Gamecca Magazine January 2013

I S S U E 4 3 / Vo l . 4 Januar y 2013

w w w. g a m e c c a m ag . c o m

ZombiU LEGO Lord of the Rings Super Mario Bros U Nintendo Land Rabbids Land and more...

Wii U Frenzy!

Ten launch titles reviewed!

Reinventing the Classics Devil May Cry gets a facelift...

Free Online Mag

www.gladgetmag.com Simplicity in information!

Asus’ Tytan sets the standard

What to expect from the bad guys in 2013

Mass hysteria and the World Wide Web

Crystal Balls...

In a Daze

The Wii U has arrived in South Africa...

Newtendo

R evi ews i ncl udi ng R a z er , M S I , T o s h ib a , Be lkin , S t e e lS e r ie s a n d m o r e . . .

Free

Superpower!

I S S U E 2 7 / Vo l . 3 January 2013

www.gladgetmag.com

Online Mag

Inside 6 From the Editor 8 IDoubleDQD Cold turkey...

10 10 on 10 Waht we want to see in 2013...

12 Reinvention Devil May Cry gets a make-over 18 Game of the Year Awards Gamecca’s picks of 2012 30 Soap Box Smarter?

32 Console General Stimulating stuff 34 New Nintendo We play with the Wii U 42 Reviews 15 games for your consideration 78 A Year in Games 2003 - redefining gaming!

80 Hardware Awesome stuff to make your gaming better...

96 From Space New habits

THIS MONTH’S COVER It’s time for a new hero in DmC: Devil May Cry. See our feature on page 12...

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Competitions 75 Avanquest Select Collection

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Reviews

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ZombiU

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LEGO Lord of the Rings GAMECCA Vol. 3 Issue 43 January 2013

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New Super Mario Bros. U

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Rabbids Land

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Assassins Creed III

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

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Tekken Tag Tournament 2

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Mass Effect 3: Special Edition

Editor: Walt Pretorius walt@1337-media.com Writers: Charlie Fripp Christo van Gemert Iwan Pienaar James Francis Lein Baart Nthato Morakabi Pippa Tshabalala Sarah Snyman Suvesh Arumugam Walt Pretorius Letters: letters@gameccamag.com Competition Entries: competitions@gameccamag.com

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Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

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F1 Race Stars

Design & Photography: 1337 Media cc

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Marketing Contact: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com

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Nintendo Land

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Funky Barn

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FIFA 13

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Sports Connection

Newsletter Subscriptions: www.gameccamag.com

Taking fun seriously!

All rights reserved. No content may be reproduced, copied or transmitted without the express permission of the publishers. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editors and publishers. All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the sole property of the respective owners.

GAMECCA is published by 1337 MEDIA

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Copyright Š 1337 Media CC 2009 - 2013

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Self Interest?

by Walt Pretorius

I

From the Editor

Google myself from time to time. Doesn’t everyone? I have learned a few things while doing so, including the fact that there are many people out there that share my name. It’s a bit sobering, I guess, but there you have it.

I also Google both Gamecca and Gladget Magazines, but this I do far more often. One of the reasons I do it is because I sort of enjoy seeing how many torrent, ebook and other sites offer it for download. There are many.

Don’t get me wrong; I do not support piracy. I disagree with piracy very strongly.

But, seeing as how we give Gamecca and Gladget away on line, I don’t really mind that the mag is distributed via so many other sites.

There are a few things that do grind me a little about the situation. Small things, really, but the grinding is still there. For example, the most common

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description given online for Gamecca magazine reds thus: “Gamecca Magazine is quality colourful magazine about computer games on PlayStation 3, PS2 and PSP, tips, announcements, tips on selecting computer settings.”

Well, that’s just plain inaccurate, now isn’t it? It leaves out a whole bunch of things we do, and then adds in things we don’t do. But, realistically, there is very little I can do about it. It seems to me that the guys uploading the magazine to these sites, and downloading it too, don’t realise that Gamecca is a free magazine. Even after we put the “free online mag” flag on the cover.

Another thing that struck me as amusing was seeing comments on a number of sites that stated that the download file was a “great quality scan”. Once again, that flag on the cover seems to not be noticed… but we do endeavour to produce a mag that looks good both

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online and printed on paper, for those that wish to go that route.

What is gratifying, though, are the comments and such that call the magazine cool, great, good quality and so on. We have been working on bringing the best magazine we can to our readers for almost four years now, and it is nice to know that our efforts are appreciated.

Seeing as how we are planning to kick off our letters section again from the February 2013 issue, why not drop us a note at letters@ gameccamag.com to let us know what you think?

Oh, right, I almost forgot…

Happy New Year! From the Gamecca Crew and I, we hope that your year is prosperous, exciting, enjoyable and full of great gaming. Looking at the release schedules, we know that the last one is highly likely. And it looks like the Mayans were wrong – like there was ever any doubt…g

Controller Withdrawal IDoubleDQD

by Sarah Snyman

I

am not sure whether to be proud of myself or to begin mourning my descent into corporate oblivion. Oblivion, the miserable state of being forgotten, not the game.

Every day during the week, I stumble home, exhausted and carrying a bundle of shattered nerves. I crave sleep but despite the Simsesque red crystal that I imagine to be above my head, I force myself to eat, shower and work before I recharge my “rest” bar. I slide into bed and instantly turn into a corpse, dead to the world until I am forced to respawn at the sound of my alarm at 6am the next morning. Wash, rinse, repeat. When the weekend finally rolls around, I either spend it working, partying or asleep. Every time I

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get into bed and I realise that I have let a day pass without hitting W, A, S and D for any other reason than typing get another email, my heart sinks in my chest and I need a manna potion.

Gaming has become such a central part of my life, or rather my existence that finding myself without time to indulge in it leaves me with an empty controller shaped hole in my chest. Even though I have got to a hopefully short-lived point in my life where I am chasing deadlines more than I’m chasing achievements, I have noticed that even if we deny ourselves, you cannot get away from the ingrained habits. Just yesterday evening I drove down Oxford street and passed a lady of the night

chatting up a customer.

The twenty-something woman in me pitied her for not having the legal rights her profession deserves, but the gamer in me had other ideas. The gamer in me remembered the tune of Depeche Mode playing in a rusty car stereo from the sedan I just stole.

The gamer in me felt the weight of a baseball bat.

The gamer in me felt that rush of having just taken out every pigeon in the world. The gamer in me is not politically correct. The gamer in me played way too much GTA. No matter how much Guild Wars I wish I could’ve played this week or how much the level of my character disappoints me, I think it might have played so much up to this point that my

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mind is still running on a cache of experience. Every time I look around a bar and pull up stats on the people around me; every time I open my handbag and imagine an inventory screen with neat little slots for all of my lipstick; every time I perform at work and imagine my skills levelling up and more specialised skills opening up; every time I realise how rewarding games have made everyday life.

These are the time that I know gaming will always be there, waiting for me.

It survives long distance; it copes well through trial separation. It doesn’t care if you let your controllers go flat and you let your console get dusty. It’s true love. g

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Things

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We would like to see in 1

2013

Awesome new IPs

We need some fresh blood in the gaming world. All those sequels are getting a bit annoying, particularly when they feel like the same thing over and over again. A few great new IPs would show that the video game industry is not just after making a quick buck by recycling the same old formula time and again. We need some great new heroes to keep our gaming habits inspired. And those heroes need to be originally approached, too – we don’t need another tough soldier dude, or another sassy, sultry chick. Let’s have something totally new!

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More originality

Leading on from new IPs, we need some truly fresh ideas.

It gets a little annoying when we see the same thing over and over again. Not only do we get obvious copy-and-paste titles flowing onto store shelves year after year, but we get even more obvious clones following short on their heels. We need a fresh idea that will keep us engaged… and no clones aping it. Maybe even a whole new genre to captivate a few hearts and minds. The video game industry seriously needs to stop playing it safe, and the gamers out there need to support new ideas, instead of just swallowing up all the old ones time and again.

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Better pricing

Let’s be honest: gaming is expensive. With things like piracy and the second hand game market putting a dent in turnover for publishers, getting cheaper games may be asking for a lot. But it would be nice. And we certainly need prices on consoles like the Wii U and PS Vita to come down this year, if only to open up more options for gamers. PS3 and Xbox 360 prices have been coming down wonderfully – that needs to happen everywhere. Selling more consoles almost directly translates into improved game sales, whether new titles or older catalogue games. So let’s get the consoles out there!

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New console announcements

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Greater understanding

Ten on 10

Speaking of getting consoles out there… We hope that there will be solid news from both Microsoft and Sony this year.

Not rumours – real, actual, honest-to-God full-blown, over-the-top announcements for new hardware for PlayStation and Xbox. It’s high time that we hear when the next generation of these consoles will be hitting the market, particularly now that Nintendo has brought their latest offering – the Wii U – to market.

The outside world needs to realise that gaming isn’t the root of all evil, or all antisocial behaviour. This means that there needs to be greater education surrounding games for those that don’t play them. On the flipside, non-gamers need to pull their fingers out of their ears and strat doing some listening and thinking, rather than jumping to conclusions based on half-baked theories.

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We have all made it through yet another year, and avoided an Apocalypse too. So, with a whole new year ahed of us, we have a list of things we would like to see within the video gaming industry over the next 12 months...

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Less attitude

It’s a lot like the previous point, but this needs to be within gaming communities, too. Gamers of all types need to be less judgemental of those who use different platforms, or like different games. People need to start realising that their opinion is not gospel, and that just because someone else likes something else doesn’t make them wrong. It might stem from security issues… gamers need to realise that their own choices, as well as those of others, are all fine in the greater scheme of things. And if a guy isn’t great at games, that doesn’t make him a second-rate citizen…

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One decent movie game

They must be able to do this. With so many great games and developers out there, surely someone can make a good game based on an awesome movie? The quick cash-in that that movie based games present needs to be rethought by the video game publishers out there; games for great movies need to be great. This might even revolutionise the industry. OK, no, it won’t, but it would still be nice to see all games getting the attention they deserve, rather than being relegated to cash-in status.

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Longer games

We really would like games to take longer than five seconds to get through. The video game industry has seen declines in sales, at least partly because multiplayer games have a longer viable shelflife. So game developers need to think more about the single player aspect of games, and make them a bit longer than they currently tend to be. Not that there is anything wrong with multiplayer – it’s just that single player gaming is seriously starting to feel like a redheaded stepchild.

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New directions

Whether they are new IPs or sequels, we really would like to see existing genres in games taking on different approaches this year. Sure, we spoke about originality previously, but this refers to new ideas within existing conventions. Seeing some new ideas creeping into existing franchises. They don’t have to be big ideas, just tweaks and the like that actually refine, and redefine, the ideas we have been seeing time and time again.

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Amazing reboots

2012 saw a few rebooted franchises, and we think that this is a great idea. Yet there are so many things that can be redone in gaming which haven’t even been touched… those games need to be remade for a modern age. And we’re not talking about rushedout cash-ins here (like a few that we saw in 2012, including Duke Nukem and Syndicate.) Rather, these need to be serious, high budget celebrations of the classics.. g gamecca43

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Reinve

Feature

Reboot, rework, revive?

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ention I

n 1939, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created a new character in response to the popularity of Superman. National Publications made a request for more superhero titles, and so Kane and Finger went about delivering a new hero, taking a different approach. He would have no superpowers; instead, he was wealthy, and blessed with high intelligence. And he would be called Batman.

Producing a reboot of a popular franchise is always something of a risky proposition. On the one hand, you have a good name to rely on in order to push through sales and hype of the new product. On the other, you have the possibility of fans that may remember the older games fondly, and will potentially balk at the idea of a reimagining.

And that doubles up when the game has something of an iconic status. In addition, the goal with most reboots is to engage a newer audience (while still trying to keep the older fans happy). But what if the newer audience doesn’t pick up on the franchise as desired?

In all, it’s a gamble. We have seen reboots perform poorly in the past.

2008’s reworking of the Prince of Persia franchise tried to take the game in a new direction, with pen world challenges rather than the more linear levels fans were used to. The very next release moved back to what the games were before the reboot. 2012’s Syndicate took the game in a whole new direction, away from the strategy, isometric game that came out decades ago, and towards a first person shooter model. Fans were slightly alienated, and the game was not very well received in general by newer players. Where this reboot will go in future is anyone’s guess… if there is a future for the franchise at all.

With the obvious gamble in mind, is it a good idea for Capcom to put the very popular Devil May Cry

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Feature

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franchise through a similar process? To take the question further, the last release of Devil May Cry took place in 2008, technically around five years ago.

That’s not a very long time, in the greater scheme of things… but in the world of video games, it actually is. The first four Devil May Cry games were released in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2008. There was never more than a three year gap between the first four titles. Perhaps Capcom felt that a five year gap was too great to sustain the momentum created by the previous titles. At very least, technology has advanced quite significantly in that time; the consoles may still be the same, but the way they’re utilised by games has come a long way.

Then again, Capcom do not seem entirely sold on the idea of a reboot.

