<br />
abilities due to the T-Virus. After the<br />
fight, Alice transmits a message to<br />
survivors calling them to the tanker<br />
and hopes to create a new and true<br />
safe haven. As the film closes, a<br />
fleet of Umbrella Corporation gunships<br />
led by Valentine prepares to<br />
lead an assault on the survivors.<br />
In 2012 Resident Evil Retribution<br />
arrived featuring Milla Jovovich in<br />
the lead, Michelle Rodriguez (who<br />
played Rain Ocampo in the first<br />
film) and 3 characters from the<br />
video game not previously seen in<br />
the movies. - Leon S Kennedy, Barry<br />
Burton and Ada Wong.<br />
In the film, Alice awakens in an Umbrella<br />
base where she is interrogated<br />
by Valentine. During a power<br />
failure orchestrated by Ada Wong,<br />
Alice escapes from her cell and encounters<br />
her. Wong explains that<br />
Wesker plans to aid Alice’s escape<br />
and battle the base’s supercomputer<br />
Red Queen, in order to save<br />
what’s left of mankind. Wesker has<br />
organized a team of freelance operatives<br />
to infiltrate the base and<br />
help Alice and Ada escape, including<br />
Leon S. Kennedy, Barry Burton,<br />
and Luther West. Along the way,<br />
Alice finds a clone of a girl named<br />
Becky. They also face clone versions<br />
of Carlos Olivera, One, and<br />
Rain Ocampo, who are all under the<br />
direction of Valentine. After Alice<br />
meets up with the rescue team, Valentine’s<br />
soldiers catch up to them,<br />
resulting in a shootout that kills Burton,<br />
Olivera and One. Alice, West,<br />
Kennedy, and Becky reach the surface<br />
and are met by a submarine,<br />
from which Valentine, the clone<br />
Rain, and a captured Ada emerge.<br />
With new orders from the Red<br />
Queen to kill Alice, Valentine battles<br />
Alice while Rain fights Kennedy and<br />
West. Alice manages to remove<br />
the scarab device from Valentine,<br />
returning her back to normal. Alice<br />
joins Kennedy in defeating Rain. Alice,<br />
Ada, Becky, Leon, and Valentine<br />
travel to Wesker’s base. Wesker injects<br />
Alice with the T-virus, returning<br />
her former superhuman powers<br />
in order to enact his plan, then tells<br />
her that she is responsible for saving<br />
the remaining humans from extinction.[22]<br />
(source Wikipedia)<br />
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - is<br />
released in December and again<br />
sees Paul W. S. Anderson at the<br />
helm as writer / director and Milla<br />
Jovovich as Alice. According to<br />
Sony, the film:<br />
Picks “up immediately after the<br />
events in Resident Evil: Retribution,<br />
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only<br />
survivor of what was meant to be<br />
humanity’s final stand against the<br />
undead. Now, she must return to<br />
where the nightmare began – The<br />
Hive in Raccoon City, where the<br />
Umbrella Corporation is gathering<br />
its forces for a final strike against<br />
the only remaining survivors of the<br />
apocalypse.”<br />
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY:<br />
Paul W.S. Anderson<br />
PRODUCED BY:<br />
Jeremy Bolt, Paul W.S. Anderson,<br />
Robert Kulzer, Samuel Hadida<br />
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:<br />
Martin Moszkowicz, Victor Hadida<br />
CAST:<br />
Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn<br />
Roberts, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken,<br />
Fraser James, Rola, Lee Joon-Gi<br />
with William Levy and Iain Glen<br />
We at <strong>Live</strong> are looking forward to<br />
the latest and last instalment, fingers<br />
crossed this one will be awesome!
All images courtesy Sony Pictures Australia
Resident Evil<br />
COSPLAY TRIBUTE
Resident Evil<br />
COSPLAY TRIBUTE
YOUR local SAY artist<br />
INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST Kit10<br />
illustrations<br />
One thing that crosses all our interests,<br />
whether it’s video games,<br />
board games, anime, figurines,<br />
comics etc, is the amazing artwork.<br />
Without the artists creating characters<br />
and backdrops we see in our<br />
entertainment our enjoyment would<br />
be no where near the same.<br />
In fact it’s that artwork, whether it’s<br />
realistic as in a racing sim or a fantasy<br />
quest of some sort, that suspends<br />
our disbelief enough for us<br />
to forget about the real world and<br />
all it’s troubles and stresses and be<br />
immersed in an alternate world of<br />
enjoyment.<br />
Continuing our support of Australian<br />
artists from last month, we<br />
caught up with another local artist<br />
with amazing skills, Kit10 Illustrations,<br />
who’s based in Adelaide and<br />
we think has a tremendous future<br />
ahead.<br />
Welcome to <strong>Live</strong>, tell us a bit about<br />
yourself:<br />
I’m an 18-year-old artist who comes<br />
from the country town of Whyalla,<br />
SA. I moved to Adelaide early this<br />
year and I’m currently studying an<br />
Advanced Diploma of Professional<br />
Game Development, with a specialisation<br />
in Game Art, at the Academy<br />
of Interactive Entertainment.<br />
How did you get into art?<br />
I’ve loved creating art for as long<br />
as I can remember; even as a child<br />
I was always drawing and painting.<br />
In the third grade of school, I had a<br />
teacher named Matt Mallee, who<br />
worked painting backdrops for the<br />
local cinema, and was a freelance<br />
artist in his own time. He taught<br />
me so many different methods of<br />
drawing and colouring, which really<br />
helped develop my love and interest<br />
for art!<br />
And what’s your favourite type of<br />
art?<br />
My favourite kind of art at the moment<br />
is digital art. I love drawing<br />
people and characters - both fullbody<br />
and portraiture. My art style<br />
fluctuates a lot, but I usually try to<br />
stick to semi-realism.<br />
Who inspires you?<br />
I’m not sure who directly inspired<br />
me to get into art. I’ve been doing it<br />
for so long I can barely remember,<br />
but I know Matt definitely played a<br />
part. I’ve had a lot of different artistic<br />
influences and inspirations<br />
throughout the years. When I was<br />
younger, I used to enjoy creating<br />
anime-styled pieces and fanart - I<br />
remember looking up to artists like<br />
Tite Kubo and Yana Toboso.<br />
Now, I can easily say my single biggest<br />
influence is Wenqing Yan; otherwise<br />
known under her pen name<br />
Yuumei.<br />
What’s been your biggest<br />
challenges?<br />
So far, my biggest challenge has<br />
been working with mediums I’m not<br />
used to. I generally try to avoid the<br />
areas I’m not good at rather than<br />
trying to improve them, unfortunately!<br />
I tend to give up on pictures<br />
that are proving to be out of my skill<br />
level.<br />
That being said, I struggled a lot<br />
with a picture of Orta from the<br />
game Panzer Dragoon: Orta. The<br />
green of her dragon against the<br />
peach-coloured background wasn’t<br />
working out, and the perspective of<br />
the image was too difficult for me to<br />
work with. I only managed to get it<br />
half-finished.<br />
I also have a ridiculous amount of<br />
struggle with drawing hands!<br />
What tools do you use to create?<br />
For my art, I’m using a Wacom Intuos<br />
Pen and Touch (Medium) tablet.<br />
The art program I use is called<br />
FireAlpaca; which seems to be almost<br />
completely unheard of. It’s a<br />
free to download program that can<br />
be found online, and I love working<br />
with it!
