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DECEMBER ISSUE <strong>2018</strong><br />
IVE<br />
WIN<br />
A double<br />
pass for<br />
Spider-Man<br />
Into The Spider<br />
Verse!<br />
pg. 32<br />
Interview with Eddie Chew<br />
Animator for Spider-Man Into the<br />
Spider Verse<br />
pg 26<br />
WIN<br />
A double<br />
pass for<br />
Holmes &<br />
Watson<br />
pg. 36<br />
Super Mario Party - Red Dead Redemption 2 - Stan Lee - My Spider Senses are Tingling!
Go to page 32 for details on how you can go in the drawn to win tickets to see Spider-Man! (Australia only)
From the Editor<br />
Hello and welcome to the <strong>December</strong> edition of Gametraders Live!<br />
This edition we have two competitions for you. One is a double pass<br />
giveaway for Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, which we were lucky<br />
enough to also get an interview with one of the animators for the film;<br />
Eddie Chew. Check out the interview on page 26 and the competion<br />
on page 32! The other competition is for a comedy called Watson and<br />
Holmes which you can check out on page 36!<br />
Inside we also have our top five ‘nerdy’ christmas movies (pg. 12), an<br />
article on the history of Spider-Man with a look into the relevence of<br />
the new movie (pg. 20) two interviews, one with Eddie Chew and the<br />
other with Toni from Children of the Night (pg. 64) as well as many<br />
reviews including ones for Red Dead Redemption 2, Fallout 76 and<br />
Spyro Reignited Triology.<br />
We hope you enjoy the magazine. Happy readings and happy holidays!<br />
Emily Langford<br />
Emily Langford,<br />
EDITOR
What’s inside<br />
EDDIE CHEW INTERVIEW (SPIDER MAN INTO THE SPIDER VERSE ) pg. 26<br />
“As long as<br />
there are young<br />
kids who would<br />
rather read<br />
comic books<br />
than play sport<br />
Spider-Man will<br />
continue to be<br />
their hero .”<br />
pg. 20<br />
REVIEWS:<br />
SPYRO REIGNITED<br />
& RED DEAD<br />
REDEMPTION 2<br />
pg. 90 & pg. 76
REMEMBERING STAN LEE<br />
Pg. 18<br />
THE <strong>LIVE</strong> TEAM<br />
EDITOR & DESIGNER: Emily Langford<br />
WRITERS:<br />
Scott Sowter, Entertainment review and opinion<br />
Paul Monopoli, Interviews / Retro Editor<br />
Taneli Palola, Evan Norris, Rex Hindrichs,<br />
Paul Broussard, Jackson Newsome, Ben<br />
Dye, Stephen LaGioia & Patrick Day-Childs,<br />
VGChartz<br />
INTERVIEW WITH<br />
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT<br />
Pg. 64<br />
10-41 MOVIES<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU FILTHY ANIMALS -<br />
TOP 5 ‘NERDY’ CHRISTMAS MOVIES, pg 12<br />
32 SPIDERMAN GIVEAWAY<br />
36 HOLMES & WATSON GIVEAWAY<br />
42-103 GAMES<br />
OPEN WORLD GAMES AND THE PROBLEM OF<br />
SCALE vs CONTECT, pg 44<br />
TOP 10 BEST GAMES BASED ON BOOKS, pg 50<br />
THIS WAR OF MINE (NS) REVIEW, pg 70<br />
SUPER MARIO PARTY (NS) REVIEW, pg 96<br />
LEGO HARRY POTTER (NS) REVIEW, pg 102<br />
LEGO DC SUPER-VILLANS (X1) REVIEW, pg 108<br />
FALLOUT 76 REVIEW<br />
Pg. 84
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DRUNKEN TOWER<br />
Includes: Tower and 4 Shot Glasses
PARTY GAMES<br />
At gametraders<br />
Red Flags is a party game about convincing your friends<br />
to go on terrible dates. One of your friends is going to be<br />
the single. Every other player uses perk cards to make a<br />
hot date. You’ll get characters like: a brain surgeon that<br />
loves to cuddle. But then everyone gets to play a Red Flag<br />
onto another player at the table. Now all of these perfect<br />
dates will have flaws like: wears a diaper because it’s “more<br />
convenient,” or collects human skulls, says they’re practically<br />
free! Now that all of the dates are horrible, everyone tries to<br />
convince the single to go out with their date. The game can<br />
be as raunchy or tame as your imaginations allow.<br />
RED FLAGS<br />
The main 400-card starter deck for Red Flags<br />
Pitchstorm is a party card game that puts players in the<br />
position of unprepared writers pitching movie ideas to the<br />
world's worst executives.<br />
During each round, one player acts as the executive, and<br />
everyone else attempts to pitch them movie ideas based on a<br />
character card and a plot card. At the end of the pitches, the<br />
executive chooses which movie they liked the best, with that<br />
person scoring a point, then the game continues from there.<br />
PITCHSTORM<br />
3-12 Players - Ages 14+ - 15+ Game Time<br />
Huge range available! Selected stores. Ask staff for details.
MOVIE<br />
SPIDERMAN<br />
DOUBLE PASS<br />
GIVEAWAY<br />
INTERVIEW WITH EDDIE<br />
CHEW (SPIDER-MAN INTO<br />
THE SPIDER VERSE)<br />
HOLMES AND WATSON<br />
DOUBLE PASS GIVEAWAY
S<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU<br />
FILTHY ANIMALS! (TOP 5<br />
NERDY CHRISTMAS MOVIES)<br />
MY SPIDER SENSES ARE<br />
TINGLING!
YOUR Scott SAY F Sowter<br />
Top five nerdy<br />
Christmas movies...<br />
MERRY<br />
CHRISTMAS<br />
YOU FILTHY<br />
ANIMALS!<br />
Shhhh… Do you hear it? The sound of wrapping<br />
paper, trees going up, tinsel being pulled out<br />
of dusty old boxes, Michael Buble rubbing<br />
his hands together as people line up to buy<br />
his Christmas album again… That’s right it’s<br />
the holy jolly time of year! The time of giving,<br />
awkward family fights and trying not to get<br />
fired up when grandma says something racist<br />
at the family Christmas lunch. So given that<br />
it is the time of year to get together with the<br />
people you love, most of us will at least once in<br />
<strong>December</strong> watch a Christmas movie. But why<br />
settle for A Christmas Carol, or the Grinch or<br />
Love Actually… (Well you should watch Love<br />
Actually because it’s simply incredible.) So here<br />
for you! We have five Christmas films that are<br />
a little off the wall. Five Christmas films that<br />
will keep your geek flag flying! So settle in, get<br />
the egg-nog and enjoy five nerdy Christmas<br />
movies!
1<br />
LETHAL WEAPON<br />
1987’s Lethal Weapon is an action comedy masterpiece. Written by Shane Black (who’s name will<br />
be coming up a lot on this list) and directed by the great Richard Donner, Lethal Weapon sees<br />
Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs a renegade younger cop who teams up with disgruntled old cop<br />
Roger Murtaugh played by Danny Glover who is quite simply too old for Rigg’s shi… Nonsense.<br />
A great neo-noir adventure takes place with some of the best one-lines in film. What does it have<br />
to do with Christmas? Well not a lot really. It’s set in <strong>December</strong> and there are a few carols and<br />
Christmas jokes thrown in. Plus the gift of bullets into bad guys.
2 GREMLINS<br />
Joe-Dante’s horror comedy masterpiece Gremlins is just one of those absolute<br />
classics. Featuring the great all time cutie Gizmo who when not properly cared for by his new<br />
owner births the mysterious gremlins who terrorise his town. The whole movie is set on Christmas<br />
Eve and has nothing but Christmas lights, gifts, carols and terrifying monsters on display. A sure<br />
fire hit with everyone, except maybe the very young. It does get a little intense in parts…
3<br />
IRON MAN 3<br />
Iron Man 3… Yes a marvel movie made the list… Well! It is set at Christmas. Plus it is one of my<br />
favourites in the MCU. Shane Black writes and directs this off the wall entry into the MCU. It pits<br />
Iron Man against the haunting power of his greatest threat… The Mandarin… Or really it pits him<br />
against Guy Pearce and an army of genetically modified super soldiers. The Mandarin well he’s<br />
just a washed up British actor. But you know what… I didn’t care. It was a hoot.
4<br />
KISS KISS BANG BANG<br />
Shane Black strikes again. There is a theme here… Shane Black is obviously obsessed with<br />
Christmas… And I am obviously obsessed with Shane Black. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sees Robert<br />
Downy Jr as a petty thief who accidentally gets cast in a Hollywood movie. He is then flown<br />
to Hollywood and teamed up with a real private detective to gain experience for the role.<br />
Unfortunately for them they get caught up in a real murder mystery. It’s one of the funniest films<br />
you will ever see with RDJ giving one of his best performances ever.
5<br />
DIE HARD<br />
Ok… Originality isn’t my strong suit, but can you blame me? Die Hard really is the best Christmas<br />
movie ever made. I need not say anything else. But the meme says it all. “There are people who<br />
say Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever made… And there are people who are wrong.”<br />
By Scott F. Sowter<br />
Twitter: @ScottFSowter
A REAL LIFE<br />
SUPERHERO<br />
Remembering STAN LEE<br />
1922-<strong>2018</strong><br />
Born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922,<br />
Stan Lee would go on to become<br />
a household name for geeky families<br />
around the world. Stan created<br />
some of the most beloved characters<br />
in popular culture, we simply<br />
don’t have room on this page to list<br />
them all. He was beloved by the pop<br />
culture world for his enthusiasm,<br />
his wit, his charm and his energy.<br />
He became the face of the comic<br />
industry, particularly Marvel Comics.<br />
He was an ambassador for the<br />
brand and always made you feel<br />
like it was ok to love comic books,<br />
even as an adult. He gave us some<br />
of our best childhood memories and<br />
instilled in us fan’s attitudes for life;<br />
always treat others with respect, be<br />
a good person. He always had time<br />
for his fans, he always treated them<br />
with respect and kindness. He was<br />
one of a kind. His genius has left us<br />
now but his creations will always be<br />
with us. Stan Lee created an entire<br />
universe... Let’s make sure we all<br />
look after it.<br />
“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book<br />
writer while other people were building bridges or going on to<br />
medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is<br />
one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it<br />
they might go off the deep end. I feel that<br />
if you’re able to entertain people,<br />
you’re doing a good thing.”<br />
- Stan Lee<br />
WRITTEN BY SCOTT F. SOWTER
SCOTT F SOWTER<br />
MY SPIDER<br />
SENSES ARE<br />
TINGLING!<br />
In August 1962 Marvel Comics released<br />
Amazing Fantasy issue 15. Before this issue<br />
the run on the comic had been largely<br />
forgettable. However issue 15 introduced<br />
the world to the hero that would become<br />
arguably the biggest character on Marvel<br />
Comics roster. Written by Stan Lee and<br />
drawn by Steve Ditko, The Amazing Spider-<br />
Man was born. Seven months later Marvel<br />
introduced Spidy in his own solo comic<br />
featuring a fight between the wall crawler<br />
and the Fantastic Four. From there the<br />
character grew and grew in popularity to<br />
the jugernaught of pop-pop-culture we<br />
have today. He has been the star of six<br />
solo feature films, as well as the Marvel<br />
Cinematic Universe Avengers films. We have<br />
an animated feature film out in <strong>December</strong>.<br />
Countless animated television shows.<br />
Spider-Man is simply the face of Marvel.
Let me start by first saying I hate<br />
spiders… I hate them. I’m terrified of<br />
them. (Gagging sounds). But… Spider-<br />
Man, he’s my hero. At the age of around<br />
four or five I was exposed to the 1994<br />
animated Spider-Man TV show. I got<br />
my first Spider-Man comics not long<br />
after that. Spectacular Spider-Man #256,<br />
Amazing Spider-Man #433, Sensational<br />
Spider-Man #26 and Peter Parker Spider-<br />
Man #90. I remember them well, in fact<br />
I still have them. I won tickets to the<br />
opening night of the first Spider-Man<br />
film in 2002. Needless to say I’m a bit of a<br />
Spider-Man nut. But why Spider-Man. Like<br />
I said. I hate spiders. Yet I like so many<br />
others gravitate towards this character<br />
more than any other. Well, the answer is<br />
actually quite simple… Peter Parker.