This is implied by the fact that the new title is an ‘alternate universe’ game, set in a different reality from the first four titles. While the main character still retains the name of Dante, he is no longer the suave, white haired warrior of yore; rather, the new Dante is a younger, dark haired brawler. But the main ideas behind the game remain the same – the action is still sword and gun based, and the player still needs to take on hordes of demons in complex environments. It seems, then, that Capcom have tried to hedge their bets just a little with this title. Keeping it an alternate universe and not moving away from core dynamics means that, should it not do well, they can easily return the franchise to where it was before. The evidence is somewhat circumstantial, but it does make for interesting consideration.

Part of the re-imagining of the franchise is Capcom’s teaming up with Ninja Theory, the developers behind Heavenly Sword (2007) and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010). This injects some fresh ideas into the franchise. Members

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of the Ninja Theory team have stated that they will be looking at setting the combat system of the new game apart from previous versions by working new dynamics into it. Additionally, the team wants to take the game play and storytelling elements of the new title to greater heights, and have reworked not only the origins of the ‘new’ Dante, but have also considered how to implement an environment that is unique in the franchise.

The development team is being overseen by Capcom staff, to ensure that the feel of the franchise is not lost. That’s a good thing, because the previous Devil May Cry games have managed to gather a strong cult following. The end result is sure to be interesting; the combination of ‘classically’ held values with new ideas and dynamics may see this particular ‘reboot’ going in all the right directions.

New technology, combined with strengthened focus on production elements like visuals and storytelling, will combine with the same kind of over-the-top, lively action that has been a hallmark of the franchise for many years. And allowing the player to experience not only a strong story, but something of an origin story – as the tale explores where Dante came from and why he does all those nasty things to demons - will certainly engender an even stronger association with a character that appears to be more believable than the original.

Inevitably, the proof will be in the pudding. But with the careful approach that Capcom and Ninja Theory are taking towards this valuable franchise, it may well not fall victim to the reboot trap that has scuppered many other attempts. We’ll know for sure quite soon, when DmC: Devil May Cry hits retail shelves. g

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2012 was an intense year for gaming, with many great games hitting the shelves. From long awaited sequels to excellent reboots, 2012 certainly was exciting for all kinds of gaming. And now that 2013 has arrived, it is once again time for the Gamecca Crew to voice their opinion about the year that was, in the form of...

Game of the

Year

Awards

2012 Feature

One of the most difficult things that faced the Crew in this year’s hotly-debated award meeting was that, while there were many very good games out there in 2012, games that stood out from the crowd were actually very rare.

Whether this is because 2012 was not an exceptional year in terms of game releases, or because there were more top notch games than usual, was also discussed at length. So after a long, tiring session and a protracted voting process, we determined that the following were the games that deserved the titles... although in many cases it was a very close race indeed.

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Best Fighting Game Tekken Tag Tournament 2 There weren’t a huge amount of fighting games in 2012 and, while Tekken Tag Tournament 2 wasn’t everyone’s favourite, it did still bring a great offering to the table.

By sticking to its traditional approaches and delivering fast paced action that remained true to form while still introducing a few new ideas, this game managed to get the edge on the competition.

Best Horror Game ZombiU 2012 had very few horror offerings, and most of them were sequels that did not live up to their predecessors.

However, ZombiU managed to capture all the elements of what a good horror game should be, and introduced a number of interesting new factors and ideas, all thanks to the Wii U and its innovative control scheme.

ZombiU was one of the few games of 2012 that actually scared us...

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Best Racing Game Forza Horizon Despite the fact that many enthusiasts found problems with Forza Horizon, the new direction taken by the franchise was a welcome breath of fresh air.

Free roaming and street racing may not be Forza staples but with Horizon, the developers managed to open up the playing field (so to speak) and introduce fans to many new ideas - without compromising their Forza principles.

Best Action Game Max Payne 3

Feature

There were many great actions games in 2012, but few managed to rise to the levels set by the third game in the Max Payne series. This long awaited sequel managed to thrill fans with more of what they wanted, while still injecting some fresh ideas. And everything was held together by a strong storyline and exceptional production values.

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Best Best Stategy Game XCOM: Enemy Unknown There were very few strategy games released last year, but the revisiting of the XCOM franchise, in the form of Enemy Unknown, managed to stand out as an exceptional turn based strategy and management title. Tactically demanding and sound in terms of balanced, the game proved challenging, exciting and enjoyable, some would say despite its turn-based system.

Best Shooter Game Borderlands 2 The sequel to Borderlands proved to be a long, entertaining and challenging shooter. In both single player and co-op modes, Borderlands 2 showed the developer’s pedigree by delivering a well-balanced title that didn’t skimp on reward or challenge.

The long game time and excellent entertainment value outweigh the lack of competitive multiplayer.

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Best RPG Game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Yet another solid sequel, The Witcher 2 embodied almost everything that a great CRPG should offer: great character development, a very strong story, and lots of things for the player to do. A revamped combat and magic system made the game even more exciting to play and, despite the lack of character customisation, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings allowed players to get totally lost in Geralt’s world.

Best Adventure Game Far Cry 3

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You could argue that it is a shooter, and to a degree it is.

But the wealth of activities and exploration available in Far Cry 3 elevate it above the realms of shooter.

Character development, hidden objects and side quests have it almost feeling like an RPG. This, combined with a heavy emphasis on combat, makes it an adventure game in our opinion‌ and a very fine one at that.

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Best Sports Game FIFA 13 The sports genre is a very hotly contested one, but there are a few titles that stand out year after year… and the FIFA franchise is one of those. Despite not having too much new on offer, the refinements made to this version of FIFA make it an exceptional sports title, and it’s very wide appeal secure it the title of Best Sports Game for 2012…

Best Puzzle Game Catherine Catherine was not only a unique puzzle game, but a rather different and original title overall. With a storyline and remise almost unlike anything we’ve seen before, and even a slight roleplaying element in which the player’s choices mattered, Catherine managed to thrill us with unusual, movement based puzzles that were challenging, frustrating and massively addictive. Games like this are rare indeed, and this is a title that welldeserves an award.

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Best Platform Game Deadlight There are always a lot of platform games out there, and many of them are great‌ but few really do much to stand out. The downloadable Deadlight managed to do just that, simply because it took the genre and introduced a number of really great ideas into it. While Deadlight is a simple game on the surface, this belies a level of challenge and complexity that is very impressive.

Best Party Game Nintendo Land

Feature

Although the graphics could be better, Nintendo Land manages to take party gaming to new levels, thanks to the implementation of the Wii U control schemes.

With something for virtually every taste, Nintendo Land is an enjoyable party game all round – and even offers activities for the single player.

Nintendo’s use of wellknown franchises as inspiration of the mini-games makes for entertaining fun for all.

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Best Casual Game Skylanders: Giants Activision are rolling on with their very successful Skylanders franchise. But Giants is not just a game that will appeal to the casual market. It actually elevates ideas behind casual gaming by creating a great sense of continuity between the first game and this sequel. And what’s best, the game is simple enough for absolutely anyone to enjoy, without compromising some core platform gaming principles.

Best Co-Op Game Borderlands 2 What’s better than shooting skrags and bandits?

Doing it with four friends.

Borderlands 2 offers a fantastic co-op experience which ties in seamlessly with the single player experience.

In addition, rewards and challenges in co-op are increased, showing that this integral part of the experience is not just tacked on. And the balance between the different characters goes even further to prove this. It is excellent fun with friends.

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Best Graphics in a Game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Games just get prettier and prettier every year. But as far as graphics go, there is more to them than just looking pretty. The visual aspect of any game is more than just pictures – it is the major information source the player has. And Call of Duty: Black Ops got it right.

Not only were the overall visuals great, with excellent effects included, but the equipment and character models were also beautifully handled.

Best Sound / Voice Acting in a Game Far Cry 3

Feature

Voice acting has come a long way, and this was one of the hottest contests of the year. But the excellent, emotional voice acting to be found in Far Cry 3 certainly stood out. The cast of memorable characters were brought to life by exceptional performances by the actors, not least of which the wonderfully crazy and twisted ramblings of Vaas.

The overall feel of the game benefitted greatly from these superb performances.

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Best New IP Dishonored With its beautifully imagined setting, thrilling story and interesting, intense game dynamics, Dishonored managed to take our New IP award. Although influences could be seen in the game, Dishonored managed to bring together numerous elements to create a believable, original world, and take the player through an engrossing experience in which his choices really made a difference. Hopefully it is the start of a great new franchise.

Best Sequel Borderlands 2 Sequels are all about continuity, and Borderlands 2 managed to keep the story and setting going, without skimping on new ideas.

Appearances by characters from the previous title blended with exciting new settings and dynamics. In other words, Borderlands 2 managed to deliver more of what players loved in the first game, without compromising on new features and ideas. Going from one game to the next truly feels like a progression.

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Best Reboot / Remake Sleeping Dogs Although it doesn’t have the same name, Sleeping Dogs is something of a reboot of the True Crime franchise.

The game took principles from the earlier titles and refined them, making them fit well into a more modern era. Besides that, it presented an excellent story, likeable main character and more action than you can shake a stick at. Remakes really should all follow this kind of path: recognisable, but new.

Dud of the Year Lollipop Chainsaw

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There were a few games in 2012 that could have earned this title, but Lollipop Chainsaw really did manage to be the most annoying title of 2012. Considering the amount of hype around the game, this made things even worse. What could have been an entertaining idea was scuppered by vile, crude humour, sluggish mechanics and repetitive game dynamics. This one really managed to not live up to any form of expectations‌

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GAME OF THE YEAR Far Cry 3 There were numerous contenders for Game of the Year, and many arguments for and against each of them. What made Far Cry 3 stand out was the fact that it didn’t buckle under its own ambition; the game is a massive playground for the player and, despite a few bugs, it manages to perform beautifully on all platforms.

The blend of shooter and role-playing elements make it a stunning, entertaining and engrossing game all round.

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Console Cure in Tablet Form The Soapbox

by Suvesh Arumugam

F

unny story. Having recently acquired an Xbox, I was chatting to a friend who asked how it compared to the PlayStation 3. This is probably one of the worst questions to answer. I’ve always been a PlayStation fanboy, but playing on the “other” console has made me realise that each brings something unique to the experience. My one criticism was that Xbox doesn’t support HDMI control. Through the Bravia Sync on my TV, I can control my PS3 using my TV remote, as well as options for movies and music. Since I use my PS3 as my primary media centre, it’s great to know that I don’t have to use separate controls, especially if I’m not gaming. At the time, the

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Xbox could not offer me anything similar in the way of convenience.

However, when I was reviewing Dance Central 3, I saw notes saying it was SmartGlass compatible.

This was the first I had heard about this, though I later found out it was launched in late October.

It’s a simple app available on iOS, Android and Windows systems. It does two very awesome things.

Firstly, it turns your iPad into a remote control.

Although it’s a little tricky at first – you have to look at the screen and track your fingers using handeye coordination. What made it a little harder was trying to forget Apple’s Natural Scrolling and swipe in the same direction I want to move instead of the opposite.

But once I got the hang of it, it worked pretty great.

Although I still need to have my TV remote around (until Sony releases an app), I usually have my iPad with me anyway (in case I need to Google that actor) so it’s great to be able to navigate the media player controls.

The second, and possibly more important function of SmartGlass, is that it adds another level of experience to the media you are interacting with.

For games, this can show additional functions and games modes, and potentially a second screen for multiplayer modes. In Halo 4 for example, you can view a host of stats and info, some of which is not available otherwise.

You can also access some features like linking with

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online friends and invites.

Aside from games, several new movies and televised events have SmartGlass capability, allowing you to access additional information and features.

It’s an exciting new way to look at consoles and gaming, and a very niceto-have for those with smart phones or tablets.

Microsoft have promised a lot more to come, now that game developers can make use of the app, hopefully even being able to game directly on the additional screen. Now that the Wii U has added the Game Pad mini-screen for additional interaction for solo play, and a much better alternative to split screen for multiplayer games, let’s hope that SmartGlass will follow suit, and soon. g

A Little Stimulation Console General

by Montgommery Paton

T

he global economy – we hear how bad it is all the time.

So, heading into the past Christmas season, retailers and suppliers weren’t extremely enthusiastic. And while it might not have been the greatest Festive Season ever, there were still results that were a little surprising. For example, consoles sales were better than many analysts predicted. This leads one to wonder exactly why.

There are a few factors that could come into it, not least of which is that gaming (despite inevitable bad press and a sometimes bad reputation) is becoming a more widespread, more acceptable activity.

But here’s an interesting idea that I came up with…

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the stimulation of the console market owes a lot to the release of the Wii U. Keep in mind that this is not a fact, but rather an interesting supposition.

Here’s how it works: see, just before the release of the Wii U, Nintendo built up a fair degree of hype around the console. Initial sales were quite high globally, with territories like the US approaching sold-out status. But during the same period, sales on the Wii peaked as well.

So maybe some people got it wrong and bought the incorrect console. But sales for the Xbox 360 and PS3 were also higher, and it’s pretty difficult to make a mistake between Wii U and Xbox 360. So why did that happen?

