Table of contents for Christmas 2015 in Gamesmaster

Our illustrious GamesMaster Game Of The Year Awards feature is here and, let me tell you, it was a tough one to pull together. I’m not just talking about the last 12 months of incredible gaming we had to siphon into a bandolier of brilliance over on p42 either… This month sees the fresh arrival of not one, not two, not three, but four contenders for the ultimate gaming gong. Our intrepid team of reviewers has pulled out all the stops to bring you verdicts on some ludicrously great games. Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Rise Of The Tomb Raider… all get scored this issue. We’ve also played plenty of corkers on the horizon for 2016, including Uncharted 4 and the increasingly impressive Overwatch, which scratches every online shooter itch…

Games should focus way less on story and way more on gameplay. Sure, they can’t just launch you into a warzone without any set up, but they can give a quick “kill the bad guy” or “blow up the enemy’s base” rather than drawn-out cutscenes. Games like DayZ do this perfectly – they just drop you straight in. I played Dying Light recently, and while it is a fun game, the story and the characters made me turn on it. At the start you get bitten by a zombie, and one of your symptoms seems to be having seizures at points convenient to the plot, apparently – it’s just annoying. Too often, narratives are full of predictable twists and deaths. Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare for example – you could…

2h 10m The length of time it took YouTube user 8-Bit B*****d to complete a leisurely stroll from one end of Skyrim’s map to the other. 1h 55m The period of time it took the same Youtuber to walk the entire length of San Andreas and Blaine County in Grand Theft Auto V. 2h 1m How long it took 8-Bit B******d to complete a nice little hike, hop, and swim from The Skellige Isles to White Orchard in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. 41m One more from the rudely-monikered Youtuber: this is the time spent wandering from end to irradiated end of the Commonwealth in Fallout 4.…

BACK CATALOGUE Microsoft has pulled the lever marked ‘Xbox 360 backwards compatibility’ in its Redmond HQ, pushing out an update to Xbox One owners that enables players to spin up their dusty discs and digital downloads on newer hardware. 104 games from the last-gen console made the cut, including Mirror’s Edge, Fable 2, and the Gears Of War series. BIG TEAM’S BACK Warzone may be a crowd-pleasing addition to the Halo formula, but the AI combatants and requisition drops of its 24 player matchups don’t capture the same pure thrills of classic Big Team Battle. Fortunately, 343 agrees, and the Halo custodian has added the venerable playlist to Halo 5. Result! LINKLE’S AWAKENING Hyrule Warriors Legends, the 3DS incarnation of last year’s Dynasty Warriors-esque Wii U hit, will include a…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Guerrilla Games ETA Autumn 2016 Wuerrilla was a little cheeky with its latest showing of the robo-saur infested post-apocalypse, playing a reworked version of its last demo. But while the setup is the same, it does start to show off some of the variety the studio wants to get in the game. Like before, we see Aloy – courageous cavewoman of the future – hunting grazing robot deer to harvest the bio-energy canisters on their backs, but this time we spot a different approach. Originally, she snuck up through the bushes, stealthily killing a patrolling droid before unleashing a salvo of explosive arrows, hoping to knock as many canisters as possible loose before the machines scattered. This time she tries something a little… smarter. While…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Blizzard Developer Blizzard ETA Spring 2016 It’s genuinely tough to pick a character for your first match in Blizzard’s Team Fortress 2-tackling, MOBA-aping first-person shooter. Chunky, Pixar-esque models, coupled with around a billion tiny innovations across the cast of 21 gloriously personality-bedecked goodies and baddies, make the choice tantalisingly difficult. But whichever you pick, you’ll find fun on the other side. Even though there has, by necessity, been intense focus on balance – making sure the various combinations of heroes amassing for a shootout feel consistent and fair – Blizzard has done a fantastic job of hiding all of this stat-laden busywork behind an appreciable facade of perk and vim, ripped right out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Disco inferno All of the above is…

Format PS4, XO, PC Developer Gearbox Software Publisher 2K Games ETA 3 May Gearbox’s biggest challenge lies in balancing this character-stuffed competitive, co-op, and solo shooter. With 25 currently and more to come, each a far-future warrior armed with magic and technology, it’ll be a tough job. During our hands-on of Capture, which sees two five-person teams fight to hold three bases and reach 1000 points first, we discover our first mismatch. As melee dwarf Boldur, telekinetic aristocrat Phoebe keeps peppering us with attacks, then floating off easily when pursued. More than a little annoying. Balance is of principal concern for Battleborn’s creative director Randy Varnell. “In a game with so many builds and so many characters, it surprised us all the time, even in Gearbox with our limited pool…