Peter Parker is every kid who was into<br />
comics and not sport growing up. He<br />
is a total geek, terrible at talking to<br />
girls, loved science and nerd stuff, was<br />
never rich, he is by every stretch of<br />
the word “normal”. He is our avatar. I<br />
related so much to Peter Parker as a<br />
kid and teenager and I feel that many<br />
people do, that’s why the character<br />
has persisted. He always tries to do<br />
the right thing, learning that lesson<br />
early on with the death of his uncle<br />
Ben. His flaws are on show, open and<br />
on display. He struggles to find a job,<br />
something I could relate to right out of<br />
university… I’m sure many can… Peter<br />
Parker is us. I could never relate to Bruce<br />
Wayne or Tony Stark. Captain America<br />
and Superman are damn near perfect.<br />
Then we have Peter Parker… Sometimes<br />
he misses the landing. He’s the most<br />
relatable character Marvel and DC have<br />
to offer.<br />
The world hit fever pitch for Spider-<br />
Man in 2002 with Sony releasing<br />
“Spider-Man” the film. Directed by<br />
legend cult filmmaker Sam Raimi<br />
and starring Toby Maguire, the<br />
film became a monster hit. It was<br />
followed in 2004 by Spider-Man 2<br />
and in 2007 by Spider-Man 3. While<br />
2000’s “X-Men” paved the way for<br />
the serious superhero film, Spider-<br />
Man really set the world on fire.<br />
Without the launch of these films<br />
we wouldn’t have the MCU we have<br />
today.
Spider-Man proving so bankable that<br />
Marvel Studies made a deal with Sony<br />
(who own the cinematic rights of the<br />
character) to have him appear in the<br />
MCU, now played by Tom Holland.<br />
Once again it proved to be a massive<br />
success. The unlikely pairing of Peter<br />
Parker and Tony Stark has gone on to<br />
be beloved by movie goers and fans<br />
of the series. There was also the…<br />
Well, less than buster Amazing Spider-<br />
Man film series from 2012. Featuring<br />
Andrew Garfield in the title role the<br />
first film was fairly successful while the<br />
second film left a bad taste in many<br />
mouths… Myself included.
So with SO many film adaptions of this<br />
character why do we need an animated<br />
film version set for release here in<br />
Australia on the 13th of <strong>December</strong>?<br />
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse tells<br />
the story of Miles Morales, a teenager<br />
gifted with Spider-Man abilities. Miles is<br />
Spider-Man, in a seperate universe. Yes<br />
it’s time to meet the many Spider-Men if<br />
you will… And Spider-Gwen. All awesome<br />
alternate reality versions of our beloved<br />
character. This animated film will bring<br />
these amazing alternate versions of Spidy<br />
to the big screen for the first time. I for<br />
one am so excited for it. Do we need this<br />
film… NO! We don’t need it. But when I<br />
saw that first trailer I sure wanted it. I feel<br />
like it almost comes down to a question<br />
of “Why not?”.<br />
Spider-Man continues to prove to be<br />
Marvel’s flagship character. I for one do<br />
not see the popularity of him wavering<br />
in the future. As long as there are young<br />
kids who would rather read comic books<br />
than play sport Spider-Man will continue<br />
to be their hero. He is still mine.<br />
By Scott F. Sowter<br />
Twitter: @ScottFSowter
INTERVIEW WITH
EDDIE CHEW<br />
Eddie Chew, Australian animator, involved with movies<br />
such as Jurrasic World, Captain America: Civil War,<br />
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice to name a few.<br />
Our writer Paul Monopoli had a chance to ask him a<br />
few questions about himself and his role in the latest<br />
PM: Was drawing cartoon characters a favourite pastime of<br />
yours while growing up?<br />
Spider-Man movie; Spider-Man Into The Spider Verse.<br />
EC: I grew up drawing dinosaurs, Transformers and<br />
Paul Monopoli: Were you a fan of animated shows<br />
when you were younger?<br />
Ghostbusters – I was literally always drawing. Later on, I<br />
moved to Ninja Turtles, and then into comic book superheroes.<br />
Eddie Chew: Absolutely – from when I was very young<br />
all the way into my 20’s. I can still be found surfing<br />
PM: As a child did you ever think that this could be the career<br />
you end up in?<br />
through animated films on Netflix!<br />
EC: I actually dreamed of becoming a comic book penciller. I<br />
PM: Which shows were you drawn to?<br />
EC: I grew up with classics like Astro Boy, Transformers,<br />
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bugs Bunny and<br />
Ghostbusters.<br />
loved to draw, I loved the high contrast with pencil and paper<br />
and black ink. I wanted to work for Marvel and DC comics. I<br />
hadn’t yet discovered the world of animation because I was<br />
focused on becoming a comic book artist.
PM: Your Q&A states that you made the decision to get<br />
into animation and special effects while you were still at<br />
University. What field were you looking to get into before<br />
making that decision?<br />
EC: Initially I was studying a multimedia degree. I knew<br />
I wanted to do something in digital arts and use my<br />
foundation in my art, but I didn’t know exactly what that<br />
was at the time. The spark in animation came when I<br />
did the introduction in unit in 3D / Computer Graphics<br />
at University. Once I discovered CG, it was clear to me<br />
that this was it, and I was 100 percent focused and<br />
dove in with all my passion, curiosity and skill. My comic<br />
book artistry had taken me there. I finished my BA in<br />
multimedia and then pursued a year in film and television<br />
school.
PM: Which university courses would you recommend to<br />
someone who had an interest in animation?<br />
diversity in the industry and throughout studios around the<br />
world can really shape your skill level.<br />
EC: At the risk of sounding cliche, passion, practice and<br />
persistence are probably three key ingredients you need<br />
PM: What came first when producing Spider-Man: Into the<br />
Spider-Verse, the voice over or the animation?<br />
along with education. You can’t have education without<br />
those three and expect to be successful. In the realm of<br />
technicality, practice your skill everyday, the same way you<br />
develop any skill, and be patient with your learning. Purchase<br />
or rent a copy of Autodesk Maya and enroll in an online course.<br />
EC: The temporary voice over comes first because there<br />
is a fully realised script which is green lit before animation<br />
begins. The celebrity voice over dubbing happens after<br />
animation is completed or during.<br />
Technical skill is an absolute, and the sooner you understand<br />
it the more you can practice it. Master the 12 principles of<br />
PM: How much contact did you have with the voice actors?<br />
animation – timing, exaggeration, easing in and easing out,<br />
squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, arcs, secondary<br />
action, solid drawing, appeal, follow through and overlapping<br />
EC: With Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, there was none<br />
unfortunately.<br />
action, and posing. I would recommend the online courses<br />
Animation and Lanimate. If you want to pursue your career in<br />
animation and take your career abroad, having a University<br />
degree helps with the Visa process.<br />
PM: This Spider-Man movie features multiple versions of<br />
the character. Do we get to see the tokusatsu Japanese<br />
Spiderman, Takuya Yamashiro?<br />
PM: Was moving overseas something that was necessary<br />
to become successful in animation?<br />
EC: I haven’t seen the whole film yet so I can’t answer that<br />
one. Pre-screening happens for us soon!<br />
EC: Today, Australia has a thriving animation / film industry<br />
PM: Which Spider-Man is your personal favourite?<br />
so leaving isn’t necessary to develop skills or pursue an<br />
incredible career as there are excellent world-renowned<br />
EC: I like Peter Parker, that’s the one I grew up with.<br />
studios there. However, back when I started, I knew that<br />
leaving was important to get the skills and the experience<br />
PM: Who is your favourite Spider Man villain?<br />
I needed. Having the opportunity to work and travel around<br />
the world has also been a definite bonus in my perspective,<br />
and is something that I really look forward to. I think the<br />
EC: Venom. I love his design in the comic books and his<br />
storyline.
PM: Were there any challenges working on the animation<br />
to this movie?<br />
that realm, I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and<br />
Optimus Prime. When it comes to the dark side, Venom is<br />
such a vivid character with great art and design. I also like<br />
EC: This was a really fun film to work on. Every animation<br />
Magento, and of course Shredder and Megatron!<br />
project poses some typical challenges that are not at<br />
all uncommon, but there was nothing out of the ordinary<br />
PM: Who is your favourite hero to team up with Spider Man?<br />
with this in terms of challenges. I love the style of art<br />
here. It’s refreshing, exciting and new!<br />
EC: Venom – particularly the Maximum Carnage storyline!<br />
PM: 2D animation seems to have become quite niche over<br />
the years, with shows like Family Guy and the Simpsons<br />
being two of the major examples that use still that style. Do<br />
PM: Into the Spider-Verse looks to be a purely animated<br />
feature. How different is it working with animation on a live<br />
action movie?<br />
you feel that 2D animation will always have a place in the<br />
world of entertainment?<br />
EC: It is a purely animated feature. Animated movies have<br />
more liberation in terms of designing a shot as there is more<br />
EC: 2D animation will always be here. Eventually we’ll come<br />
to think of this as a vintage art form in the film making industry<br />
and it will be revitalized as a trend or with a refreshed vibe in<br />
animation. 2D animation has a lot of competition so the level<br />
of storytelling needs to be elevated to catch the audience<br />
and ‘compete’ so to speak. That’s not to say that 3D<br />
animation lacks storytelling at all. On the contrary, it needs<br />
room for creativity from the artist in that sense. Live action<br />
footage has locked plates that are shot in real life so we<br />
can’t deviate from those and there is more restriction to<br />
work within which can be seen as a challenge. Live action<br />
requires more realistic animation so that it blends in with<br />
the actors. Animated features are more stylistic in design in<br />
the way that they move. That would be the main difference!<br />
to rise up to meet the visual artistry and excitement which<br />
is why films like Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse have not<br />
just extraordinary visuals, but the writing is exquisite too.<br />
PM: Is it possible that Into the Spider-Verse will have a<br />
sequel somewhere down the line, or even kick start a<br />
Marvel animated cinematic universe?<br />
PM: A fair chunk of your career has taken place within the<br />
super hero realm. I know this might be a tough question but<br />
who is your favourite hero and villain?<br />
EC: Wouldn’t that be cool! I would love to work on more<br />
Spider-Man films, but I not sure what the Spider-Man<br />
Universe holds...<br />
EC: I love Spider-Man, Wolverine and Batman. Outside of<br />
Interview conducted by Paul<br />
Monopoli
EDDIE CHEW<br />
A huge thankyou to Eddie Chew, check him<br />
out here:<br />
Imdb<br />
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2691260/<br />
linkedin<br />
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddiechew/<br />
demoreel<br />
https://vimeo.com/205204669
DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY<br />
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the creative minds behind The Lego Movie and 21<br />
Jump Street, bring their unique talents to a fresh vision of a different Spider-Man<br />
Universe, with a ground-breaking visual style that’s the first of its kind.<br />
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse introduces Brooklyn teen Miles Morales, and<br />
the limitless possibilities of the Spider-Verse, where more than one can wear the<br />
mask.<br />
In cinemas <strong>December</strong> 13<br />
WIN A DOUBLE PASS!<br />
Thanks to Sony and Gametraders you could win a double pass to see<br />
the new Spider-Man Into the Spider Verse.<br />
All you have to do is go to the Gametraders Facebook page and like<br />
the competition post, tag who you’re going to take and comment why<br />
you want to see Spider-Man Into the Spider Verse!