In this little theory, these increases are directly

related to the Wii U. See, the hype got people to go out and look at the console. But they were met with prices that were higher than they may have anticipated. Put a brand new Wii U next to a cut price Xbox or PS3, which comes with a couple of games and maybe an extra controller or two, and which sells for a similar price, and those that do not own an Xbox or PS3 may well have their heads turned by what appears to be a better offer.

Don’t get the wrong idea – the Wii U is a great console. But Nintendo does have a reputation, thanks to the specifications of the Wii, that will be tough to break.

An ill-informed consumer may well be swayed quite easily by an older console

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– particularly if that console is bundled with a few games.

So the Wii U may have, quite possibly, driven sales across the whole console market, thanks to hype, pricing that was higher than it should have been, and extremely aggressive competition from Microsoft and Sony. Not a fact, once again, but an interesting thought none the less, and one that might indicate numerous things about the future of consoles. The fact (and this is a fact) that catalogue titles are selling better, while day one sales are down, would support this shift, too.

All this adds up to indicate that 2013 may be a very interesting year for console gaming. g

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The Wii U leads the ‘next console’ race…

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by Walt Pretorius

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he Wii U arrived right at the end of November, 2012, amid less fanfare than was expected with such an important gaming event. Love Nintendo or not, the release of a new console is always important news, and the arrival of the first console of the expected new generation – before official announcements have been made by Nintendo’s competitors – demands attention. Still, the expected press furore was decidedly downplayed. The Wii U arrived earlier than in Europe and other territories, and (somewhat surprisingly) negative press bubbled along in its wake – despite the fact that it sold better than expected in the US in that initial time. In fact, sales of the Wii U were pretty much of the “sold out” level shortly after the US launch. The negative publicity, which revolved mainly around pricing and the rumour of a very large download to get the system up to dated, still didn’t damped the device’s performance, though: within four weeks of the US release, the unit sold almost two million units worldwide.

As far as the bad press goes… well, yes, the Wii U is an expensive unit. Three varieties are available in South Africa, ranging from R3 999 to R4 999 at the time of writing. These different options include various bundled items, as well as differing hardware specifications. Aggressive competition from Microsoft and Sony have also made the Wii U appear pricey, when specs between the Wii U and other, older consoles are compared. The Wii U doesn’t have specifications that are very different from the Xbox 360 and PS3, putting the device on a definite back foot when Microsoft and Sony release their new consoles.

However, certain concepts used by the Wii U make it stand out – but we’ll get to those later.

As far as the upgrade is concerned, yes, there is a fairly large download required when first connecting the Wii U to the Internet.

But this update is chiefly required for making use of Nintendo’s new online services, rather than being essential for gaming. The Wii U will play games right out of the box, no download required.

There are some that may doubt the success of the unit, when considering sales over the 2012 Festive Season. But, if trends are anything to go by, it seems that the Wii U is performing very similarly to the 3DS and older DS. With sales of just under a quarter of a million units a week, the Wii U is apparently following in these handheld consoles’ footsteps. The DS averaged 264

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298 units a week over its first 95 weeks (for a total of 25 108 337) while the 3DS sold an average of 265 722 units a week over a similar time period (for a 95 week total of 25 243 576 units sold.) Even the Wii enjoys similar tends – it outsold the Wii U during the first four weeks of the Wii U’s release by almost 200 000 units.

With that in mind, it is far too early to realistically call the Wii U a success or a failure. But the trends do look promising and, hopefully, third party game developers (on whom the unit will be very dependant, as with any video game console) will pay attention to past and present buying trends when they decide how much support to give the new Nintendo console. That support will play a major role in the Wii U’s long term performance.

But enough of the theories, light analysis and predictions; let’s talk about the Wii U itself. For purposes of this feature review, we had a look at the R3 999 Basic Pack. This is the most basic, and cheapest of the Wii U range, with the more expensive models including more peripherals and bundled games. In the Basic Pack box, though, you will get what you need to play.. well, almost.

The box contains a console, gamepad controller, two power cables and converters and an HDMI cable. What it doesn’t include – and you may well need for gaming, particularly in terms of multiplayer gaming – is a Wii sensor bar and Wii remotes. If you have a Wii already, that’s fine and well. You will have the remotes and the sensor bar.

If you don’t though, you will need to make additional purchases.

At the core of the Wii U concept is the game pad, which allows the player an extra screen while playing certain games, and even allows for a very important multiplayer idea to be used in numerous games: asynchronous game play. This means that the players engaging in the multiplayer game can experience the same game in different ways… something which could prove to be a real gold mine for software developers. Even some of the launch titles make use of this idea rather effectively: be sure to check out our Wii U launch title reviews in this issue.

The game pad has two analogue joysticks, a d-pad, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons and two triggers. Dominating the controller, which is quite large, is a 6.2 inch touch sensitive screen. This screen can be used with fingers, or with the stylus that slots into the back of the controller housing.

The whole things is contoured and shaped for comfort, and fits well into the player’s hands.

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However, because of the touch screen, the player may need to move one of their hands off of the main controls from time to time.

In addition, the game pad has a volume control, headphone jack, microphone and integrated front facing camera. Other control input systems include a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer, and the unit has an extension port build into its base.

These allow for numerous other functions, both in-game and while using online features, to be implemented.

The game pad acts ‘independently’ of the main console itself. By that we mean that it never plugs into the console by way of a cable – not even for charging. The pad connects to the console by way of a proprietary technology based on IEEE 802.11 wireless networking. This technology creates a stable link between the two devices, which need to be synchronised when the console is first powered up. The data transmission is instantaneous, both in terms of controller input and visuals.

The game pad has an independent power source for charging, much like the charger used for the DS range. And that’s a good thing, because the battery life of the game pad could have been better. Still, as long as you have a power point nearby, you should be fine during protracted periods of gaming… as long as you don’t mind having the charging cable plugged in while you play.

The console itself is a rather plain affair.

The inconspicuous box has a slot for disks, a power and eject button, a synch button and two USB ports and an SD port hidden behind a panel on the front. On the back, the Wii U console has a further two USB ports, as well as connection points for AV output, HDMI, power source and the sensor bar. We found that the console was a little noisy while accessing information on game disks but, for the most part, proved effective, responsive and stable.

In terms of controllers, the console can support one game pad and up to for Wii remotes, and is also compatible with peripherals like the Wii balance board.

Using the Wii U is a simple affair. Using an interface based on the old Wii interface (which can be displayed on the TV screen or game pad, as the user wishes) the operating system uses an icon based display. Utilities and games are accessed with these icons.

The time between hitting an icon and actually hitting the related game or software run is a little long, but this will likely be sorted with future updates. Utilities include numerous things, including parental controls and a

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handy activity monitor (great for parents who want to keep an eye on the kids’ gaming habits.) One of these utilities also activated the Wii U’s backward compatibility with Wii game titles. The player needs to activate the utility before playing Wii games – not ideal, but that’s the way it works.

When it comes to playing games, the large game pad takes a bit of getting used to. But once you have it down, it can add a wonderful dimension to gaming. Again, check out our reviews in this issue, particularly of games already released on other platforms, to see how the game pad compares and possibly changes the experience.

We put the Wii U through its paces with numerous games, including Mas Effect 3, Assassin’s Creed 3 and ZombiU. In terms of visuals, frame rates, sound and any other factor that games would be rated on, the Wii U performed very favourably compared to other consoles that are currently available.

Sure, they are older consoles, but the ideas and core values of the Wii U translate wonderfully into reworked and newly designed games alike.

It is extremely difficult to give a game console a rating, because the games themselves define so much of the experience.

Without games, no console would be any good. While there are a fair amount of exciting titles already available for the Wii U, we will still refrain from assigning a score to it. However, we will round this article up with a conclusion: the Wii U is a good console. It allows for fresh ideas, which video gaming sorely needs, and it performs well in terms of control, visuals and sound.

These are still early days, yes, but the console has a massive amount of potential.

How this potential is realised will depend on public response, as well as the creativity of software developers – one will be spurred by the other.

While the Wii U is an extremely worthwhile console to own and game on, there is still the matter of price. At the moment, the Wii U is expensive – that’s undeniable. But, once again looking at Nintendo’s track record, this pricing may change fairly soon. The company has historically been fairly aggressive in terms of competitive pricing and, if they stick with their habits, price drops on Wii U consoles may be something we’ll see in the near future.

The Wii U is great fun for the whole family, and the concept of asynchronous gaming that it engenders is nothing short of marvellous.

If it won’t break the bank, it really is a great option to consider.

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Reviews Highlights 44 ZombiU London calling...

48 LEGO Lord of the Rings A new LEGO franchise 50 New Super Mario Bros. U Platforming on the Wii U 52 Rabbids Land Crazy party fun 68 Nintendo Land The showcase

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e have a whole new year ahead of us, crammed with exciting gaming and awesome possibilities. And one of the things that will define 2013, we believe, are new consoles. While there will be announcements made this year (we’re willing to bet on it) there is already a new console available in the form of the Wii U. Because of the launch of the Wii U in late 2012, our review section this month has a distinctly Nintendo flavour to it because we review ten Wii U launch titles, in addition to our other platform coverage. g

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ZombiU

Dead is Dead And the dead are hungry…

by Walt Pretorius

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player as a lone survivor of a terrible zombie apocalypse that has swept London. The primary objective is to survive as the madness unfolds around you.

In fact, few games come as close to embodying the idea of survival horror as this one does these days. In ZombiU, your character is a normal person thrust into abnormal circumstances. And when they die, they die.

There is no respawning, at least not in the traditional sense. In the normal single player game mode, whenever a character dies, the player will be given a new character that wakes up in the safe house that forms the player’s home base. The player won’t need to repeat the intro sequence over and over again (in which they find the safe house with their initial character) but the character will be reset. The safe house is run by The Prepper, and it allows the player to grab a breather and store equipment.

Review

hat would you do if you woke up, and the world had suddenly, inexplicably changed?

The deserted streets play home to shambling dead who want nothing more than to turn you into one of them. The government has disappeared, law enforcement and the military have succumbed to the same dread malady that transforms its victims into savage, shambling zombies. The few humans who remain have been driven into hiding, and those that are still sane act with mistrust of their fellow survivors.

What would you do? How long would you survive?

Those are the principal questions at the core of ZombiU, a survival-horror launch title for the Wii U from Ubisoft Montpellier. Ubisoft came out strongly in support of the new Nintendo console, and ZombiU is the flagship of their effort-fleet. The game casts the

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But that’s as far as the safety goes – once the player leaves the safe house, all bets are off. And, in the case mentioned above, each new character – which are randomly generated and assigned to the player – starts from scratch. The story progress is not lost, but any skill upgrades are gone when the old character gets taken out by zombies. Weapon upgrades are also perpetual, and if those upgraded weapons are stored at the safe house, good for the new character. The likelihood, though, is that the previous character will have been using the weapons. That means they can be found on the body of the previous character. That’s all fine and well, but in this world, that character has now become a flesh-craving zombie…

This is actually one of the creepier aspects of ZombiU, but is also a really cool idea. The higher the skill levels

of your previous character, and the further they got in the game, the tougher the zombie they will become. The player still has access to all that cool equipment but, quite realistically, they need to go fetch it. Braver players may want to take on the tougher single player game mode, too, in which dead is dead; if you die, you restart completely.

One of the most important aspects to master in the single player game is the game pad. That may seem like an obvious statement, because it is the game’s main controller. But there is another aspect to the game pad that adds challenge to the game… and that’s the screen.

See, while it displays the map and provides the player with radar and other upgrades that augment the game, the pad also serves as the player’s inventory. Whenever the player finds a lootable item, or wants to access

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around, if you’re feeling lazy or are restricted in your movement.

Lastly, the pad’s screen allows for quick access to weapons – it features six quick-slots that can easily be accessed during play. Weapons can be upgraded as well, and there is a fair variety of them in the game – from the trusty cricket bat through to sniper rifles. Ammo, though, is scarce… as it should be in a game like this.

Through the course of the potentially short (depending on how often you die) single player campaign, the player will visit several well-known areas in London, including the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. These areas are populated by enemies of varying difficulties and numbers. There is also loot to be found. When new characters enter the fray, these areas are potentially repopulated with loot and bad guys. Additionally, as new

Review

their backpack, everything is done via the game pad’s screen. The game doesn’t pause when you’re doing this, though, so the player will need to cast nervous glances at the TV screen from time to time to make sure that there isn’t a zombie sneaking up on them while they’re rummaging about in their belongings.

Whenever the player accesses the game pad, the TV screen shows a third person view, rather than the normal first person. At least that makes it easier to spot the undead.

The game pad also serves as a scanner in the game.

Bu holding down the left shoulder button and moving the game pad around (actually, physically moving it around) the player can scan their surroundings, tagging undead, loot and other items of interest. You can also use the analogue sticks to move the game pad view

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equipment and pad abilities are unlocked, these areas can be revisited to find new stuff.

