Concrete.gaming@uea.ac.uk
Coming SOON! It’s going to be a Grrrreat gaming year
Charlie Nicholson It’s fair to say the hype-train’s taking pretty good care of 2017’s big releases. Twitter’s amuck with Andromeda; Facebook’s sprawling with Prey; and I’ve found myself waking to Breath of the Wild livestreams while my own, precious boxed copy awaits my Easter-homecoming. So to (ahem) switch things up, I want to focus on some of those quieter soon-to-hatch titles. And…y’know…because I need to escape the urgent pull of Zelda… Little Nightmares: 28 April (PS4, XONE, PC) If Playdead’s Inside had you hankering for a bit more bleakery, Little Nightmares might just accommodate your angst. Imprisoned within the Tim Burtonesque ‘Maw’, players guide kid heroine ‘Six’ through a series of side-scrolling challenges, evading deformed, story book style monsters. While controls seem relatively straightforward, it’s the pseudo-stop-motion aesthetic that takes the cake, leaving its freaky inhabitants feeling disquietingly authentic.
RiME: ‘May’ 2017 (PS4, XONE, SWITCH, PC) After a storm leaves you shipwrecked, you’re left to explore a mysterious island, using your wits to navigate an expansive, unforgiving realm. Evoking the explorative challenges of The Last Guardian against a vibrant, Windwakerish art-style, RiME invites players to explore intricate, ancient civilisations chock full of ciphers, secrets and beasts. And gargantuan bat-chickens, apparently. Shovel Knight – Spectre of Torment: March 2017 (PS4, XONE, PC, SWITCH, WII U) It’s not technically a fullrelease, but Yacht Club’s upcoming expansion of their winsome NES style offers enough content to deserve a mention. Introducing newly constructed levels, new characters and freshly ghoulish storyline, players will take to Shovel’s original world as the snarky scythe wielder himself. Described by The Completionist as ‘Sonic meets Ninja Gaiden’, ol’ Spec may prove the most challenging add-on yet. Skylar and Plux: March 2017 (PS4, XONE, PC) Through ravishing-remaster or spiritual successor, 2017’s looking to be the year the 3D-platformer re-emerged, and Skylar and Plux remains amongst my recommended for those on the lookout goodhonest nineties to noughties nostalgia. Balancing knowing humour comparable to Ratchet and Clank with Banjo’s double protagonist playstyle, this adventure platformer wouldn’t look out of place at a PlayStation Pep Rally.
20 Gaming
How did you discover gaming?
Everyone has a different story... what’s yours? yaiza canopoli It’s my eighth birthday and everyone is having a good time. We are innocent 90’s kids with no knowledge of technology. Then the English girl I invited pulls out a Nintendo DS and starts showing off her puppies in the Nintendogs universe. That’s how everything started; in a tiny German town full of old people, the only way anyone found out about new things was through the kids of the guys from the British military base. Fast-forward a few months, and my dad calls me and my brother into his office. There it is in the corner: a Playstation 2! We had begged and begged to get one and had always heard ‘no’ for an answer, yet there it was. It was the beginning of my virtual life.
like washing dishes. Amazing! Then, I find Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and of course I whine until my dad buys me both. Around this time my parents decide to rent a little apartment so my brother and I can be closer to them while they both work fulltime. This apartment consists of three exciting things: an armchair that can be rolled over to do circus gymnastics on, a TV, and our Playstation. 2005 is followed by intense Singstar battles, swearing at the enemy in Star Wars Battlefront II, and getting scared by Professor Snape while sneaking past him. In conclusion: good times.
Another few days pass and we’re in the centre of a bigger town in a shop called Expert, browsing Playstation 2 games. My brother picks up something, and I stumble across Sims. Not Sims 2 or anything fancy like that, just plain Sims. I read the description: ‘Lebe das Leben’. Live the life! The possibility of making your own characters do really basic shit Image credits: Flickr, Pikawil. Wikicommons, Evan-Amos