MARVEL and all related character names: © & <strong>2018</strong> MARVEL. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Movie ©<strong>2018</strong> Sony Pictures<br />
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gameS<br />
CHILDREN OF TH<br />
INTERVIEW:<br />
NIGHT<br />
TOP 10 BEST GAMES<br />
BASED ON BOOKS<br />
OPEN WORLD GAMES AND THE PROBLEM<br />
OF SCALE VS. CONTENT
E<br />
REVIEWS
Taneli Palola<br />
OPEN WORLD GAMES<br />
AND THE PROBLEM OF
SCALE VS. CONTENT<br />
Over the last two decades two very different, and in<br />
many ways polar opposite schools of thought regarding<br />
the design of open world video games have emerged.<br />
On one hand we have games that feature a large, but<br />
still relatively condensed and tightly designed world<br />
often packed with meaningful content with a lot of<br />
variety, but less options in terms of exploration. Sega’s<br />
Yakuza series is a great example of this. On the other<br />
hand there are games with massive worlds with either<br />
too little meaningful content stretched out over a vast<br />
space, or the same tasks being repeated over and over<br />
again with little to no reason or variety. These titles tend<br />
to give more options to players in terms of exploration<br />
and the number of locations they can visit. Quite a lot of<br />
Ubisoft’s open world games over the last decade or so<br />
have adopted this style.<br />
However, while arguments can certainly be made for<br />
the merits of either approach, with various positives and<br />
negatives that can be found in both types of open world<br />
games, there’s definitely a tendency for games that go<br />
for the ‘massive world’ approach to take things too far<br />
in this regard. There comes a point when increasing<br />
the size of a game’s playable area begins to have<br />
diminishing returns and starts to actively hurt the title.
I’ve talked about this issue in the past from<br />
another perspective when I discussed the trend<br />
of making the size of a game’s world a measure<br />
of its quality, and how video game companies<br />
have tried to sell certain games almost entirely<br />
based on that merit alone. All too often when<br />
such titles are eventually released players<br />
discover that, beyond the massive scope of<br />
their worlds, they really have very little to offer<br />
after the first few hours of gameplay.<br />
Fairly recent releases like No Man’s Sky, Sea of<br />
Thieves, and Fallout 76 have sold themselves<br />
in large part on the notion that they have<br />
massive worlds (or even a universe) to explore,<br />
in which players can discover uncharted worlds<br />
and places, but the developers then neglect to<br />
actually provide you with something interesting<br />
or meaningful to do within those massive<br />
sandboxes. When these game worlds end up<br />
being populated by interchangeable quests<br />
and nebulous busywork they don’t really offer<br />
any compelling or interesting content for the<br />
player base.<br />
I’m aware that No Man’s Sky did eventually<br />
offer a lot more content for people to engage<br />
with, and from everything I’ve heard it’s a vastly<br />
improved game compared to the one that<br />
was first released. Sea of Thieves promises to<br />
similarly redeem itself, with content releasing<br />
throughout the year and, it seems, well into the<br />
future. But I’m hesitant to praise either of these<br />
games (or other similar ones) for becoming<br />
worth their initial asking prices months, or even<br />
years, after release.
At that point you’re not really<br />
releasing a good game, but rather<br />
selling a husk of a game on the<br />
promise that it might one day<br />
actually be worth playing. That<br />
is where the problem of scale vs.<br />
content arises. When you begin<br />
to focus too much on figures,<br />
whether it be the number of square<br />
miles the world map covers or<br />
the number of different locations<br />
you can visit, rather than on what<br />
you’re actually going to be able<br />
to do in the game, you’ve kind of<br />
lost sight of what really makes the<br />
difference between an average and<br />
a great game.<br />
Fallout 76 is a prime example<br />
of this kind of misguided focus.<br />
Previous games in the series have<br />
certainly had large worlds that<br />
players could explore at their<br />
leisure, but at the same time<br />
Bethesda, Obsidian, and Black Isle<br />
studios before them filled these<br />
games with interesting content,<br />
unique NPCs, and well-written<br />
questlines. Fallout 76 was marketed<br />
as featuring the largest world ever<br />
created for the series, but then<br />
failed to include the interesting<br />
quests and plotlines that had really<br />
elevated the franchise.<br />
Essentially, the thing that<br />
is often most important in<br />
open world titles, regardless<br />
of the size of the game’s<br />
world, is what I have started<br />
to call density of meaningful<br />
content. You can have the<br />
largest game world ever<br />
created but if it isn’t filled<br />
with interesting stuff for<br />
players to do then it means<br />
absolutely nothing in the<br />
end. A large, empty world<br />
devoid of content has been<br />
the downfall of many an<br />
ambitious game in recent<br />
years, and it will likely be<br />
the same for many more to<br />
come.
This is why one of the absolute best open worlds<br />
in recent years has also been one of the smallest<br />
in size. The world of Yakuza 0 has nothing on the<br />
scale of games like Fallout 76, Sea of Thieves,<br />
or any number of Ubisoft open world titles, but<br />
it ends up feeling so much bigger than any of<br />
them because of the amount of activities and<br />
options that are open to players within the<br />
world. It feels like behind every corner there is<br />
something exciting or interesting for you to do.<br />
The world may be smaller than in most other<br />
open world games, but it works perfectly in the<br />
context of the game itself, and the content found<br />
within is what ultimately makes the world feel<br />
big, despite its actual size. This is something I<br />
think other game developers should take note of.<br />
Of course, none of this means that you can’t<br />
make a huge game world interesting and<br />
exciting. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2<br />
have shown very recently that even massive<br />
worlds can be made to feel varied and engaging.<br />
It simply requires a lot of work to achieve that,<br />
which is unfortunately something that many<br />
developers just aren’t putting into their games,<br />
for one reason or another. When this happens<br />
we get procedurally generated massive worlds<br />
with repetitive content and dull environments.<br />
Developers should consider what purpose the<br />
worlds they’re building serve in their games.<br />
Instead of artificially forcing massive worlds<br />
into their titles, they should build worlds that fit<br />
into the settings and narratives of their games.<br />
Essentially, the world should serve the needs<br />
of the game, and not the other way around. If<br />
the only reason for having a massive world is to<br />
check a box on the marketing sheet, then maybe<br />
that kind of world doesn’t really make much<br />
sense for that particular game.
Ultimately, the size of a game’s world should<br />
not be seen as its defining quality, but rather<br />
a facilitator for what actually makes that<br />
game great. Every game is different, and as<br />
such every world should be built with its own<br />
particular needs in mind. It should be something<br />
that makes the game feel alive, unique, and<br />
interesting, but all too often the maps we<br />
get just prove to be a detriment to the whole<br />
experience. If a developer is making the world<br />
huge just because they can, it’s most likely not<br />
going to result in a good final product. It all<br />
comes down to content density and content<br />
quality, and in that respect the size of the world<br />
should at best be a secondary concern as far as<br />
I’m concerned, and often not even that.<br />
The best open world titles are carefully balanced<br />
between scale and content. The scale can<br />
certainly be ambitious to an almost extreme<br />
degree, but the content then needs to match<br />
that ambition. Ones that fail to find that balance<br />
either end up feeling empty, with not enough<br />
stuff for the players to do (No Man’s Sky at<br />
launch), or cluttered with too much pointless<br />
busywork (Assassin’s Creed: Unity). It’s a difficult<br />
balance to achieve and far too few games<br />
manage to find it, and unfortunately the only<br />
way to fix that issue is to design games with<br />
this balance in mind from the very beginning of<br />
production. Do that and we just might get more<br />
games like Yakuza 0 and Red Dead Redemption<br />
2 in the future, and less the likes of Ghost Recon:<br />
Wildlands or Fallout 76.<br />
By Taneli Palola, VGChartz
YOUR Taneli SAY Palola<br />
TOP 10 BEST<br />
GAMES BASED<br />
ON BOOKS<br />
Books have, historically, not been the most<br />
popular medium when it comes to adapting<br />
existing works into video game form. Countless<br />
movies and TV shows have received their own<br />
video games, but books have never been quite<br />
as popular. Perhaps the reason is that books<br />
are inherently more difficult to adapt into video<br />
games than other, already visual mediums like<br />
films. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t<br />
any great video game book adaptations out<br />
there.<br />
The one criterion I have for this list is that it’s<br />
not enough for the game to be set in the same<br />
world as the book or take inspiration from it.<br />
Rather, it has to share a significant number of<br />
characters, storyline details, and other elements<br />
to make it onto this list. For example, Middle-<br />
Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel do not<br />
count as book adaptations. The games can differ<br />
in one or more aspects, but have to have clear<br />
and strong connections to the source material to<br />
be valid. With that in mind, here are the ten best<br />
video games based on books (in my opinion, of<br />
course).
10.<br />
DUNE II: THE BUILDING OF A DYNASTY/BATTLE FOR ARRAKIS<br />
(BASED ON DUNE BY FRANK HERBERT)<br />
We start the list with a game that is in many<br />
ways responsible for the rise of the RTS genre<br />
in the early to mid 90s. However, it is also a<br />
slightly tricky entry, as the argument could be<br />
made that Dune II is actually inspired more by<br />
the film Dune rather than the original book by<br />
Frank Herbert. Still, there are still a lot of direct<br />
connections to the original novel in the video<br />
game to justify its place on this list.<br />
Taking place on the desert planet of Arrakis,<br />
the only place where a valuable drug called<br />
Melange (more commonly as ”the spice”) exists.<br />
On the planet three competing noble houses<br />
- Harkonnen, Atreides, and Ordos - battle over<br />
control of the planet and its spice reserves in<br />
order to gain favour with the emperor.<br />
Overall, Dune II is a fairly loose adaptation of<br />
the novel, taking the setting, important themes,<br />
names, and other such elements including the<br />
basic premise from the book, but then telling<br />
its own self-contained story from that point<br />
on. This is mainly due to the fact that the game<br />
has three different playable factions, each<br />
with their own storyline, whereas the book is<br />
mainly focussed on the point of view of House<br />
Atreides.
9.<br />
KEN FOLLETT’S THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH<br />
(BASED ON THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH BY KEN FOLLETT)<br />
The Pillars of the Earth is likely not the kind of<br />
book that most people would think to make<br />
a video game adaptation from. A historical<br />
novel about the building of a cathedral in a<br />
fictional English town of Kingsbridge in the 12th<br />
century doesn’t really strike one as the kind of<br />
story you could make a video game about. Yet<br />
that’s exactly what Daedalic Entertainment did<br />
with this point-and-click adventure game that<br />
released in 2017.<br />
This one is definitely a very particular kind of<br />
game that requires the player to be in a specific<br />
frame of mind to enjoy. It’s a very slow-paced,<br />
narrative-heavy title that isn’t really interested<br />
in high tension drama or fast-paced action.<br />
The Pillars of the Earth certainly takes its time<br />
weaving its narrative, which covers several<br />
decades and features several playable characters.<br />
For any fan of well-written historical fiction The<br />
Pillars of the Earth should be on their list of<br />
games to play. It captures the feeling of the era<br />
and the location it depicts, and contains just<br />
enough actual historical facts while still telling<br />
a largely fictional tale to come off as genuinely<br />
authentic. It’s also an absolutely gorgeous<br />
game, with beautiful backgrounds and character<br />
designs, which certainly helps in making the<br />
world feel real and authentic.
8.<br />
I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAM<br />
(BASED ON I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAM BY HARLAN ELLISON)<br />
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is one<br />
of those games that a lot of people generally<br />
seem to know by reputation, but few have<br />
actually taken the time to play it, which is a<br />
shame because it truly is an excellent (and quite<br />
disturbing) point-and-click adventure game.<br />
It’s also an unusual adaptation, especially for a<br />
video game, as the writer of the original story,<br />
Harlan Ellison, was heavily involved in the<br />
development process, writing much of the script<br />
and even voicing the game’s main antagonist,<br />
the supercomputer AM.<br />
It’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where a<br />
highly intelligent supercomputer annihilated<br />
most of the human race after developing<br />
sentience and absorbing two other<br />
supercomputers into its programming. Now<br />
calling itself AM, the supercomputer has spent<br />
the last 109 years torturing and modifying five<br />
human subjects, altering their minds and bodies<br />
however it saw fit, and is now presenting them<br />
with a game to play. AM presents the characters<br />
with their own personal psychodramas, praying<br />
on their deepest fears and personal demons.<br />
The game takes the story premise, the<br />
characters, and a lot of the events straight from<br />
Ellison’s novel, but alters certain details and<br />
aspects, while also adding new elements in to<br />
the mix, including making the story open-ended<br />
with seven different possible endings players<br />
can reach depending on their actions. However,<br />
it’s very much in the bleak spirit of the original<br />
story; only one of the endings can be considered<br />
a positive outcome, while the rest involve<br />
varying degrees of hopelessness. It’s certainly<br />
not the most joyful of experiences, but it’s very<br />
much worth playing nonetheless.