ZombiU isn’t the prettiest game when it comes to graphics, but the overall atmosphere – the creepy surroundings, the quietly shuffling zombies and the general lack of any sound other than atmospheric sound effects – is excellent. The game will get you tense, without a doubt, with every aspect of the game carefully weighed to provide the player with a good balance of frights and general tension. The story, steeped in British history, is fairly good, too, with an ending that isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion.

In addition to the single player mode - which is well worth experiencing – the player can also take on a friend in a rather fun, asynchronous multiplayer game. There are three game modes, but they pretty much all come down

to one player fighting zombies with either the Wii U’s pro controller or a Wii remote and nunchuk combo, while the other player controls the zombies using the Wii U game pad. They’re not very deep, but they are a lot of fun to play.

When you put it all together, ZombiU is not only a great survival horror game in which character death is something of an inevitability, possessed of a unique approach and a few great ideas. It is also a very good Wii U launch title, showing quite clearly that this new Nintendo console is not just meant for kids and casual players. While there is room for improvement (which we hope to see in a sequel) ZombiU is one of the better titles that accompanied the WiiU’s launch. It is accessible, yet challenging, and should prove to be a real treat for horror aficionados and zombie fans. g

AT A GLANCE: Survival-horror

Reviewed on:

With a few great new ideas, ZombiU is one of the better Wii U launch titles, and one of the better horror games of 2012.

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LEGO Lord of the Rings

Lord of the LEGO? Or just another cash in?

by Lein Baart

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Rings will be instantly recognisable. The game draws heavily from the film trilogy, so much so that the voiceacting, music and even the look of LotR is lifted straight from the movies. Using the same iconic scenes as the films, the game takes the same rather liberal licence Peter Jackson took with the source material, though sly references to the books can be found throughout. In between levels the world of Middle Earth is completely open to exploration, and has been rendered in rather lavish detail, for a LEGO game, and from the Shire to the Mines of Moria to Mordor, there is a somewhat surprising level of authenticity to the visuals. There are still plenty of LEGO structures to destroy however, and you will find yourself delightfully trashing Elrond’s home in your never ending quest for studs.

Combat and puzzling, the core of the game play, are

Review

ver since LEGO Star Wars, released in 2005, the LEGO series has developed an astonishingly good reputation in the gaming community. What’s astounding is that Traveller’s Tales have turned LEGO (of all things) into a franchise that commands a very real degree of respect from a community that usually wants to see how close their screens resemble spattered bolognaise. It’s a combination of decent puzzling, solid action and plenty of humour that has catapulted the series to such heights. In a franchise marketed at kids there’s a level of subtle maturity that grows on you the older you are, meaning that parents don’t have to roll their eyes and mutter about “the rubbish kids play these days”.

For those that played any of the previous titles (or watched the films for that matter) LEGO Lord of the

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very reminiscent of past titles. They’re both rather simplistic affairs, though this can’t be held against the game considering it’s meant for children. You will still find yourself button mashing through hordes of enemies as you progress through the campaign, though there is some variety to be had when using ranged characters such as Legolas. The puzzles, as already mentioned, are not particularly complex, involving either platforming or breaking down LEGO structures to in order to build new paths through the levels. Many puzzles will have you swapping between characters in order to solve them, as each has their own unique ability and no single mission can be completed without drawing on all of your characters’ various expertise. As always, there’s a strong emphasis on replayability, as all the levels can be played through with any unlocked character after it has been completed.

Indeed, you cannot fully finish the game without doing so, as every level has bonuses that cannot be unlocked with the characters from the plot.

Overall LEGO LotR is a solid addition to the franchise, and delivers on all the expectations one would have of it.

The trouble is though while it does nothing particularly wrong it doesn’t do anything particularly right either. For instance the humour that has always been a trademark of the series is muted, in part due to the weighty nature of the story, and in part (I suspect) due to the voice-acting.

There’s nothing really new here, nothing to make the title stand out from the LEGO games that came before. It’s a good game, and you and your kids will likely eat it up with rapturous joy, but unless the franchise brings something new to the table, the novelty that has propelled the series thus far is beginning to look dangerously bland. g

AT A GLANCE: Action Platformer

Reviewed on:

A game that fans of the series will love, LEGO LotR is a decent buy, though brings nothing new to the series Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

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New Super Mario Bros. U

Join the Fun! Your favourite plumbers are at it again!

by Suvesh Arumugam

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and use mini-portals to access each level, where they pit their skills against the side scrolling challenges.

There aren’t many new improvements in this aspect, though a new acorn pickup does kit Mario or Luigi out with a nifty flying squirrel suit that allows either of them to glide after jumps, and also hang on the sides of walls. There are additional powers for the Yoshi and mushroom abilities. Story mode allows up to four players, which can be a little confusing, but is a whole lot of fun.

There are two new single and multiplayer games modes called Challenge Mode and Boost Mode.

Challenge mode is a race to collect as many coins and special tokens as possible. There are also a host of skill challenges like collecting tokens without touching the ground or earn extra lives. Boost mode is a multiplayer

Review

s far as platform games go, Mario Bros has always stood out as one of the top selling and most addictive franchises. From humble origins, Nintendo has released at least one Mario title on each and every one of its video game and handheld consoles, and every one has been a success. That’s an amazing achievement, considering that the characters and storyline haven’t changed much over the years. The secret is a delightful blend of simple, compelling, cute and challenge, that makes Mario pretty much ideal for all occasions.

This game is basically a reiteration of the Wii version of New Super Mario Bros. Like its predecessors, the story mode centres on the moustachioed siblings trying to find their way to Princess Peach. Players start in world map view,

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mode, where players on WiiMotes play the level, while the player holding the gamepad helps out by placing blocks to assist in jumps (or to prevent falls) and can also help out in other ways, like popping their bubbles after re-spawning.

There were a few points that I felt were less than awesome, so let’s get those out of the way. Firstly, I found it confusing that the gamepad can’t be used for multiplayer modes, except for Boost Mode. Whether it would be an unfair advantage for the gamepad user, or just too much for the tablet screen to handle, is anyone’s guess. It makes no sense, and is pretty inconvenient if you don’t have many controllers (you can’t use the Wii Pro Controller either). My second gripe is that I would have loved for them to make better use of the gamepad itself, and the two-screen

concept. I love how games like Nintendoland use the multiplayer concept cleverly by using multiple screens to provide for different views (and experiences) to each player. Nintendo could be saving more for the next Mario Party, but I think they could have done more to utilise the gamepad’s abilities.

At the end of the day, Mario Bros is a best selling franchise for a reason. You’d be hard pressed to find any casual or hard-core gamer who would turn down a go. It just has all the elements for an entertaining gaming session. While the multiplayer component may be weak, it does just enough to make it fun. Once you own a Wii U, a decent Mario Bros title is just a must have (as the cornerstone of the Nintendo experience) and New Super Mario Bros. is a great title to have on the shelf to pick up and play. g

AT A GLANCE: Platform

Reviewed on:

Wii U

Start your quest (or join your friends) in the classic quest to save the princess in a variety of game modes.

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Rabbids Land

Danger Games The Rabbids take over‌ again!

by Walt Pretorius

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a party game that is as irreverent as it is hilarious: Rabbids Land. Yes, the Rabbids, with their googly-eyes and crazy antics are back, this time in full HD. The premise is simple – the Rabbids have taken over a theme park that they were previously refused entry too, and are now making use of the various attractions to compete in a game. The attractions form the numerous, often zany, mini-games to be found in Rabbids Land, while everything is tied together with a board-game style concept. The players move their Rabbids around the board and get penalties and bonuses, as well as participate in mini-games, in a bid to win.

While up to four players can take on a game at a time, only two will ever compete with each other in the various mini-games. These two players consist of the

Review

hen a console is considered casual, it becomes a playground for developers who want to revel in the party game genre.

These games are less popular on the PS3 and Xbox 360 than they are on the Wii, maybe because they appeal to the kind of market who would be more prone to purchase Nintendo’s decidedly more casual console.

But the Wii U is here now, and it has much more hard-core appeal than the original Wii. That said, it is more of a bridge-gapper than a full-blown hardcore device, and for that reason party games are still going to be popular for this particular platform. The Wii U will still have many casual adherents.

Ubisoft came out very strongly in support of the Wii U, and among their numerous launch titles is

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player who originated the randomised game by landing on a square, and one other player selected at random.

One player will use the game pad, and the other a Wii remote, either with or without a nunchuk attachment.

This means that it can be enjoyed with maximum players, even if you only have one Wii remote.

The mini-games are varied and tend to make use of all different kinds of game pad control ideas, from the stylus through to the gyroscope and microphone.

The implementation of the game pad’s functionalities is fairly well done, although nothing will really take the player by surprise. As a whole, there is nothing truly revolutionary here, but Rabbids Land is not about changing things. It is about providing a group of players with tons of crazy fun, which it does beautifully.

Whether it be blowing up ships with breath-powered

penguins or trying to rescue crates of fireworks from Rabbids with arsonist tendencies, the variety in the mini-games and the overall irreverent – even cruel – humour inherent in the title makes it very enjoyable.

Rabbids Land is not out to redefine genres, nor is it out to make any grand, sweeping gestures. It is there for fun, and as a result, it doesn’t tend towards much depth. As a single player game it gets extremely frustrating, with the AI often outpacing the player in the mini-games. But as a party game – as it was intended – it really is fun, as long as you don’t expect any kind of earth-moving experiences. It is good fun for family and friends with a competitive edge, and the decent graphics and sometimes strange concepts that the game introduces make for an entertaining session of party gaming. g

AT A GLANCE: Party

Reviewed on:

Wii U

A fun party game that may not have the most mini-games, but is still hilarious fun.

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Assassins Creed III

Assassins are Assassins No matter which platform they’re on

by Pippa Tshabalala

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story is gripping, the graphics are incredibly pretty, and overall the game scores top marks for being one of the better releases of 2012’ even with the small complaints that accompanied the reviews.

So how does the Wii U version fare against the others?

Assassins Creed 3 on the Wii U is Assassins Creed 3.

Period. With some additional if not entirely innovative features thrown in. There is not a feature missing, and Ubisoft appear to have made every effort to ensure an equal experience across multiple platforms, not skimping on Nintendo’s new baby as other developers may have done.

It’s not just the single player experience that matches up either – from what I can see multiplayer is also exactly the same although granted I have heard reports of empty servers, but the capability is fully functional nonetheless.

Review

here can be no doubt that many of us loved Assassins Creed 3 and as with any port, especially with Nintendo’s history, I approached the Wii U version with a certain amount of trepidation unrelated to the game itself and more to the anxiety I felt that the game pad would disappoint. In the short time I’ve known it I’ve come to love the Wii U and didn’t want to see it fail. Luckily for me that’s not the case, and here’s why.

I’ve never made any secret that I was not a fan of the Assassins Creed franchise after Assassins Creed 2 – somehow I managed to lose momentum after that, and could never maintain my interest in the story. Assassins Creed 3 however, renewed both my interest in the storyline as well as in the gameplay where, despite its niggling bugs, it managed to make huge strides forward.

The gameplay (across platforms) is innovative, the

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And then there are the Wii U exclusive features, designed specifically to benefit the game pad.

The map on the game pad makes searching for missions one heck of a lot easier. Switching between inventory items is also improved on the Wii U as you can whistle for your horse without having to change up any of Connor’s weapon slots, a huge bonus if you’re like me and don’t like fiddling around with weapons all the time. The menu interface on the game pad is also intuitive and the flow between the touchscreen and the concept of the Animus is flawless.

It does have its problems mind you, which include some somewhat weird looking textures at times and a few additional bugs here and there, but on the whole the game is almost indiscernible from its “big boy” console brothers.

The major noticeable difference is the fact that in more demanding areas the frame rate drops a bit, something

that will have purists up in arms, and is indeed a mild irritation, but nothing that will bother most people too much. Cut scenes also occasionally suffer from this malady and I hope that these are merely teething issues for the console.

Honestly I feel that Ubisoft could have made better use of the game pad, but this seems to be a common criticism of mine for these initial cross platform release titles. It appears to only be titles that have been designed specifically for the Wii U that are taking huge strides forward in this department and as such I don’t feel I can be too critical here.

The fact that I actually enjoyed playing Assassins Creed 3 on this console to me demonstrates that while it might not be perfect, there is no real difference between versions of the game. g

AT A GLANCE: Action Adventure

Reviewed on:

Assassins Creed 3 is a brilliant game no matter which platform you buy it for.

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Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed 2 Local

1

Network

Online

8

Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

Parental Advisory

18+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Wii U Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

87 55

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

All Terrain Karting goes everywhere!

by Walt Pretorius

K

complete with the ability to effortlessly take on friends and family, but surely the market is becoming rather saturated with titles that feel almost exactly the same?

Sega don’t seem to think so. They recently released Sonic All-Stars racing Transformed, another version of a franchise that they have been dabbling with for a while.

But they also realised that the genre needs a bit of sprucing up… that’s where the ‘Transformed’ bit comes in. The end result is a game that is derivative on two fields – the first are the general, genre specific karting concepts that still appear in the title, and the other is that of transforming vehicles. OK, so they don’t turn into giant robots, but the link is undeniable.