Format PS4, XO, PC Publisher Bandai Namco Developer From Software ETA 12 April 2016 Death has always been the focus of From’s iconic series. Usually it’s you who does all the expiring, but this time the world itself feels fragile; an ashen, tired fire, on the point of expiring. Not that it changes the usual mantra: if at first you don’t succeed, die and die again. As ever, you don’t have to face your fate alone. Multiplayer is more like Bloodborne, letting you set passwords to team up with a specific player. We play a version specifically for testing online capabilities, and the world is busy with other players – after being summoned to one world, we have four PvP encounters in the space of 10 minutes. Player scraps feel…

Format PS4, PC Pub Sony Dev Ninja Theory ETA Autumn 2016 It’s not often that bloodsoaked brawlers concern themselves with authenticity, but Ninja Theory’s latest aims for psychological verisimilitude in its depiction of a Celtic warrior working through the trauma of a violent Viking invasion. The hellish landscapes and monstrous enemies, then, are projections of psychosis, and the studio has consulted with academics and charities in a bid to ensure accuracy in its portrayal of mental illness. Doesn’t sound like your jam? Fret not. There are great big swords to swing too.…

Format PS4, PC, Mobile Pub Sony Dev Thekla Inc ETA 26 January 2016 Jonathan Blow has at last announced a release date for his anticipated puzzler, confirming a January launch to the tune of jaunty violins in newly-released gameplay footage. Blow and co are now hard at work bashing bugs and making carefully-calibrated tweaks, but the developer claims that the game has ballooned in size from a paltry eight-hour playtime to an experience that will take dozens of hours to defeat. Perhaps you’d best book some January vacation time to make the most of this contemplative island getaway.…

Welcome back to the most prestigious event in the GM calendar : our annual ceremony to celebrate the very finest achievements in the last 12 months of videogaming. First, raise a glass of your chosen beverage as we count down to our most illustrious prize, the GamesMaster Game Of The Year. A little housekeeping: the criteria for entry is that all games must have launched in the last 12 months. Also, they aren’t ranked by review scores, rather through heated discussions between the GM team and our band of merry critics. Disagree? That’s OK, we forgive you. Feel free to let us know why!…

Format PS4, XO, PC, 360 Developer Crystal Dynamics Publisher Square Enix Watch out, Nathan Drake. At the rate Lara’s rebooted adventures are improving, she may have usurped your crown by the time Crystal Dynamics takes on a third Raider. This latest entry is one of the year’s most exhilarating adventures, with a renewed emphasis on exploring the unknown and battling some seriously ticked off wildlife that helps recapture the spirit of her PS1 classic . The game’s rejigged setting also helps amp up excitement . Croft’s Siberian playground is as deftly designed as it is dangerous. Whether it’s using broadside arrows to climb frost-covered cliffs, or swimming around sprawling subterranean challenge tombs, the environment synchs up perfectly with your heroine’s excellent puzzle and platforming skills. The latter is one area…

Format PS4, XO, PS3, 360 Developer Bungie Publisher Activision Bungie’s shooter-RPG didn’t have the best start. For a year, it left players to feel their way through a bewildering endgame where you fought the random loot table as much as any aliens, and ignored its hollow story. The Taken King smashes those problems to dust like a comet, while leaving intact the excellent gunplay that’s kept the game in disc trays since 2014. The solution was overhauling the mystifying Light stat, which both measures and gates your progress, so that every gear drop potentially matters. Now your ascent up Destiny’s formerly intractable progression curve is slow but steady. Most nights of play yield either a er item, or at least one good enough to feed to your favourite armour or…

UNDERTALE 25th December. 8:33am. Does your bleary-eyed other half receive underwear – making everyone else in the room blush – or the far-less-likely-to-shock-the-family Undertale? It’s a no-brainer. This is a wonderful love letter to JRPGs, and its soundtrack is a bonus gift that keeps on giving. VOLUME Mike Bithell’s stealth-a-thon means a different kind of Christmas stalking for the indie-game fiend in your family. It’s also an ideal way to block out the sounds of what happens when your egg-nogged siblings find the Singstar microphones that they haven’t touched since last year. Headset engaged. PLAGUE INC EVOLVED Give some perspective to a friend struck down with the winter vomiting bug. At least it isn’t a virulent bacteria that spreads through the air and liquefies all your organs. And killing the…

As you battle the dastardly Blighters gang throughout London’s different districts, you’re given the chance to build your own club of cheeky thugs by spending your hard-earned pounds. A bit of cash spent will make your Rooks much better fighters – useful when waging war for control of a borough in massive street fights. Recruited gang members can also be used to distract (read: punch and kick) police and guards.…