7.<br />
PARASITE EVE<br />
(BASED ON PARASITE EVE BY HIDEAKI SENA)<br />
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is one<br />
of those games that a lot of people generally<br />
seem to know by reputation, but few have<br />
actually taken the time to play it, which is a<br />
shame because it truly is an excellent (and quite<br />
disturbing) point-and-click adventure game.<br />
It’s also an unusual adaptation, especially for a<br />
video game, as the writer of the original story,<br />
Harlan Ellison, was heavily involved in the<br />
development process, writing much of the script<br />
and even voicing the game’s main antagonist,<br />
the supercomputer AM.<br />
It’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where a<br />
highly intelligent supercomputer annihilated<br />
most of the human race after developing<br />
sentience and absorbing two other<br />
supercomputers into its programming. Now<br />
calling itself AM, the supercomputer has spent<br />
the last 109 years torturing and modifying five<br />
human subjects, altering their minds and bodies<br />
however it saw fit, and is now presenting them<br />
with a game to play. AM presents the characters<br />
with their own personal psychodramas, praying<br />
on their deepest fears and personal demons.<br />
The game takes the story premise, the<br />
characters, and a lot of the events straight from<br />
Ellison’s novel, but alters certain details and<br />
aspects, while also adding new elements in to<br />
the mix, including making the story open-ended<br />
with seven different possible endings players<br />
can reach depending on their actions. However,<br />
it’s very much in the bleak spirit of the original<br />
story; only one of the endings can be considered<br />
a positive outcome, while the rest involve<br />
varying degrees of hopelessness. It’s certainly<br />
not the most joyful of experiences, but it’s very<br />
much worth playing nonetheless.
6.<br />
THE HITCHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY<br />
(BASED ON THE HITCHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY BY DOUGLAS ADAMS)<br />
Another game where the author of the book<br />
it was based on was heavily involved during<br />
development is The Hitchiker’s Guide to the<br />
Galaxy, which is based on the novel of the same<br />
name by Douglas Adams. Being a text-based<br />
adventure game, it presents arguably one of the<br />
most accurate portrayals of the style and tone of<br />
the source material out of any game based on a<br />
book. This is a very good thing as these kinds of<br />
games live and die almost entirely based on the<br />
quality of the writing.<br />
Naturally, the main reason behind this was<br />
Adams himself writing most of the game’s text<br />
and dialogue, as well as designing much of<br />
it with Steve Meretzky. This made for a very<br />
authentic experience that genuinely felt like it<br />
was the actual book you were reading. It’s also<br />
a rare case of a game that is intentionally funny,<br />
leveraging the nihilistic, often surreal style of<br />
humour Adams is known for.<br />
Of course, since this is a text adventure game<br />
there are likely very few people reading this<br />
who have actually played it, as the genre isn’t<br />
exactly popular these days. However, for any fan<br />
of Adams’ books, or just fans of well written and<br />
funny stories in general, this should be on your<br />
list of games to play, especially as it’s free for<br />
everyone to play online.
5.<br />
METRO 2030<br />
(BASED ON METRO 2033 BY DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY)<br />
Some people may have expected to see Metro:<br />
Last Light here, but that particular title doesn’t<br />
actually share that much in common with the<br />
novels these games are based on, outside of the<br />
main character Artyom and the post-apocalyptic<br />
setting. Metro 2033, on the other hand, is a<br />
fairly faithful adaptation of Glukhovsky’s original<br />
novel, taking the setting, many of the characters,<br />
and storyline details directly from the book.<br />
As the name suggests, Metro 2033 takes place<br />
in the year 2033 in the Moscow metro tunnels,<br />
after a nuclear war 20 years prior devastated the<br />
world and forced people to move underground<br />
to survive. A group of mysterious creatures<br />
known as the Dark Ones attack one of the<br />
stations, prompting Artyom to seek help in<br />
dealing with this threat from the rest of the<br />
communities living in the metro tunnels.<br />
The greatest achievement of Metro 2033, in my<br />
opinion, is how it successfully builds tension and<br />
mystery surrounding the Dark Ones. A lot of this<br />
also comes from the game’s world, which almost<br />
becomes a character in its own right as the<br />
game progresses. The dark and claustrophobic<br />
tunnels always loom around the player, and this<br />
in turn make the areas where people still live<br />
havens of safety that nonetheless have a hint of<br />
uncertainty to them.
4.<br />
ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST<br />
(BASED ON JOURNEY TO THE WEST BY WU CHENG’EN)<br />
Out of all the games on this list Enslaved:<br />
Odyssey to the West is perhaps the one that is<br />
the furthest away from being a direct adaptation<br />
of the original novel, and because of that I<br />
almost left it out of the list completely. In the<br />
end, though, it does share enough of the story<br />
it was adapted from – the 16th century Chinese<br />
epic novel Journey to the West - that I decided<br />
to include it.<br />
Of course, the main difference between the<br />
novel and the video game is the setting. The<br />
game takes the classic Chinese tale and places it<br />
in a post-apocalyptic North America, hundreds<br />
of years in the future. Various plot details have<br />
also been changed, but the central concept and<br />
the main characters still retain similar roles as in<br />
the novel. Still, of the games on this list it is by<br />
far the loosest adaptation, going more towards<br />
preserving the themes and tone of the original,<br />
while taking a much more liberal approach to<br />
the rest of the source material.<br />
As a game, Enslaved is the title that made me a<br />
fan of Ninja Theory. Prior to this the company<br />
was best known for the PS3 launch title Heavenly<br />
Sword, but I’ve always considered Enslaved to<br />
be a vastly superior game. Ninja Theory has<br />
always been excellent at telling stories and<br />
creating interesting and nuanced characters, and<br />
Enslaved is no exception. It’s a great game in<br />
my opinion, and while it takes liberties with its<br />
source material, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is<br />
one of the best book to video game adaptations<br />
ever.
3.<br />
SPEC OPS: THE LINE<br />
(BASED ON HEART OF DARKNESS BY JOSEPH CONRAD)
Basing the story of a video game<br />
on a literary classic is always a<br />
rather thankless undertaking. Even<br />
at best of times video games are<br />
still often not taken as seriously in<br />
mainstream media, and deciding<br />
to adapt a beloved work into a<br />
video game, especially one that<br />
has already been adapted into<br />
a highly regarded film, can lead<br />
to heavy scrutiny and derision<br />
towards the developer.<br />
Fortunately, this didn’t deter<br />
Yager Development when the<br />
developer decided to take Joseph<br />
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and<br />
use it as the basis for the game<br />
Spec Ops: The Line. It was a<br />
brave move, but one that paid off<br />
hugely in the end. While the game<br />
changes certain elements and<br />
details, like moving the story to<br />
the devastated city of Dubai and<br />
changing the names of characters,<br />
the major elements are still intact<br />
and executed wonderfully.<br />
However, what truly makes the<br />
game stand out from other titles<br />
is how it uses features unique<br />
to the medium of video games<br />
to slowly erode the player’s<br />
confidence in themselves and<br />
what they see in the game. It lets<br />
players make seemingly important<br />
choices throughout the story, but<br />
the further the player gets the<br />
more uncertain things around the<br />
main character become, to the<br />
point that it’s almost impossible<br />
to say what is actually real and<br />
what is not until the very final<br />
twist in the story.
2.<br />
THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT<br />
(BASED ON THE WITCHER SERIES BY ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI)
Probably the most obvious entry<br />
on this list, and one that most<br />
people are likely familiar with<br />
at least to some degree. Based<br />
on The Witcher book series by<br />
Andrzej Sapkowski, the trilogy<br />
of games made by CD Projekt<br />
Red between 2008 and 2015<br />
are essentially a continuation of<br />
the story from the books, with<br />
the first game taking place two<br />
years after the novel The Lady<br />
of the Lake, which is, at least so<br />
far, the final book in the series<br />
chronologically.<br />
While all three games have their<br />
fans, it’s the third one that is often<br />
considered the peak of the series,<br />
and in general one of the best<br />
games released in recent years.<br />
Naturally, as it’s a sequel rather<br />
than a retelling of the story from<br />
the books, The Witcher III is able<br />
to take what it needs from the<br />
original stories and use those as a<br />
foundation for the story it wants<br />
to tell without being shackled by<br />
any pre-existing boundaries.<br />
Sapkowski’s books are some of<br />
the best fantasy literature written<br />
in the last 30 years and are also<br />
among my personal favourites<br />
within the genre. Fortunately<br />
the games have lived up to that<br />
high standard, not only staying<br />
faithful to the tone and style<br />
of the original novels, but also<br />
creating a gorgeous and enticing<br />
original story around the existing<br />
characters and world. It’s without<br />
question one of the best book to<br />
video game adaptations ever.
1.<br />
SUIKODEN II<br />
(BASED ON WATER MARGIN BY SHI NAI’AN)
I would guess that most people<br />
aren’t even aware of the fact<br />
that the entire Suikoden series<br />
is loosely based on a Chinese<br />
novel called Water Margin, from<br />
which the idea of the 108 Stars of<br />
Destiny that runs through the core<br />
of the entire Suikoden franchise<br />
comes from. The novels tell a<br />
story set during the Song dynasty<br />
(960-1279), about a group of 108<br />
outlaws that set up their own<br />
army and fight against a corrupt<br />
government.<br />
While the entire Suikoden series is<br />
at least loosely based on the novel<br />
Water Margin, the game I decided<br />
to pick here is Suikoden II. One<br />
of the many excellent JRPGs on<br />
the original PlayStation, Suikoden<br />
II differentiated itself from other<br />
games of its genre with its focus<br />
on political themes and warfare.<br />
While most other JRPGs usually<br />
go for a fairly fantastical approach<br />
with their stories and settings, the<br />
Suikoden series has generally felt<br />
more mature and grounded by<br />
comparison.<br />
In the end, Water Margin serves<br />
mostly as a thematic origin point<br />
for Suikoden II, providing many of<br />
the basic ideas running through<br />
the center of the game’s narrative,<br />
as well as serving as the main<br />
inspiration for the setting but not<br />
necessarily sharing characters or<br />
locations with it. In fact, as far as<br />
adaptations go, the first Suikoden<br />
is the closest to the original novel<br />
in terms of story, but Suikoden II<br />
is the better game, so it gets to<br />
top the list.<br />
There are of course countless other video games that have been adapted from books since the<br />
early 1970s, and there’s no way I could include all of them on a list of just ten, not to mention<br />
that I am probably not even aware of some such games even existing. So, if I happened to<br />
miss your favourite book-based video game for one reason or another, please share it in the<br />
comments below.<br />
By Taneli Palola
INTERVIEW BY PAUL MONOPOLI<br />
INTERVIEW:<br />
WITH CHILDREN<br />
The world of home-brew video games has become an explosion of ideas and concepts almost<br />
unheard of in triple A titles. Genres that have been long abandoned by developers continue to<br />
be represented by fans, bringing a variety of homages and new ideas to the table. One such<br />
game that fits into this mould is Children of the Night by Micromancers.
OF THE NIGHT<br />
A top down RPG, similar to the original<br />
Legend of Zelda games and Golden Axe<br />
Warrior has been released for the MSX.<br />
For those who are unfamiliar with it, the<br />
MSX computer line was an attempt at an<br />
industry standard back when Amstrad,<br />
Apple, Commodore and Sinclair were caught<br />
in a 4 way battle, along with all the other<br />
smaller companies. Microsoft developed the<br />
operating system for the computer line, with<br />
big names like Sony and Panasonic releasing<br />
their own versions of the hardware. Each had<br />
their own interpretations, though the core of<br />
each computer remained the same.<br />
continuing to support the system with their<br />
home-brew efforts. With that digression out<br />
of the way, let’s have a look at Children of<br />
the Night.<br />
The story begins with the resurrection<br />
of Count Vlad Dracul, an obvious spin<br />
in the Dracula mythos. Vlad has no idea<br />
why he was resurrected, though this just<br />
happened to occur at the same time a<br />
world-domination-desiring demon made<br />
his presence known. These 2 events must be<br />
related somehow, but it’s up to you to figure<br />
out how.<br />
The MSX computer line was huge in Japan,<br />
though the rest of the world did not appear<br />
to be as keen. Only Sony managed to<br />
break ground with their Hit Bit line of MSX<br />
computers, though only in certain territories.<br />
Some of the world’s favourite franchises were<br />
born on the MSX, including Bomberman and<br />
Metal Gear.<br />
Despite the relative unpopularity of the line<br />
there are die hard fans who are hard at work,<br />
Micromancers promise gorgeous music<br />
and a complex storyline in this new action<br />
RPG. Screenshots and video trailers show<br />
an absolutely gorgeous game that appears<br />
to have been developed with a lot of care<br />
and consideration. As any good video game<br />
journalist is prone to do, I flooded their<br />
inbox with a bunch of questions. Toni, from<br />
Micromancers, was a good enough to fill me<br />
in on the hows and whys of their home-brew<br />
developing process.