What these transforming vehicles do is allow tracks to include water sections and aerial sections, in addition to the traditional road racing. All good and well, and the

Review

arting games are becoming something of an inevitability these days. Every few months, a kart game will arrive, bringing with it more of what fans of the genre enjoy: light hearted racing action on crazy tracks, complete with zany power-ups that can be used to boost the player or hinder his enemies. And nothing is sacred when it comes to this idea… even the super-serious world of F1 has come into the fray, thanks to F1 Race Stars (which is also reviewed in this issue.)

The problem with karting games is that they are all almost totally derivative. They can all be linked back to the originators of the genre, and not much has changed in them, save for improved graphics and a few new concepts here and there. How much of this do we really need? Sure, there is a group of gamers out there who enjoy the casual, arcade nature of karting games,

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potential for variation is there. But, truthfully, the only real difference is that the player has a different set of physics ideas to deal with in the different environments.

The game features a stable of characters that Sega feel are extremely popular, but aside from a few faces, many of them are a bit obscure. Sonic is by far the most recognisable character in the game, followed by Tails and Knuckles (both of whom share the same roots as the blue hedgehog.) Other characters… not so recognisable, although there are those that will be able to place most of them. Each character has strengths and weaknesses in terms of aspects like acceleration, handling and top speed. As the player progresses through the career mode, modifiers are unlocked to help alter these.

With bright, colourful graphics and zany, lively environments, this title does take a rightful place among

the better modern day karting games. Concepts like drifting to gain boost and the like are not new at all, but they do work in the paradigm of the game. Still, it feels like little more than a karting game, when all is said and done; engaging for a while, but it soon starts feeling a bit old.

In addition, it carries that weird, not-quite-right feeling that most games that gather characters from a bunch of different games inevitably possess. Seeing decidedly cartoonish characters rub shoulders with more realistic ones really just feel wrong.

Younger players may well draw a lot of fun out of this title, but they may lack the connection to the Sega characters featured. It has good ideas on offer, but they feel disparate most of the time. g

AT A GLANCE: Arcade Racing

Reviewed on:

It’s good fun, but like most karting titles, don’t go looking for much depth here...

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F1 Race Stars, Mario Kart Local

4

Network

Online 10

Sumo Digital Sega SterKinekor

Parental Advisory

7+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

PS3 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

75 57

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

We are Tekken Fight your way to the top!

by Suvesh Arumugam

I

like Virtua Fighter are all pretty much on a shelf in the big video game museum in the sky.

The latest Tekken is a sterling example of why the series continues to dominate the fighter genre and generates so much excitement with each release. Although the main difference between Tekken and Tekken Tag is the ability to fight in tag teams, you can still pretty much get the same Tekken experience, though this time with up to four players. Tekken Tag also takes to the net, with an all new online mode.

Perhaps because I wasn’t expecting an all-new Tekken, but a revamp of Tekken 6, I wasn’t disappointed. Despite there being very few new moves and combos, and no new characters being introduced, I was still pretty addicted from the first punch. One of the main reasons I’ll play the game over and over is to unlock each character’s

Review

can measure the passage of time by where I was and what I was doing when each instalment of the Tekken series was released. I played the original Tekken on an arcade machine in Rosebank (at a rather suspect diner) and spent several hours (and more than a few coins) on clocking the game with as many characters as I could. Tekken 2 was the third title I bought on PlayStation (PSOne). I distinctly remember buying Tekken 6 with my nephew somewhere around December 2009, and no other game was played for at least two months thereafter. I missed the first Tekken Tag title on console, though I did give it a good bash in the arcade version, at a neon-lit bowling alley. Many of Tekken’s competitors in the fighter genre have now fallen by the wayside. Aside from Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive and Street Fighter (still going strong), titles

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ending, and the new game does not skimp on original (and surprisingly long) endings in variety of animation styles and particular to each character’s place in the Tekken mythology. There are a few new tag-throws and combos, with a new “rage” setting, which seems a little random, rather than a meter which is actively built up with combos.

I also really enjoyed going through the Fight Lab, learning how to land more devastating combos and fight against different techniques with counter attacks and throws.

Another great feature, specifically for the Wii U release, is Mushroom Battle. Similar to a normal Arcade or Versus match, different coloured mushrooms sprout up from the ground (or fall from the sky) that can either make your character grow to enormous size or shrink (a la Mario Bros.). Wii U players are also treated to Tekken Ball (last seen in Tekken 3), which will provide a few light-hearted

rounds in between the serious competition. Add that to being able to dress Heihachi like Mario, and you have a sure winner!

The Tekken game engine is one of the best, so there’s not much to say except that it’s excellent, as always.

I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed by the lack of unlockable content, but on the whole this is still a musthave game for casual and serious gamers. There is never an inappropriate moment to whip it out and challenge whoever is around, or yourself.

For the more serious Tekken addicts, you can also earn Tekken cash and use that to customize your fighters with awesome (and exclusive) Nintendo character costumes from other franchises aside from Mario Bros.

And 10 points if you spot rapper Snoop Dogg making an appearance. g

AT A GLANCE: Fighting

Reviewed on:

Wii U

The legendary fighter is back with its latest offering. Dazzling combos, all your favourite characters and up to 4 player tag battles.

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Dead or Alive, Street Fighter Local

4

Network

Online

4

Namco Bandai Namco Bandai Megarom

Parental Advisory

16+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

88 59

Mass Effect 3: Special Edition

Mass Effect Crescendo It rhymes with Nintendo

by Pippa Tshabalala

I

intuitively upgrade your companions’ skills, or the map indicating enemies, but for large amounts of time the screen merely stays on the logo with little or no ability to interact if you’re playing as most people would with the TV as the primary viewing screen.

On the plus side you can play the game exclusively on the game pad if someone inconsiderate is hogging the TV, but to truly experience the game this is something that really should be more of a compromise as opposed to the norm.

Even integrated dialogue options on the game pad would have been nice, but sadly at this stage it remains merely a controller and not an integral part of the gameplay. This does not lessen the enjoyment of the game however, but it is slightly disappointing overall.

This is the Mass Effect 3: Special Edition however,

Review

personally loved Mass Effect 3, even with the disappointing ending. I’ve also always been quite specific about playing it on PC as I preferred the control system to that over a console. What does this mean then for the Mass Effect 3: Special Edition on the Wii U? Does the game pad introduce a slew of new features or is this something better left where it was?

Actually I was quite surprised by the Wii U version.

Not only is the visual quality incredible, with little to no frame rate lag at any given point, but the use of the gamepad is nicely integrated into the overall mechanic of the gameplay, if not entirely innovative.

Sadly the potential of the game pad is sorely underutilised as Mass Effect 3 introduces some great new features, such as the use of the game pad to

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and don’t be fooled into thinking it is merely named as such for its Wii U release. It comes with a large chunk of the free DLC offered for the other platforms. What is interesting however, is how the developers have handled the lack of back story on the Wii U. None of the other Mass Effect games were ever released on this platform, and so there is no option to import your character from your previous games in order to retain continuity.

On some levels I liked this – it meant that I had to start again and explore different options because either I couldn’t remember what I had chosen the first time I played the game, or else I was emotionally attached to characters and didn’t want to hurt their metaphorical feelings. It meant that I could explore additional relationships, Renegade/Paragon options and so forth without feeling a sense of guilt.

The introduction is done by means of a beautifully illustrated interactive comic at the beginning of the game and provides a thorough summary of the Mass Effect narrative. My only gripe there is that it is unskippable. This is something I abhor in general, and in this case I actually know the story and really just wanted to skip through to the decision making bits. You can’t.

Twenty minutes later and I finally hit the first cutscene of Mass Effect 3.

The release of Mass Effect 3 on the WiiU is really only an attempt to bring this wonderful franchise to Nintendo owners. There is nothing much added to the experience, especially if you’ve already played the game on PC or Xbox. If however, you’ve never had the pleasure, this is definitely a good alternative. The game is as brilliant and beautiful as ever and loses nothing in this port. g

AT A GLANCE: Action RPG

Reviewed on:

Wii U

Still the Mass Effect you know and love, introduced to a new audience.

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Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect Local

1

Network

Online

4

Bioware Electronic Arts EA South Africa

Parental Advisory

18+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

86 61

Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

Back to the Family Guy A multiverse is not as much fun

by Charlie Fripp

T

and Brian. In Back to the Multiverse, players take control of either the psychotic Stewie or the talking dog Brian, as they try to stop Stewie’s evil half-brother Bertram from causing chaos.

The game follows on from the episodes Road to the Multiverse and The Big Bang Theory, and Bertram has concocted another evil plan. Bertram created a multiverse remote, and skips through all the multiple universes in order to build up his army to destroy Stewie (Stewie killed Bertram in a different universe, which is why he is seeking revenge).

While the game features only two characters, players will be able to switch between Stewie and Brian at will during the ten levels. Each level takes place in a different universe, and players will typically have to complete a number of missions before taking on the Boss in the final

Review

he Family Guy animated television series, created by Seth MacFarlane (who has also been responsible for American Dad! and The Cleveland Show) has been one of the longest-running animated shows, with its off-beat humour and cult status providing many laughs since 1999.

Animated shows usually don’t get the videogame treatment, and when they do, they tend to be more on the light-hearted side of the gaming spectrum. The latest Family Guy video game, Back to the Multiverse, is no different, and while it’s prefect for a lazy Sunday afternoon, it won’t stretch the imagination or raise the intellect in the room.

This isn’t the first video game to bear the name of the show, as 2006 saw the release of Family Guy Video Game!, which centred around characters Peter, Stewie

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battle.

Unfortunately that is all there is to the game – it’s not terribly thought-provoking and players won’t have to execute tricky manoeuvres. It’s pretty much kill the spawning hordes of bad guys to get to the objective and kill the final boss – rinse and repeat.

Granted, each level has its own kind of political incorrectness which makes the levels humorous, but it does start to become a bit repetitive after a while. The first level is a universe which is ruled by jocks, while doing tasks for a nerd, players will have to pick up saucy pictures, collect jock jerseys and destroy party balloons. The second universe or level, the Amish community has taken over, and complete with political incorrect quips from the NPC characters will have to burn down trees and plantations.

Attacking enemies is done by shooting at with various

weapons (which can be upgraded), but as standard fare Stewie uses a ray pistol while Brian opts to use a modern pistol. Players will get different weapons throughout the levels, so they won’t have to worry about taking on the final boss with only a small handgun.

In terms of graphics, not much can be said about Back to the Multiverse as it uses the same animation style as the series. In the television show it works well, but for a game it seems a bit dated and lacks detail.

Back to the Multiverse is by no means horrible, but should only be approached by Family Guy fans and gamers looking for an easy game to take their mind off of a hard day’s work. The controls are super easy, and while the voice acting is good, it won’t pose a challenge for serious games. It also has a multiplayer and challenges element to it, but sadly they’re also forgettable and inconsistent. g

AT A GLANCE: Adventure

Reviewed on:

Fans may find something to appreciate, but this one dos become very repetitive very quickly.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Numerous animated show games Local

2

Network

Online

0

Heavy Iron Studios Activision Megarom

Parental Advisory

13+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

69 63

F1 Race Stars

Karting to the Finish!

Formula One with a funny bone.

by Nthato Morakabi

W

game that moves away from the norm and brings in some humour and entertainment to a familiar genre.

The game begins with all characters available for use, meaning you have a wide selection of drivers to choose from and not all of them are male either as the roster includes some female drivers. One of the key characteristics of the racers is their caricature forms.

True to the drivers yet humourous in their portrayal, this comic effect takes the seriousness out of the game ,which is a good thing in this case.

Drivers are divided into teams based on their real life counterparts and each team has its own unique special ability. The famous Lewis Hamilton drives for McLaren and the McLaren team special ability is to swap one of the acquired power-ups with another; a handy ability should you get a power up that is useless at that

Review

hile racing games out there in the market seek to capture the essence of racing and stay true to the vehicles used in racing, F1 Race Stars takes all of that and throws it into a bucket of fun; the result is a mash-up of Formula One racing and Mario Kart-like fun. F1 Race Stars is a racing game nonetheless. You jump into a vehicle and you drive along a track against opponents, with the intention of being number one. The biggest difference, of course, is in the fact that the vehicle you drive is a race car version of a go-kart. The track you drive on is crazier than a roller coaster designed by the Mario Brothers themselves. Then you have power ups available for use against your opponents, to make sure you reach first place by any means necessary. The combination of these elements makes for an interesting racing

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moment.

The tracks available are outstanding in their variety and design. Based loosely on real world locations, the tracks become caricature versions of the country presented. Speeding through the American track you will race through a stereotypical American desert town with random tumbleweed rolling across and a crashed alien ship lodged in the ground; and that is just one section of a well-designed track.

A somewhat large selection of power-ups you can use to slow down opponents or rocket yourself forward is available. Visually fun yet lacking in substance, the powers become repetitious and the humour wears off quickly; running into a balloon that pops confetti all over your windscreen loses its novelty after a while. It is unfortunate since the power-ups are what make the

game worth the play. Fun, scenic tracks and funny little characters are only half the game and playing the game without the power-ups is boring and tedious.