Ms Croft can now master ancient languages as part of her sprawling buffet of side objectives. Finding murals scattered across the environment improves her translation abilities when it comes to deciphering ancient Greek and other tongues. As these skills improve, you’re able to make her translate hidden monoliths, which grant a whole heap of extra XP. Collectable Byzantine coins can also be found in sneaky hiding spots, then spent on fancy weapons and alternate outfits, further ensuring there’s always something new to discover in this bitingly chilly tundra.…

Despite outward appearances, this isn’t just one gigantic single-player experience. You can also team up with up to four other players online, form a party with your friends, or go out adventuring with other choice warriors you’ve befriended on previous excursions. Servers weren’t active before we went to press, but its multiplayer excursions promise to be a huge treat. Squad missions see you tackling dangerous monsters, but Global Nemesis Battles will likely draw the most attention. These special monsters are essentially giant boss fights, offering up rare items to those brave enough to take them down – but if you take too long to defeat one, it will run away.…

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher EA Developer DICE ETA Out now Players 1-40 First, the really good news: this multiplayer FPS is, without doubt, the most accurate recreation of George Lucas’ legendary sci-fi franchise in videogame form. Playing it is – no exaggeration – like living out countless childhood fantasies. For the most part, Star Wars Battlefront precisely mirrors the original film trilogy, from the look and feel of key locations such as Endor and Hoth, right down to minute details like the cockpit of an X-Wing or the noise an E-11 blaster makes when you fire it in the direction of some Rebel scum. However, while the movies have a near-endless watchability, even the most perfect depiction of Star Wars can’t capture that same enduring appeal. In other…

1 Rick Dangerous (PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, CPC, Spectrum – 1989) If you thought Lara’s escapades borrowed a wee bit brazenly from Mr Jones, her fedora-wearing predecessor tackled temples, boulders, Nazis… and legendarily harsh flip-screen platform action. To be fair, contrasting comical Biffa Bacon sprites and a gauntlet of murderous memorisation did give the game its own identity, remembered with fondness and shuddering masochism alike. 2 Chuck Rock (PC, CD32, Mega-CD, SNES, Game Gear, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Master System, Amiga, Atari ST, C64 – 1991) Core was all about the 16-bits by this point, but its belly-bashing, boulder-bunging caveman still hit just about every system from Game Boy to Acorn Archimedes. No major gameplay surprises, but another win for personality and platforming prowess. A half-naked, gawping hero with…

This month: Alex Horbury, email “My collection is currently at 300+ games over many systems, and as you can see, I have a thing for RPGs – I dread to think how many hours I’ve put into this lot over the years! Keep up the great work with the mag, I’ve been with you since issue one when I was 12 years old!” Always great to hear from such a loyal fan! And we’re impressed with your collection – editor Matt has a jealous gleam in his eye as he looks over your Japanese classics… If you’ve got a treasure trove to rival Alex’s, why not send us a pic?…

MANIAC OF THE MONTH! There should be a mandatory two year gap between sequels – companies could fill the gap with new IPs! Adamski, @amazingdweezo What is Sega planning for next year? It will be Sonic’s 25th birthday! (Wow, that makes me feel old…) Does the GameMaster team know anything? Daniel Reid, Facebook Probably going to regret saying this, but I’m very charmed by the explosive handsomeness of GamesMaster magazine’s prod ed Robin Valentine… RedLine Alex, @MisterRedLine No Man’s Sky… I’m expecting to get lost in that for years. Alex Shute, Facebook I think Kojima will make an invisibility suit for himself and secretly develop Metal Gear Solid VI: The Retirement Home. Daniel Climo, Facebook Why hasn’t a sequel been made to Second Sight on the GameCube? I loved all…

Oi! What are you doing reading my diary? Thinking about it, why did I send it to a widely-read magazine for publication? Hopefully GamesMaster edits out all my dark secrets and keeps the bits about Halo 5’s multiplayer which, since my campaign-only review last issue, I’ve spent ages playing in my underwear. [Note to editors: leave in that part as it makes me seem relatable.] FIRST CONTACT Warzone brings Halo’s biggest battles to date, and features up to 24 players clashing in purpose-built maps. This isn’t as anarchic as it sounds, but a directed experience with evolving objectives, in which the winner is first to 1000 points. My team embarks on Apex 7’s sunny shores from roaring dropships before swarming a gang of AI-controlled Covenant in a scene recalling Halo’s…