PM: Where did the idea of developing games for retro<br />
systems come from?<br />
At first it was about fulfilling the childhood dream of<br />
developing games for the machines I loved when I was a<br />
kid.<br />
However, after learning about these machines the motivation<br />
went to something different. Developing for retro computers<br />
gave me absolute control over my programs. I don’t have to<br />
depend on external libraries or development environments.<br />
I can build my own development environment.<br />
The feeling of control, knowing that everything that my<br />
program does (good or bad) is my responsibility and the<br />
challenge of fitting everything into very tight margins of<br />
memory and CPU power are my motivation now, and that<br />
is something that cannot be done in any modern computer<br />
or console.<br />
PM: Why develop games for the MSX and Colecovision?<br />
MSX was the computer I had when I was a kid. So developing<br />
for MSX was the natural step. It was the machine I knew and<br />
I loved.<br />
As for ColecoVision, I was almost unaware of its existence<br />
until 2015, when I was asked to port Caos Begins from MSX<br />
to ColecoVision. Then I saw that the hardware was almost<br />
identical to the MSX but the game base and the user’s<br />
interests were very different.<br />
That is precisely what motivated me to develop for the<br />
ColecoVision: being able to use the same skills I use to code<br />
for MSX but focusing on a very different type of user.
PM: Children of the Night is very Legend of Zelda-esque. What<br />
was the inspiration behind this title?<br />
I love RPGs and I have always wanted to make one myself. However,<br />
I wanted to make an RPG that could take advantage of the target<br />
machine (ColecoVision and, later, MSX).<br />
That meant that graphically I should avoid scrolling, since it is almost<br />
impossible to achive a nice scroll for an RPG on these machines,<br />
and that I should rely mostly on hardware sprites, since they make it<br />
possible to have lots of action.<br />
I searched different RPGs for ColecoVision and MSX. The ColecoVision<br />
barely has any RPGs, but MSX has lots of them. And among the RPGs<br />
for MSX I found that two of them actually had the features I was<br />
looking for: Golvellius and Bolfes (Borfesu and Five Evil Spirits).<br />
What I didn’t like about these two games is that story seemed to be too<br />
simple. So I created a complex storyline and decided to make a game<br />
much more story-driven. This combination is almost non existent on<br />
the MSX and doesn’t exist at all in the ColecoVision library. It is quite<br />
an original concept for these machines.<br />
As for Zelda, even though I like Zelda games I am not a huge fan of<br />
the franchise. So I guess that the similarities between Children of the<br />
Night and Zelda are mostly casual.<br />
Regarding the story of Children of the Night, I have always liked<br />
classic horror characters, especially Dracula, and I have read almost<br />
all of Lovecraft’s stories. I really loved the differences between the two<br />
styles. Whereas Dracula is a monster on a human scale (he hates and<br />
loves humans, he thinks like a human and he depends on humans to<br />
survive), Lovecraft stories are about powerful creatures that do not<br />
care about humans. So the idea of confronting them and making<br />
Dracula the paladin of humankind was really appealing.
PM: How much consideration goes into the<br />
specs of the computer you are developing<br />
for?<br />
PM: Do you develop games that you would<br />
like to play or that you know others will<br />
enjoy?<br />
As much as I can. I always try to make a game<br />
that fits in the target computer or console.<br />
For example, if there is no way to perform<br />
a decent scrolling, I will not do it. If the<br />
machine has hardware sprites I will use them<br />
over software sprites. If something cannot be<br />
achieved at 60fps I will not do it.<br />
I try to develop the games I would like to play.<br />
I think this is the only way to do good games.<br />
PM: Apart from Multiverse are there any<br />
other titles you are working on?<br />
Yes, but that’s a secret for now ;-)
I would like to thank Toni for the time taken to answer these questions. Information about<br />
Children of the Night and the upcoming action platformer, Multiverse, can be found at<br />
www.micromancers.com<br />
Interview conducted by<br />
Paul Monopoli
Evan Norris<br />
REVIEW NS:<br />
THIS WAR OF MINE<br />
Some games are easy to review—to<br />
characterize, label, dissect, and, ultimately,<br />
score. This War of Mine: Complete Edition,<br />
developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch<br />
and featuring all past and future content,<br />
is not one of those games. At its core,<br />
it’s a resource and people management<br />
sim, infused with some stealth action,<br />
but thematically it represents an anti-war<br />
dissertation that thrusts the civilian cost of<br />
war front and center.<br />
Judged solely as a work of art and an open<br />
dialogue on the debilitating, dehumanizing<br />
physical, emotional, and societal effects<br />
of military conflict—particularly urban<br />
sieges—This War of Mine: Complete Edition<br />
is extraordinary, unflinching, and, arguably,<br />
worth experiencing solely for its insight into<br />
the indignities of modern warfare. Evaluated<br />
only on its mechanics, technical merits,<br />
and gameplay loops, however, it’s merely<br />
adequate.
Inspired by the 1992-1996 Siege of Sarajevo,<br />
This War of Mine: Complete Edition follows<br />
several civilian survivors pulled from a pool<br />
of 21 playable characters (12 from the base<br />
game and nine more introduced in The<br />
Little Ones DLC). Stranded in a city under<br />
lockdown and facing persistent danger from<br />
disease, starvation, and physical violence, the<br />
survivors must make many difficult life-ordeath<br />
decisions to stay alive long enough to<br />
witness a ceasefire.<br />
The story in This War of Mine: Complete<br />
Edition is yours to write. Yes, the developers<br />
at 11 bit studios introduce a besieged<br />
city, a ramshackle house, and a group<br />
of characters—each with his or her own<br />
backstory, skill set, and disposition—but<br />
what’s done with these pieces is completely<br />
up to you. Will you invite a beleagured<br />
traveler to stay with you, adding a new mouth<br />
to feed but at the same time another warm<br />
body to keep watch against looters, or turn<br />
him away? Do you travel to a warehouse,<br />
rich in food and medicine but patrolled by<br />
armed bandits, or choose the path of less<br />
resistance (and less materials)? Do you spend<br />
rare resources to build a heater to keep your<br />
group warm during the winter or upgrade<br />
your work bench to gain access to new, useful<br />
tools? In a way, This War of Mine is a brilliant<br />
choose-your-own adventure game, which,<br />
along with permadeath, grants the game a<br />
roguish replayability.
You’ll probably be replaying<br />
This War of Mine a lot—if<br />
you can bear the gloomy<br />
graphics, relentlessly dour<br />
mood, and tedious micromanagement—in<br />
part<br />
because the game is so<br />
difficult and in part because<br />
of its wealth of playable<br />
characters, locations, moral<br />
choices, and accidental<br />
encounters. In fact, after<br />
your first randomized<br />
playthrough, the game allows<br />
you to choose from several<br />
starting sets of characters:<br />
the father-daughter duo<br />
of Christo and Iskra, the<br />
threesome of Bruno, Roman,<br />
and Arica, etc. Alternatively<br />
you can choose a random<br />
group or, in one of the<br />
best features of the game,<br />
create a specific, tailor-made<br />
adventure in “My Story.” Here<br />
you can choose up to four<br />
characters with whom to<br />
start, select the number of<br />
days until ceasefire, adjust<br />
the intensity of the conflict—<br />
”low” means neighbors often<br />
stick together, among other<br />
things, and “high” signals a<br />
much more dire situation—<br />
pick specific locations on the<br />
city map, and even modify<br />
the length and harshness of<br />
the winter.<br />
Whether you’ll return to<br />
the game again and again<br />
to witness every possible<br />
outcome and ending<br />
hinges on your response<br />
to its aggressively bleak<br />
atmosphere, fussy console<br />
controls, and monotonous<br />
simulation gameplay.<br />
Basically, This War of Mine<br />
is divided into two main<br />
spheres, each conducted in<br />
2.5D side-scrolling segments:<br />
1) the day, a Sims-like<br />
maintenance period during<br />
which players swap among<br />
survivors, reinforce their<br />
defenses, grow and cook<br />
food, treat wounds, and in<br />
general see to the long-term<br />
survival of the group; and<br />
2) the night, a stealth action<br />
phase where a designated<br />
survivor will scavenge<br />
for resources, sneak past<br />
soldiers, thugs, and other<br />
civilians, and sometimes
experience. Soon, however,<br />
everything devolves into busy<br />
work. By the end of your first<br />
fortnight in Pogoren—your<br />
characters’ fictional, vaguely-<br />
Eastern European city—you’ll<br />
have grown tired of herding<br />
survivors, watching meters fill,<br />
and grappling with the game’s<br />
plodding pace.<br />
engage in melee or gunbased<br />
combat. Each sphere<br />
has its own strengths and<br />
weaknesses.<br />
The day sequences<br />
represent the weaker<br />
half of This War of Mine.<br />
Here, during daylight<br />
hours, players will manage<br />
their human and material<br />
resources. Sick survivors<br />
must be medicated, tired<br />
survivors must sleep,<br />
depressed children<br />
(included in The Little Ones<br />
DLC, and bundled here in<br />
the Complete Edition) must<br />
receive attention and love.<br />
For a while, this time-based<br />
micro-management works.<br />
Raising little Iskra’s spirits<br />
with a game of Rock, Paper,<br />
Scissors or nursing a halfdead<br />
Cveta back to life is<br />
a meaningful, rewarding<br />
Things are far more dynamic<br />
once night falls on Pogoren.<br />
From an overhead map of<br />
the city, players choose a<br />
particular destination, labeled<br />
with the kinds of resources<br />
(and resistance) expected.<br />
Then it’s off to scavenge,<br />
trade, sneak, and, if you’re<br />
unscrupulous or desperate<br />
enough, rob, steal, and kill.<br />
While these midnight missions<br />
are more engaging and<br />
less languid than daytime<br />
episodes, they suffer from<br />
some fussy console controls.<br />
Players enter stealth simply<br />
by pressing gently on the<br />
left stick, but angle the stick<br />
ever so slightly and a slowmoving<br />
character breaks into<br />
a full sprint, alerting anyone<br />
within earshot. Maneuvering<br />
between levels, up and down<br />
stairs, and through doorways<br />
is equally finicky.