The game does have variety in terms of Game Modes.

Apart from Career Mode, Time Trial, online multiplayer and a quick race, you also have the option to play modes such as Elimination, where last place is eliminated when the time runs out and Pole Position where you earn points by staying in or near first place; other modes are available to play.

F1 Race Stars is an enjoyable game but it loses its appeal very quickly when playing alone. Playing the higher difficulty gives a better challenge as the AI is hard and ruthless, especially with the power-ups but apart from that, it’s best to play with friends or online for a more fun and challenging game. g

AT A GLANCE: First Person Shooter

Take on the world’s best Formula One drivers through crazy racetracks, using amazing power-ups, as you push yourself towards the finish line.

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Mario Kart Local

4

Network

Online 12

Codemasters Codemasters Megarom

Parental Advisory

3+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Reviewed on:

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

70 65

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

The Big Fight Eclectic free-for-all

by Walt Pretorius

W

enough to have much more than a surface. Battle Royale will have the player button mashing to the heart’s content in numerous side-on fight scenes. The characters and settings are an odd amalgamation of almost everything you can find on a PS3. Having God of War’s Kratos face off against Uncharted’s Nathan Drake in a level ripped right out of LittleBigPlanet may sound odd, but it’s par for the course in Battle Royale.

As far as fighting games go, Battle Royale certainly isn’t the finest around – at least not in terms of mechanics. The characters all have a number of attacks, but aside from special effects and animations, they pretty much stack up against each other rather evenly. Therefore Sackboy could kick Kratos’ butt, and the Fat Princess could best inFamous’ Cole McGrath without too much weightshedding sweat.

Review

hat if there was a reality where video game characters off all types suddenly appeared, and had to duke it out to try and…well, we’re not too sure, really. Each character would have their own agenda, now wouldn’t they?

This is the approach that SCEE’s Santo Monica studios took when they created PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. The game offers a setting where the lines have blurred between the various video game worlds, and the characters face off in a variety of settings. Their goals are to, obviously, get to the end of the massive fight that is ahead of them. Each character has a unique story, too, so there is a replayability factor for those that want to be all completionist about things.

On the surface, this is a fighting game. And that stays the case throughout, because it really isn’t deep

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Perhaps the only saving grace here, realistically, is that Battle Royale introduces elements not always found in fighting games. 1v1 battles are there, sure, but so are 1v1v1… even four characters in a massive free-for-all.

Also, the battles tend to be times… rather than losing when the character is knocked out, the player will keep going until the timer runs out. Knockouts – both of his character and opponents- are tallied to find the final winner. This means that there are no health bars, making strategic picking of opponents a little tougher than it should be. The player will also battle to track their own health, which is an issue in any game, really… But the chaotic nature of these virtual free-for-all brawls add an element of crazy charm to the title that keeps it fun.

Another redeemer are the levels. They might be plain, but they also might be multi-level affairs, or even levels

that are built, altered and destroyed around the characters as they fight. A level of random danger is also added by harmful environmental elements, be they lava pits or rockets fired by a monster in the background.

When you roll everything together, it becomes apparent that Battle Royale is not a game for serious fighting fans.

Rather, it is a mad free-for-all that will appeal to more casual players, particularly considering that up to four players can play locally, in some sort of crazy, violent party-game-like action.

Battle Royale may not appeal to purists, but it does expose people to the range of characters that PlayStation has on offer – even Dante, from the upcoming DmC, makes a surprise appearance. It’s not a deep game, and it can get tedious after protracted periods of play. But it can be great fun, particularly in groups. g

AT A GLANCE: Fighting

Reviewed on:

PS3

Half-fighting game and half party game, this one is an all out brawler that won’t appeal to hard-core gamers too much.

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Smash Bros.

Local

4

Network

Online

4

SuperBot SCEE Ster Kinekor

Parental Advisory

12+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

77 67

Nintendo Land

A New Dimension of Fun Break in your new Wii U with the ultimate social game!

by Suvesh Arumugam

T

wonder why you had to wait this long for someone to come up with this.

Nintendo Land is digital theme park, where your Mii (Nintendo avatar) can wander around and find ways to entertain himself by engaging in a variety of game activities. Now there are basically two levels of play. The first level is taking part in the various challenges, kind of like theme park rides. Completing challenges unlocks new levels within each mini-game, as well as earning stars. The second level of the game is trading your stars to populate your theme park with all kinds of interesting creatures and objects that you can interact with. This is not a straight purchase though, it requires some skill in a special minigame, which gets harder the more you unlock.

There are 12 mini-games in total, based on various Nintendo franchises like Legend of Zelda, Super Mario

Review

he big market in gaming at the moment is party games. Xbox’s Kinect seems to hold the lion’s share of popular games these day’s with Kinect Rush and Kinect Sports, and PlayStation aims to make a dent in that monopoly with their recent release of Sports Champion 2 for the Move. Nintendo, however, were the originators of social gaming when the Wii first came out, and they are more than eager to regain that title.

The Wii U, while not redefining the console experience, certainly does create new possibilities for social gaming, and Nintendo Land is a great example of the direction that things could be moving.

The idea is fun – for as many people as you can fit into a small room. Don’t expect earth shattering graphics or cut scenes. What you can expect is ingenuity, and a simple but effective way of gaming that will make you

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Bros, Metroid and even Donkey Kong. They’re located around the park for your Mii to choose from, by entering the various gates. Some are one player only, while others allow up to 5 players. The most fun, and original, were Luigi’s Ghost Mansion, Mario Chase and Animal Crossing.

In each of the these, the person using the Gamepad is given a different role (and instructions) to the rest of the players. While the rest of the players must watch the main TV screen to co-operate with each other, the player with the Gamepad must work against the others to achieve their goal. What’s really nifty is that the game allows you to shift the roles around easily, so you can pass the gamepad around while still accumulating points.

In Ghost Mansion and Mario Chase you need to outrun and outsmart the other players, while in Animal Crossing you must control two guards while the other try to collect

sweets before you can catch them. Sounds simple, but it’s a ton of laughs, and having separate screens is the secret to making it work.

There are a host of other mini-games, but for a quick challenge, no matter how many you are, jump onto the train, which quickly creates a challenge competition that awards points in how ever many rounds you select, with only one true champion emerging in the end.

The way the game is designed is truly clever. Based on which controller you’re using, everyone has a different experience in most of the multiplayer games. Playing solo is also challenging and the hours fly by. If you’ve just bought your Wii U console, or you’re buying one for someone else, this is a no-brainer for the game collection, and will make you feel like you’re playing a truly next-gen video game. g

AT A GLANCE: Party

Reviewed on:

Wii U

Designed for Wii’s newest console, this must-have title will have you and your friends engaged for hours on end.

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New Super Mario Bros, Start the Party Local

5

Network

Online

0

Nintendo Nintendo Core Group

Parental Advisory

7+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

82 69

Funky Barn

Crazy Agriculture Chickens, sheep, cows and tornadoes

by Walt Pretorius

Review

T

70

AT A GLANCE: Genre:

Management

Reviewed on:

Wii U

Although it battles to find its identity, Funky Barn can provide a few hours of console based management fun.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Farmville Local

1

Network

Online

0

Tantalus 505 Games Apex Interactive

Parental Advisory

3+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

he Wii U opens up a bunch of new opportunities for console gaming, thanks in large part to the game pad. One of the things that becomes far more practical because of the unique controller is management and strategy, and 505 Games have bravely entered into that articular field with Funky Barn.

The idea is that the player takes on a farm, assisted by weird machines to help manage and harvest the endeavour. The player progresses through ten levels of farming prowess, earning new animals and unlocking new challenges as the game progresses.

Funky Barn doesn’t manage to find its feet, though… it is a little too complex and frenetic for youngsters, but is too easy for older players.

It appears to be aimed at a younger market, with cute characters and easy concepts, yet the actual game play can get pretty intense as the player has to zip around and take care of everything.

Added to this rather odd situation is the fact that it doesn’t look like it belongs on a console that is HD capable. The graphics leave a lot to be desired, lending the game a rather rushed-out feeling.

Still, it can be a fun distraction for a few hours, and demonstrates that this kind of game does have a place on the Wii U. The main control utilisation is in the touch screen, and could have been a little more imaginative. But, as a sign for potential things to come, Funky Barn shows that the Wii U will be perfectly capable of handling a couple of genres not usually associated with consoles. It would have been better if the developers put just a little more effort in, though – as it stands, it feels a little scattered in terms of ideas and approaches. g

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

69

g a m e c c a r ev i ew • i s s u e 1 7 • N ove m b e r 2 0 1 0

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FIFA 13

Back from Half Time Oh, that hit the post!

by Pippa Tshabalala

Y

new feature.

FIFA has been continually refining its control system to be simpler and more intuitive, and with the game pad they’ve managed to maintain this although not always completely successfully as it does at times become overly complicated.

If you’ve ever played FIFA on an ordinary controller, whether Xbox or PS3, then the first thing you will need to do is customise your button system. After that you’ll need to spend a bit of time getting used to the size of the controller, as the game pad is much larger in comparison.

The shooting system in particular is quite a bit different to the usual manner of play and while it’s a rather nifty feature it will take a bit of getting used to. Tilt the gamepad screen upright, and choose the spot in the

Review

es, FIFA 13 has arrived on the Wii U, and when games such as these are released so many months after the initial release, all we’re really going to be asking is does it stand up to the quality of the original game or is this simply a bad port?

Well it’s possible that opinions are divided on this one, but on the whole it seems EA have done a fair job of bringing the sport of diving, I mean football (yes, yes it’s an old joke but you know it’s true), to Nintendo lovers out there.

Let’s get it out there right now that there are a few missing features, which yes, is disappointing. It is also in essence last year’s FIFA game with the 2013 rosters, which means that features such as First Touch Control are missing which is sad, as that is a wonderful

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goal where you want the ball to go. The real issue is that looking backwards and forwards between the screens takes some adjustment, however this is optional and if you’d rather stick to the old way of doing things, EA aren’t going to force you to make that change.

One of the biggest and most significant features of the Wii U version is the difference in accessing menus.

Because you have an extra screen at your disposal, you can go directly to your desired option without having to go through the whole menu, and the in game access to team strategy and formation is a big plus, as is easy manager accessibility.

In essence this speeds up gameplay, and being able to make dynamic substitutions such as you would in a real match is a huge advantage.

As is the case with other Wii U titles, the game pad

screen allows you to transfer your game to the small screen in the manner of a handheld so that other members of your house can watch TV, however this is not a feature I feel many gamers will use a great deal as it would really just be a stopgap until the TV becomes available again.

It is undoubtedly the best version of FIFA available on a Nintendo console, and new players will quickly become fanatical in the same manner as the rest of the FIFA fanboys. If you’re an established FIFA player who now owns a Wii U as well as another console and you’re looking for a new way to inject some excitement into your game then you also might like the challenge of learning a new way to play FIFA, but it’s doubtful that the game will ever take off competitively on this platform. g

AT A GLANCE: Sports

Reviewed on:

Missing some FIFA 13 features but the game pad is an innovative method of control that allows Nintendo plays to join the fanboy ranks Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

PES 2013, Football Manager 2013 Local

7

Network 22

EA Canada Electronic Arts Electronic Arts South Africa

Parental Advisory

3+ gamecca43

Online 22

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Wii U Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

79 73

Sports Connection

Jack of all Trades Master of none

by Walt Pretorius

Review

W

74

AT A GLANCE: Genre:

First Person Shooter

Reviewed on:

A rather disappointing collection of six sporting disciplines, Sports Connection would have benefitted from more attention to detail.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Motion Sports, Sports Champions.

Local

5

Network

Online

0

Ubisoft Ubisoft Megarom

Parental Advisory

3+ gamecca43

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Wii U Platforms

henever a new console hits the market – or a new console based idea, like motion control – there is always at least one sports game that comes along with it. With Ubisoft’s strong support of the release of the Wii U, it’s hardly surprising that a sports title should form part of their launch line-up. Bust Sports Connection – or ESPN Sports Connection, depending where in the world you are – leaves a lot to be desired.

Unlike other sporting titles that we have seen from Ubisoft in the past, Sports Connections feels almost completely tacked together, with little cohesion through the title as a whole. With tennis, golf, baseball, American football, racing and soccer on offer, the game tries to be all things to everyone, but suffers under its own weight. None of the sports feel like they should… it is almost as though the development team did a little of everything, as opposed to focussing on making fewer things better. The controls for all the sports are laughably simple, but the detail and depth of those games are just as underdeveloped.

With up to five players able to play locally, the game does have the potential to be a fun party title, but it will only really appeal to the most casual of players, thanks to a lack of depth and detail. As such, it really is a wasted opportunity. It feels a bit rushed and ‘just good enough’, rather than being a title that stands out. That’s a real pity, because it could have been a great game. As it stands, though, it is the weakest of all Ubisoft’s Wii U launch titles. Hopefully the next sports title from the otherwise exemplary publisher will be better. g

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

55

g a m e c c a r ev i ew • i s s u e 1 7 • N ove m b e r 2 0 1 0

co mp et it io n • c omp eti ti o n • com pe t ition • com pe tit ion • com pe t i -

Puzzled?