Geralt took the Game Of The Year gong at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards, as part of a grand knees-up at London’s O2 Arena. Superhero brawler Batman: Arkham Knight and episodic hipster-sim Life Is Strange walked away with the second and third prizes respectively, in the only annual awards show decided by gamers. More than nine million dedicated fans cast their votes, propelling The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to a staggering total of five trophies, including Best Storytelling, and Best Gaming Moment for its memorable Bloody Baron quest. Rockstar also had a fine showing, hauling off a total of four awards for Grand Theft Auto V, including Best Multiplayer and Innovation Of The Year for the introduction of its spiffy first-person mode. Prize and shine Bloodborne slinked back into the…

SKELL YEAH The unbelievably huge Xenoblade Chronicles X is here to fill up all your holiday free time. SANTA GABEY No guarantees, but this time last year was the start of the Steam Christmas Sale. Just sayin’… DARK SOLSTICE It’s the shortest day of the year, and you know what that means – a long old night of gaming. XP BOOST Time for some tasty Sony announcements at the second ever PlayStation Experience. PRESENT DAY Christmas Day is here! Time to see what shiny videogames Santa’s brought you. HAM IT UP Head to the Birmingham NEC for a weekend of gaming as Insomnia56 kicks off today. YULE LOGIN Get your +1 Snowball Of The Tiger ready for World Of Warcraft’s Winter Veil celebrations. ISH LIST We count down the 100…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Hello Games ETA June 2016 We have a date! After months of speculation – and a quickly killed rumour of a stealth release this month – we finally know when we’ll get to take off and explore No Man’s Sky’s 18 quintillion (that’s 30 digits!) planets: June of next year. That might seem ages away, but as Hello’s Sean Murray points out, “we get one shot to make this game, and we can’t mess it up” – and with a game reaching for heights like these, we’re ok with cutting them a little slack. The announcement’s joined by some exciting new footage, reaffirming the game’s ambition with a spot of epic narration from none other than sci-fi cinema legend Rutger Hauer.…

Format PS4 Publisher Bandai Namco Developer Bandai Namco ETA 2016 The ninth entry in this long-running fighting game series (counting the two Tag Tournament games) will soon rising uppercut its way from Japanese arcades and onto worldwide PS4s. Though it was always going to make the move onto home consoles eventually, this is still especially exciting news for fans, who’ll be cruising for a bruising in fine fettle from early 2016. Xbox One owners, fear not. Although the big announcement came via a Sony conference, there’s been no news of full exclusivity, so chances are we’ll get versions for other consoles, including XO, in good time. It looks like PS4 will get some unique content, however. As anyone au fait with Tekken will know, the Mishima clan followed by much…

Format PS4, PC Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ETA 16 February 2016 There’s not much time, so let’s get to it: since we last talked, Street Fighter V has a) even more beards and b) a narrative-driven tutorial. It’s also shaping up to be the most immediate entry in years. We’re horribly obsessed. Combos are easier than ever to execute, but the timing is tight enough that you don’t always get it right: it’s amazing when you do, inspiring when you don’t. Clever tweaks, such as Mika’s ability to buff her moves with a mic promo, can be chained into further blows in ways you’ll spend months discovering. Crisp combos and intelligent strategies emerge even if your standard Street Fighter approach is to learn one special and spam it until your…

Format PS4, PC, PS Vita Pub Double Fine Dev Double Fine ETA Spring 2016 Double Fine is plundering its founder’s mammoth back-catalogue once again, wheeling out Tim Schafer’s adventure game classic for the HD beautification treatment. The beloved tale of three time-travelling teens – originally released in 1993 as the sequel to Maniac Mansion – has been updated with hand-drawn art, remastered sound, and a new audio commentary recorded by a gaggle of the original creators. Other tweaks include the addition of a swanky verb dial for those who don’t want to fiddle and fuss with a box of commands. Nostalgists and purists can breathe a sigh of relief, however, as all of these changes are optional. Much like the remakes of Grim Fandango and Monkey Island, you’ll be able…

Format PS4, PS3, PS Vita Pub Atlus Dev Vanillaware ETA Summer 2016 This PS2 curio looked the business on release in 2008, and now Vanillaware is giving it an HD polish, the halls of Valhalla are looking shinier than ever. Odin Sphere offers a Japanese take on Norse mythology, a crisp 2D fighting system, and a brilliantly bonkers mechanic in which you plant seeds and water them with the souls of your vanquished foes. If the promise of playing a beautiful botanical brawler as Odin’s daughter doesn’t get you excited, then perhaps nothing ever will.…

Format PS4, XO, PC Developer Bethesda Game Studios Publisher Bethesda Softworks Bethesda’s latest may be a sprawling RPG adventure, but it’s also a celebration of carefully-engineered serendipity, jam-packed with precisely-designed moments draped in the outward appearance of happy accident . One minute you’re wandering the Commonwealth on the way to your next mission; the next, you’re donning the costume of TV vigilante the Silver Shroud and dispensing corny quips and tommy gun justice to raider thugs in a wonderfully bonkers, and totally optional, sidequest. The wasteland seems to hide these skewed little stories under every crumbling hi way and dilapidated roof, chunks of wonderful hidden narrative made all the more special for their lack of signposting. And playing through these chance encounters has never felt better, thanks to improvements to…