While these control issues are also present<br />
in daylight—you can’t assign a character to<br />
a job without moving him or her next to a<br />
specific station and then using the d-pad to<br />
select the desired task, thus making multitasking<br />
more difficult—at night, with survival<br />
decided in an instant, they’re especially<br />
noticeable. Essentially, this is a game that<br />
demands the precision of keyboard and<br />
mouse, stuck with imperfect analog controls.<br />
flourish: gentle pencil stroke animation in<br />
empty background areas. Sound design, like<br />
art direction, is more utilitarian than anything,<br />
although some strategically placed noises—a<br />
distant gunshot or a child softly crying—<br />
trigger an emotional reaction. Finally, 11 bit<br />
studios’ wartime simulation performs well,<br />
minus the odd glitch, like when a pill-popping<br />
animation loops without end (shut down and<br />
restart the game to fix the problem).<br />
This is the unfortunate reality of This War of<br />
Mine: while it’s thought-provoking, powerful,<br />
and subversive—don’t expect the kinds<br />
of binary moral decisions and war heroics<br />
typical of the medium—it’s simply not always<br />
fun to play.<br />
Since this is the Complete Edition, you can<br />
expect all of the add-on content released<br />
over the past four years. That includes the<br />
aforementioned The Little Ones; War Child,<br />
which includes unique street art pieces found<br />
in different areas within Pogoren; and Father’s<br />
Promise, a DLC campaign. The first of three<br />
story-driven campaigns (the second and third<br />
will be added for free), Father’s Promise is<br />
an interesting but ineffective departure from<br />
the standard This War of Mine formula. More<br />
scripted and linear, it undermines the chooseyour-own-adventure<br />
elements that make the<br />
game unpredictable and replayable.<br />
This War of Mine: Complete Edition is<br />
a challenging game to approach. As an<br />
anti-war treatise it’s provocative, edifying,<br />
and demanding. It will force you into<br />
uncomfortable, unwinnable situations and<br />
make you carry the weight of your actions—<br />
good, bad, and ugly. As a game, though,<br />
it’s only intermittently fun and rewarding.<br />
There are dozens of hours of content in<br />
this package, but much of it is depressing,<br />
dark, tedious, and clunky. In the end, This<br />
War of Mine is an important game, but not<br />
necessarily a good one.<br />
By Evan Norris<br />
Graphically, This War of Mine: Complete<br />
Edition is grayish and somber-looking, which<br />
is fitting for a game with such bleak subject<br />
matter. Although mostly monochromatic, the<br />
game does feature an enjoyable graphical<br />
6
YOUR Rex Hindrichs SAY<br />
REVIEW PS4:<br />
RED DEAD RE
DEMPTION 2
Few settings have as storied and well trodden<br />
a history as the Wild West. For as many<br />
movies, dime novels, and folk legends as it has<br />
generated over the years, there are relatively<br />
few games on the subject - let alone ones that<br />
do the era justice. The greatest contribution<br />
for some time has arguably been 2010’s Red<br />
Dead Redemption. Atmospheric, ambitious, and<br />
distinct, the waves it sent through the industry<br />
are still felt to this day. 8 years later, Rockstar<br />
Games has returned to the franchise to define<br />
the Western for the next console generation.<br />
What proceeds is an incredible production that<br />
can buckle under its own weight.<br />
Set at the turn of the 20th century, Red Dead<br />
Redemption 2 is a prequel chronicling the<br />
exploits of the Dutch Van der Linde gang. While<br />
the previous game’s protagonist is present, this<br />
time you wear the boots of Dutch’s grizzled and<br />
intimidating right hand man, Arthur Morgan.<br />
The West is not as wild as it once was and the<br />
heyday of the outlaw is coming to an end. With<br />
the law hot on their trail, can the gang pull off a<br />
big enough score to retire before they’re caught<br />
or killed?<br />
In classic Rockstar fashion, a massive sandbox<br />
is at your disposal to ride, punch, shoot, rob,<br />
hunt, and explore to your heart’s content.<br />
There’s an arsenal of weapons and equipment<br />
to unlock, towns full of shops to purvey and<br />
people to interact with, an entire ecosystem<br />
of wildlife to appreciate and slaughter,<br />
diverse elements and geography to navigate,<br />
and scores of story missions, side missions,<br />
challenges, and secrets to tackle. The wealth<br />
of substantial content on offer is staggering.<br />
What would be afterthoughts in other games<br />
are fully realized here and you could easily<br />
spend over a hundred hours in a single<br />
playthrough.<br />
For the scope of this game, the level of detail<br />
is second to none. Unfortunately this is one<br />
of the game’s double edged swords. Your<br />
weapons can be inspected, customized, and
upgraded, but maintaining and managing<br />
them can be a time consuming chore.<br />
Your horse can be similarly developed,<br />
customized, and bonded with, but more<br />
realistic limitations like summon ranges and<br />
permadeath can be a pain. The physical<br />
and nuanced animations are impressive,<br />
but can make the simple act of exploring<br />
a house harder than it needs to be.<br />
Survival elements like health, stamina, and<br />
temperature become yet more meters to<br />
monitor and fuss over. There are a hundred<br />
little details like these that, depending on<br />
your tastes, can immerse you that much<br />
deeper or just get in the way of the fun.
The game’s scope also inevitably results in a<br />
lack of polish in certain systems and design<br />
elements. The gunplay feels great when<br />
you’re blowing people away with a shotgun<br />
or nailing a long string of slow motion kills,<br />
but it still relies too heavily on an unengaging<br />
lock on system, and the cover system to go<br />
with it is stiff and problematic. Character and<br />
creature AI can create convincing moments<br />
or potentially fatal mishaps that you never<br />
intended. Glitches and bugs may cause you<br />
to lose progress or have to restart missions.<br />
The witness and bounty systems can feel<br />
broken and playing a black hatted scoundrel<br />
may be more trouble than it’s worth. These<br />
annoyances are easy to forgive in isolation,<br />
but when combined can create significant<br />
frustration.
While its gameplay can be inconsistent, Red<br />
Dead Redemption 2 absolutely nails its setting.<br />
Lush plains, dense forests, majestic mountains,<br />
teeming wildlife, towns of all speeds, people<br />
ordinary and strange, gorgeous lighting,<br />
subtle yet brilliant soundscapes, it all melds<br />
into the most comprehensive and convincing<br />
image of the mythical West the industry has<br />
seen yet - and by quite a wide margin. For all<br />
there is to see and do, the atmosphere of the<br />
place calls you to slow down, take your time,<br />
and soak it all in. It’s no accident we call these<br />
stories Westerns rather than cowboy games or<br />
anything else; the land is as much a character<br />
as any other.<br />
Speaking of characters, your gang is one of<br />
the true joys of this adventure. The motley<br />
crew you ride, camp, protect, and scheme<br />
with make for some of the most human<br />
companions ever put in a game. Talkative<br />
missions help you get to know each member<br />
better, but where they really come alive are<br />
in the humble moments back at camp. Quiet<br />
conversations, fireside music, drinking and<br />
games, working, sleeping, bickering, it all<br />
contributes to a sense of community you<br />
rarely find in other games and makes you care<br />
about your crew. The quality of the writing<br />
only takes this further. Rockstar has taken its<br />
storytelling to the next level with a mature and<br />
poetic tale full of development and drama. I<br />
can only hope it carries on into future works.<br />
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a gargantuan affair<br />
that can get a bit too swept up in its own<br />
grandeur. The Wild West has never felt more<br />
alive or immersive, but trimming some of<br />
the fat and spending that indulgence on the<br />
game’s weaker spots instead could have made<br />
it an even better experience for the player. In<br />
any case, landmark titles like this don’t come<br />
around often. This exceptional value should<br />
not be missed.<br />
By Rex Hindrichs<br />
8
Paul Broussard<br />
REVIEW PS4:<br />
FALLOUT 76<br />
As Bethesda’s attempt to bring multiplayer<br />
into one of its famous open world RPG<br />
series, Fallout 76 initially appeared to be<br />
an enigma. There was certainly potential<br />
for online interaction in an RPG, but<br />
questions immediately surrounded whether<br />
it could work and how well the core Fallout<br />
experience would make the transition.<br />
Unfortunately, the answer to those two<br />
questions were a definitive “no” and “not well<br />
at all.” Ironically, despite Bethesda designing<br />
the game with the intention of making it a<br />
more lively experience, Fallout 76 is one of<br />
the most lifeless games the company has<br />
ever produced.
YOUR SAY<br />
The story of Fallout 76 opens somewhat<br />
similarly to Fallout 3 or 4 in that you create<br />
your character, awaken in a bunker, and have<br />
to set out to explore the wasteland. The<br />
major difference is that, while 3 and 4 both<br />
fleshed your character’s past out a bit and<br />
gave them some tangible motivation to go<br />
exploring, 76 just opens the vault door at<br />
the start and assumes that the prospect of<br />
wandering around another post-apocalyptic<br />
landscape will be incentive enough.<br />
There’s no world building, no prologue, no<br />
backstory; just a quick cinematic of some<br />
guy in a suit talking about how cool vaults<br />
are before you’re tossed into the character<br />
creation screen and then shoved out the<br />
door.<br />
Perhaps this could have been abated had the<br />
world been interesting to explore, but 76’s<br />
has easily the blandest and least interesting<br />
world out of any of the 3D Fallout games.<br />
Despite being relatively colorful, especially<br />
compared to Fallout 3 or New Vegas, the<br />
world feels utterly lifeless and devoid of any<br />
charm. Much of this is due to the fact that<br />
NPC characters are virtually non-existent; the<br />
only “characters” that you’ll get to interact<br />
with in a way that doesn’t involve killing<br />
them are robots who give you quests in the<br />
blandest way possible.
It makes the world feel empty and pointless,<br />
which one could argue is the point of a post<br />
apocalyptic landscape, but previous Fallout<br />
games have managed to make the world<br />
feel largely deserted and hopeless while still<br />
providing interesting and quirky characters<br />
to interact with. That’s largely been their<br />
charm, and much of the reason to get<br />
invested in them.<br />
I suspect that this concession was made to<br />
help the multiplayer aspect run smoothly,<br />
as the engine in past 3D Fallout games had<br />
a notorious amount of trouble handling<br />
NPCs even without a bunch of people on<br />
the same server trying their hardest to<br />
break the game. But this simply was not<br />
a worthwhile concession, as without the<br />
various warring factions, dialogue trees, and<br />
quirky characters, Fallout is little more than<br />
just another first person shooter with survival<br />
elements.<br />
Nearly all quests are now just boring fetch<br />
quests where either a pre-recorded tape<br />
or a robot tells you to either obtain some<br />
piece of paper or check in on some person<br />
that’s gone missing, which almost always<br />
results in trudging across the map for 15 or<br />
so minutes, finding either paper or a corpse
depending on which type of quest it is, and<br />
then trudging all the way back to deliver<br />
the paper or the news. Again, the lack of<br />
characters torpedoes the fun factor, as one<br />
of the biggest incentives for performing<br />
quests in the past was to help further a<br />
relationship with an NPC, and that is entirely<br />
lacking when the most of a response you’ll<br />
get is a robotic “congratulations!”<br />
Combat remains mostly unchanged, albeit<br />
with a bit more of an emphasis on the<br />
“survival” side of things. The need to eat<br />
and drink from New Vegas’ hardcore mode<br />
returns, although food and drink are both<br />
so plentiful that you’ll almost never be in<br />
danger of running low. There’s a bigger<br />
focus on crafting weapons as well, which<br />
can be kind of interesting initially, but melee<br />
weapons all handle very similarly and it just<br />
feels like a chore after a while. Shooting<br />
is pretty much exactly the same as before;<br />
still serviceable and certainly preferable to<br />
the clunky melee combat, but never feeling<br />
totally right.