Mystery Agency: A Vampire’s Kiss | Clockwork Man 2: The Hidden World | Guardian Dragons: The Prophecy | Hidden Continet: Column of Maya | Jewel Master: Cradle of Rome | Jewel Quest 5: The Sleepless Star | Jewel Quest Myst 2: Trail Midnight Heart | Luxor HD | Mystery Murders: Jack the Ripper | Secrets of the Titanic.

Exclusively available at CNA stores for R79.95 per game.

WIN

the entire Avanquest Select range!

Courtesy of Apex Interactive TO ENTER: Send an email to competitions@gameccamag.com Tell us the name of one of the games in the range Insert Avanquest in the mail’s subject line Subscribe to www.gameccamag.com Become a fan on Gamecca’s Facebook Page

Competition closes 31 January 2013 . Gladget subscribers only. South African residents only.

Prizes may not be exchanged for cash. Competition closed to employees (& employee’s family) of 1337 Media CC and Apex Interactive. The judges’ decision is final.

History Lesson

by Ramjet

Ramjet’s Rantality

The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of 1337 Media or Gamecca Magazine... or of a sane, rational human being.

S

So, once upon a time, there was this young tribal dude called Mongo. This happened many centuries ago… that’s important to remember, because I wouldn’t want anyone drawing any strange correlations to our modern, educated, enlightened society, where superstition and hearsay have no place. Anyway, so Mongo discovered that if he blew over a hollow reed, it made a noise. “Wow”, thought Mongo, “that’s pretty awesome”. Mongo took his hollow reed back to his village, and blew on it. The other villagers were amazed, although many of them did not understand it. Some of them even tried, and soon the hobby of blowing over hollow reeds took off.

Not long after, Mongo discovered that reeds of different lengths made different sounds, varying in pitch. He blew a few times over various reeds, before heading back to his village. Once again, the villagers were awestruck by this amazing new technology, and some of them started doing it, too.

Others, though, thought it

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was weird the way that the reed-blowers would gather together and blow reeds together, seemingly for hours at a time.

Reed blowing really started catching on, with Mongo being an innovator.

Before long, he found that he could strap a number of reeds together, improving the idea of blowing on different lengths. The next generation of reed blowing arrived.

Once again, the trend caught on, and others started experimenting with reed blowing. Mongo got a partner, called Bokk, and the two of them started trying out improved ideas.

Soon, they found that they could arrange the reeds in a sequence, from highest tonality to lowest tonality. They also found that notes could be played in repetitive order, creating the first ever tunes… or, and Mongo and Bokk called it, “synchronised hollow reed acoustic dynamics”, or SHRAD, for short. They were a primitive people, and hadn’t figured out a complex word like music yet.

SHRAD became very popular, and started

spreading from village to village. And all the while, those that didn’t participate saw the SHRADers as weird, antisocial and geeky.

But they did little more than treat the SHRAD players with contempt, disrespect and dislike. They didn’t understand the ideas behind SHRAD, and therefore they didn’t try to educate themselves about it.

And then, one fateful day, someone in a village near Mongo and Bokk’s town went a little crazy. He came from a broken hut, see, where mom was too busy in the fields and dad went on long hunting trips, leaving this guy – let’s call him Argle – to his own, misguided devices. So Argle goes down to the nearest reed grove, and finds himself a great big, heavy reed section.

He takes it back and kills everyone in the village. As he swings the reeds over and over again, the wind blowing over the hollow side of the reed makes a sound just like SHRAD… Word of the terrible events spread like dreaded wild-fire, and the somewhat tenuous connection to SHRAD

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was not overlooked. Even though no-one knew that Argle was not a SHRADer, is was assumed that the activity - so misunderstood by the masses – had led to his actions. Everyone ignored the influences of his absentee parents.

SHRAD was evil, and the village witch-doctors confirmed it after entering hallucination-states and communing with their gods. In moments those that knew nothing about SHRAD had vilified, even demonised it, and refused to accept any opinion other than what they were told by other non-SHRADers.

They didn’t want to educate themselves; it was obvious that SHRAD was evil, and was to blame for the massacre. Mongo and Bokk were sentenced to a brutal death in what was one of the world’s first witchhunts.

Pretty interesting bit of history, isn’t it? And aren’t you glad that we live in a time where ignorance, hysteria, lack of education, presumption and hearsay no longer influence the opinions of the common man? g

20 A Year in Games

by James Francis

Redefining gaming...

F

rom the best a devil could offer to the beginnings of a massive digital game store, 2003 delivered a few classics that would resonate in gaming for years - even today.

There was once a time when the Metal Gear Solid series was considered unmatchable. Then Splinter Cell appeared with its sneaky stealth and awesome light/shadow effects. Today both have managed to get stuck in gaming obscurity.

The awesome music game Amplitude is released on Playstation 2. Its makers would go on to make a small game called Guitar Hero...

The mighty Steam launches! But unlike today,

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where it is seen as the saviour of PC and indie gaming, back then it was a fantastic way to slow down your internet connection and randomly crash your machine.

Nintendo ends the production runs of both the NES and SNES. That marks 18 long years for the Nintendo Entertainment System - not bad!

Dante hasn’t been around much lately, but just under a decade ago he starred in Devil May Cry 2, without doubt the best in this frantic shoot-em-all series.

Its graphic stylings were short-lived, which was a pity since The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker was

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003

.

one of the most refreshing additions the series has ever seen. It was also a damn good reason to buy a Gamecube.

Bucking the trend of Star Wars games that suck, Bioware’s Knights Of The Old Republic open the doors to Star Wars RPG heaven. Everything since have helped nail it shut again, but at least the world moved on to Mass Effect.

Before they made Assassin’s Creed, the developers at Ubisoft rewrote the rules of platforming with the excellent Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time. Sadly it would remain the best game the series has produced to date.

Beyond Good & Evil sees the light, gets lauded by critics and completely ignored by the buying public, proving yet again that good games don’t always sell and gamers often choose bad ones instead.

It took forever to appear and was not nearly as epic as originally envisioned. But Freelancer is still one of the best space-flight/action game ever made. If only a version would appear for consoles...

My, how you have grown! The original Call Of Duty arrives on PC, making war games fashionable and proving that you may lift ideas from the torrent of World War 2 dramas that arrived since Saving Private Ryan. g

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Review

Your life can depend on it...

Asus ROG Tytan CG8890

Survival of

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f the

by Andy Taliadoros

I

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f you are reading this review, congratulations! You have survived the 21st of December 2012 and the apocalyptic prediction of our imminent destruction was just another in the many doomsday prophecy events that have plagued mankind for thousands of years.

As sceptical as I am about doomsday prophecies, I still thought about its possibility and how one would prepare to live in a post apocalyptic world.

As any diligent doomsday prepper would advise, one would need to acquire an underground bomb shelter, a water purification and recycling system, food preserves, fuel, solar panels, electrical generators, guns, ammunition and, something I have never seen on a doomsday list and which I think would be of paramount importance, entertainment!

Yes, we would be safe in our bunker and we could survive down there for two years or more, but what would we do to keep our minds busy?

Books would take up precious bunker space, playing cards would get tedious and learning to play a musical instrument in the close vicinity of others would either drive them crazy or get yourself murdered.

Last week I found the answer to my entertainment conundrum... the Asus ROG (Republic Of Gamers) TYTAN CG8890 Desktop PC. Now, we could not only survive physically, but also have a really great chance at surviving relatively mentally unscathed!

On this beautifully designed gaming machine I could store and read thousands of books, listen to music playlists that would take years to complete, watch movies, and, ladies and gentlemen, play games!

If I was going to spend two years in an underground shelter I sure as hell would not settle for anything but the best equipment.

Imagine your water purification system malfunctioning or your solar cells not charging because you bought cheap equipment.

No, only the best will do and hence once again, the Asus ROG TYTAN CG8890 would be very close to the top of my doomsday prepper list, and here’s why: For starters this gaming rig is visually impressive to behold! It screams power and demands respect as its aerodynamic polygonal exterior physically transforms at a push of the aptly named “Speed” button.

The sides and the top of the case

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Review

Asus ROG Tytan CG8890

mechanically slide open as if it’s about to take off, revealing 8 exterior crimson cooling fans with integrated air vents and two interior chassis fans. The “Speed” button’s primary function is not just to impress, but also allows gamers to overclock its 6-core Intel Core i7-3960X Processor without rebooting.

Three system states can be accessed using the overclock function and the colour changes on the ROG logo at the front of the case are indicative of each state: blue for Startup mode running at 3.8 GHz and Red for both 4.0 GHz and 4.2 GHz clock speeds, also known respectively as Turbo Gear Mode and Turbo Gear Extreme Mode.

In the front, the IO panel is host to a 16-in1 card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, a microphone jack and a headphone jack.

The rear panel packs one PS/2 port, two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports, one RJ45 port, four USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, a Clear CMOS button, an optical S/PDIF out, an 8-channel audio I/O, a Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, and a ROG Connect On/Off switch.

The Tytan’s motherboard boasts an Intel X79 chipset. It has four PCI-E x16 ports and eight SATA ports, four of which are SATA3. Two of those SATA3 ports are primarily intended to be connected to eSATA connections on the case.

As if the host of fans and air vents aren’t enough the Intel Core i7-3960X processor is also liquid-cooled, which delivers extremely efficient heat dissipation and stability from its overclocking capabilities.

Graphically Asus have spared no expense on the Tytan and have introduced Nvidia’s flagship card along for the ride: the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 4GB DDR5. This graphics card supports up to four monitors and is loaded with 3,072 Cuda cores. The outer frame is made from trivalent chromium-plated aluminum and thixomolded magnesium alloy around the fan for reduced vibration and additional cooling. The card also sports a dual vapor chamber and centermounted fan for even more cooling functionality.

Nvidia also boasts that the cards performance from its dual-Kepler GPUs would equal the performance of two GTX 680s slung together in SLI. For storage space the Tytan comes packed with a Seagate 2 TB Hard disk drive and dual 128 GB SATA 3 SSDs in RAID 0, delivering four times greater data access speeds than generic HDDs. Memory provided is ample, with 16GB of DDR3 RAM, composed of four RAM slots each housing 4GB of 2.133MHz memory, which can be expanded to 32GB if so desired.

The sound processing capabilities are also equally impressive and are handled by the ASUS Xonar Audio Card, DX powered by Dolby Home

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Asus ROG Tytan CG8890

Theater technologies and delivering 35 times cleaner audio quality (116dB SNR) than onboard audio codecs.

The PC has an 802.11n wireless adaptor expansion card, and although it only supports the 2.4GHz band, it is nice to have that option to connect your desktop wirelessly.

The Tytan also comes with a hot-pluggable hard disk caddy that hooks up to one of the motherboard’s internal eSATA3 ports, as well as Blu-ray burner drive and a covered bracket in which you can fit another 3.5-inch disk.

And all the above powered by a very capable 900-watt PSU. The ROG Tytan CG8890 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition pre-installed, and a bundled software package including Nero 9 Essentials, ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre 3 and ASUS Suite II. As if all that wasn’t enough, the ROG Tytan CG8890 comes shipped with a cabled USB ROG keyboard and a ROG laser gaming mouse.

The ROG keyboard, with its 50 million key press per key lifespan, can connect to the PS/2 port on the back of the PC, so you don’t have to necessarily use up a USB port. It even comes with bright orange replacement key caps you can use if you have trouble finding WASD gaming key functions.

The GX900 ROG laser mouse features a 4000 dpi laser sensor with high precision tracking speed. Custom-built gamer UI, Customizable DPI and button functions, and you can adjust the mouse weight adding or removing individual 4.5g weights for optimizing gaming demands.

With some of the best components and peripherals money can buy, this system makes a great contender at being the ultimate gaming PC and possibly the only thing you would need to check off your doomsday prepper list under the entertainment heading! g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Contesting the ultimate gaming PC throne.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Top-notch components Powerful Superb cooling

One touch overclocking i7-3960XCPU Intel X79 chipset GeForce GTX 690 4GB DDR5 graphics card.

ASUS Xonar audio aard

A sus A sus www.a sus.c om TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Have to rob a bank

Score

95 85

Good Be MSI GT640 Graphics Card

Sometimes you don’t need the latest toys…

I Review

I

n terms of graphics cards, bigger generally means better, both in terms of size and price. However, getting the biggest, best graphics card – complete with all the latest chipsets and technologies – isn’t always possible. In fact, with technology marching along as fast as it is, getting a slightly older chipset for your graphics card doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be left behind, or will be needing to upgrade sooner than you would like. It does depend, of course, on how old the technology you choose is; going to old might cause problems, but hitting the sweet spot could mean that you get a decent amount of bang for your buck.