I used to use Painttool SAI, but it<br />
didn’t really agree with my laptop so<br />
I ended up having to change.<br />
When I work traditionally, I just use a<br />
normal, spiral-bound A4 book from<br />
Cheap as Chips. At the moment, I<br />
just swear by my Faber Castell Tri-<br />
Grip pencils - but I one day hope to<br />
be able to save up for some Copic<br />
markers or Faber Castell Polychromos.<br />
Whats next for you?<br />
I am hoping for the opportunity to<br />
study a tattoo apprenticeship next<br />
year, as I won’t be continuing my<br />
studies at AIE in 2017.<br />
On the side, I’ll probably continue<br />
taking art commissions online.<br />
Any advice for people wanting to<br />
get into art?<br />
My advice for people who are<br />
wanting to pursue art as a hobby<br />
or career would be to never stop<br />
trying. I know it sounds cliche, but<br />
it’s the truth. Sometimes your art<br />
won’t look as good as you want it<br />
to - but that’s okay. If you can stick<br />
with it long enough and work hard<br />
every day, you’ll get past it. When it<br />
comes to art, there is always room<br />
for improvement!<br />
Try not to compare yourself to others<br />
because your art is unique.<br />
Lastly, never throw away old drawings.<br />
You can look back on them to<br />
see how far you’ve come! They’re<br />
also great to have around for when<br />
you’re feeling disheartened about<br />
your work - looking back on old stuff<br />
helps you appreciate what you can<br />
do now.<br />
Hey where can we see more of your<br />
work?<br />
To see more of my work, you can<br />
check out my Facebook Page;<br />
Kit10 Illustrations -<br />
www.facebook.com/kit10.illustrations/
Artist: Kit10 Illustrations<br />
illustrations<br />
Kit10
YOUR local SAY artist<br />
INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST<br />
TY HANSON<br />
Millennium Exile is an Australian<br />
based project by Ty Hanson. Working<br />
with artists from around the<br />
world, Ty plans for his title to one<br />
day become a Japanese Anime. Ty,<br />
how did you get started in art? Who<br />
inspired you to begin?<br />
I have always been drawing for as<br />
long as I can remember and I grew<br />
up watching Anime such as Astroboy,<br />
Mazinger Z, Macross and<br />
Tekkaman Blade. However at the<br />
age of 11 my mother passed away<br />
from cancer. I never had many<br />
friends growing up and I was bullied<br />
rather severely.<br />
Anime was an ‘escape’ for me back<br />
then. I was so fascinated with the<br />
art style and the stories that were<br />
being told.....I found Anime so much<br />
deeper than a cat chasing a mouse,<br />
or a rabbit messing with a duck for<br />
30 minutes. I guess you could say<br />
that when things got darkest for<br />
me, it was my passion for Anime<br />
that quite literally saved my life.<br />
As I grew older, my passion for Anime<br />
turned into a great respect and<br />
I wanted to be a part of the industry<br />
that saved me - to be able to entertain<br />
and fascinate others the way I<br />
had been. In 2008 I decided to start<br />
writing my own story which actually<br />
started from a simple character design<br />
assignment.<br />
Many, many Anime have inspired<br />
me along the way.<br />
Titles such as Cowboy Bebop,<br />
Evangelion, Soul Eater and Full Metal<br />
Alchemist were always among<br />
the most watched on my Television,<br />
however it was Gainax’s “Tengen<br />
Toppa Gurren Lagann” that really<br />
changed my perspective.<br />
Gurren Lagann’s story was so bizarre<br />
and insane, yet it gripped my<br />
imagination with both hands and<br />
made me feel as though a fire was<br />
burning within my chest.<br />
It quite literally made me realise<br />
that no matter what the premise,<br />
any story can be made if it is well<br />
written.<br />
While my story is certainly no Gurren<br />
Lagann, it was definitely my biggest<br />
inspiration and I would consider<br />
myself one of the shows biggest<br />
fans.<br />
What tools do you use to create?<br />
Is it digital or do you use paper and<br />
inks or paints?<br />
I use pencil on paper sketching and<br />
then transfer everything into Photoshop<br />
where it is re-drawn.<br />
That being said however, most of<br />
the art you see here is from artists<br />
from around the world who I have<br />
commissioned to draw my designs.<br />
While I am a pretty decent artist,<br />
there are those in the world who<br />
make my work look like a fifth graders.<br />
In order to get noticed, I needed to<br />
start taking the project more seriously<br />
and decided to start hiring<br />
and paying artists to draw for me.<br />
Back in 2009 I reached out to a<br />
young Indonesian artist named<br />
Hary Istiyoso who was not only my<br />
first artist but is still drawing with me<br />
today and has embarked upon this<br />
long journey with me with such enthusiasm<br />
and loyalty.<br />
From there I started contacting other<br />
amazingly talented artists, from<br />
freelancers to artists who work in<br />
the gaming industry for some rather<br />
large companies.
To my knowledge, most of them use<br />
Photoshop, Sai and drawing tablets<br />
as their preferred tools for drawing.<br />
The artwork we’ve seen is amazing<br />
- extremely moody in some scenes<br />
and captures an almost 3D feel - on<br />
average how long does each page<br />
of the art book take?<br />
Thanks, The design process is a<br />
long one....we go through several<br />
stages before a finished product,<br />
and it varies depending on the type<br />
of image (character profile, battle,<br />
environment etc).<br />
Usually it starts with my initial design<br />
coupled with a bunch of notes<br />
explaining the mood / vibe I want<br />
from the image as well as any extra<br />
requirements, but I’m always careful<br />
to allow the artists plenty of room<br />
for their creativity in each piece.<br />
When do you think the project will<br />
be finished?<br />
The project has been going for so<br />
long, it’s strange to ever think of it<br />
being completed lol.<br />
That being said however, I am coming<br />
to the “pointy end” of things with<br />
most of my artwork for the book<br />
having been completed and a few<br />
more scenes still being drawn up<br />
for the demo reel.<br />
Although I technically have enough<br />
to start pitching to studios now, If<br />
I’m taking the time to travel to their<br />
offices, I would prefer to have a<br />
completed art-book and demo reel<br />
in hand to convey professionalism.<br />
I’m hoping to speak with Netflix in<br />
Los Angeles mid 2017 as I would<br />
love to have Millennium Exile conceived<br />
in Australia, funded by the<br />
United States and animated in Japan.<br />
I wish to break down the borders<br />
and boundaries set by conventional<br />
methods so that love, respect and<br />
hard work can allow for creations<br />
within the industries we love.<br />
Sounds great! Finally, where can<br />
our readers go to see your work?<br />
You can find my project online at the<br />
following locations:<br />
Official Website:<br />
www.millenniumexile.com<br />
Facebook:<br />
www.facebook.com/MillenniumExile<br />
Instagram: @Millennium_Exile
Win<br />
this Millennium Exile<br />
print by ty hanson!<br />
Simply tell us your favourite Anime or Manga and<br />
why - inbox us on Facebook:<br />
www.facebook.com/Gametraders.Australia<br />
Winner announced 10 th December!
Grab your Pop Club from your local store & receive your 12 th Pop! FREE!
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A LOOK BACK<br />
AT TITANFALL<br />
OPINION<br />
forza<br />
horizon 3<br />
news<br />
BATMAN:<br />
RETURN TO<br />
ARKHAM<br />
REVIEW<br />
BATTLEFIELD 1<br />
REVIEW<br />
mafia 3<br />
review
NOVEMBER GAME RELEASES!<br />
DATE<br />
1 November<br />
4 November<br />
4 November<br />
4 November<br />
10 November<br />
10 November<br />
11 November<br />
15 November<br />
15 November<br />
15 November<br />
16 November<br />
16 November<br />
16 November<br />
17 November<br />
18 November<br />
18 November<br />
18 November<br />
21 November<br />
22 November<br />
24 November<br />
29 November<br />
30 November<br />
TITLE<br />
Super Dungeon Bros<br />
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare<br />
SEGA 3D Classic Collection<br />
Minecraft Story Mode The Complete Adventure<br />
Nintendo New 3DS XL Console Orange and Black<br />
Nintendo New 3DS XL Console Pink and White<br />
Disonored 2<br />
Watch Dogs 2<br />
Watch Dogs 2 Gold <strong>Edition</strong><br />
Moto Racer 4<br />
Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception Remastered<br />
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Remastered<br />
Uncharted Drakes Fortune Remastered<br />
Assassins Creed The Ezio Collection<br />
Pokemon Sun<br />
Pokemon Moon<br />
Killing Floor 2<br />
Final Fantasy XV Day One <strong>Edition</strong><br />
We Sing (Microphone Bundle)<br />
Animal Crossing New Leaf Welcome amiibo<br />
Final Fantasy XV Day One <strong>Edition</strong><br />
Gravity Rush 2<br />
FORMATS<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PC, PS4, XB1<br />
3DS<br />
PS4, XB1, 360, PS3<br />
3DS<br />
3DS<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4<br />
PS4<br />
PS4<br />
XB1, PS4<br />
3DS<br />
3DS<br />
PS4<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
3DS<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4<br />
Dates are correct at time of publishing. Ask staff for details.