The only way to make this game moderately<br />
worth your time is playing with other<br />
players (preferably friends). To Bethesda’s<br />
credit, the actual multiplayer component is<br />
implemented pretty smoothly. When you<br />
join a game, you’ll be inserted into a random<br />
world with players already in it that you can<br />
ignore, join up with, or attack depending on<br />
what you feel like. The number of players<br />
in a world is pretty well balanced as well; I<br />
never really felt like I was swarmed by other<br />
players, but there was never a session where<br />
I didn’t at least encounter a couple too.<br />
The sheer gulf in levels can make finding<br />
ones worth teaming up with something of<br />
a challenge, however, and the lack of local<br />
multiplayer is a real missed opportunity for a<br />
game all about working with other players.<br />
While multiplayer can certainly alleviate<br />
some of the boredom that this game would<br />
otherwise bring, even at its best Fallout 76<br />
just doesn’t feel like a Fallout title. Oddly<br />
enough, enemies appear to still be balanced<br />
around a single player experience, which<br />
means that any time you’re with a group of<br />
other players everything just gets blasted<br />
into oblivion before a fight can really even<br />
begin.<br />
Trying to go on quests with other players<br />
(especially strangers) is just an exercise in<br />
annoyance, as people will inevitably get<br />
sidetracked and wind up either abandoning<br />
you or forcing you to wait for them. This<br />
problem is admittedly largely mediated when<br />
you’re playing with friends and not random<br />
wacky internet strangers, but even then<br />
quests aren’t engaging or fun, and whatever<br />
enjoyment exists usually comes from running<br />
into some poor soul along the way and<br />
killing them just to extract some enjoyment<br />
via schadenfreude.<br />
The one positive I can give the game is<br />
that I personally experienced fewer bugs<br />
and technical problems than in previous<br />
Fallout games. But that hardly feels like an<br />
accomplishment given that many bugs tend<br />
to come from friendly NPC interactions, and<br />
since the game has virtually no friendly NPCs<br />
at all it’s probably to be expected that the<br />
number of problems on that front would be<br />
cut down.<br />
Perhaps the best way to summarize Fallout<br />
76 would be with a quote from a tape found<br />
early in the game: “There used to be people<br />
here... but now there’s no one.” Fallout 76<br />
feels like Bethesda made a Fallout title, and<br />
then proceeded to take everything unique<br />
about the series out in favor of conceding<br />
to multiplayer. The series that I once<br />
loved is in here somewhere, but it’s been<br />
buried underneath a pile of annoyances,<br />
frustrations, and concessions made to make<br />
multiplayer possible.<br />
By Paul Broussard<br />
4
Jackson Newsome<br />
REVIEW ps4:)<br />
SPYRO REIGNITEd<br />
TRILOGY<br />
The Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a remaster<br />
in only the loosest sense of the word. This<br />
collection includes the first three titles of the<br />
eponymous dragon’s series, each one rebuilt<br />
and bolstered by Unreal Engine 4. While 2017’s<br />
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy established<br />
a new standard for remastering classic<br />
platformers, Toys for Bob raised the bar even<br />
higher with this release.<br />
For the uninitiated, the gameplay is<br />
straightforward. Collect gems, jump and<br />
glide around mostly linear levels, and defeat<br />
enemies along the way. Combat generally<br />
consists of two attack modes: charging<br />
or incinerating foes. These gameplay<br />
mechanics are all made easier with the<br />
modern availability of analog sticks. In<br />
short, controlling Spyro feels a little less stiff<br />
these days. Occasionally, players encounter<br />
variations of these mechanics, such as timed<br />
challenge runs or brief segments as a different<br />
character, but the formula is consistent.<br />
Complete enough brief levels and collect<br />
enough items to move on to the next world.<br />
This approach is successful thanks to the<br />
trilogy’s diverse settings and characters, as<br />
well as its steady increase in complexity.<br />
While enemies sometimes run from Spyro in<br />
the early levels of the games, they hold their<br />
ground and pose a more serious threat as<br />
you progress. It’s certainly a much easier ride<br />
than the early Crash Bandicoot titles, but there<br />
is sufficient challenge to stifle most gamers’<br />
boredom.
The first title in the trilogy, fittingly titled<br />
Spyro the Dragon, benefits most from the<br />
remaster treatment. Despite being a fine<br />
game in its original form, its more basic<br />
visual presentation and gameplay aged more<br />
rapidly than the sequels that followed. In fact,<br />
Toys for Bob redesigned some of the NPC<br />
designs to diversify the original title’s similarlooking<br />
character models. This work was in<br />
addition to other trilogy-wide enhancements,<br />
including updated voiceover work and the<br />
option to listen to a remastered version of<br />
the soundtracks. Overall, the sequels, Ripto’s<br />
Rage and Year of the Dragon, were already<br />
refined expansions of Spyro’s first adventure,<br />
and were must-play original PlayStation titles.<br />
They shine even brighter in this collection.
It’s difficult to find fault in the core elements<br />
of the remasters; the trilogy remains intact<br />
– for better or worse. Platformers of this era<br />
were often frustratingly limited in scope due<br />
to hardware and technical limitations. I can<br />
imagine modern gamers feeling disappointed<br />
as they frequently encounter invisible walls<br />
and quickly reach the edge of the games’<br />
small levels. In revisiting these games as an<br />
adult with limited free time, I truly valued<br />
that I could complete several levels within<br />
an hour. Its pick-up-and-play nature works<br />
to its benefit, and it’s easy to imagine a port<br />
to the Nintendo Switch, but I’m reluctant to<br />
raise my hopes on that front because this<br />
collection is wider in scope and boasts more<br />
impressive graphics and level design than the<br />
Crash remasters. Visually, the Spyro Reignited<br />
Trilogy can pass as a current generation title.<br />
I would be remiss to ignore fan backlash<br />
following the collection’s development<br />
shortcuts. It is disappointing that the<br />
development team did not prioritize<br />
accessibility and add subtitles to the<br />
cutscenes. Similarly, I understand fans’<br />
frustrations with the physical release, where<br />
the full collection is unavailable to play<br />
without downloading large<br />
updates. However, neither of<br />
these issues change the high<br />
quality of this production or<br />
diminished the fun I had in<br />
playing these blasts from<br />
the past. I recommend<br />
the collection without<br />
reservation despite<br />
these omissions.
Titling the collection as<br />
“Reignited” is apt, for each<br />
game is just as enjoyable, if<br />
not more so, than at the time<br />
of their original releases. It<br />
was wise to steer away from<br />
marketing the collection as a<br />
remaster because that label<br />
undercuts the developers’ level<br />
of dedication and investment<br />
in revitalizing these games.<br />
In fact, I have never played a<br />
remaster of this caliber. Toys<br />
for Bob accomplished a tough<br />
balancing act of honoring the<br />
past while updating the trilogy<br />
for modern audiences.<br />
Although gamers are right to<br />
be frustrated by the bungled<br />
physical release and limited<br />
accessibility options, fans of<br />
the series and newcomers alike<br />
will find something to love in<br />
Spyro’s first adventures. Spyro<br />
Reignited Trilogy is a tour of<br />
some of the platforming genre’s<br />
most important history and<br />
hopefully a sign of things to<br />
come.<br />
Welcome back, Spyro.<br />
By Jackson Newsome<br />
8
YOUR BEN DYE SAY<br />
REVIEW NS:<br />
SUPER MARIO P
ARTY<br />
Sometimes, it takes a dozen or so<br />
attempts to get something right.<br />
Other times, you may get something<br />
right early on, but whenever you try<br />
to repeat it each subsequent attempt<br />
is worse than the one before... until,<br />
perhaps, finally, you get it right again.<br />
Such is the case with Super Mario<br />
Party, which in my view is the most<br />
enjoyable Mario Party experience<br />
since Mario Party 3.<br />
Focusing on returning to what used<br />
to work, or as Norman Osborn from<br />
Spider-Man would say, “back to<br />
formula”, Super Mario Party ditches<br />
the features that plagued more recent<br />
entries in the long-running series and<br />
instead introduces new boards and,<br />
best of all of course, a whole slew of<br />
new mini-games.
Many of these mini-games make use of<br />
similar control functions to the Wii era,<br />
but with the advantage that the Joy-Cons<br />
are much more comfortable and easy-touse,<br />
especially when compared to a bulky<br />
Wii MotionPlus controller. My wife and<br />
I played without the attachment pieces<br />
(because we couldn’t find ours), which<br />
made things a little challenging at times,<br />
but we’ve gotten used to playing like this<br />
since the Snipperclips days.<br />
If you haven’t used the Joy-Cons in<br />
this manner before, then you’ll quickly<br />
need to adapt because, somewhat<br />
controversially, you’re forced to use the<br />
Joy-Cons in Super Mario Party. After<br />
a while it becomes clear why this is -<br />
some of the mini-games are brilliantly<br />
innovative and require you to make full<br />
use of the motion controls; something<br />
that would prove challenging to replicate<br />
with a regular control scheme.<br />
Interestingly the development team<br />
decided to divide the computercontrolled<br />
characters into different<br />
difficulty categories, so now certain<br />
characters are innately better at the<br />
game than others. Personally I wasn’t<br />
too bothered by this but if you were<br />
hoping to play against certain characters<br />
at a customisable difficulty level then<br />
you’re out of luck. As an aside, I’m still<br />
convinced that certain level 7 characters<br />
in Super Smash Bros. Melee were<br />
superior to level 9 characters and would<br />
beat the tar out of them, but I digress.<br />
Some of the 80 or so mini-games are<br />
naturally better than others, my favorite<br />
being ones like the sizzling steaks minigame,<br />
where you flip over meat you’re<br />
cooking with the Joy-Cons. I also really<br />
enjoyed ‘stake your claim’, which requires<br />
quick and instant decision making to<br />
determine which shapes are the biggest,<br />
followed by the hilarious and sudden<br />
realization of impending doom if you<br />
pick the wrong one.<br />
Visually it’s the best looking Mario Party<br />
game to-date, as one would expect, and<br />
Nintendo’s continues to demonstrate<br />
its excellence here. A strong art style is<br />
supported by a servicable soundtrack -<br />
it’s not on the same level as, say, Donkey<br />
Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, but it’s<br />
enjoyable enough.<br />
In terms of game modes Super Mario<br />
Party sports ‘Mario Party’, ‘Partner Party’,<br />
‘River Survival’, and some others that<br />
I don’t wish to spoil because they’re<br />
enjoyable to discover of your own<br />
accord. Of the ones I have listed the first<br />
two should be pretty self-explanatory for<br />
any Mario Party veterans, while the third<br />
introduces a fun cooperative way to play.
Mario Party is nothing if not all about<br />
friends and family having a good laugh<br />
together, and the mini-games in this<br />
entry do produce some good chuckles<br />
in my experience. Practice rounds<br />
continue to be provided prior to each<br />
mini-game, which makes the learning<br />
curve nice and easy, supplementing<br />
the pick-up-and-play nature of the<br />
game, and each person has to sign off<br />
when they feel they’re ready.<br />
When it comes to online - or ‘Online<br />
Mariothon’ as it’s called - Super Mario<br />
Party is also a blast. You play a handful<br />
of rotating mini-games with three<br />
other players and compete for a cup<br />
(think Mario Kart). You also receive<br />
stickers and trophies (bronze, silver,<br />
and gold), which you can collect,<br />
as well as some other goodies like<br />
leaderboards and statistics, which<br />
incentivise you to keep playing the<br />
game over the longer term. I did<br />
encounter some occasional lag though,<br />
which hampered the online experience<br />
(especially the mini-game where you<br />
have to dodge the fuzzies).<br />
Elsewhere little has been changed - the<br />
items and board functions are overly<br />
familiar, and the latter tend to be let<br />
down in general by being on the small<br />
side and not being terribly eventful.<br />
There also aren’t that many boards<br />
to begin with, so they can quickly<br />
become repetitive. But the one thing<br />
that does mix things up is the partner<br />
system. If you land on certain spaces<br />
you can collect a partner, which allows<br />
you to roll a different type of dice (a<br />
mixture of risk/reward), and also adds<br />
to the amount of your total roll. These<br />
partners will also help increase the<br />
odds of your winning the mini-games.<br />
On the whole it’s a fun inclusion - one<br />
that adds a certain amount of sheer,<br />
dumb luck that can be oh so useful<br />
when trying to win any Mario Party<br />
match.<br />
Nintendo did make some questionable<br />
decisions in designing Super Mario<br />
Party, but none of these quibbles<br />
detract too much from the fact that the<br />
mini-games themselves are incredibly<br />
fun (and, yes, often funny) to play.<br />
Online features and new game modes<br />
help to round out a very weighty minigame<br />
collection that could’ve been<br />
even better with just a little extra vision<br />
and effort on Nintendo’s part. In a way,<br />
Super Mario Party is like comfort food<br />
on a cold rainy Friday; it may not be<br />
as exciting as going out to eat but it’s<br />
sometimes just what you’re really in<br />
the mood for.<br />
By Ben Dye<br />
7
VG CHARTS REVIEW<br />
REVIEW NS:<br />
LEGO HARRY POTT<br />
The LEGO series has adapted a lot of<br />
popular intellectual properties—Star Wars,<br />
Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park—but perhaps<br />
none makes more sense with the series’<br />
gameplay conceits than Harry Potter (HP).<br />
After all, levitation and transfiguration, the<br />
staples of most LEGO games, are standard<br />
spells in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.<br />
So, it makes perfect sense that seventhgen<br />
systems saw two LEGO HP titles, which<br />
were subsequently bundled together and<br />
remastered on PS4, and finally ported to<br />
Xbox One and Switch. Overall, the bundle<br />
is a treat for the Potter faithful, although its<br />
family-friendly accessibility might turn some<br />
muggle heads—as long as they don’t expect<br />
gameplay that’s deep or demanding.