Format PS4 Developer From Software Publisher Sony An army of Souls fans flocked to this, the first game since Dark Souls to have the influential director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, at the helm. It’s a much more action-orientated affair, with shields given only a cursory inclusion as an in-joke for series vets, and the expectation that players will leap face-first into fights rather than backing off slowly and cowering in a corner. And it works. Gloriously so. Action flows at an intense pace, almost, at times, at the very brink of our pitiful human minds’ ability to even perceive or react. Its collection of boss fights, from the tragic Father Gascoigne to the crushing, breathless battles with the three Shadows Of Yharnam, is instantly memorable, and tantalising in its escalating challenge. Well,…

2016’S ONE TO WATCH Firewatch Recognise this? That’s right, it’s the same winner as last year! It turns out Campo Santo’s inticing, story-led forest fire prevention adventure will take just a little longer in the oven. With a similarly tactile world to that found in Soma, Firewatch looks to pack a David Fincher-esque thriller quality alongside lush visuals. MOST SMASHED PADS Rom, The Vacuous Spider Oh, you eight-legged bum cleft, how we hate you so. With a huge plasmatic attack which forced us into baby spider swarming range, this mid-game boss encounter from Bloodborne had all the haemiglobin in our systems boiling over with fury. Until it was eventually be ed, providing the biggest euphoria rush of the year. BIGGEST DISAPPOINTM ENT Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 It was a…

Stories is an action-RPG set in a vibrant fairytale universe, filled with floating islands, airships, and flamboyant, colorful magic. Our hero is Reynardo the Fox, a sky corsair in a bit of a bind. He’s a clever rogue, but he’s not as clever as he thinks. He’s got himself sucked into a rebellion against a mad emperor, and now he’s got fateful choices to make. Should he rescue his oldest friend, the shiftless Lapino? Wield a gem cursed by a dead god? Or resurrect a weapon lost at the beginning of time? Worse, he’s still in love with the emperor’s adopted daughter, who he met in Sword Fu school. He’s got dozens of ways to screw this up; but can he find a way to win his war? Reynardo fights…

Format PS4 (reviewed), XO, PC Publisher EA Developer Ghost Games ETA Out now Players 1-8 Ghost Games’ franchise reboot represents a fresh start for a series that has been tweaked, modified, occasionally dented, and pulled violently in as many different directions as the cars at its core. This latest game attempts to pull together the best elements from many of the entries that preceded it, but the main focus is on rekindling those magical Underground days, and celebrating street car culture. On that front it’s succeeded, but at a cost. The Swedish studio was also responsible for the ambitious but flawed Need For Speed: Rivals – an open-world, online looker that riffed on Criterion’s Hot Pursuit entries and introduced a brilliant risk/ reward mechanic tied to cop baiting, but also…

There’s more here than shooting enemies, and smashing your Tie Fighter into canyon walls. These are the goodies you get to mess around with when not in the middle of a shootout session. 1 Character variants are great. Rebels have different species to unlock, Imperials have different Stormtroopers. 2 There are plenty of emotes to play with too. You can equip three at once, all mapped to the d-pad. 3 The variety of blasters is quite poor. While there are differences in stats, most feel and perform similarly. 4 Star Cards offer minor buffs, and you can create specific ‘hands’ (loadouts, then) before each match. 5 Achieving milestones unlocks items you can place in a special diorama. Pretty pointless, but it’s literally there.…

1 GUILD WARS 2: HEART OF THORNS PC If you know me at all, you’ll know that it was pretty much a given that I’d be planting my tendrils into this. Legendary weapon: here I come. Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman, Editor 2 DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING PS4 Yep, I’ve finally caught the bug. I even got through a bit of the raid! Though everyone did have to wait hours for me to do that platforming section… Robin Valentine, Production Editor 3 ASSASSIN’S CREED SYNDICATE XO I’ve not played an Assassin’s game since ACII, and I’m hooked! The environmental realism and intiriguing side-quests are superb, despite the iffy combat. Sam Freeman, Art Editor 4 THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT PS4 After its sweeping victory in our awards, I had to leap back in.…