DECEMBER GAME RELEASES!<br />
DATE<br />
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2 December<br />
3 December<br />
6 December<br />
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TITLE<br />
Nintendo 2DS Console Pokemon Sun Special <strong>Edition</strong><br />
Steep<br />
Super Mario Maker<br />
Dead Rising 4<br />
The Last Guardian<br />
FORMATS<br />
3DS<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
3DS<br />
XB1<br />
PS4<br />
JANUARY GAME RELEASES!<br />
DATE<br />
19 January<br />
21 January<br />
24 January<br />
24 January<br />
31 January<br />
TITLE<br />
Gravity Rush 2<br />
Dragon Quest 8 Journey of the Cursed King<br />
Resident Evil 7<br />
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue<br />
Hitman The Complete First Season<br />
FORMATS<br />
PS4<br />
3DS<br />
PS4, XB1<br />
PS4<br />
PS4, XB1
OPINION<br />
A Look Back<br />
the Best (and Most Polarizi<br />
With Titanfall 2 due out tomorrow, it<br />
seems like a good excuse to revisit<br />
the 2014 title that started it all. The<br />
original Titanfall first appeared on<br />
the national radar at E3 2013, where<br />
it quickly became a critical darling. It<br />
won over 60 awards, including an unprecedented<br />
six E3 Critics Awards.<br />
Amongst the gaming community,<br />
though, the reactions were more<br />
mixed. Some saw it as deliverance<br />
from an increasingly stale and safe<br />
genre. Others dismissed it superciliously<br />
as “Call of Duty with mechs.”<br />
What explains the divergence in<br />
opinion? First-person shooter fatigue<br />
surely played a part. Yet just<br />
as real estate is all about “location,<br />
location, location,” all too often video<br />
games are about exclusives, exclusives,<br />
exclusives. The fact that Titanfall<br />
found a home on PC, Xbox<br />
One, and Xbox 360 — and not PS4<br />
— rubbed some fans the wrong way.<br />
As a result we saw many Xbox fans<br />
championing the game as the Second<br />
Coming, and many PlayStation<br />
fans doubting its quality and appeal.<br />
So, over two years later, who was<br />
right? Well, both sides in a way. On<br />
the commercial front, Titanfall failed<br />
to capitalize on the enormous level<br />
of hype surrounding the title in the<br />
months leading to launch in March<br />
2014. Forbes’ Paul Tassi wrote in<br />
April that “very shortly after release,<br />
the buzz seemed to fade abnormally<br />
quickly.”<br />
The exact number of units sold<br />
across three platforms is difficult<br />
to discern — developer Respawn<br />
boasted of 10 million unique players<br />
and Electronic Arts CFO Blake<br />
Jorgensen stated “a little more than<br />
7 million units”. Our estimates currently<br />
put it just shy of 5 million sold<br />
at retail. Regardless of the actual<br />
figure it’s safe to say that Titanfall<br />
was neither the blockbuster hit nor<br />
the Xbox One “killer app” that many<br />
anticipated.<br />
Why did Titanfall’s buzz drop precipitously<br />
in the months after launch? I’d<br />
argue it hinged on two factors: lack<br />
of modes and zero offline content.<br />
Although a large number of modern<br />
gamers enjoy broadband internet<br />
and are accustomed to playing online,<br />
many remain wary of onlineonly<br />
games. Server support is finite<br />
and can end suddenly. Look at Dead<br />
Star, which is losing server support<br />
on November 1 after only seven<br />
months on the market, leaving only<br />
the tutorial playable.<br />
The fact that Titanfall launched with<br />
only five modes — all multiplayer —<br />
also hurt post-launch momentum.<br />
A proper single-player campaign<br />
would have done wonders, as would<br />
a co-op mode or a free-for-all com-
at Titanfall,<br />
ng) Shooter of the 8th Gen<br />
BY evan norris FROM VGCHARTZ.COM
petitive mode. Extra content, including<br />
“Frontier Defense” — an addictive<br />
co-op mode inspired by Gears of<br />
War’s “Horde” mode — and “Deadly<br />
Ground” did arrive eight months after<br />
launch, but it was a case of too<br />
little, too late.<br />
So on the commercial side of things,<br />
the Titanfall detractors were more<br />
or less correct. In terms of quality,<br />
though, the Titanfall believers found<br />
their faith justified. Put simply, Titanfall<br />
is one of the most inventive and<br />
engaging shooters in years, a musthave<br />
title for Xbox One owners,<br />
and the all-around best first-person<br />
shooter of the eighth generation (so<br />
far). Why is it so good? Well, the answer,<br />
paradoxically, has a lot to do<br />
with why many players ignored or<br />
forgot the game: the singular focus<br />
on competitive multiplayer.<br />
Respawn’s deep focus on multiplayer<br />
allowed the studio to forge one of<br />
the most accessible and balanced<br />
shooters in a generation. Staffed<br />
with industry veterans who had<br />
worked previously on Call of Duty 4:<br />
Modern Warfare and its sequel, Respawn<br />
was able to draw on its past<br />
experiences and pave a road toward<br />
the future of the genre, focusing on<br />
player mobility, survivability, and the<br />
merger of single-player tropes with<br />
multiplayer action.<br />
On the mobility front, Respawn<br />
scored a home run. Titanfall’s pilots<br />
are fast, agile, and capable of dashing<br />
across maps like a ring-tailed lemur.<br />
The game features maps that<br />
are impressively large, vertical, and<br />
open for exploration — a far cry<br />
from the plodding, mostly-flat maps<br />
in rival shooters. Titans are of course<br />
bulkier and slower but add even more<br />
flavor to each match.<br />
Equally important was survivability.<br />
Titanfall producer Drew McCoy explained<br />
a few months after the game<br />
launched that Respawn “looked at<br />
how you increase a player’s life span<br />
without reducing the lethality of it,<br />
because that time from to kill to kill<br />
is one of the big hooks. Players like<br />
getting constant kills — they don’t like<br />
being killed constantly.” Enter Titanfall’s<br />
much-maligned AI bots, which<br />
ease novice players into the game<br />
and act as a buffer of sorts between<br />
opposing pilots.<br />
Last but not least, Respawn infused<br />
elements common to single-player<br />
campaigns into Titanfall’s competitive<br />
multiplayer. With cinematic introductions,<br />
AI soldiers dotting the landscape,<br />
and an epilogue that follows<br />
every victory and defeat, each match<br />
feels like a small battle in a much<br />
larger war. Even a loss can feel like<br />
a live-to-fight-another-day scenario.<br />
Although Titanfall failed to reach EA’s<br />
lofty sales expectations and moved<br />
far fewer Xbox One units than anticipated,<br />
it stands today as a shining<br />
example of the first-person shooting<br />
genre. By drawing in creative minds<br />
and focusing deeply and intently on<br />
a single concept — competitive multiplayer<br />
— Respawn created the heir<br />
apparent to Modern Warfare, and by<br />
prioritizing mobility, survivability, and<br />
immersive single-player “moments,”<br />
forged the most disruptive shooter<br />
since 2007.