Realistically, an Nvidia GT640 chipset isn’t really old at all. Considering that all the true enthusiasts are going for later generation of the 6-series Nvidias, one might well think so. But a card like MSI’s GT640 should serve your needs perfectly… provided, of course, that

86

those needs aren’t extreme.

The spec on this card is certainly not bad. It has the aforementioned 640 chipset, and also sports 2GB of DDR3 RAM. Sure, we see faster chipsets and faster RAM on more costly graphics cards, but the performance from this particular model was still solid enough to enable us to enjoy various graphics intensive applications, including gaming. It is still of the current generation, so only the most demanding software will likely give the card trouble.

Naturally, this kind of high-end software tends to be gaming related. But there are tons of people who need a solid graphics option that may never play a game, or at least a graphically intense one. For them, this device makes even more sense. It chugs along rather nicely, kept cool by a single propeller-blade fan and a generous heat sink, all held together by an understated housing.

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et

by Walt Pretorius

In terms of physical size, it is a pretty small card, being a lot shorter than many of the very high-end models out there. This makes sense for keeping the entire system cool.

It also comes with the kind of reliability that one would expect from MSI. While it might not have all those funky Military Grade components, it still features decent parts, including solid capacitors. And it manages to get the job done quietly and efficiently.

In a world that seems unreasonably obsessed with having the biggest, fastest and newest technology all the time, it would seem that a card that uses slightly older tech doesn’t really have a place. But it is a more than viable option for those who want to save some cash, or who quite simply do not need the overwhelming power of the latest graphics devices. If you are one of those people, this is a decent option to consider. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

It might not be the latest Nvidia chipset, but it certainly is nothing to scoff at either.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Good performer Small card Good price

Nvidia 640 chipset 2GB DDR3 RAM Afterburner software 1 HDMI port 1 DVI port 1 D-Sub port 3D Blu-ray support

M SI Pinna c le A fric a www.pic c a nle.c o.za A pprox. R1 299

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not the latest chipset

Score

80 87

W Review

Razer Carcharias Headset

W

e have seen more than a few headphones over the last few issues. This is a market that is certainly very hotly contested at the moment, and it doesn’t look like there will be any abatement in that within the foreseeable future. In fact, with new products and ranges announced all the time, it looks likely to get even hotter.

And yet, within a market that is becoming increasingly populated with virtual surround sound and super-fine trimming capabilities, the presence of the good old stereo headset is still strong. Take the Razer Carcharias as an example. Last month we looked at its bigger brother, the Megalodon, which had all the features you could wish for, including volume adjustments on individual positional audio channels. The Carcharias, by contrast, is a stereo headset.

It looks very similar to the Megalodon, when all is said and done, featuring the same large, foam lined ear cups and positionable boom mic. The head band is the same, too, as well as numerous other construction elements. It also uses 40mm drivers, and delivers a similar sound quality, albeit in less channels. Lookswise, the thing that is missing here is the Megalodon’s massive volume control and the USB plug. Instead, the Carcharias has a more sensibly sized in-line control, and connects to the PC (or whatever else you are using it with) by way of two 3.5mm jacks.

And it is those jacks – as well as the fact that this is a stereo headset, to a degree- that mark a major difference in the two models. See, the Megalodon is almost completely aimed at PC gamers, thanks to the USB interface and positional audio. Sure, you can use it to watch movies and listen to music, too, but those need to be on the PC. The Carcharias, by contrast, will work with anything that handles a 3.5mm jack – this includes MP3 players, handheld gaming devices and a number of other things. The fact that it has two jacks – one for audio and one for the mic – implies a strong PC connection, but the more versatile nature of this headset is undeniable. It is even more versatile than the Razer Electra (which we also looked at last month) because it has that PC friendly microphone.

In all honesty, the three Razer headsets have been positioned to appeal at different markets, and they all fill their respective gaps rather nicely, offering good audio and comfort, which are essential for headsets.

But the Carcharias feels like a more well-rounded contender, less focussed and more capable of multiple functions than the Megalodon, and more tech oriented than the almost casual Electra. And, naturally, it offers the sturdy build and great performance one expects from a Razer product. g

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A headset for almost everyone

Any Time, A

Anywhere…

by Walt Pretorius

Summary

Tech Specs: • • • • • •

Less focussed than the Megalodon and more ‘serious’ than the Electra, the Carcharias is a great all-round headset.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za A pprox. R950

Pros • • • • •

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Good versatility Great audio Comfortable

40mm drivers Stereo In-line volume controls Positionable mic Noise filtering 2 x 3.5mm jacks

Cons • • • • •

None

Score

86 89

Great for tech-savvy home users

Belkin Smart TV Link 4 Port Router

by Rob Edwards

B Review

B

elkin produces great router products… just check out last month’s review of the N600 Play if you want more evidence than my say so. And, with products like the Smart TV Link 4 Port, they also show an understanding of where modern trends are taking us.

This dual band Wi-Fi router is designed specifically with home entertainment – including Smart TVs – in mind. It allows simultaneous 2.5GHz and 5GHz streaming, which makes it really quick and effective for gaming and video streaming.

Aside from the Wi-Fi element, the device also allows for LAN cable connections, and is trimmed to deal with TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players and media players. All in all, this is a really great solution for those that want to make the most of their home entertainment, and the easy set-up is a bonus that makes it even better. g

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Summary

Tech Specs: • • • • • •

If you want your home entertainment to be a bit more tech oriented, this router is a great connectivity option.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

B elkin Turdortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za A pprox. R1 700

Pros • • • • •

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Easy to use Dual band Great performer

Dual band streaming Wi-Fi 4 LAN ports Push-button WPS

Cons • • • • •

None

Score

88

MSI R6670 MD1GD3 Graphics Card

Good performance from an older chipset

Almost Classic

by Walt Pretorius

S S

Summary

Tech Specs:

It might be a generation or so old, but it still does the job.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Capable Affordable

Radeon R6670 chipset 1GB DDR3 RAM HMDI output DVI-D output D-Sub output Afterburner software

M SI Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za A pprox. R800

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Older chipset

Score

76 91

Review

lightly older graphics technology seems to be a bit of a theme in this issue, but the MSI R6670 MD1GD3 is the only example that goes back a generation or so. Not that this will make a massively noticeable difference to anyone but those who are obsessive about frame rates and the like – in other words, hard-core gamers.

What makes this card a great option is that it offers decent performance for a good price. It is reliable and effective. It won’t however, deliver the top notch performance that enthusiasts might want. With an older chipset and 1GB od DDR3 RAM, it’s performance simply cannot be expected to compete with more expensive graphics solutions.

Still, as an all-rounder – particularly if the user isn’t after extreme performance – it is a viable and above all affordable option. If you’re not after a game changer, this card is a decent bet. g

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Review

SteelSeries Sensei Raw Gaming Mouse

L

ast month we looked at the SteelSeries Sensei Pro Grade Gaming Mouse and, quite frankly, we really liked it. But the Sensei also comes with a hefty price tag, which can make that whole comfortable-and-effective thing seem a little less important. Thankfully, though, SteelSeries have produced a second Sensei Model, in the form of the StelSeries Sensei Raw and, as the name implies, it strips away some of the fancier elements of the Pro, providing the user with a similar experience at a lower price.

Or does it? While stripping out some of the arguably unnecessary extra features makes for a good idea, the Raw does sacrifice one element that makes the Pro such a sensitive mouse… DCPI. DCPI is a system that doubles the number of counts per inch (CPI) that the mouse performs.

Without going into painful detail, this basically refers to how often the mouse scans the surface it is working on, in order to translate the movement of the mouse onto the movement on the PC monitor. With DCPI, the Pro revs up to a massive 11 400 counts per inch. That’s double the standard 5 700 counts that it features in normal mode.

The Raw doesn’t have DCPI technology, so it’s sensitivity tops out at 5 700 CPI. Let’s be a little realistic, though. If you’re a pro-gamer, that might make a difference. But the average joe, who wants their mouse for a host of tasks (including gaming) will likely do just fine with 5 700 CPI. It’s still, in broader terms, very sensitive.

Other differences include the fact that the colour of the lights on the Pro can be fully customised, while the Raw features only white lights, that can be dimmed, set to pulsate, or turned off. Call me a pragmatist, but is the colour of the light on the mouse really that important, particularly if you can save a few bucks?

Other than that, the Pro and Raw are virtually identical. They have the same button placements (for a total of eight buttons) are the same ambidextrous shape, and are equal in performance (provided that DCPI thing stays out of the picture.)

In terms of comfort, the rubber-coated Raw is perhaps superior to the Pro, because the coating allows for a better grip overall.

Just like the Pro, the Raw’s button placements are not bad, but may take a little getting used to – particularly those on the side away from the user’s thumb.

On the whole, the price makes the Sensei Raw a very attractive option, even when compared to the Pro. If you’re after coloured lights and sensitivity that might even be considered overkill, the more expensive one is a better option. But you certainly won’t be selling yourself short by choosing the Raw. g

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by Rob Edwards

Less flash, same function

Black Belt

Summary

Tech Specs:

A better priced version of the Sensei Pro, with a few optional extras removed.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Nice surface Better price Ambidextrous

12 000 frames per second 5 700 counts per inch 8 buttons Ambidextrous 2m cable

SteelSeries M eg a rom www.meg a rom.c o.za R599

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

No DCPI

Score

89 93

Still

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Review

MSI R7770 PMD1GD5 Graphics Card

A

s far as gamers are concerned, when it comes to graphics cards, price very often determines quality. But that isn’t necessarily true. Price is determined by specifications, and is really just a reflection of the technology built into the device, rather than a mark of whether that device is any good or not.

And besides that, not every computer user plays games – but many non-gamers out there still need punchier graphics than they are going to get off of on-motherboard solutions.

MSI, as a producer of all manner of PC components, have established a reputation for quality through their brand, rather than pricing, and offer a variety of solutions for people who don’t want to see the bank account broken with the purchase of a graphics card. Their R7770, for example, is a solid performer that, while it might not knock your socks off when running the latest games, will certainly do the trick for most every application out there that requires a bit more on the graphics side of things.

The immediate reaction of enthusiasts is to decry a card like this because it uses ‘old technology’. The question, though, isn’t whether the technology is old, but whether it is still viable. This is a far more important consideration, particularly since the march of technology is so fast that we can barely keep up, whether from a timing, or a financial, point of view.

We would spend more time upgrading than we did actually using the devices.

With a still capable Radeon 7770 chipset and 1GB of GDDR5 RAM, this card still does the job rather nicely. And it’s pretty small, in comparison to some of the monstrous graphics cards out there. It makes use of MSI’s propeller blade technology in its cooling fan, and is partially encased. Sure, it might not blast along at a million frames a second, but the visuals provided by this card are more than decent.

It is a little shy on the port side of things, though, with only one DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort on offer. Still, creative cable application will mean that multiple monitors are still an option here. And, as said before, it handles pretty much any graphics task with a fair amount of skill and grace, running quietly and at relatively low temperatures.

A card like MSI’s R7770 makes quite a lot of sense these days, what with money matters being as they are in the world. It might not have all those bells and whistles that people leap at, but it does the job rather well, all things considered. And it will provide you with a decent graphics option at a much better price. g

94

gamecca43

by Walt Pretorius

Old dogs and new tricks…

Summary

Tech Specs:

It might not be the latest technology around, but this card still does the job rather nicely.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gamecca43

Good price Performs well Small size

Radeon 7770 chipset 1GB GDDR5 RAM 1x DVI-I port 1x HDMI port 1x DisplayPort Afterburner software

M SI Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za A pprox. R1 699

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

May struggle with newer high-end applications

Score

80 95

O.G.A.A.T. From Space

by Christo van Gemert

L

et’s take things slowly. One game at a time.

That there is my motto for this year. I’m hesitant to use the term “new year’s resolution” because it’s awkward, doomed for failure, and not really the same as adding a new rule to your life for every year from now, not just the one year.

I digress. One game at a time. It’s fairly simple: I am only going to start one game, try my best to complete it, and only after that’s been done will I pop

96

in the next disc.

There are some rules and exceptions, of course.

I have a ton of games and a few friends I game with.

Let’s say I’m busy with Far Cry 3’s single player campaign but a friend signs in and asks me to play some Forza with him.

That’s fine – I’ll play a game a friend wants, and it’ll only be a game I’ve played before.

We also have to discuss the definition of completion. Max Payne 3 has a solid campaign, and getting the end

credits would mean that I’ve finished that part of the game. Now there’s no way to finish the multiplayer (and as such any multiplayer-only game is excluded from these rules) but if a game has multiplayer I will force myself to try each mode at least once. Only then will I be “done”, having sampled everything the game has to offer.

Why this?

Over the past few years I’ve found myself losing interest in games (and other things) half way

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through. I have a pile of games I’ve come close to finishing, but never did.

When I remember to play them again – a few months later – I always find myself at a checkpoint where I’m bombarded attacking fire or stuck on a puzzle.

Struggling, because I’ve lost my touch, I just lose interest and never play again.

Why now?

Because I’m tired of people spoiling the final levels of a game I was close to finishing.

Damn it.. g