1 Enjoy one of the purest games in the series, before exhaustion left later PlayStation 1 entries languishing as Raiders of the lost spark. 2 No hint of stuff being cut to hit a deadline, with 15 sprawling levels taking in four ancient worlds. Plus a bit of chill time at Lara’s cosy flat (i.e. massive mansion). 3 Revel in unprecedented freedom of movement. Run, roll, flip, shove, ledge grab, swan dive, shimmy, and do handstands. Handstands! 4 Medipacks, weapons, and ammo stashed off the beaten track to keep you alert and locked into acrobatic explorer mode. 5 That moment with the T-Rex lurching around a corner in Peru’s Lost Valley. So memorable that it’s now illegal to discuss Tomb Raider without mentioning it.…

TRAINING DAY The world’s first Pokémon Gym has opened up in Osaka to let budding trainers do their thing. Amongst a slew of attractions, you can take on Charizard in a ‘Battle Colosseum’ and earn special Pokémon for X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, and Omega Ruby. STAGE FRIGHT What has Resi been missing all these years? Yes, a musical. A production of Biohazard The Stage is now running in Roppongi, which incorporates fully-choreographed zombie dancing. Head to the official Twitter @Bio_stage to see some enthusiastic rehearsal photos. NOM-TENDO To celebrate Mario’s 30th year, department store Takashimaya is selling New Year food in Nintendo-themed bento boxes. Priced at 27,000 yen (£149!) the set comes with official Ninty cards. International shipping isn’t available, sadly.…

The GM Christmas issue comes but once a year, and company guidelines insist that it should be a volume of goodwill and cheer. Unfortunately, we’re down on our cheer quota this year, so we’ve resorted to padding out the back page with that most prestigious brand of comedy: the Christmas cracker joke. So sit yourself down under the mistletoe with a bowl of figgy pudding and a glass of tepid Baileys to enjoy our handpicked selection of yuletide gaming gags. Guaranteed to make you laugh like an especially festive drain. Or, more likely, groan with seasonal despair. Happy holidays! Q What do you call a tongue-tied Ryo Hazuki? A A Shenmute Q What’s City 17’s leading investment bank? A Freeman Brothers Q Why wouldn’t the Super Mutant ride the rollercoaster?…

Extra-dimensional Paying more to play a game you already bought has become the norm for most gamers. Extra levels, characters… beards. Usually I don’t mind it, when it’s just an option, but Lego Dimensions makes me feel awful while I play, showing constant in-game adverts for all its add-ons – and it’s a parent’s nightmare. It’s a shame that this money-grabbing attitude to game design is becoming more and more popular. I for one will not be caught up in the hype any longer – even with Ghostbusters Lego coming out… Stuart Gregory , email We almost fell out of our chairs when we first saw how much it costs to get everything in Lego Dimensions – over £300! Of course, you do get real toys with your DLC there,…

1 UNCHARTED 4 Format PS4 ETA 18 March 2016 Looks like you’re head over heels for Nathan Drake this month. We get it – he’s dreamier than ever. 2 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Format Wii U ETA 2016 Nintendo’s conspicuous silence on this open world adventure clearly hasn’t dampened your excitement. 3 NO MAN’S SKY Format PS4, PC ETA June 2016 Following a shiny Paris Games Week trailer, your space faring fervour is reaching fever pitch. Let us at it! 4 THE DIVISION Format PS4, XO, PC ETA 8 March 2016 You do love a good post-apocalypse, don’t you? And here’s one you’ll be able to enjoy with your mates by your side. 5 HITMAN Format PS4, XO, PC ETA 11 March 2016 Some mags might be a little worried…

David Cage, the gallic auteur responsible for Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, has unveiled his latest foray into interactive storytelling as part of Sony’s showing at Paris Games Week. Set in a near-future Motor City in which androids are an omnipresent but oppressed underclass, Detroit: Become Human stars a factory-fresh automaton who grapples with her desire to be more than simply a servile machine. In typically ambitious fashion, Cage plans to interrogate “what it means to be human”. He was far from the only developer to lift the lid on a project at the event. Following its announcement at E3, Square Enix has properly unveiled Nier: Automata. Although this sequel picks up the narrative strands and RPG elements of its predecessor, the action heritage of new series custodian Platinum…