VGCHARTZ.COM<br />
BY evan norris<br />
FROM VGCHARTZ.COM
NEWS<br />
Forza Horizon<br />
3 First<br />
Expansion to<br />
Feature Snow<br />
BY WILLIAM D'ANGELO FROM VGCHARTZ.COM<br />
Microsoft has teased the first expansion for Forza Horizon 3. The<br />
expansion will be taking racers to some “less-than-ideal road conditions”<br />
with snow.<br />
VGCHARTZ.COM
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BATMAN: RETUR
N TO ARKHAM<br />
review
REVIEW<br />
batman: return<br />
There is little doubt that the<br />
Arkham games are some of the<br />
best gaming experiences that last<br />
generation had to offer. With a 92<br />
and 96 on Metacritic respectively,<br />
2009’s Arkham Asylum and 2011’s<br />
Arkham City received widespread<br />
critical acclaim from both gamers<br />
and Batman fans alike, thanks to<br />
developer Rocksteady’s superb<br />
polish and the games’ outstanding<br />
voice cast, storytelling, and combat<br />
system. Last week saw the<br />
release of Return to Arkham; a remastered<br />
collection of these two<br />
games which includes all of their<br />
DLC, and the promise of updated<br />
visuals making use of the superior<br />
specs of current-gen hardware.<br />
The first major update by Virtuos,<br />
the development team behind the<br />
remastered collection, was porting<br />
both games from Unreal Engine 3<br />
over to Unreal Engine 4. This is relatively<br />
uncommon for the remastered<br />
space, as other re-releases<br />
(such as the Bioshock Collection)<br />
continue to use their original engines,<br />
just with updated graphics,<br />
1080p resolution, and an improved<br />
frame rate.<br />
The main changes you will see in<br />
Return to Arkham are favoured<br />
towards improved graphics rather<br />
than improved performance. Updated<br />
character models are the<br />
most notable difference, specifically,<br />
the textures of their clothing<br />
and skin. While their hairstyles are<br />
still pretty stiff and unnatural look-<br />
to arkham<br />
ing, the clothing textures of characters<br />
now show significant detail – a 30fps cap, yet still experiences<br />
60fps. Asylum differs in that it has<br />
you can even identify fabric types performance stuttering at certain<br />
on an insignificant, deceased security<br />
guard. Batman himself looks<br />
points throughout the game.<br />
incredible, with his suit, cowl and<br />
cape all looking their best.<br />
Unreal Engine 4 also brings with<br />
it updated lighting, with noticeable<br />
changes in the colouring of<br />
cutscenes, lighting models, and<br />
the overall mood of both games.<br />
While this lighting is technically<br />
better, its effect can be a little hit<br />
or miss throughout the games.<br />
There are improved shadows and<br />
reflections, but the brighter atmosphere<br />
can reveal other graphical<br />
shortcomings, and at times can be<br />
conflicting with the dark and gritty<br />
aesthetic we’ve come to associate<br />
with the series. Again, this is<br />
most noticeable on the character<br />
models, which are sometimes so<br />
vibrant that they can look out of<br />
place amongst their surroundings.<br />
While overall, the improvements<br />
made to graphics are welcome,<br />
they may have been at an expense<br />
to the games’ performance. Frame<br />
rate looks to be an issue for both<br />
Asylum and City, with City’s performance<br />
on PS4 hovering around<br />
30-35fps, with performance<br />
spikes from around 20fps up to<br />
The increased computing power<br />
of current-gen hardware has at<br />
least improved the loading time for<br />
Asylum. Walking through automatic<br />
doors around the island (particularly<br />
the ones that scan you in the<br />
Penitentiary) used to bring gameplay<br />
to a halt as the game repeated<br />
animations until the next area<br />
loaded. Now, these transitions are<br />
near flawless and Asylum experiences<br />
very minimal loading times.<br />
When a game gets remastered for<br />
a newer console, I think it’s reasonable<br />
to assume that the better<br />
specs will see an improvement<br />
in performance over the original<br />
game running on older hardware.<br />
Unfortunately, this does not appear<br />
to be the case with Return to<br />
Arkham. While there are definitely<br />
improvements in some areas, ultimately<br />
the game runs best in its<br />
original PS3 and Xbox 360 state.<br />
While I’m very thankful for this<br />
rerelease (Asylum is my favourite<br />
game of all time), I’m somewhat<br />
confused why they’ve decided to<br />
remaster the series if it was not<br />
going to reach a decent performance.
4.1 /5<br />
Whether or not you purchase Return<br />
to Arkham will depend on how<br />
you parted with last-gen. If you’ve<br />
completely moved on and no longer<br />
own the older hardware, this<br />
may be a good opportunity to carry<br />
over some of the best games<br />
available to those consoles. And<br />
if you’ve not played an Arkham<br />
game before, this is definitely the<br />
time to start.<br />
However if you main PC, you’re<br />
not missing much here apart from<br />
some improved textures and more<br />
vibrant palettes. Unfortunately<br />
there is no content exclusive to this<br />
release that has not been released<br />
before, which I think is a missed<br />
opportunity. I’m also disappointed<br />
that Asylum saw no upgrades to<br />
its FreeFlow combat system, as it<br />
was quite jarring using the original<br />
tech, which did have some flaws<br />
before it was updated for Arkham<br />
City.<br />
On a personal level, the Arhkam<br />
series has had a huge influence on<br />
my life – they got me into Batman,<br />
collecting, and gaming! These<br />
games have never been anything<br />
short of fantastic, so for these reasons<br />
I’m glad that their lifetimes<br />
have been extended and I don’t<br />
have to leave them behind on lastgen.<br />
I’m sure I’ll be replaying these<br />
games for many years to come.<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7LukOVD5Os<br />
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER!<br />
WRITTEN BY<br />
MADDIE MCKENCHNIE<br />
WWW.STICKYTRIGGER.COM
BATTLE
FIELD 1<br />
review
REVIEW<br />
BATTLEFIELD 1<br />
I was admittedly late to board the<br />
Battlefield train, only first jumping<br />
into the series with both Battlefield<br />
4 and Hardline earlier this year<br />
when they were going for $6.50<br />
each. Despite not really being the<br />
biggest fan of FPS games, I soon<br />
found myself addicted to the series,<br />
relishing the ability to play in a<br />
variety of different ways and commandeer<br />
assault vehicles, racking<br />
up points in ways other than simply<br />
having the fastest trigger finger.<br />
Battlefield, above all else, rewards<br />
teamwork, and there’s no better<br />
feeling than when you form a<br />
squad with a few buddies and try<br />
to make a difference in the fullscale<br />
war exploding around you,<br />
as opposed to the more lone wolf<br />
style of gameplay that the Call of<br />
Duty series has devolved into over<br />
the years.<br />
So, I came to Battlefield 1 with<br />
extremely high expectations; despite<br />
missing out on the multiplayer<br />
Beta, initial gameplay reveals<br />
looked promising and the prospect<br />
of waging a miniature battle in the<br />
new multiplayer mode “Operations”<br />
seemed to naturally expand<br />
upon the point capturing chaos of<br />
the series’ hallmark “Conquest”<br />
mode.<br />
Another appealing aspect was<br />
the focus on the first World War,<br />
albeit in a heavily revisionist way.<br />
Shooter fans had been crying out<br />
for a return to the classic “bootson-the-ground”<br />
gameplay of<br />
yesteryear as the genre had increasingly<br />
branched out into scifi<br />
influenced futuristic directions,<br />
adding boost jumps and robo-legs<br />
to what should arguably be a more<br />
straightforward affair.<br />
Battlefield, as a series, has never<br />
really suffered from deviating from<br />
its proven formula, preferring to instead<br />
take chances on moderately<br />
successful spin-offs like Hardline<br />
(Hey, I thought it had its moments!).<br />
By remaining focused on the core<br />
elements of the genre DICE have<br />
been able to refine the mechanics<br />
to almost perfect precision,<br />
offering up shooter fans one of<br />
the most surprisingly robust and<br />
rewarding multiplayer experiences<br />
of the year.<br />
But first, the campaign – Despite<br />
many finding the single player<br />
campaign for both Battlefield 4<br />
and Hardline to be lacklustre, personally<br />
I thought they each had<br />
their merits, particularly Hardline’s<br />
episodic structure.<br />
Unlike these previous efforts, however,<br />
DICE has decided to present<br />
a series of five vignettes rather<br />
than a singular cohesive campaign.<br />
Things kick off in spectacular style<br />
with a tutorial sequence that manages<br />
to reach the same dizzying<br />
levels of pandemonium felt when<br />
storming the beaches of Normandy<br />
in that pinnacle of classic FPS<br />
opening sequences from Medal of<br />
Honour: Frontline.<br />
Not only does this first introduction<br />
to the game effectively capture<br />
the brutality of combat and give<br />
players the opportunity to get to<br />
grips with the basic mechanics, but<br />
it also serves as a somewhat sombre<br />
reminder of the ultimate futility<br />
of war and the human cost associated<br />
with it, something that’s all<br />
too often glossed over with the<br />
jingoistic “Ooh-Rah!” mentality of<br />
most modern shooters.<br />
The five short stories vary in length<br />
and quality, although for the most<br />
part they’re fun to breeze through.<br />
Whether you’re darting around the<br />
beaches of Gallipoli as an Australian<br />
Runner, donning a suit of armour<br />
as an Italian soldier or soaring<br />
through the skies in search of<br />
glory, each vignette feels authentic<br />
and also doubles as a pressurefree<br />
way to get to grips with the<br />
controls and different vehicles for<br />
multiplayer.<br />
Battlefield 1’s campaign effortlessly<br />
captures the aesthetic of<br />
being thrust face-first into a bloody<br />
conflict, forcing your character to<br />
make morally dubious decisions
as you pick your way through the<br />
crumbling buildings littered with the<br />
corpses of fallen comrades. The<br />
attention to detail is commendable<br />
and the atmosphere is bolstered<br />
by the almost photorealistic quality<br />
of the graphics, with DICE squeezing<br />
every drop of potential out of<br />
the Frostbite engine to make for<br />
the most realistic depiction of large<br />
scale warfare to date. You’ll often<br />
notice little incidental touches that<br />
the game won’t draw your eye to<br />
but help to serve to flesh out the<br />
world.<br />
The sound design is similarly accomplished,<br />
making for even more<br />
immersive battles with dynamic<br />
explosion and gunfire effects<br />
that’ll almost cause you to instinctively<br />
duck for cover, particularly<br />
with a decent sound system or set<br />
of headphones hooked up.<br />
But, as surprisingly decent as the<br />
single player portion has turned<br />
out, the real meat and potatoes<br />
of any Battlefield game is its multiplayer,<br />
and I’m glad to announce<br />
that Battlefield 1 is pretty much<br />
free of the many netcode and myriad<br />
of other issues that plagued<br />
the launch of 4. Throughout my<br />
time with the online component<br />
I’ve not encountered any connection<br />
issues or loss of progression<br />
glitches and, without exception,<br />
every match I’ve jumped into has<br />
been smooth and lag free.<br />
The biggest addition to multiplayer<br />
is the aforementioned “Operations”<br />
mode and, boy, is it a doozy.<br />
Each team attempts to capture a<br />
sector by simultaneously holding<br />
two points, forcing the other team<br />
to retreat to another sector of the<br />
map; it’s a complex and exhausting<br />
battle of attrition as each side<br />
push against each other, making<br />
that eventual victory all the more<br />
satisfying. The tide of war can turn<br />
on a dime and it feels like you’re<br />
actually waging a concerted battle,<br />
added all the more weight due to<br />
the history that comes attached to<br />
the maps.<br />
War Pigeons is the other new mode<br />
and it plays out almost exactly as it<br />
sounds – you hunt down pigeons.<br />
Each much would descend into<br />
chaotic hilarity and makes for a<br />
nice change from the more traditional<br />
gameplay modes. At launch<br />
players also get access to the tried<br />
and true Conquest, Rush, Domination<br />
and Team Deathmatch modes<br />
but it’s the newest additions that<br />
make for the most fun this time<br />
around.<br />
The maps are well designed, for<br />
the most part, although spawn<br />
points can feel a little off at times,<br />
sending you face down in the dirt<br />
seconds after hitting the battleground.<br />
There are nine maps at the<br />
moment, with a tenth to be added<br />
via free DLC in December: Fao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSFUNMrWvk<br />
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER!