ER COLLECTION<br />
The HP Collection is split into its two original<br />
games, each available from a launcher<br />
menu. The first details the events of wizardin-training<br />
Harry Potter, from age 11-14,<br />
as he discovers his magic roots and starts<br />
sorcery lessons at Hogwarts, a boarding<br />
school for magic-users. The second game<br />
deals with Harry aged 15-17, when the<br />
demands of young adulthood and the rise of<br />
a malevolent dark wizard threaten to derail<br />
both his personal journey and the peaceful<br />
landscape of the wizarding world in general.
As with many of its LEGO games,<br />
developer TT Games captures these<br />
magical tales in a series of funny,<br />
flippant cut-scenes. Filled with injokes<br />
and sight gags, they’re a lot of<br />
fun. They’re also loyal to the source<br />
material—in this case the Warner<br />
Bros. movies, not the original novels.<br />
While this works well for players<br />
who’ve watched all eight movies (the<br />
seventh book was divided into two<br />
film installments, for those living<br />
under a rock since 2010), it’s counterproductive<br />
for those unaware of the<br />
main characters and minutiae of<br />
Harry Potter, Hogwarts, et al. Since<br />
the cut-scenes are wordless and bank<br />
on storyboards from the movies,<br />
the uninitiated will struggle to keep<br />
up. As a result, this collection is best<br />
consumed after watching the Harry<br />
Potter film canon.<br />
Both Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and<br />
Years 5-7 feature the same triedand-true,<br />
fool-proof LEGO gameplay:<br />
action-platforming, button-mashing<br />
combat, and light puzzle-solving.<br />
Each year at Hogwarts comes with<br />
its own sub-game, with six chapters<br />
united by a hub world—the interior<br />
and grounds of Hogwarts, the streets<br />
of London, or a combination of the<br />
two. Individual chapters typically<br />
find Harry and best friends Ron and<br />
Hermione learning spells, blasting<br />
bad guys, and transforming piles of<br />
loose LEGO bricks into something<br />
useful.<br />
The general gameplay works well<br />
enough—particularly for younger<br />
players and families—but falls on<br />
the shallow and simple side. Take<br />
the mechanics of Wingardium<br />
Leviosa, the most prominent spell<br />
in the game, for example. Harry<br />
or whichever playable character is<br />
controlled at the time will spot an<br />
item bathed in a purple glow. He’ll<br />
cycle through a spell wheel to pick<br />
Wingardium Leviosa, then hold down<br />
the A button, and the spell takes the<br />
purple item and moves or transforms<br />
it accordingly. A pile of sticks<br />
becomes a bridge, a barrel is turned<br />
upside down, etc. It’s simple and<br />
effective, but not terribly challenging<br />
or rewarding. Often gameplay in the<br />
Harry Potter Collection boils down to<br />
standing in the right place, selecting<br />
the right spell, and pressing A.
Now, of course, there are exceptions. Some<br />
puzzles require some outside-the-box<br />
thinking and a few boss fights test your<br />
dexterity and timing. A year three mini-boss<br />
fight against Harry’s Hogwarts nemesis<br />
Draco Malfoy, where Harry and Hermione<br />
must launch snowballs back at the sneering<br />
student, is especially good. There are also a<br />
handful of stages that break up the standard<br />
action-platforming bits, including a car<br />
escape toward the end of year two and a<br />
behind-the-back on-rails flying sequence at<br />
the onset of year five.<br />
These sequences, and everything else in the<br />
game, are playable with two people in local<br />
co-op (again, great for families). While this<br />
disrupts the traditional narrative—Harry<br />
should face the dragon from the Triwizard<br />
tournament alone, not with Hermione, for<br />
example—it makes the puzzle-solving and<br />
spell-casting a lot more fun. Be warned,
however: the HP Collection uses a diagonal<br />
split-screen set-up when the two co-op<br />
partners stray too far from another, resulting<br />
in some visual disorientation (WiiU, with its<br />
second screen, remains the best way to play<br />
local LEGO games).<br />
When not adventuring through adolescence<br />
or avoiding the apocalypse, Harry and<br />
friends can retire to the Leaky Cauldron, a<br />
tavern from which players can view videos,<br />
replay individual chapters—necessary to find<br />
all unlockable characters, collect all tokens,<br />
and achieve 100 percent completion—and<br />
access Diagon Alley. In the alley, there are<br />
several shops that sell new characters, spells<br />
(not essential to beating the game), cheats,<br />
and other items. At the back of Diagon Alley<br />
is the goblin bank of Gringotts, which hosts<br />
several bonus stages and a neat level editor<br />
mode. The HP Collection isn’t wanting for<br />
content or replay value, that’s for sure.<br />
Apart from its wealth of content—in<br />
addition to dozens of levels and hundreds<br />
of characters the compilation includes<br />
two DLC packs with new spells and new<br />
characters like Godric Gryffindor, Helga<br />
Hufflepuff, Peeves, Rowena Ravenclaw and<br />
Salazar Slytherin—the HP Collection offers<br />
enhanced graphics, environments, lighting,<br />
and visual effects. While these aren’t a<br />
quantum leap over the older HD console<br />
versions of Years 1-4 and 5-7, they’re<br />
certainly an improvement—particularly<br />
compared to the Wii, DS, and PSP variants.<br />
With a friendly approach to gaming, a warm<br />
sense of humor, and lots of content, the HP<br />
Collection is a good investment for younger<br />
and/or less accomplished gamers, or anyone<br />
who loves the Harry Potter IP. Shallow,<br />
undemanding gameplay will make it less<br />
attractive to experienced players.<br />
6<br />
By Evan Norris
Patrick Day-Childs<br />
REVIEW XONE:<br />
LEGO DC SUPER<br />
Traveller’s Tales has always managed to<br />
squeeze something fresh into its LEGO<br />
games, to one extent or another, but with<br />
LEGO DC Super-Villains I feel like this is<br />
the first time that the developer has really<br />
pushed the boat out in recent years.<br />
LEGO DC Super-Villains stands as a<br />
testament to what Traveller’s Tales can<br />
accomplish when it pours a little love into<br />
these franchised titles. With an interesting<br />
story, a wide array of characters, and some<br />
highly varied settings to explore, this is<br />
truly one of the strongest LEGO games<br />
I’ve played – and I’ve played a lot of LEGO<br />
games.<br />
It opens with a new villain - one that<br />
you create. On top of the usual array of<br />
customisation options you’re also able<br />
to give your villain different powers and<br />
have the ability to change how each power<br />
looks. These customisation options expand<br />
as you progress through the game, but<br />
you have a huge amount to fiddle with<br />
from the get-go. I had the joy of playing<br />
the game with my young son and he<br />
particularly enjoyed the customisation<br />
options, placing Parademon wings on his<br />
LEGO character “to make him look like<br />
grandad”.<br />
Referred to as the ‘rookie’, you embark on<br />
a quest with some other ne’er-do-wells<br />
to break out of prison. Your super power,<br />
as it turns out, is the ability to absorb<br />
other super powers (where have I seen<br />
that before?), making you one bad-ass<br />
menace. After a short crime spree the<br />
Justice League show up to ruin your fun,<br />
but they’re zapped away by the Justice<br />
Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice<br />
League from an alternate universe. It turns<br />
out that the latter are actually worse for<br />
our rag-tag squad of villains and so you<br />
find yourselves chasing after the actual<br />
heroes to try and save them.
-VILLANS
There are several twists and turns<br />
throughout the story that came as<br />
real surprises, and the level of writing<br />
is impressive, especially considering<br />
that the game is aimed to a young<br />
audience.<br />
Traveller’s Tales really managed to<br />
capture each cities’ own individual<br />
personality and key features, with the<br />
former being a light, vibrant city and<br />
the latter being a dark, miserable one.<br />
The narrative takes you across<br />
several varied locations - some dark<br />
and dingy, others full of life and<br />
energy - and it’s a genuine pleasure<br />
to explore each level. In terms of<br />
freeroam, the world is divided up into<br />
several sections, with the two major<br />
areas being Metropolis and Gotham.
Locations such as Smallville can be<br />
found too, and there are a bunch of<br />
side missions that require the use of<br />
lots of different villains, and plenty of<br />
light puzzles to keep you distracted.<br />
The races also make a return,<br />
along with a massive array of<br />
vehicles. DC fans will smile to<br />
see the likes of Red Hood’s<br />
motorbike pop up. One final<br />
thing that stood out to me in<br />
this title is that in multiplayer<br />
you can both set separate<br />
waypoints, allowing friends to<br />
head about doing their own<br />
thing during free roam. In terms of new<br />
gameplay elements, some characters<br />
can now call on henchmen to help them<br />
reach otherwise unattainable places,<br />
and there’s a tepid attempt to evolve the<br />
series’ platforming elements with the<br />
introduction of moving platforms and<br />
more challenging sequences, but on the<br />
whole it felt like Traveller’s Tales was too<br />
shy to really advance the formula.<br />
around like a marble and using gravity<br />
to reach your objective. These become<br />
more complex as you advance, with for<br />
example the introduction of ropes that<br />
you need to jump between, but to such<br />
an extent that it can feel a bit tedious.<br />
A lack of QA sometimes rears its head;<br />
I came across several glitches, some of<br />
which forced me to restart from previous<br />
checkpoints because characters became<br />
permanently stuck. But on the whole<br />
LEGO DC Super-Villains is a fun, polished<br />
gameplay experience.<br />
With over 150 characters to play through,<br />
200 gold bricks to collect, and a total of<br />
20 levels to work your way through, LEGO<br />
DC Super-Villains offers a huge amount<br />
of bang for its buck. If you’re a LEGO fan,<br />
or looking for that game to bond with<br />
your kids over this half term, then LEGO<br />
DC Super-Villains is ideal.<br />
By Patrick Day-Childs<br />
Other gameplay additions include mazes,<br />
where you use the shoulder buttons to<br />
spin a board, moving your character<br />
7
POP! INTO GAMETRADERS<br />
& GET THEM WHAT<br />
THEY REALLY WANT THIS<br />
CHRISTMAS!
FANTASTIC<br />
BEASTS 2<br />
POP! VINYLS!<br />
GET THEM NOW!<br />
Huge range available! Selected stores. Ask staff for details.
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DID YOU KNOW...<br />
Each Gametraders store have their own<br />
Facebook page! Want to ask your local store<br />
a question or keep up to date with their latest<br />
product releases? Check out their pages below!<br />
SOUTH AUSTRALIA<br />
Ingle Farm: facebook.com/gtinglefarm<br />
Salisbury: facebook.com/gtsalisbury<br />
Marion: facebook.com/gtmarion<br />
Seaford: facebook.com/gtseaford<br />
NEW SOUTH WALES:<br />
Blacktown: facebook.com/gametradersblacktown<br />
Macarthur Square: facebook.com/gametradersmacarthur<br />
Hornsby Live: facebook.com/GametradersHornsby<br />
Penrith Live: facebook.com/GametradersLivePenrith<br />
Parramatta: facebook.com/GametradersParramatta<br />
QUEENSLAND:<br />
Chermside: facebook.com/gtchermside<br />
Morayfield: facebook.com/GametradersMorayfield<br />
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY:<br />
Hyperdome: facebook.com/GametradersHyperdome
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FIND YOUR NEAREST STORE...<br />
South Australia<br />
Ingle Farm...............................................(08) 8265 7283<br />
Marion......................................................(08) 8296 1144<br />
Salisbury..................................................(08) 8281 0966<br />
Seaford.....................................................(08) 8327 1966<br />
ACT<br />
Hyperdome.............................................(02) 6293 3751<br />
New South Wales<br />
Gametraders <strong>LIVE</strong> Penrith.........(02) 4731 3894<br />
Blacktown................................. (02) 9676 1411<br />
Macarthur Square (Campbelltown) (02) 4620 0750<br />
Parramatta................................ (02) 9633 2833<br />
Gametraders <strong>LIVE</strong> Hornsby...............(02) 9477 6477<br />
For more info visit:<br />
www.gametraders.com.au<br />
Queensland<br />
Chermside...............................................(07) 3861 5000<br />
Morayfield...............................................(07) 5495 7705