MATT’S PICK... Gravity Rush 2 Sony Japan’s 2012 original was, in my humble opinion, one of the best and most original games on PS Vita. (And remains so, three years on.) All new gravity mechanics sound great, but for me it’s going to be the return to that visually unique world, the belly tickling sense of vertigo, and totally inimitable combat systems which ensure I’m still on board. PS4 – Summer 2016 ROBIN’S PICK... Horizon: Hero Dawn Maybe it’s just its robot-infested post-apocalyptic wilderness triggering fond memories of Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, but I’m really excited for this open-world adventure. Recent footage has suggested a strong RPG bent, which is right up my street, and damn those are the coolest looking robot dinosaurs ever to grace a videogame. PS4…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Naughty Dog ETA March 2016 It’s hard to miss Naughty Dog’s big new ideas for this latest entry’s multiplayer when Nate summons a nine-foot ghost-emitting gold statue, and Elena bursts into flames and starts teleporting all over the shop like an occult X-Man. These new abilities, called Mysticals, are game-changing special powers, bought mid-match with the cash you earn from getting kills and taking objectives. There are three revealed so far, with another two hiding away for the time being. The ones we know about are all cheeky references to past games: that gold statue is El Dorado from Uncharted 1, throwing out enemy hunting spirits like supernatural homing missiles. Then there’s the Cintamani Stone – Uncharted 2’s healing treasure earns it’s inclusion as a…

Format PS4 Pub Sony Dev Sony Japan Studios ETA Autumn 2016 The PS Vita didn’t get a lot of triple-A games, and of those early releases the original Gravity Rush didn’t exactly crack the mainstream, (even though we reckoned it was brill). Apparently its small but devoted fanbase has been vocal enough, however, to bring about a PS4 remaster and a full sequel. In case the title isn’t enough of a clue, this is a game about using physics-warping abilities to float, fly, and attack enemies. In this outing, there are now three kinds of gravity (let’s skip past the science of that before Brian Cox gets sad and go with it). Regular gravity is joined by Jupiter and Lunar styles – the former makes hero Kat slower and heavier…

Format PS4 Publisher Sony Developer Wild Sheep Studio ETA Winter 2016 Any game where you can ride a bear is off to a good start. But this wilderness adventure doesn’t stop with bears, or indeed riding. If you want, you can bethe bear. And not in a self-help therapy book kind of way either – we mean actually possess the beast, and feel the weight of its mighty paws as you smash away enemies and give them a bloody good roaring at. Or you could be a fish. Your call. The idea behind this animal-powered open-world game is that you’re a shaman (think mystical tree-hugging wizard) able to commune with nature and control it. What you do with that? Totally up to you. Creator Michel ‘Beyond Good & Evil’ Ancel…

Format PS4 Pub ROI Games Dev ROI Games ETA Summer 2016 This Korean chiller debuted on PC in 2001, and although it’s never received an official western release, its brand of high school horror remains popular with genre aficionados and scaredypants streamers. If the promise of a campus filled with spectres and murderers isn’t terrifying enough, ROI’s remake requires you to strap on the PlayStation VR goggles and experience the cavalcade of spookery up close. There’s no firm word on a release date just yet, but we’ve already begun stocking up on heart medication in readiness.…

Format Wii U Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Nintendo may make it look easy, but this level-creating game makes us realise quite how devilishly tricky it is to craft a classic Mario stage. Luckily, with its brilliantly intuitive interface and liberal smearing of Mushroom Kingdom charm, it never fails to keep smiles plastered across our faces, even as the realisation creeps up on us that our latest creation is… well, just a little bit rubbish. By spanning a whole spectrum of the cheerful plumber’s greatest hits, it manages to perfectly tickle our nostalgia glands too – even if it did (perhaps wisely) skip over the turnip-chucking era. We didn’t know how much we’d been hankering for a spot of old-fashioned Ninty platforming until we first dove into its churning sea of…

Format PS4, XO, PC Developer Kojima Productions Publisher Konami Bow before the new king of sandbox stealth. Hideo Kojima and Konami may have parted ways – putting Snake’s future in serious doubt – but if this was to be Big Boss’ final salute, then boy, did the legendary espionage agent ever go out in style. An incredible engine, exquisite controls , a boundless sense of playfulness; never before has a stealth game offered players such incredibly empowering freedom of choice. While The Phantom Pain may lack the grand set pieces of its predecessors (you’ll find no three minute ladder climbs here), it more than makes up for it by affording its audience an astonishing amount of agency. Do you take that enemy encampment by sniping all of the bad men…

Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman EDITOR 1 Destiny: The Taken King 2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3 Soma “Weirdly we were pretty unanimous this year when it came to the top of the heap. Destiny managed to convince me, one of the game’s loudest critics upon its launch last year, to sink worryingly long hours into its myriad new systems with The Taken King. Harder, however, was convincing the team that Life Is Strange isn’t all that great. Which it really isn’t.” Robin Valentine PRODUCTION EDITOR 1 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2 Rocket League 3 Tales From The Borderlands “This was a marvelous year for videogame storytelling – from Tales From The Borderlands , to Her Story, to Life Is Strange – and The Witcher 3’s twisted tales in particular blew…