4.4/10<br />
Fortress, Ballroom Blitz, Argonne<br />
Forest, St. Quentin Scar, Empire’s<br />
Edge, Suez, Sinai Desert, Amiens<br />
and Monte Grappa, with Giant’s<br />
Shadow to come later.<br />
Allowing for battles on a grand<br />
scale, nothing beats taking down<br />
an enemy tank equipped only with<br />
a handful of dynamite and a pair<br />
of brass balls, and watching iconic<br />
landmarks crumble as the battle<br />
wages on never loses its charm;<br />
the destructible environments on<br />
offer here are among some of the<br />
best I’ve ever seen. Each map is<br />
best suited to a particular mode<br />
but offers up enough versatility<br />
so as to be effective across the<br />
board.<br />
There’s a wide variety of loadout<br />
options to unlock and equip and,<br />
playing to its strengths, Battlefield<br />
1 lets players engage in the battle<br />
in whichever manner they desire<br />
– Better at darting about and providing<br />
support fire and medic assistance?<br />
Go for it? Feel like strapping<br />
on a machine gun, barging a<br />
tank and then leaping in to a fighter<br />
plane for some inspired dogfighting?<br />
The world (War) is your oyster.<br />
The Assault, Medic, Scout and<br />
Support classes all make a return<br />
with tweaks to balance them out,<br />
although one might argue that the<br />
Scout is a little overpowered in its<br />
current state.<br />
With a gripping, if slightly short,<br />
campaign and the most satisfying<br />
multiplayer to date, DICE has really<br />
knocked it out of the park with this<br />
latest entry in the Battlefield series.<br />
Maintaining a respectful tone<br />
whilst also offering up high-octane<br />
gunplay is a fine line to tread<br />
but Battlefield 1 pulls it off with<br />
aplomb, giving gamers the most<br />
cohesive and action packed entry<br />
in the franchise yet.<br />
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,<br />
DICE wants you to go to<br />
War.<br />
WRITTEN BY Sean Warhurst<br />
WWW.STICKYTRIGGER.COM
maf
ia 3<br />
review
REVIEW<br />
Fun fact: Mafia II holds the dubious<br />
honour of having the most swearwords<br />
spoken in any game. 397<br />
F-bombs alone litter Vito’s bloodsoaked<br />
journey through Empire<br />
Bay, boosted up even further with<br />
various other curses and racial epithets<br />
we won’t discuss here.<br />
mafia 3<br />
It’s almost refreshing. There’s<br />
nothing more jarring than watching<br />
some movie and seeing a warrior,<br />
blood-soaked and panting, turn to<br />
his colleague. The gun is gripped<br />
in his friend’s hand, still smoking.<br />
He’d shot that man right between<br />
the eyes. You’d seen the blood<br />
splatter; heard his death rattle as<br />
he dropped to the ground.<br />
Then the protagonist, painted with<br />
the blood of a dead man, shouts,<br />
“What the heck?!”<br />
Mafia II kept it real. With that kind<br />
of foul-mouthed pedigree, Mafia<br />
III really has to step it up. Rather<br />
than the pastiche of 1950’s bigcity<br />
America that was Empire<br />
Bay, Mafia III occurs a little further<br />
south: New Bordeaux, Louisiana,<br />
1968. Touted as a “modern town<br />
with traditional Southern values”,<br />
it’s no surprise that New Bordeaux<br />
is a rough place to be for a young<br />
black veteran. As Lincoln Clay, a<br />
young man just back from the Vietnam<br />
War, you are facing the kind<br />
of prejudice any black man might<br />
face at that point in history. To do<br />
otherwise would be to pretend that<br />
such prejudice never existed.<br />
Lincoln’s story takes place within a<br />
documentary framework. Missions<br />
are punctuated by interviews with<br />
historians and people who knew<br />
him, discussing Lincoln’s actions,<br />
character and his place in history.<br />
It gives the whole game a very<br />
unique feeling, letting the game focus<br />
on the human element – loyalty,<br />
family, strength of character<br />
– while not sacrificing the big-picture<br />
shootouts the previous games<br />
were known for. All the exposition<br />
needed to set up late-60s America<br />
flows naturally through these little<br />
interviews, saving players the<br />
chore of poring over database entries<br />
or enduring hamfisted exposition.<br />
The actual story is simple, but effective.<br />
Just returned from the<br />
Vietnam war, Lincoln Clay heads<br />
back to his adoptive family, leaders<br />
of the local black mob, Sammy<br />
and Ellis. Lincoln fully intends only<br />
to stop in before leaving the crime<br />
life and taking a real job, but things<br />
– as they always do – go awry. Too<br />
spoil too much would be to do the<br />
game a disservice. Suffice to say<br />
that this is very much a revenge<br />
tale. We know as soon as Lincoln<br />
promises to take everything from<br />
the man who murdered his family<br />
that this is not going to be a story<br />
of half-measures.<br />
It’s not all grim depression, though.<br />
The Mafia games have always excelled<br />
at big, bombastic set-pieces,<br />
and the third entry is no different.<br />
Intense shootouts, high-speed<br />
chases and harrowing escapes<br />
are littered throughout the story,<br />
all without ever having to introduce<br />
a single laser gun or superpower.<br />
Mafia goes big, but it keeps its feet<br />
on the ground.<br />
There are no virtuous reasons behind<br />
Lincoln’s story, either. What<br />
he wants is revenge, total and<br />
crushing, on the mob that took his<br />
people away. This opens up possibilities<br />
for the kinds of activities a<br />
‘hero’ could not usually do. Lincoln<br />
is a man on the warpath, trained in<br />
psychological warfare and fresh<br />
from the battlefield. The things he<br />
does and the effects he suffers<br />
from them fit that to a T.<br />
The gameplay is nothing you<br />
haven’t seen before. Mafia III basically<br />
represents a collection<br />
of all the successful open-world<br />
features that came before it.<br />
‘Hacking’ junction boxes to reveal<br />
details on the nearby map is<br />
straightup Watch_Dogs. Sneaking<br />
around and performing cover kills<br />
and takedowns mix in Assassins’<br />
Creed and Arkham in equal measure.<br />
Lockpicking is charmingly lowfi<br />
in its use of a crowbar and combat<br />
knife, similar to Fallout. There’s<br />
nothing new in Mafia III‘s toolbox,<br />
but none of it is done poorly. The<br />
developers have clearly gone for
a strong, competent sort of gameplay<br />
rather than wild innovation,<br />
and that’s just fine.<br />
Lincoln’s particular path of vengeance<br />
is a methodical one, too.<br />
Obviously, you can’t just plug one<br />
between the killer’s eyes and be<br />
done with it. To bust up a particular<br />
racket, Lincoln must complete<br />
activities in that area until he has<br />
caused enough ‘damage’ to lure<br />
the lieutenant out. Once that’s<br />
done, he can either kill or recruit<br />
that lieutenant to his side. Do that<br />
to all the rackets in the area and<br />
Lincoln’s true target will come out,<br />
allowing him to be dealt with. The<br />
way that most things can cause<br />
damage – stealing money from<br />
areas, killing guys, destroying contraband,<br />
or just plain ol’ completing<br />
the objectives – allows for a much<br />
more free-form experience. If you<br />
don’t want to do certain activities,<br />
that’s just fine! There’s more than<br />
enough stuff to damage that you<br />
can mostly avoid the parts that<br />
bore you.<br />
Taking over these rackets allows<br />
you to assign them to your own<br />
people. The associates you gather<br />
end up being some of the strongest<br />
characters in the game: do extra<br />
tasks for them and increase both<br />
their earnings and their loyalty. It’s<br />
a nice little detail which keeps you<br />
returning to earlier areas, stopping<br />
that feeling of finishing an area and<br />
never visiting it again, or feeling<br />
as if your closest confidantes are<br />
people you’ve known for maybe<br />
five minutes total.
don’t catch them first – unless it’s<br />
a convertible. Then, without having<br />
smashed a window to get in, you<br />
can cruise off scot-free. The game<br />
takes pains to avoid the tired of ‘all<br />
white people are racist’, but the<br />
reality of the time still sits there,<br />
harsh and real thanks to these little<br />
moments. That gives Mafia its<br />
character above all else.<br />
3.9/5<br />
Where Mafia III shines brightest is in<br />
these little details. Police respond<br />
slower to crimes in poor or black<br />
neighbourhoods, if at all; going into<br />
whites-only stores or into employee-only<br />
areas anywhere can get<br />
Lincoln quickly into trouble. Even if<br />
you’re only walking down the street,<br />
any passing police will immediately<br />
be aware of you. Similarly, if people<br />
see you stealing a car, a witness<br />
will run off to tell the police if you<br />
There are bugs too, of course,<br />
but none game-breaking. Mafia III<br />
more has the ones that make for<br />
perfect GIFs. Lincoln flipping out<br />
of an upturned boat onto the top<br />
in a split-second, crashed cars falling<br />
into the ground or floating into<br />
the sky – funny stuff that doesn’t<br />
impact your actual progress. In any<br />
open world game, these things are<br />
bound to happen and will no doubt<br />
be addressed in later patches, as<br />
it always is.<br />
This isn’t to say it’s a perfect game,<br />
of course. No game is. While Mafia<br />
III lets you skip a lot of the boring<br />
side-mission stuff if you’re not in a<br />
mood, there’s still plenty that can<br />
really drag down the pace. Wiretapping<br />
junction boxes, for example,<br />
requires you to collect fuses<br />
scattered around the map. Each<br />
box requires several fuses, though.<br />
If you’re not diligent in stopping to<br />
grab them when you see them,<br />
it can easily lead to having to<br />
scrounge around the map when<br />
you’d much rather be shooting.<br />
Add in that cars have an irritating<br />
habit of despawning or relocating<br />
and there’s a lot of time when<br />
you’re just running down the street,<br />
searching for convertibles to steal.<br />
Also: there are not one, not two,<br />
but six different kinds of collectibles<br />
to grab on your way through<br />
New Bordeaux. It’s a reflection of<br />
the time and a call back to previous<br />
Mafia games, but having Playboy<br />
magazines and actual nude<br />
pinups being things to collect is a<br />
little on the nose in <strong>2016</strong>. Even if<br />
the Playboys do, in fact, contain<br />
articles. I hadn’t expected to see<br />
a 1968 interview with Stanley Kubrick<br />
in my gangster game – but<br />
there it is!<br />
Mafia III is one of those rare games<br />
which excels in one area without<br />
failing in others. New Bordeaux<br />
feels like a real place, filled with real<br />
people. It responds to your actions<br />
and does not flinch away from portraying<br />
the brutality of Lincoln’s actions<br />
or the social injustices of the<br />
time. It may not rewrite the book<br />
and the missions might get repetitive,<br />
but it does what it sets out to<br />
do: present a story of loyalty and<br />
revenge, and present it well.<br />
Turn back the clock and take a<br />
look.<br />
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER!<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNiHOpHbCzM<br />
WRITTEN BY aaron milligan<br />
WWW.STICKYTRIGGER.COM
C O S P LA<br />
skyler jean<br />
cosplay<br />
interview<br />
PAX<br />
AUSTRALIA<br />
events<br />
TIPS. TIPS. TIPS<br />
PHOTO TIPS<br />
WIN<br />
PICKTORIAL<br />
APP<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
WHY TAKING<br />
TIME AWAY FROM<br />
SHOOTING<br />
COSPLAY CAN<br />
MAKE YOU A BETTER<br />
PHOTOGRAPHER<br />
PHOTO TIPS
Y
interview<br />
SKYLER J<br />
Welcome to <strong>Live</strong> Skyler Jean!<br />
Can you tell us a bit about yourself<br />
and where you’re based.<br />
In my free time I love to play video<br />
games and work on new cosplay<br />
ideas. I also volunteer at a Humane<br />
Society where I help cats<br />
get adopted. I love volunteering<br />
for non profit organizations and<br />
doing things to help improve the<br />
community.<br />
Growing up I was very much of<br />
a tom boy, loving superheros<br />
and comic books. I also grew up<br />
around mostly boys; one of which<br />
was my brother who is 5 years<br />
older then me. He introduced to<br />
me video games at a very young<br />
age and never let me win or went<br />
easy on me. This made me try<br />
even harder to become better<br />
then him.I was born and raised in<br />
California (in San Diego County).<br />
I am now working towards a degree<br />
in hospitality and management.<br />
How did you get into cosplay and<br />
when was that?<br />
Most girl’s fairy tales are about<br />
a princess finding her prince, yet<br />
mine where about superheros<br />
and characters in games coming<br />
to life. Later on I discovered cosplaying<br />
and I had always wanted<br />
to try it. A little over a year ago<br />
I had finally created my first cosplay.<br />
Do you visit cons and what’s been<br />
your favorite so far?<br />
I love to visit as many conventions<br />
as I can. My favorite so far<br />
has been Nerdcon <strong>2016</strong>. It was<br />
a smaller convention but I loved<br />
how nice and interactive everyone<br />
was.<br />
Speaking of favourites - what’s<br />
been your favourite cosplay?<br />
Based of off the character I would<br />
have to say Samus, but if we are<br />
going off of comfort it would be<br />
Supergirl. Plus the cape was fun<br />
to take photos with.<br />
Who inspires you?<br />
Honestly meeting genuine people<br />
in the cosplay community and<br />
seeing how much they love what<br />
they do really inspires me. Even<br />
meeting children that are so excited<br />
to see a character makes<br />
me want to go to even more conventions<br />
and make new outfits.<br />
What cosplay’s are you working<br />
on next?<br />
That is top secret information. ;)<br />
I am currently working on several<br />
different cosplays.<br />
Do you have some tips for new<br />
cosplayers attending their first<br />
con?<br />
I would say definitely go with<br />
someone who you are comfortable<br />
with (like a friend or family<br />
member). Also the night before<br />
think up some poses and practice<br />
them in front of a mirror so you<br />
see what you would like in photos.<br />
It doesn’t matter how many<br />
photos are taken of you or if any<br />
are taken of you. Just remember<br />
to have fun and make friends with<br />
like minded people.<br />
Ok, 5 quick questions for fun:<br />
1 - Who would you love to sit and<br />
have dinner with - past or present?<br />
My best friend because<br />
she will never judge me for what<br />
I eat.<br />
2 - Your heading off into space for<br />
a year long journey - what book,<br />
movie and music do you take?<br />
For a book I would say Harry Potter<br />
because I have never had the<br />
time to read it. The movie would<br />
be ether Pirates of the Caribbean<br />
or Grease. The music would defiantly<br />
be any of Michael Jackson’s<br />
albums.<br />
3 - What sci fi character would<br />
you love to be? If it had to be a girl<br />
then Princess Leia, but if I could I
EAN COSPLAY<br />
www.instagram.com/skylerjeancosplay<br />
Brian Calilung | www.instagram.com/briancalilung<br />
would be Han Solo. I most relate<br />
to him.<br />
4 - What super power would you<br />
wish for if you could have just<br />
one? Shape shifting would be the<br />
best.<br />
5 - You’re going on holiday - what<br />
destination would you choose if<br />
money were no object? I have always<br />
wanted to go to the U.K.<br />
Finally where can our readers go<br />
to find out more about you?<br />
I have an Instagram which is:<br />
Skylerjeancosplay<br />
I will soon be making a facebook<br />
page for my cosplay.<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.instagram/skylerjeancosplay
Brian Calilung | www.instagram.com/briancalilung
Brian Calilung | www.instagram.com/briancalilung
PAX AUS<br />
PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) returned<br />
in <strong>2016</strong> enticing those of<br />
the gaming community out for 3<br />
days of celebrating gaming culture.<br />
Many we spoke to were<br />
returning attendees, proving the<br />
PAX community is growing strong<br />
after 4 years on the Australian<br />
convention circuit.<br />
PAX provides a unique space for<br />
this community to connect the<br />
players and the fans with game<br />
publishers, eSports stars, developers<br />
and industry representatives.<br />
From indie developers to industry<br />
heavyweights all have the<br />
chance to showcase and connect<br />
with the people that make<br />
their games great – those who<br />
love, adore and most importantly<br />
play their games. This is what<br />
makes PAX special and a unique<br />
event for the Australian stage of<br />
gaming.<br />
However you play PAX wants you.<br />
From the huge stands of PS4 and<br />
Xbox, Tech giants and big ticket<br />
games as you moved through the<br />
excited crowds past the flashing<br />
lights to the stage of the Arena,<br />
people gathered squeezing into<br />
seats all wearing their favourite<br />