10 Elite: Dangerous 9 Splatoon 8 FFXIV: Heavensward 7 Rocket League 6 Batman: Arkham Knight 5 Bloodborne 4 Destiny: The Taken King 3 Life Is Strange 2 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 1 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt You’ve made your preferred choice of gruff, beardy warrior abundantly clear, with Geralt receiving almost twice as many votes as Big Boss in our highly scientific poll. We’re chuffed that you lot had as brilliant a time exploring The Witcher 3’s world as we did this year – top of our list, and top of yours too. Survey conducted on 13 November…

Format PS4, PC Developer William Chyr ETA 2016 Web http://bit.ly/gmmanifoldgarden Ever spent a little too long gazing at an M.C. Escher painting, until it makes your mind feel like it’s stretching in multiple directions? Yeah, now imagine it moving and filled with puzzles. Don’t worry, that smell is just your frontal cortex frying slightly. Previously revealed as Relativity, Manifold Garden is ready to serve up your brain with chips. “I’ve always been a fan of M.C. Escher’s work,” explains artist and creator William Chyr. “I wanted to make a game that was based on some of the ideas he explored. His print ‘Relativity’ seemed like it would lend itself well to a game mechanic, with the player being able to change gravity and walk up walls. What is now Manifold…

While stabbing baddies with hidden blades is swell, the biggest joy of being dropped into 1868’s London is checking out the sights. Syndicate does an amazing job of rendering the city’s most enduring architecture – here are the top tourist spots you have to visit… 1 What better way to appreciate iconic clock tower Big Ben than by clambering up and getting face-to-face? 2 While at Trafalgar Square it’s impossible to resist clambering up on to Nelson’s rusty head. 3 St Paul’s Cathedral hosts a scrap between Evie and a nasty Templar. You could call it an apostle jostle... 4 The Thames is treated as a district in its own right, and jumping from boat to boat is brilliant fun. 5 The Bank of England sets the scene for one…

Activision likes to mix up COD’s approach to the traditional FPS, but this instalment includes an altogether different type of blaster. Black Ops fanatics may remember Dead Ops Arcade, a top-down shooter hidden in amongst all the menu folds of that game. Black Ops III brings a new edition (pleasingly making it a mode sequel inside a sub-series sequel inside a sequel). Dead Ops Arcade II isn’t the most polished part of the package, but it’s a full campaign worth of twin-stick zombie blasting, with some surprising diversions (get your racing gloves on). But you have to find it first – we’ll tell you it’s hidden in Campaign mode, but no more than that. Happy hunting.…

Format PS4, XO (reviewed), PC, 360 Publisher Square Enix Developer Crystal Dynamics ETA Out now Players 1 There’s one thing 2013’s Lara reboot got oh-so-right: the raiding of tombs. Its hugely refreshed, Uncharted-aping gunplay and flare for bombastic setpieces were also a hoot – but those seven little challenge tombs really tapped into the sense of adventure which helped make Croft such a icon back in her Eidos days. Good news: those optional caverns are back, bigger, better and in greater numbers. Best break out that pickaxe, there’s a lot of awesome archaeology ahead. That, and a fair bit of shooting feral grizzly bears in the face. Rise Of The Tomb Raider ditches its predecessor’s fictional (and super blustery) Japanese island of Yamatai, and instead transports the action to the…

Start your engines – Rocket League’s had a set of free updates adding a range of twists to the already energetic formula. Amongst these ‘mutators’ are changes to ball bounciness and size, the arena’s gravity, and more. There’s also an option called Time Warp, though it unfortunately doesn’t cause all of the cars to blast out tunes from the Rocky Horror Show. Most excitingly, you can also turn the arena icy and the ball into a puck, for Rocket League’s take on ice hockey. For a rather warmer gaming session, why not head into the deserts and jungles of Azeroth in Heartstone’s latest solo adventure, League Of Explorers? As in previous expansions, each ‘wing’ offers a rule-bending boss fight and unlockable cards you can slot into your multiplayer decks. For…

Awesome Boss! Tenchu: Stealth Assassins Format PS1 Developer Acquire Released 1998 Demon ninja Onikage wasn’t all that hard to knock down, thanks to his wretched insistence on trying to kick you to death. But he was big on perseverance and personality. Weird-ass laughing ninja murderer personality. Unlike his boss Mei-oh, Onikage proved harder to actually kill than Steven Seagal, returning like a sulphuric smell in later games to kick you about a bit more. Classic Momen t! Sacred Armour Of Antiriad Format Spectrum, C64, CPC Developer Palace Released 1986 A game where your offensive capabilities are limited to lobbing rocks: rubbish. Thankfully, Antiriad saw this and added a gritty post-nuclear backstory (in comic book format) anda clanking great power suit that could be kitted out with anti-grav boots and lasers.…