eSports team jerseys they<br />
purchased from PAX. Here PAX<br />
hosted the ESL Counter-Strike:<br />
Global Offensive AU & NZ Championship<br />
Finals and many tournaments<br />
throughout the weekend,<br />
highlighting the local talent and<br />
giving their fans the opportunity<br />
to meet and cheer them on.<br />
Moving on from the Arena you are<br />
met with a real treat – and I’m not<br />
talking about the Skyrim sweet<br />
rolls that were so highly sought<br />
after each day. The Indie developers<br />
have a serious stamp on the<br />
PAX map. A great chunk of floor<br />
space is dedicated to the colourful<br />
and often swamped booths<br />
of games like Mallow Drops, Orwell<br />
and Hyper Jam. Most gamers<br />
know the big titles – they’ve<br />
pre-ordered them, have seen<br />
walkthroughs, trailers and previewed<br />
the game before playing<br />
it at PAX. This is where the Indies<br />
win. You don’t know what you’re<br />
going to find and are often pleasantly<br />
surprised – the journey from<br />
booth to booth is part of the fun.<br />
When you move through to the<br />
next hall you really find where<br />
PAX shows its heart. The tabletop<br />
area is huge- I mean you<br />
probably won’t find an Australian<br />
event where there is such a<br />
large gathering of players playing<br />
this variety of games. Magic the<br />
Gathering ran events all weekend<br />
– decks of Kaladesh selling like<br />
hotcakes. The fun was brought by<br />
games like The Ultimate Drinking<br />
Game, expansion packs of Cards<br />
against humanity and the games<br />
that were likely to come out at<br />
night after a full day of shopping<br />
and playing. New card games like<br />
Final Fantasy were being taught<br />
in their own tabletop areas, multiple<br />
booths selling every board<br />
game you can think of, precious<br />
stone D20 sets, miniatures with a<br />
painting area – this was tabletop<br />
mecca.<br />
The really amazing part of this<br />
is that there was barely a spare<br />
seat. The players were coming<br />
together with people that shared<br />
the same love of the game –<br />
complete strangers outside PAX,<br />
but here they were friends playing<br />
their favourite game. A place<br />
for players – whatever your game<br />
- PAX is where you come to play.<br />
Every person can find their place<br />
at PAX. You have the free to play<br />
PC areas, crowds watching the<br />
speedruns, retro gaming area,<br />
tabletop, pinball, console – and<br />
of course this year you couldn’t<br />
miss the next dimension of gaming<br />
– VR.<br />
There was a VR set up on most of<br />
the major booths. From HTC Vive<br />
to Playstation VR the lengthy lines<br />
for these experiences showed<br />
that this is not a fad. The next level<br />
of gaming was seen as players<br />
walked around ducking, turning<br />
and shooting with their headsets<br />
on. It didn’t really make sense un-
TRALIA<br />
til you started watching what was<br />
happening on the player’s screen<br />
– then you could see just how immersive<br />
the VR experience is.<br />
After a full day of gaming PAX<br />
continues into the night. The<br />
Panels go until 10:30pm and are<br />
as varied as you can imagine.<br />
BethesDA Trivia, How to become<br />
a Streamer, Game Development<br />
Explained with Sock Puppets –<br />
yes sock puppets. Seats filled<br />
out with the events running all day<br />
giving everything from advice for<br />
young developers, those seeking<br />
a career in the gaming industry<br />
and those for your pure entertainment.<br />
PAX AUSTRALIA<br />
4-6 nov, <strong>2016</strong><br />
melbourne, vic<br />
photos by<br />
blake robertson<br />
The streaming community was<br />
no better represented by the<br />
Twitch booth which was busy all<br />
weekend. Popular guest streamers<br />
made appearance for photo<br />
opportunities and the crowd enjoyed<br />
the opportunity to jump in<br />
behind the camera and feature<br />
on their favourite channel through<br />
the viewing screens. Twitch didn’t<br />
have all the fun though as many<br />
tech booths were streaming live<br />
all weekend from competitive<br />
matches to creative minecraft<br />
builds.<br />
The latest games and the opportunity<br />
to play them sometimes<br />
before release is one of the
PAX AUS
TRALIA<br />
benefits of attending PAX. The<br />
long waiting lines didn’t daunt<br />
players that were keen to have<br />
their turn. Yes the newest titles<br />
were there to play – Final Fantasy<br />
XV, The Last Guardian, South<br />
Park: The Fractured But Whole,<br />
Watchdogs 2, Dishonored 2 –<br />
the list goes on but the competitions<br />
like time trials on Forza,<br />
highest score on classic arcade<br />
games to win a PS4 pro added<br />
some extra fun for the competitive<br />
gamers.<br />
Many gamers love sharing their<br />
fandom through t-shirts, collectibles<br />
and the ever popular pop<br />
vinyls. There is plenty on offer<br />
when someone visits PAX to bolster<br />
their collection. Shopping for<br />
tech is one of the great things<br />
you can do as there are great<br />
specials for your gaming set up<br />
– many attendees walking away<br />
with bags of purchases and mad<br />
smiles as they excitedly recounted<br />
their haul to friends.<br />
PAX <strong>2016</strong> brought again what<br />
every gamer wants – no matter<br />
how you play – but sharing and<br />
experiencing gaming culture is<br />
what this event is all about. From<br />
the people attending you can<br />
see that this PAX community is<br />
at the centre of the Australian<br />
gaming scene. No wonder the<br />
welcoming iconic yellow banner<br />
reading “Welcome Home” resonates<br />
with everyone who walks<br />
in those doors. The real question<br />
is, will you join them next year for<br />
PAX 2017? Everyone who came<br />
would tell you “DO IT!”<br />
written<br />
by<br />
IMOGEN<br />
hubber
PAX AUSTRA
LIA<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.facebook.com/theblakeimage<br />
www.theblakeimage.com.au<br />
www.instagram.com/theblakeimage
PAX AUSTRA
LIA<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.facebook.com/theblakeimage<br />
www.theblakeimage.com.au<br />
www.instagram.com/theblakeimage
PAX AUSTRA
LIA<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.facebook.com/theblakeimage<br />
www.theblakeimage.com.au<br />
www.instagram.com/theblakeimage
PAX AUSTRA
LIA<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.facebook.com/theblakeimage<br />
www.theblakeimage.com.au<br />
www.instagram.com/theblakeimage
PHOTO TIPS<br />
WHY TAKING TIME FROM SHOOTING COSP<br />
BETTER PHO<br />
This article isn’t for the casual photographer<br />
that loves to go along<br />
to XYZ Con and shoot some cool<br />
photos of cosplayers and that’s<br />
them done for the month and or<br />
year. No, this is for the photographer<br />
that wants to get better.<br />
Wants to improve themselves as<br />
an artist. Firstly though, I want to<br />
explain how cosplay can help you<br />
become better as an artist. The<br />
main benefits of cosplay photography<br />
is you don’t have to worry<br />
about make up, hair styling and<br />
even models - if you know some<br />
cosplayers they’ll usually happily<br />
organise a shoot with you. What<br />
you do need to do though, is ensure<br />
your location matches the<br />
character or mood of the shoot.<br />
If you’re at a “con” the challenge<br />
is that the background is often a<br />
bunch of people walking around<br />
having fun. So, what I tend to do<br />
is treat a con shoot as almost a<br />
journalistic style shoot - capturing<br />
the day and the colour and<br />
costumes of the event. Cosplayers<br />
know their characters and<br />
generally know how to pose to<br />
suit. So you end up with much of<br />
the photo worked out before you<br />
even shoot.<br />
So how does other genre’s help<br />
you improve? Some time back,<br />
on a cold winters day, I was walking<br />
the city streets wanting to do<br />
some street photography and<br />
after a while I noticed myself<br />
exploring angles and shadows. I<br />
took the time to seek out these<br />
subjects as I walked. I forced myself<br />
to try getting lower down, to<br />
climb higher places and to really<br />
look at how shadows intersected<br />
walls or even people. Taking notice<br />
of these things got me thinking<br />
about applying more drama in<br />
my portrait work, using shadows<br />
more creatively. Angles reminded<br />
me how if I’m up high shooting<br />
down, you can make a subject<br />
look a bit submissive. Shoot from<br />
a lower angle and the subject<br />
grows taller and more dominant.<br />
Characters like Batman are<br />
strong characters and perhaps<br />
a slight angle shooting up toward<br />
them will give them a stronger<br />
more dominant and powerful feel.<br />
Also shadows can really enhance<br />
the mood of the Dark Knight.<br />
Experiment with light, colour, angles<br />
and mood and then apply it<br />
to your next cosplay shoot so that<br />
you may grow in your art. Take a<br />
look at some of the most creative<br />
photographers on the web and<br />
you’ll see experiments in light and<br />
angles that can make a mundane<br />
photo become a photo that pops<br />
off the screen and grabs your attention.
LAY CAN MAKE YOU A<br />
TOGRAPHER<br />
Experimenting with<br />
portrait, landscape,<br />
street photography &<br />
other genres can help<br />
improve your eye as a<br />
photographer.<br />
ONLINE:<br />
www.facebook.com/robjenkinsphotography<br />
www.instagram.com/robjenkinsphoto
PHOTO TIPS<br />
TIPS. TIP<br />
Photos for this art<br />
This photo shows good use of angles<br />
to create a dynamic feel. The<br />
character is looking off screen so<br />
your eye is drawn to her and you<br />
wonder what she’s seeing. Then<br />
you notice the weapon and combined<br />
with the costume and angle<br />
you get a feel for the story the image<br />
is telling.<br />
This picture from above is shot<br />
to capture the whole scene from<br />
a top down perspective and the<br />
subject not making eye contact<br />
adds to the story.
S. TIPS!<br />
icle courtesy of Peck Photography<br />
The Last of Us image shows good<br />
use of shadows with just one light<br />
beam lighting the character. The<br />
simple but effective light adds<br />
mood. What do you think when<br />
you see this image? Do you start<br />
to imagine the story of the character?
PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
IN<br />
Hey there’s a new software app<br />
that we’ve been trying out and we<br />
really like it!<br />
It’s called Picktorial and it’s a simple<br />
app that works on the Mac<br />
platform and is a doddle to use.<br />
The development team is based<br />
in Jerusalem and is a young startup<br />
founded by three entrepreneurs<br />
who are really into photographic<br />
software and it shows.<br />
Picktorial is very simple once you<br />
get use to the controls.<br />
It has an advanced processing<br />
engine with the ability to undo edits<br />
at any time and in any order.<br />
And yes … it works with RAW images.<br />
I used it on an old MacBook Pro<br />
and it ran quickly allowing me to<br />
clean up a portrait, airbrush some<br />
textures, patch some spots out<br />
and fix shadows, add contrast<br />
and even defocus - check the<br />
sample images for all Picktorial’s<br />
tools.<br />
Picktorial also has a bunch of<br />
cool presets that most photo<br />
apps offer these days including...<br />
well we won’t say cause there’s a<br />
competition!<br />
Giveaway - the Picktorial team<br />
have given us a free copy to<br />
giveaway (valued at $24.99 in the<br />
App Store).<br />
Want to win it? Simply tell us one<br />
of the presets that Picktorial offers<br />
- visit their website : http://<br />
picktorial.com/index#filters<br />
And tell us the name of the preset<br />
you like best and we’ll pick a<br />
random winner to get a free copy.<br />
Here’s the competition form:<br />
app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1788382/1750786/
HOW RATINGS WO<br />
The Australian Classification<br />
CTC - Check the classification.<br />
CTC<br />
The content has been assessed and approved for advertising unclassified films and<br />
computer games.<br />
Any advertising of unclassified films and games must display the CTC message on<br />
posters, trailers, on the internet, and any other types of advertising.<br />
G - General.<br />
The content is very mild in impact.<br />
The G classification is suitable for everyone. G products may contain classifiable elements<br />
such as language and themes that are very mild in impact.<br />
However, some G-classified films or computer games may contain content that is not<br />
of interest to children.<br />
PG - Parental Guidance.<br />
The content is mild in impact.<br />
The impact of PG (Parental Guidance) classified films and computer games should be<br />
no higher than mild, but they may contain content that children find confusing or upsetting<br />
and may require the guidance of parents and guardians. They may, for example,<br />
contain classifiable elements such as language and themes that are mild in impact.<br />
It is not recommended for viewing or playing by persons under 15 without guidance<br />
from parents or guardians.<br />
M - Mature.<br />
The content is moderate in impact.<br />
Films and computer games classified M (Mature) contain content of a moderate impact<br />
and are recommended for teenagers aged 15 years and over.<br />
Children under 15 may legally access this material because it is an advisory category.<br />
However, M classified films and computer games may include classifiable elements<br />
such as violence and nudity of moderate impact that are not recommended for children<br />
under 15 years. Parents and guardians may need to find out more about the film or<br />
computer game’s specific content, before deciding whether the material is suitable for<br />
their child.
RK:<br />
Board<br />
There are two separate Boards that are independent from the government and from<br />
each other. There is the full time Classification Board that decides the classifications of<br />
films, video games and certain publications and the Classification Review Board that<br />
meets only to review a decision of the Classification Board when there is a valid application<br />
for review.<br />
The Board bases its’ classifications on six elements:<br />
Themes, Violence, Sex, Language, Drug Use & Nudity<br />
Below are a list of classifications you’ll find on games and movies:<br />
MA 15+ - Mature Accompanied 15+.<br />
The content is strong in impact.<br />
MA 15+ classified material contains strong content and is legally restricted to persons<br />
15 years and over. It may contain classifiable elements such as sex scenes and drug<br />
use that are strong in impact.<br />
A person may be asked to show proof of their age before hiring or purchasing an MA<br />
15+ film or computer game. Cinema staff may also request that the person show proof<br />
of their age before allowing them to watch an MA 15+ film. Children under the age of<br />
15 may not legally watch, buy or hire MA 15+ classified material unless they are in<br />
the company of a parent or adult guardian. Children under 15 who go to the cinema<br />
to see an MA 15+ film must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian for the<br />
duration of the film. The parent or adult guardian must also purchase the movie<br />
ticket for the child. The guardian must be an adult exercising parental control over<br />
the person under 15 years of age. The guardian needs to be 18 years or older.<br />
Parents and guardians may need to find out more about the film or computer game’s<br />
specific content, before deciding whether the material is suitable for their child.<br />
R 18+ - Restricted to 18+.<br />
The content is high in impact.<br />
R 18+ material is restricted to adults. Such material may contain classifiable elements<br />
such as sex scenes and drug use that are high in impact. Some material classified<br />
R18+ may be offensive to sections of the adult community. A person may be asked for<br />
proof of their age before purchasing, hiring or viewing R18+ films and computer games<br />
at a retail store or cinema.<br />
There is also an X 18+ for adult films and these titles are only available for sale in the<br />
ACT and the Northern Territory.<br />
Sometimes games are refused classification. This can cause gamers to be frustrated,<br />
citing that the R18+ classification should take care of adult content. But still some<br />
games don’t get classified until the publishers/developers have addressed the concerns<br />
of the Classification Board.<br />
Want to know more? Visit the Australian Classification website -<br />
www.classification.gov.au<br />
CTC
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